Children of Ash and Elm

by Neil Price;

  The massacre at Sandby borg is reported by Clara Alfsdotter, Ludvig Papmehl-Dufay, and Helena Victor, ‘A moment frozen in time: Evidence of a late fifth-century massacre at Sandby borg’, Antiquity 92 (2018): 421–436. The possible, and controversial, influence of the Huns has been considered by Lotte Hedeager, ‘Scandinavia and the Huns: An interdisciplinary approach to the Migration Period’, Norwegian Archaeological Review 40:1 (2007): 42–58 and in her book, Iron Age Myth and Materiality: An Archaeology of Scandinavia AD 400–1000 (Routledge, London & New York, 2011).

  The dismissive comment on “the latest Great Disaster theory” was by historian Chris Wickham in his book Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005: 549), although in fairness he wrote this before the full range of environmental proxies truly became clear. Many scholars are currently working on the sixth-century crisis and in particular the ‘dust veil’; I thank, in particular, Ulf Büntgen, Matthew Collins, Svante Fischer, Ingar Gundersen, Hans Göthberg, Frode Iversen, Arild Klokkervoll, Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, Daniel Löwenborg, Ester Oras, Felix Riede, Dagfinn Skre, Sara Westling, Mats Widgren, and Torun Zachrisson. Particularly important early works include Joel D. Gunn (ed.), The Years Without Summer: Tracing AD 536 and Its Aftermath (BAR, Oxford, 2000) and Antti Arjava, ‘The mystery cloud of AD 536 in the Mediterranean sources’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 59 (2005): 73–96. An overview of scholarship up to 2015 can be found in Neil Price and Bo Gräslund, ‘Excavating the Fimbulwinter? Archaeology, geomythology and the climate event(s) of AD 536’, in Felix Riede (ed.), Past Vulnerability: Volcanic Eruptions and Human Vulnerability in Traditional Societies Past and Present (Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2015: 109–132). See also Arne Anderson Stamnes, ‘Effect of temperature change on Iron Age cereal production and settlement patterns in mid-Norway’ and Frode Iversen, ‘Estate division: Social cohesion in the aftermath of AD 536–7’, both in Frode Iversen and Håkan Petersson (eds.), The Agrarian Life of the North, 2000 BC–AD 1000 (Portal, Oslo, 2017: 27–76). Scientific analyses of the dust veil’s cause appear at such a steady rate that comprehensive citation here would soon be outdated, but see M. Sigl et al., ‘Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years’, Nature 523 (2015): 543–549; Ulf Büntgen et al., ‘Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to 660 AD’, Nature Geoscience 9 (2016): 231–236; Matthew Toohey et al., ‘Climatic and societal impacts of a volcanic double event at the dawn of the Middle Ages’, Climatic Change 136 (2016): 401–412; and Robert A. Dull et al., ‘Radiocarbon and geologic evidence reveal Ilopango volcano as source of the colossal ‘mystery’ eruption of 539/40 CE’, Quaternary Science Reviews 222 (2019). The Justinian plague is treated by Lester K. Little (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541–570 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007).

  The “ruin of the moon” comes from Jesse Byock’s translation of the Seeress’s Prophecy as contained in Snorri’s Edda (ch. 12). The translations from the Kalevala are by J. M. Bosley (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989) while the verses from the earlier version are by Francis Peabody Magoun, The Old Kalevala and Certain Antecedents (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969).

  The Sámi have attracted an extensive literature. For a general history, see Lars Ivar Hansen and Bjørnar Olsen, Samernes historie fram til 1750 (Cappelen, Oslo, 2004); for its wider dimensions, see Carl-Gösta Ojala, Sámi Prehistories: The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in Northernmost Europe (University of Uppsala, Uppsala, 2009). For a crucial work on Sámi identity and ritual, see Birgitta Fossum, Förfädernas land: en arkeologisk studie av rituella lämningar i Sápmi, 300 fKr–1600 eKr (Umeå University, Umeå, 2006). The classic work on Sámi-Norse interaction is by Inger Zachrisson (ed.), Möten i gränsland: samer och germaner i Mellanskandinavien (Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, 1997); see also Neil Price, ‘Drum-Time and Viking Age: Sámi-Norse identities in early medieval Scandinavia’, in Martin Appelt, Joel Berglund, and Hans Christian Gulløv (eds.), Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic (National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2000: 12–27). Their religion is also treated at length, in the comparative context of the Norse beliefs, by Thomas A. DuBois, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1999) and my own The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (2nd edn., Oxbow, Oxford, 2019: ch. 4). All these works contain extensive references.

  One of the first to chart the rise of the ‘new North’ after the fifth- and sixth-century crisis was Peter Bratt, Makt uttryckt i jord och sten: Stora högar och maktstrukturer i Mälaradalen under järnåldern (Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2008), and the figures for monumental mounds in the Mälar Valley can be found in this work. A similar picture for western Sweden is presented by Annelie Nitenberg, Härskare i liv och död: social exklusivitet och maktstrategi i Vänerbygd under yngre järnålder (Göteborg University, Göteborg, 2019). For wider studies, see Svante Norr, To Rede and to Rown: Expressions of Early Scandinavian Kingship in Written Sources (University of Uppsala, Uppsala, 1998) and John Ljungkvist, En hiar atti rikR: om elit, struktur och ekonomi kring Uppsala och Mälaren under yngre järnålder (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2006). The historian who described the new elites as “violent chancers” was Guy Halsall, quoting one of his students, in his book Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900 (Routledge, London, 2003: xiii); this work is also an excellent source for the history and ideology of these warlords. An English and European context for this process is provided by Nicholas Howe, Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1989); Martin Carver (ed.), The Age of Sutton Hoo (Boydell, Woodbridge, 1992); and Martin Carver, Formative Britain: An Archaeology of Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Century AD (Routledge, London, 2019).

  For primary sources on the new elites, one must inevitably begin with Beowulf; a good English translation is by Michael Alexander (rev. edn., Penguin, London, 2003); a flowing, poetic reading has been made by Seamus Heaney, Beowulf: A New Translation (Faber & Faber, London, 1999). The latest scholarship on the poem, especially relating to its historicity as a source for the late Migration Period, can be found in Bo Gräslund, Beowulfkvädet: den nordiska bakgrunden (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2018). Other texts on the royal families of the North are treated in the works above and referenced for chapter 10, following, but a key source is the Saga of the Ynglingas, the first book of Snorri’s Heimskringla.

  On the martial image, see Paul Trehearne, ‘The warrior’s beauty: The masculine body and self-identity in Bronze-Age Europe’, European Journal of Archaeology 3:1 (1995): 105–144. The Valsgärde site and its publications are summarised in Svante Norr (ed.), Valsgärde Studies: The Place and Its People, Past and Present (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2008) and Kent Andersson, Krigarna från Valsgärde (Atlantis, Stockholm, 2017). The Vendel Period is otherwise poorly served with syntheses for Scandinavia, and nothing has yet superseded two publications that appeared some time back: Ann Sandwall (ed.), Vendeltid (Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, 1980) and Jan Peder Lamm and Hans-Åke Nordström (eds.), Vendel Period (Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm, 1983). A brief, popular overview can be found in Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, John Ljungkvist, and Neil Price, The Vikings Begin (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2018). The birch-bark shrouds on some of the Valsgärde boat graves, of probable Sámi origin, are discussed by Karolina Pallin in her undergraduate thesis in art history, Vendeltida båtkapell: textilt näverhantverk i Valsgärdes båtgravar (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2016).

  Hall culture and architecture are discussed by Frands Herschend, Livet i hallen (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 1997) and Johan Callmer and Erik Rosengren (eds.), “… gick Grendel att söka det höga huset …” Arkeologiska källor till aristokratiska miljöer i Skandinavien under yngre järnålder (Hallands County Museum, Halmstad, 1997). A useful study of the hall’s less tangible qualities can be found in A. C. Antoniades, Epic Space: Towards the R
oots of Western Architecture (Wiley, London, 1992). For the militant ideologies of the hall, see Michael J. Enright, Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, Prophecy and Lordship in the European Warband from La Tène to the Viking Age (Four Courts, Dublin, 1996) and Stephen S. Evans, Lords of Battle (Boydell, Woodbridge, 1997).

  The royal centres that underpinned these fledgling polities have been published by Tom Christensen, Lejre bag myten (Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, Moesgård, 2015); Bjørn Myhre, Før Viken ble Norge (Vestfold Fylkeskommune, Tønsberg, 2015); Olof Sundqvist and Per Vikstrand (eds.), Gamla Uppsala i ny belysning (Gävle College, Gävle, 2013); and Kristina Ekero Eriksson, Gamla Uppsala: människor och makter i högarnas skugga (Norstedts, Stockholm, 2018). For the Götar equivalent, see Martin Rundkvist, Mead-Halls of the Eastern Geats: Elite Settlements and Political Geography AD 375–1000 in Östergötland, Sweden (Royal Academy of Letters, Stockholm, 2011), and for the south, see Fredrik Svanberg, Vikingatiden i Skåne (Historiska Media, Lund, 2000). For the massive hall at Borg, see Gerd Stamsø Munch, Olav Sverre Johansen, and Else Roesdahl (eds.), Borg in Lofoten: A Chieftain’s Farm in North Norway (Tapir, Trondheim, 2003). The ‘Shining Hall’ of Kaupang is discussed by Dagfinn Skre in volume 1 of the Kaupang Excavation Project (4 vols., Oslo University / Aarhus University Press, Norske Oldfunn 22–25, 2007–2016) while the latest on Tissø is published as Sandie Holst, Lars Jørgensen, and Egon Wamers, Odin, Thor und Freyja: Skandinavische Kultplätze des 1. Jahrtausends n. Chr. und das Frankenreich (Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg, 2017).

  The quotation from Beowulf comprises lines 2633–2642, given here in Seamus Heaney’s poetic translation.

  The ocular effects of helmets in firelight are discussed by Neil Price and Paul Mortimer, ‘An eye for Odin? Divine role-playing in the age of Sutton Hoo’, European Journal of Archaeology 17:3 (2014): 517–538. The gold-foil figures, so-called guldgubber, are best encountered through the many publications of Margrethe Watt; by way of introduction in English, they are addressed in the context of their greatest find spot on Bornholm: Christian Adamsen et al. (eds.), Sorte Muld: Wealth, Power and Religion at an Iron Age Central Settlement on Bornholm (Bornholms Museum, Rønne, 2009). A major new study appeared as this volume went to press, Alexandra Pesch and Michaela Helmbrecht (eds.), Gold Foil Figures in Focus (Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Schleswig, 2019). Their clothes have been discussed by Ulla Mannering, Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography (Oxbow, Oxford, 2017), a book that also reproduces hundreds of the foils.

  International trade, and Baltic interaction, is referenced under chapters 10 and 14, following, but see also Søren Sindbæk and Athena Trakadas (eds.), The World in the Viking Age (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2014). For the new understanding of the ‘outlands’ and their importance for trade, see Steve Ashby, Ashley Coutu, and Søren Sindbæk, ‘Urban networks and Arctic outlands: Craft specialists and reindeer antler in Viking towns’, European Journal of Archaeology 18 (2015): 679–704. In particular, several major works on this have been published by Andreas Hennius, ‘Viking Age tar production and outland exploitation’, Antiquity 92 (2018): 1349–1361; Andreas Hennius et al., ‘Whalebone gaming pieces: Aspects of marine mammal exploitation in Vendel and Viking Age Scandinavia’, European Journal of Archaeology, 21(2018): 612–631; and Andreas Hennius, ‘Towards a refined chronology of prehistoric pitfall hunting in Sweden’, European Journal of Archaeology (2020, in press); his forthcoming doctoral thesis is set to fundamentally rewrite our view of these economies. For this section, I have also benefitted from John Moreland’s timeless essay ‘Concepts of the early medieval economy’, originally from 2000 but collected in his Archaeology, Theory and the Middle Ages (Duckworth, London, 2010: 75–115).

  CHAPTER 3: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

  Scandinavian social structure is explored by Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Det norrøne samfunnet (Pax, Oslo, 2008); for family life, in particular, see Birgit Sawyer, Kvinnor och familj i det forn- och medeltida Skandinavien (Viktoria, Skara, 1992) and Liv Helga Dommasnes, ‘Women, kinship, and the basis of power in the Norwegian Viking Age’, in Ross Samson (ed.), Social Approaches to Viking Studies (Cruithne Press, Glasgow, 1991: 65–73). Further insight into kin relations can be found in Tara Carter, Iceland’s Networked Society (Brill, Leiden, 2015). The comment about the property owning the owners is from Eric Christiansen, The Norsemen in the Viking Age (Blackwell, Oxford, 2002).

  On marriage, polygyny, and concubinage, see Auður G. Magnúsdóttir, Frillor och fruar: politik och samlevnad på Island 1120–1400 (Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, 2001) and ‘Women and Sexual Politics’, in Stefan Brink and Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (Routledge, London, 2008: 40–48). See also Ben Raffield, Neil Price, and Mark Collard, ‘Polygyny, concubinage and the social lives of women in Viking-Age Scandinavia’, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 13 (2018): 165–209. The Arab writers who describe polygyny are discussed by Þórir Hraundal, The Rus in Arabic Sources: Cultural Contacts and Identity (University of Oslo, Oslo, 2013). Adam of Bremen’s account is referenced above; the relevant section on the Danish king’s vices is in book 4, chapter 21, and book 3, chapter 11. The saga and poetic texts mentioned here are reviewed in more detail in the paper by Raffield et al., referenced above. I am grateful to Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir for her discussions on polygyny from an Icelandic perspective. The runestones mentioning multiple wives are Sö 297 from Uppinge in Södermanland and U 1039 from Bräcksta in Uppland.

  The complex mechanics of vinátta—friendship—are explored by Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Viking Friendship: The Social Bond in Iceland and Norway, c.900–1300 (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2017).

  The quote from the Sayings of the High One recommending leaving your dog for a neighbour to feed comes from strophe 83. A superb illustrated survey of the Viking-Age household and most other aspects of daily life can be found in Kurt Schietzel, Spurensuche Haithabu (4th edn., Wachholtz, Neumünster, 2018). For a representative sample of rural settlement studies, see Sten Tesch, Houses, Farmsteads, and Long-Term Change (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 1993); Hans Göthberg, Ola Kyhlberg, and Ann Vinberg (eds.), Hus och gård i det förurbana samhället (2 vols., Riksantikvarieämbetet, Stockholm, 1995); and Karin Rosberg, Vikingatidens byggande i Mälardalen (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2009).

  Viking food culture is discussed by Sven Isaksson, Food and Rank in Early Medieval Time (Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2000); Per Widerström, ‘Järnålderns mat—en annan smakpalett’, Gotländsk Arkiv 91 (2019): 106–113; for the late Viking Age in the West, see also Ditlev Mahler (ed.), Gruel, Bread, Ale and Fish: Changes in the Material Culture Related to Food Production in the North Atlantic 800–1300 AD (National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, 2018). The thesis on Viking bread is by Liselotte Bergström, Gräddat: brödkultur under järnåldern i östra Mälardalen (Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2007). Another thesis has been written just on meat spits and skewers: Susanne Bøgh-Andersen, Vendel- och vikingatida stekspett (Lund University, Lund, 1999). Viking-Age drinking glasses are discussed by Kent Anderson, Glas från romare till vikingar (Balderson, Uppsala, 2010).

  For Viking entertainment, see Mark Hall, ‘Board games in boat burials: Play in the performance of Migration and Viking Age mortuary practice’, European Journal of Archaeology 19 (2016): 439–455; John Birdsagel, ‘Music and musical instruments’, in Phillip Pulsiano (ed.), Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia (Garland, New York, 1993: 420–423); and Leszek Gardeła, ‘What the Vikings did for fun? Sports and pastimes in medieval northern Europe’, World Archaeology 44 (2012): 234–247. The child’s chair from Lund is published in Else Roesdahl and David M. Wilson (eds.), From Viking to Crusader: Scandinavia and Europe 800–1200 (Nordic Council, Copenhagen, 1992: 376). The cosy neck support from the Mammen grave is described by Charlotte Rimstad, ‘En komfortabel, evig søvn’, Skalk 2019/5: 12–15.

  Combs are discussed by Steven P. Ashby, A Viking Way of Life (Amberley, Stroud, 2014). The complaint about well-groomed Scandinav
ians is from John of Wallingford; see Richard Vaughan, ‘The chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford’, Camden Miscellany 21 (1958): 1–74.

  A reconstruction of the stylish Scandinavian officer in Byzantium—actually Syvjatoslav of Kiev—can be found in Ian Heath, The Vikings (Osprey, Oxford, 1985: plate G) after the description by Leo the Deacon. Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān’s account is referenced in the general section above.

  The main work on Viking-Age dental modification is by Caroline Ahlström Arcini, the osteologist who first identified the practice. Her ideas are collected and referenced in her book, The Viking Age: A Time of Many Faces (Oxbow, Oxford, 2018). Ibrāhīm ibn Ya’qūb’s writings are also referenced above in the general section.

  Most of the general works and exhibition catalogues listed above are picture driven, often in colour, aiming to illustrate the Viking Age in a way this book is not. Two works, in particular, are designed to do precisely that and they do it well: Viking Artefacts by James Graham-Campbell (British Museum Press, London, 1980) and Pocket Museum: Vikings by Steve Ashby and Alison Leonard (Thames & Hudson, London, 2018). The latter includes many images of three-dimensional figures with various hairstyles, including those mentioned in the text.