by Neil Price;
The most comprehensive synthesis of warfare at this time is by Kim Hjardar and Vegard Vike, Vikings at War (Oxbow, Oxford, 2016), and Gareth Williams’s book mentioned above is also an excellent guide. For weaponry, see also Fedir Androshchuk, Viking Swords (Swedish History Museum, Stockholm, 2014).
CHAPTER 12: HYDRARCHY
The early phase of western raiding is described by Clare Downham, The Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014 (Dunedin, Edinburgh, 2007) and David Griffiths, Vikings of the Irish Sea (History Press, Stroud, 2010). These also deal with the period after 834, but, for the Continent in the ninth century, see also Jean Renaud, Les Vikings en France (Ouest-France, Rennes, 2000); Élisabeth Ridel (ed.), Les Vikings en France: une synthèse inédite (Dossiers d’Archaeologies, Dijon, 2002); Anne-Marie Flambard Héricher (ed.), La progression des Vikings, des raids à la colonisation (University of Rouen, Rouen, 2003); Pierre Bauduin, Le monde franc et les Vikings (Albin Michel, Paris, 2009); and Élisabeth Ridel (ed.), Les Vikings dans l’Empire franc (Orep, Bayeux, 2014). The siege of Paris is discussed by Nirmal Dass (ed. & trans.), Viking Attacks on Paris: The Bella parisiacae urbis of Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (Peeters, Paris, 2007). For the life of Ragnar lothbrók, see Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Vikings in the West: The Legend of Ragnarr Loðbrók and His Sons (Fassbaender, Vienna, 2012).
The Frankish loot turning up in Scandinavian graves has been studied by Maria Panum Baastrup, Kommunikation, kulturmøde og kulturel identitet: tingenes reise i Skandinaviens vikingtid (Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, 2012) and Hanne Lovise Aannestad, Transformasjoner: Omformning og bruk av importerte gjenstander i vikingtid (Oslo University, Oslo, 2015).
The Viking activities in Britain are probably the most intensely studied aspect of the entire diaspora. In addition to the prior works by Downham and Griffiths, for overviews see Alfred P. Smyth, Scandinavian Kings in the British Isles 850–880 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1977); Henry Loyn, The Vikings in Britain (Batsford, London, 1977); Else Roesdahl et al. (eds.), The Vikings in England (Anglo-Danish Viking Project, London, 1981); Dawn Hadley, The Vikings in England: Settlement, Society and Culture (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2006); Julian D. Richards, Viking Age England (2nd edn., History Press, Stroud, 2007); and Thomas Williams, Viking Britain (Collins, London, 2017). A number of important papers can also be found in John Hines, Alan Lane, and Mark Redknap (eds.), Land, Sea and Home (Maney, Leeds, 2004). Regional studies include Sue Margeson, The Vikings in Norfolk (Norfolk Museums, Norwich, 1997); B. J. N. Edwards, Vikings in North West England (University of Lancaster, Lancaster, 1998); Paul Cavill, Stephen E. Harding, and Judith Jesch, Wirral and Its Viking Heritage (English Place-Name Society, Nottingham, 2000); Heather O’Donoghue and Pragya Vohra (eds.), The Vikings in Cleveland (University of Nottingham, Nottingham, 2014); Derek Gore, The Vikings in the West Country (Mint Press, Exeter, 2015); Stephen E. Harding, David Griffiths, and Elisabeth Royles (eds.), In Search of Vikings: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Scandinavian Heritage of North-West England (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 2015); Ryan Lavell and Simon Roffey (eds.), Danes in Wessex: The Scandinavian Impact on Southern England, c.800–c.1100 (Oxbow, Oxford, 2016); and Rebecca Gregory, Viking Nottinghamshire (Five Leaves, Nottingham, 2017). Reading on York and the Danelaw can be found in the following under chapter 15.
The notion of ‘longboat diplomacy’ was coined by Gareth Williams. The Viking manipulation of English defensive systems is discussed by John Baker and Stuart Brookes, Beyond the Burghal Hidage: Anglo-Saxon Civil Defence in the Viking Age (Brill, Leiden, 2013).
For the late ninth-century Viking assault on the Low Countries and the Rhine, see Rudolf Simek and Ulrike Engel (eds.), Vikings on the Rhine (Fassbaender, Vienna, 2004) and Annemarieke Willemsen, Wikinger am Rhein 800–1000 (Theiss, Stuttgart, 2004).
The Woodstown camp in Ireland is published by Ian Russell and Maurice F. Hurley (eds.), Woodstown: A Viking-Age Settlement in Co. Waterford (Four Courts, Dublin, 2014). The Camp de Péran in Brittany is described by Jean-Pierre Nicolardot, ‘Le Camp de Péran et les Vikings en Bretagne’, in Ridel’s 2002 synthesis referenced above, pp. 60–69. The Repton camp has been published by Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘Repton and the Vikings’, Antiquity 66 (1992): 36–51 and ‘Repton and the “great heathen army”, 873–4’, in James Graham-Campbell et al. (eds.), Vikings and the Danelaw (Oxbow, Oxford, 2001: 45–96) and by Catrine L. Jarman et al., ‘The Viking Great Army in England: New dates from the Repton charnel’, Antiquity 92 (2018): 183–199. The Heath Wood burials are published by Julian Richards et al., ‘Excavations at the Viking barrow cemetery at Heath Wood, Ingleby’, Antiquaries Journal 84 (2004): 23–116. For the Torksey camp, see Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, ‘The winter camp of the Viking Great Army, AD 872–3, Torksey, Lincolnshire’, Antiquaries Journal 96 (2016): 23–67 and ‘In search of the Viking Great Army: Beyond the winter camps’, Medieval Settlement Research 33 (2018): 1–17, where they have speculated on the relationships between the different camps. The ARSNY site is published by Gareth Williams (ed.), A Riverine Site Near York: A Possible Viking Camp? (British Museum Press, London, 2020).
The groundbreaking analysis of female jewellery in the Danelaw is by Jane Kershaw and can be found in her book, Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013) while its genetic counterpart is published as Jane Kershaw and Ellen Røyrvik, ‘The “People of the British Isles” project and Viking settlement in England’, Antiquity 90 (2016): 1670–1680. The initial Viking presence, including that of women, is also treated extensively by Shane McLeod, The Beginning of Scandinavian Settlement in England: The Viking ‘Great Army’ and Early Settlers, c.865–900 (Brepols, Turnhout, 2014).
I have explored the notion of the Viking as pirate in two works: Neil Price, ‘Ship-men and slaughter-wolves: Pirate polities in the Viking Age’, in Leos Müller and Stefan Amirell (eds.), Persistent Piracy: Historical Perspectives on Maritime Violence and State Formation (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014: 51–68) and ‘Pirates of the North Sea? The Viking ship as political space’, in Lene Melheim, Håkan Glørstad, and Zanette Tsigaridas Glørstad (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Past Colonization, Maritime Interaction and Cultural Integration (Equinox, Sheffield, 2016: 149–176); these papers introduced the notion of hydrarchy to Viking studies and, incidentally, also include the references to Camden. Other scholars looking at Norse piracy are Benjamin Hudson, Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic (Oxford University, Oxford, 2005) and Christian Cooijmans, Of Monarchs and Hydrarchs: A Conceptual Development Model for Viking Activity Across the Frankish Realm (c. 750–940 CE) (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2018).
The leading scholar of pirate communities is Marcus Rediker, whose work I draw on substantially here (he also made the remark about the triad of symbols). His publications are referenced in my own papers above, but the following are of particular relevance: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700–1750 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987) and Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail (Beacon Press, Boston, 2014). See also Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Verso, London, 2000), the primary work on pirate hydrarchies, which includes the quote attributed to Braithwaite. I thank Marcus for his correspondence with me on these issues.
CHAPTER 13: DIASPORA
The idea of a Viking diaspora—as opposed to the traditional ‘expansion’—has many roots but, above all, is found in the work of two scholars. The primary publications are by Lesley Abrams, ‘Diaspora and identity in the Viking Age’, Early Medieval Europe 20 (2012): 17–38 and three by Judith Jesch: The Viking Diaspora (Routledge, London & New York, 2015); ‘The concept of “homeland” in the Viking diaspora’, in Val Turner, Olwyn Owen, and Doree
n Waugh (eds.), Shetland and the Viking World (Shetland Heritage Publications, Lerwick, 2016: 141–146); and ‘Diaspora’, in Jörg Glauser, Pernille Hermann, and Stephen A. Mitchell (eds.), Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies (De Gruyter, Berlin, 2018: 583–593). Jesch is carefully specific in her use of the term, more so than many who have subsequently taken it up and employed it more loosely. In her research projects on this theme, based at the University of Nottingham, she has focussed on the definitions drawn from social science—for example, the work of Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction (2nd edn., Routledge, London & New York, 2008). The latter is the source of the observation about a continuing conversation, and the list of diasporic characteristics in my text is drawn from both Cohen and Jesch. For a recent overview of the Viking diaspora in a global context, see David Abulafia, The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans (Allen Lane, London, 2019: chs. 18–21).
The latest overview of eastern Baltic trade has been referenced above but is relevant here, too: Johan Callmer, Ingrid Gustin, and Mats Roslund (eds.), Identity Formation and Diversity in the Early Medieval Baltic and Beyond (Brill, Leiden, 2017); two key papers therein reference the fur trade with the Finns (Mats Roslund, who also made the Hudson Bay analogy) and Ladoga’s role in the silver stream (Søren Sindbæk). Further Baltic interactions are discussed in Mats Roslund’s book, Guests in the House: Cultural Transmission Between Slavs and Scandinavians 900–1300 (Brill, Leiden, 2007). The link to the eastern rivers is taken up by Line Bjerg, John Lind, and Søren Sindbæk (eds.), From Goths to Varangians: Communication and Cultural Exchange Between the Baltic and the Black Sea (Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2013).
For the connections with Constantinople, see Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, and Monica White (eds.), Byzantium and the Viking World (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2016). An old work that still repays attention is H. R. Ellis Davidson, The Viking Road to Byzantium (Allen and Unwin, London, 1976). The Rus’ are also discussed in chapter 15, but for general sources, see Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750–1200 (Longman, London, 1996: 3–49); Wladyslaw Duczko, Viking Rus (Brill, Leiden, 2004); and Fedir Androshchuk, The Vikings in the East (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2013). The delegation to the Frankish court and the reading of Hákon are discussed by Ildar Garipzanov, ‘The Annals of St. Bertin (839) and Chacanus of the Rhos’, Ruthenica 5 (2006): 7–11. The Métis analogies for the Rus’ have been extensively discussed by Charlotta Hillerdal, People in Between: Ethnicity and Material Identity—A New Approach to Deconstructed Concepts (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2009).
The Gotland hoards are discussed by Jacek Gruszczyński, Viking Silver, Hoards and Containers (Routledge, London & New York, 2019). For the river trade, see papers in James Graham-Campbell and Gareth Williams (eds.), Silver Economy in the Viking Age (Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, 2007) and James Graham-Campbell, Søren Sindbæk, and Gareth Williams (eds.), Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia, AD 800–1100 (Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2011). Market forces are explored by Ingrid Gustin, Mellan gåva och marknad (University of Lund, Lund, 2004), and I have again benefitted greatly from discussions with Anders Ögren.
For the Vikings in Iberia, see Eduardo Morales Romero, Historia de los Vikingos en España (Miraguano Ediciones, Madrid, 2004); Christopher Bo Bramsen (ed.), Vikingerne på den Iberiske Halvø (Embassy of Denmark, Madrid, 2004); Neil Price, ‘The Vikings in Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean’, in Stefan Brink and Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (Routledge, London & New York, 2008: 462–469); and especially Ann Christys, Vikings in the South: Voyages to Iberia and the Mediterranean (Bloomsbury, London, 2015). The translations of the Norse names for Mediterranean localities are by Elena Melnikova. The work on Madeiran mice is by Jeremy Searle et al., ‘Of mice and (Viking?) men: Phylogeography of British and Irish house mice’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 276 (2009): 201–207.
Excerpts from the main sources for the settlement of the North Atlantic were collected by Gwyn Jones, The Norse Atlantic Saga (2nd edn., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986). For archaeological surveys, including the sites mentioned in the text, see William Fitzhugh and Elizabeth Ward (eds.), Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga (Smithsonian, Washington, DC, 2000); James Barrett (ed.), Contact, Continuity, and Collapse: The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic (Brepols, Leiden, 2003); and Andras Mortensen and Símun V. Arge (eds.), Viking and Norse in the North Atlantic (Faroese Academy of Sciences, Tórshavn, 2005). The excavations at Stöðvarfjörður by Bjarni Einarsson are still ongoing and as yet unpublished, although they have been widely reported in the media. For other perspectives on the first settlement, see Margrét Hermanns-Auðardóttir, Islands tidiga bosättning (Umeå University, Umeå, 1989) and Bjarni F. Einarsson, The Settlement of Iceland: A Critical Approach (Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, Reykjavík, 1995). The controversial origins of Iceland’s founding population have generated a vast literature continually growing as more genetic studies are undertaken; the debate largely began with J. T. Williams, ‘Origin and population structure of the Icelanders’, Human Biology 65 (1993): 167–191 and continued with the extensive work of Agnar Helgason and his team over many publications; this is all fully referenced in the latest study: Maja Krzewińska et al., ‘Mitochondrial DNA variation in the Viking Age population of Norway’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 370 (2015): 20130384.
CHAPTER 14: THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE SHEEP FARMER
The historian who remarked about the pig farmers was Eric Christiansen, The Norsemen in the Viking Age (Blackwell, Oxford, 2002: 6).
For the resource implications of the sail, see Lise Bender Jørgensen, ‘The introduction of sails to Scandinavia: Raw materials, labour, and land’, in Ragnhild Berge et al. (eds.), N-TAG Ten: Proceedings of the 10th Nordic TAG Conference (BAR, Oxford, 2012: 173–181). For work since then, see Morten Ravn et al. (eds.), Vikingetidens sejl (Saxo Institute, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, 2016) and Morten Ravn, Viking-Age War Fleets (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2017); the figures for sailcloth and wool cited here are from Eva Andersson Strand, and I also thank Frans-Arne Stylegar for sharing his ideas on this. The Ladby vessel used in these examples is published by Anne C. Sørensen, Ladby: A Danish Ship-Grave from the Viking Age (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2001).
The expansion of the landed estates can be seen throughout Scandinavia but perhaps most clearly in Denmark at settlements such as Vorbasse and Trabjerg; see Steen Hvass, ‘Vorbasse: The Viking-Age settlement at Vorbasse, central Jutland’, Acta Archaeologica 50 (1980): 137–172 and Lise Bender Jørgensen and Palle Eriksen, Trabjerg: en vestjysk landsby fra vikingetiden (Jysk Arkælogisk Selskab, Aarhus, 1995). Useful regional studies that place this in a wider context can be found in Steffen Stummann Hansen and Klavs Randsborg (eds.), Vikings in the West (Munksgaard, Copenhagen, 2000) and Palle Eriksen et al., Vikinger i vest: vikingetiden i Vestjylland (Jysk Arkæologisk Selskab, Aarhus, 2011).
The Skuldelev 2 ship is published in Ole Crumlin-Pedersen and Olaf Olsen (eds.), The Skuldelev Ships I (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2002: 141–194). The description of life in the weaving sheds owes a debt to Pat Barker’s feminist reimagining of the Iliad story, The Silence of the Girls (Hamish Hamilton, London, 2018). References for the raiding-slaving-trading trinity can be found above for chapter 4 and in relation to the impacts of polygyny in chapter 11. A clear example of a settlement with a ‘Big House’ and many small sheds that may be the quarters of the enslaved is Sanda in Uppland, Sweden; see Torun Zachrisson, ‘De osynliggjorda: om trälar i arkeologisk forskning’, in Thomas Lindkvist and Janken Myrdal (eds.), Trälar: ofria i agrarsamhället från vikingatid till medeltid (Nordic Museum, Stockholm, 2003: 88–102). The historian who sees slavery at the core of Viking-ness is Peter Heather, as expressed in a rather profound remark during conference discussion.
References for Hedeby and Birka can be found under chapter 10, above. An overview of Kaupang can be found
in Dagfinn Skre and Frans-Arne Stylegar, Kaupang vikingebyen (Oslo University, Oslo, 2004) while the new excavations there have been published as Dagfinn Skre (ed.), Kaupang Excavation Project (4 vols., Oslo University/Aarhus University Press, Norske Oldfunn 22–25, 2007–2016). The last general survey of Viking urbanism was by Helen Clarke and Björn Ambrosiani, Towns in the Viking Age (2nd edn., Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1995), but references to current debates can be found in Lena Holmquist, Sven Kalmring, and Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson (eds.), New Aspects on Viking-Age Urbanism c. AD 750–1100 (Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2016). The work mentioned at Hedeby is by Sven Kalmring, ‘The harbour of Hedeby’, in Svavar Sigmundsson (ed.), Viking Settlements and Viking Society (University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 2011: 245–260). The suggestion about the importance of high-grade textile work as a female function of urban life is by Ingvild Øye, whose many publications in this field provide an outstanding overview of a gendered profession in the Viking Age.
CHAPTER 15: SILVER, SLAVES, AND SILK
