Children of Ash and Elm

by Neil Price;

  Two recent works treat the notion of a post–Cold War, globalised Viking Age. See Søren Sindbæk and Athena Trakadas (eds.), The World in the Viking Age (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2014) and Neil Price, ‘Distant Vikings: A manifesto’, Acta Archaeologica 89 (2018): 113–132.

  The observation about the sheltered coastlines of Scotland and western Norway is by Arne Kruse. The literature on the Picts is vast, but, for an overview, see Martin Carver, Surviving in Symbols: A Visit to the Pictish Nation (Historic Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999) and Gordon Noble and Nicholas Evans, The King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce (Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2019).

  Orkneyinga Saga is translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin, London, 1978). For general works on the Vikings in Scotland and the Isles, see Barbara E. Crawford, Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1987); Anna Ritchie, Viking Scotland (Batsford, London, 1993); James Graham-Campbell and Colleeen E. Batey, Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1998); and Olwyn Owen, The Sea Road: A Viking Voyage Through Scotland (Canongate, Edinburgh, 1999).

  For the Orkneys, in particular, see Barbara E. Crawford, The Northern Earldoms: Orkney and Caithness from AD 870 to 1470 (John Donald, Edinburgh, 2013); for excavations, see Christopher D. Morris, The Birsay Bay Project (2 vols., University of Durham, Durham, 1989 & 1996); James Barrett (ed.), Being an Islander: Production and Identity at Quoygrew, Orkney, AD 900–1600 (Oxbow, Oxford, 2012); and David Griffiths, Jane Harrison, and Michael Athanson, Beside the Ocean: The Bay of Skaill, Marwick, and Birsay Bay, Orkney (Oxbow, Oxford, 2018). The excavations at Deerness, by James Barrett, are now being prepared for publication, as is the work by Jane Harrison on the artificial mounds of Skaill. For Shetland, see Val Turner, Olwyn Owen, and Doreen Waugh (eds.), Shetland and the Viking World (Shetland Heritage Publications, Lerwick, 2016) and individual sites in J. R. C. Hamilton, Excavations at Jarlshof, Shetland (HMSO, Edinburgh, 1956); Barbara E. Crawford and Beverley Ballin Smith, The Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland: The History and Archaeology of a Royal Norwegian Farm (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1999); and Stephen Dockrill et al., Excavations at Old Scatness, Shetland I: The Pictish Village and Viking Settlement (Shetland Amenity Trust, Lerwick, 2010). For the Hebrides, see Niall Sharples, A Norse Farmstead in the Outer Hebrides (Oxbow, Oxford, 2005) and Alan Macniven, The Vikings in Islay (John Donald, Edinburgh, 2015). Caithness is covered in several general works, but see Colleen E. Batey, Judith Jesch, and Christopher D. Morris (eds.), The Viking Age in Caithness, Orkney and the North Atlantic (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1993) and Christopher D. Morris, Colleen E. Batey, and James Rackham, Freswick Links, Caithness: Excavation and Survey of a Norse Settlement (Historic Scotland, Edinburgh, 1995).

  Scottish boat burials have been referenced above for chapter 8. A rare example of a child’s burial is reported by Colleen Batey and Caroline Paterson, ‘A Viking burial at Balnakeil, Sutherland’, in Andrew Reynolds and Leslie Webster (eds.), Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World (Brill, Leiden, 2013: 631–659). The metal economy is presented by James Graham-Campbell, The Viking-Age Gold and Silver of Scotland (National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1995).

  The politics of the Scottish mainland in the Viking Age are discussed by Alex Woolf, From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070 (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2007). For excavations at a major east-coast monastic site attacked by Vikings, see Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire, and Cecily Spall, Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness: Changing Ideologies in North-East Scotland, Sixth to Sixteenth Century AD (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016).

  The Irish Sea cultural sphere has been referenced above, but see, in particular, Alfred P. Smyth, Scandinavian York and Dublin (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1987); 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).

  All the above contain extensive references to individual towns and polities. Beyond this, for York and the Danelaw, see Richard Hall, Viking Age York (Batsford, London, 1994); Dawn Hadley, The Northern Danelaw: Its Social Structure, c.800–1100 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, 2000); James Graham-Campbell et al. (eds.), Vikings and the Danelaw (Oxbow, Oxford, 2001); Dawn Hadley and Letty Ten Harkel (eds.), Everyday Life in Viking-Age Towns: Social Approaches to Towns in England and Ireland, c.800–1100 (Oxbow, Oxford, 2013); and Matthew Townend, Viking Age Yorkshire (Blackthorn, Pickering, 2014). The final publication of the major Viking excavations in York, including references to the long series of reports, is Richard Hall, Anglo-Scandinavian Occupation at 16-22 Coppergate: Defining a Townscape (Council for British Archaeology, York, 2014).

  For the economy of Scandinavian England, see James Graham-Campbell, The Cuerdale Hoard (British Museum Press, London, 2011); Mark Blackburn, Viking Coinage and Currency in the British Isles (Spink, London, 2011); and Jane Kershaw and Gareth Williams (eds.), Silver, Butter, Cloth: Monetary and Social Economies in the Viking Age (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2019). Social expression in the Danelaw has been referenced above, but see Jane Kershaw, Viking Identities: Scandinavian Jewellery in England (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013) and Steven P. Ashby, A Viking Way of Life (Amberley, Stroud, 2014). Hogback grave covers have been catalogued by James Lang, ‘The hogback: A Viking colonial monument’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 3 (1984): 83–176; see also Richard N. Bailey, Viking Age Sculpture (Collins, London, 1980) and the ongoing publications of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture from the British Academy in London.

  The latest work on the Viking Age in Ireland can be found in several collections: Howard B. Clarke, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, and Raghnall Ó Floinn (eds.), Ireland and Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age (Four Courts, Dublin, 1998); Anne-Christine Larsen, The Vikings in Ireland (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2001); John Sheehan and Donnchadh Ó Corráin (eds.), The Viking Age: Ireland and the West (Four Courts, Dublin, 2010); Emer Purcell et al. (eds.), Clerics, Kings and Vikings (Four Courts, Dublin, 2015); and Howard B. Clarke and Ruth Johnson (eds.), The Vikings in Ireland and Beyond (Four Courts, Dublin, 2015).

  For the Irish city states and Dublin in particular, see Ruth Johnson, Viking Age Dublin (Town House, Dublin, 2004); Patrick F. Wallace, Viking Dublin: The Wood Quay Excavations (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 2016); Howard B. Clarke, Sheila Doohey, and Ruth Johnson, Dublin and the Viking World (O’Brien Press, Dublin, 2018); and the ongoing series of Medieval Dublin Excavations published by the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin (which includes a major collection on the funerary evidence for the Viking presence by Stephen Harrison and Raghnall Ó Floinn). Clare Downham has written thoughtfully on ‘“Hiberno-Norwegians” and “Anglo-Danes”: Anachronistic ethnicities and Viking-Age England’, Medieval Scandinavia 19 (2009): 139–169. Exciting work on the military forces of Viking-Age Ireland is underway by Tenaya Jorgensen and her colleagues at Trinity College Dublin, and is set to significantly increase our knowledge here.

  For Manx material, see Christine Fell et al. (eds.), The Viking Age in the Isle of Man (Viking Society for Northern Research, London, 1983) and David M. Wilson, The Vikings in the Isle of Man (Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2008). For ritual life on the island, see Gerhard Bersu and David M. Wilson, Three Viking Graves on the Isle of Man (Society for Medieval Archaeology, King’s Lynn, 1966) and Leszek Gardeła and Carolyne Larrington (eds.), Viking Myths and Rituals on the Isle of Man (University of Nottingham, Nottingham, 2014). The archaeologist who sees Man as a ‘pirate kingdom’ is James Barrett, and I agree.

  For the Celtic West, see Henry Loyn, The Vikings in Wales (Viking Society for Northern Research, London, 1976) and Mark Redknap, Vikings in Wales (National Museums and Galleries of Wales, Cardiff, 2000).

  For Normandy, see David Bates, Normandy Before 1066 (Longman, London, 1982); Jean Renaud, Les Vikings et la Normandie (Ouest-France, Ren
nes, 1989); Lucien Musset, Nordica et Normannica (Société des études nordiques, Paris, 1997); and Katherine Cross, Heirs of the Vikings: History and Identity in Normandy and England, c.950–c.1015 (York Medieval Press, York, 2018). Other recent studies can be found in the synthetic works referenced above for chapter 12. An important paper in this context is Simon Coupland, ‘From poachers to gamekeepers: Scandinavian warlords and Carolingian kings’, Early Medieval Europe 7 (1998): 85–114.

  The main sources for Brittany in English are my own publications: Neil Price, The Vikings in Brittany (Viking Society for Northern Research, London, 1989); ‘The Viking conquest of Brittany’, in Stefan Brink and Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (Routledge, London & New York, 2008: 458–461); and ‘Viking Brittany: Revisiting the colony that failed’, in Andrew Reynolds and Leslie Webster (eds.), Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World (Brill, Leiden, 2013: 731–742). See also Jean-Christophe Cassard, Le siècle des Vikings en Bretagne (Gisserot, Quintin, 1996).

  The Rus’ symbol of the diving falcon has its own book by Björn Ambrosiani (ed.), Birka Studies 5. Eastern Connections: The Falcon Motif (Riksantikvarieämbetet, Stockholm, 2001). Appropriately, in stylised form it continues to serve as Ukraine’s coat of arms.

  Unsurprisingly, the majority of work on the Vikings in the East is published in Russian or Ukrainian. References to this literature—which is truly enormous—may be found in the works cited here, but, for ease of access, these notes are restricted to material in English. For overviews, see Simon Franklin and Jonathan Shepard, The Emergence of Rus 750–1200 (Longman, London, 1996: 3–49); Pär Hanson (ed.), The Rural Viking in Russia and Sweden (Örebro bildningsförvaltning, Örebro, 1997); Wladyslaw Duczko, Viking Rus (Brill, Leiden, 2004); Ulf Fransson et al. (eds.), Cultural Interaction Between East and West (University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 2007); Fedir Androshchuk, The Vikings in the East (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2013); and Pierre Bauduin and Alexander E. Musin (eds.), Vers l’Orient et vers l’Occident: regards croisés sur les dynamiques et les transferts culturels des Vikings à la Rous ancienne (University of Caen, Caen, 2014). For contacts with eastern peoples, see Jakub Morawiec, Vikings Among the Slavs (Fassbaender, Vienna, 2009); Tsvetelin Stepanov, The Bulghars and the Steppe Empire in the Early Middle Ages (Brill, Leiden, 2010); and Boris Zhivkov, Khazaria in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries (Brill, Leiden, 2015). For Novgorod, see Mark Brisbane (ed.), The Archaeology of Novgorod, Russia (Society for Medieval Archaeology, Lincoln, 1992) and his edited series The Archaeology of Medieval Novgorod (4 vols., Oxbow, Oxford, 2006–2019).

  For Byzantium and the Varangian Guard, see H. R. Ellis Davidson, The Viking Road to Byzantium (Allen and Unwin, London, 1976); Sigfús Blöndal, The Varangians of Byzantium (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978); Raffaele D’Amato, The Varangian Guard 988–1453 (Osprey, Oxford, 2010); and Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, and Monica White (eds.), Byzantium and the Viking World (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2016); the latter work contains a great many papers of interest. The runestone mentioning a guardsman is U 112 from Kyrkstigen in Uppland, Sweden.

  In his MA thesis in medieval studies, Csete Katona has made a major study of the Rus’ activities as mercenaries, which has been most useful here: Co-operation Between the Viking Rus’ and the Turkic Nomads of the Steppe in the Ninth–Eleventh Centuries (Central European University, Budapest, 2018). The two Viking swords from southern Turkey are recent finds and have not yet been fully published. The comments on al-Mas’ūdī are by Þórir Hraundal, The Rus in Arabic Sources: Cultural Contacts and Identity (University of Oslo, Oslo, 2013). The scholar who sees the Rus’ in similar terms to the armies of the west is Gareth Williams.

  The latest work on Kiev is summarised in two books by Christian Raffensperger: Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2012) and The Kingdom of Rus’ (University of Amsterdam Press, Amsterdam, 2017). For Ingvar’s expedition, see two books by Mats G. Larsson, Runstenar och utlandsfärder (Lund University, Lund, 1990) and Ett ödesdigert vikingatåg: Ingvar den vittfarnes resa 1036–1041 (Atlantic, Stockholm, 1990). His saga is translated in Vikings in Russia by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1989). The runestone commemorating Ingvar’s brother is Sö 179. The new interpretation of the Piraeus inscription, by Thorgunn Snædal, is in Fedir Androshchuk, Jonathan Shepard, and Monica White (eds.), Byzantium and the Viking World (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2016).

  On the Rus’ as military elites, see Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, The Birka Warrior: The Material Culture of a Martial Society (Stockholm University, Stockholm, 2006). Their material culture is also reviewed by David Nicolle, Armies of Medieval Russia 750–1250 (Osprey, Oxford, 1999). The scholar referring to the “Turkic military outfit” is Þórir Hraundal. The runestones mentioning Rus’ are Sö 338, Sö 34, and Sö 171, all from Södermanland in Sweden. The meditations on Varangian PTSD come from the as-yet unpublished work of Rue Taylor, whom I thank for permission to discuss them here.

  For Scandinavian burials in the East, see Kirill Mikhajlov, ‘Chamber-graves as interregional phenomenon of the Viking Age: From Denmark to Rus’’, in Mariana Re¸bkowskiego (ed.), Ekskluzywne Życie-Dostojny Pochówek w Kręgu Kultury Elitarnej Wieków Średnich (Wolin, 2011: 205–223) and especially Fedir Androshchuk and Vladimir Zotsenko, —Scandinavian Antiquities of Southern Rus’ (Collège de France, Paris, 2012, with English summaries). The work on Rus’ women as traders is by Anne Stalsberg, ‘Women as actors in North European Viking Age trade’, in Ross Samson (ed.), Social Approaches to Viking Studies (Cruithne Press, Glasgow, 1991: 75–88) and ‘Visible women made invisible: Interpreting Varangian women in Old Russia’, in Bettina Arnold and Nancy L. Wicker (eds.), Gender and the Archaeology of Death (Alta Mira, Walnut Creek, 2001: 65–80). The story of Geirmund Hjørson is told by his (literal) modern descendant, Bergsveinn Birgisson, in Den svarte vikingen (Spartacus, Oslo, 2014).

  For the Vikings in Arabia and the Caliphate, most of the discussion has been confined to the texts. The best modern survey has been mentioned several times here: Þórir Hraundal’s The Rus in Arabic Sources: Cultural Contacts and Identity (University of Oslo, Oslo, 2013); many of the observations in my book draw on his inspirational work. An earlier set of translations into Norwegian also contains much of interest, Harris Birkeland, Nordens historie i middelalderen etter arabiske kilder (Dybwad, Oslo, 1954), as does Stig Wikander, Araber, Vikingar, Väringar (Svenska humanistiska förbundet, Lund, 1978). See also several papers in Søren Sindbæk and Athena Trakadas (eds.), The World in the Viking Age (Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, 2014). The runestone with the Khwārazm inscription is Vs 1. The notion of an Islamic mission to Scandinavia has been put forward by Egil Mikkelsen, ‘The Vikings and Islam’, in Stefan Brink and Neil Price (eds.), The Viking World (Routledge, London & New York, 2008: 543–549).

  The merchant’s prayer from ibn Faḍlān is given here in James Montgomery’s translation. The silver trade generates an ever-growing literature of papers, especially relating to the Gotland hoards. Major works, with references, have been noted above, but for the East, in particular, see also Thomas S. Noonan, The Islamic World, Russia and the Vikings, 750–900: The Numismatic Evidence (Routledge, London & New York, 1998); the papers by Christoph Kilger in the second volume of the Kaupang excavation reports, Dagfinn Skre (ed.), Means of Exchange (Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, 2007); and Fedir Androshchuk, Images of Power: Byzantium and Nordic Coinage c.995–1035 (Laurus, Kiev, 2016). The many papers of Gert Rispling are also central to our understanding of the dirham trade.

  The link between silver and slaves is being explored by the Dirhams for Slaves project at Oxford University with the work of Jacek Gruszczyński, Marek Jankowiak, Jonathan Shepard, and Luke Treadwell. I would also like to acknowledge the important contributions being made by Viacheslav Kuleshov.

  Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson is one of very few to have explored the Vikings’ travels
even farther east; see her important paper, ‘With Asia as neighbour: Archaeological evidence of contacts between Scandinavia and Central Asia in the Viking Age and the Tang Dynasty’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 81 (in press). The silk trade is discussed by Marianne Vedeler, Silk for the Vikings (Oxbow, Oxford, 2014). The possible Viking boats on Qatari rock carvings are discussed by Guy Isitt, ‘Vikings in the Persian Gulf’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17:4 (2007): 389–406. This should be set against the larger picture of East–West trade and cultural exchange, on which the best recent and well-referenced work is Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Bloomsbury, London, 2015); and Susan Whitfield (ed.), Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes (Thames and Hudson, London and New York, 2019).

  The linked silk fragments from 5-7 Coppergate in York and Saltergate in Lincoln are discussed by Richard Hall, The Viking Dig (Bodley Head, London, 1984: 88).

  CHAPTER 16: THE EXPERIMENTS OF MONARCHY

  For overviews of the conversion of Scandinavia, see Bertil Nilsson (ed.), Kontinuitet i kult och tro från vikingatid till medeltid (Lunne, Uppsala, 1992); Anne-Sofie Gräslund, Ideologi och mentalitet: Om religionsskiftet i Skandinavien från en arkeologisk horizont (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2001); Martin Carver (ed.), The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300–1300 (Boydell, Woodbridge, 2003); Alexandra Sanmark, Power and Conversion: A Comparative Study of Christianization in Scandinavia (Uppsala University, Uppsala, 2004); Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, Kristninga i Norden 750–1200 (3rd edn., Det norske samlaget, Oslo, 2012); Anders Winroth, The Conversion of Scandinavia (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2012); and Sten Tesch (ed.), Skiftet: vikingatida sed och kristen tro (Artos, Skellefteå, 2017). For the ‘pick and mix’ approach to European religion, see Keith Hopkins, A World Full of Gods: Pagans, Jews and Christians in the Roman Empire (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1999).