Viking Warrior

by Judson Roberts

  Norns: Three ancient sisters who, the pagan Scandinavians believed, sat together at the base of the world-tree and wove the fates of all men on their looms.

  Norse: The Scandinavians who lived in the area of modern Norway. During the mid-ninth century, large portions of the Norse lands were at least nominally ruled by the Danish king. Non-Scandinavians sometimes used the term Norsemen, or Northmen, to describe any Viking raiders from the Scandinavian lands.

  Odin:The Scandinavian God of death, war, wisdom, vengeance, and poetry; the chieftain of the gods.

  runes: The alphabet used for writing in the ancient Scandinavian and Germanic languages.

  seax: A large, single-edged knife, somewhat similar in appearance to an American Bowie knife, used as both a weapon and tool by the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons; sometimes also called a saxe.

  Schliefjord: A long fjord on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula, near its base, on which the town of Hedeby was located.

  skald: A poet.

  small-axe: A hand weapon, similar in size to a hatchet or tomahawk.

  stemposts: The timbers at either end of a longship, forming the curved vertical extensions of the keel, to which the planks of the ship’s hull were attached.

  Svear: A member of the Sveas tribe.

  Sveas: One of the Scandinavian tribes who inhabited the area of modern Sweden; one of several distinct tribes of Scandinavian peoples who made up the Viking culture.

  thegn: A minor noble in Anglo-Saxon society; the warrior class that formed the backbone of English armies during the Viking period.

  Thing: A regional assembly held periodically in Scandinavian cultures where men could present lawsuits to be decided by vote according to law. Things were the forerunner and origin of what became, centuries later in English culture, the concept of trial by jury.

  Thor: The Scandinavian God of thunder and fertile harvests.

  thrall: A slave in Scandinavian society.

  Valhalla: The “Hall of the Slain,” the great feast-hall of the God Odin, which was the home in the afterworld of brave warriors in Scandinavian mythology.

  Valkyries: Warrior maidens who served the God Odin, and carried fallen warriors to his feast hall, Valhalla, where they spent their days fighting and their nights feasting.

  wergild: The amount that must be paid to make recompense for killing a man.

  White Christ: The Vikings’ name for the Christian god, believed to be a derogatory term implying cowardice, because he allowed himself to be captured and killed without fighting back against his captors.

  HISTORICAL NOTES

  Modern historians generally consider the Viking Age to have begun in the latter part of the eighth century A.D. and ended in the eleventh century, although those dates are somewhat arbitrary, and are tied to the modern perception that Viking-age Scandinavians were primarily violent, primitive, barbarian pirates. Some historians, in fact, tie the beginning and end of the Viking Age to specific Viking raids: the small Viking attack on the English monastery of Lindisfarne in A.D. 793, and the failed invasion of England by Norwegian King Harald Hardrada that ended with his death at the battle of Stamford Bridge in A.D. 1066. That same year the Normans, descendants of Vikings who had settled in France in the area around the mouth of the Seine River, crossed the English Channel and conquered England, bringing a final end to the Anglo-Saxon rule of that island.

  Viking-age Scandinavians were not barbarians, though, and were far more than merely very organized and successful pirates. They were adventurers, explorers, and merchants, a people with a vibrant culture with its own highly developed artistic aesthetic, tradition of oral literature, and a strong code of ethics and honor. Though many today picture Vikings as typically clothed in crude, rough garments of fur, wealthy Vikings were far more likely to be clothed in fine garments of richly patterned wool, linen, or even silk from China. Vikings from Norway settled Iceland, discovered and settled Greenland, and even discovered the North American continent. Vikings founded Dublin and several other of the major towns in Ireland, and turned the northern English town of York, which the Vikings called Jorvik, into one of the busiest trading centers of northern Europe. Swedish Vikings founded the early medieval kingdom of Russia, and created trade routes down its rivers that allowed them to trade regularly with the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople and the Arab kingdoms beyond. Much of England was conquered and settled by primarily Danish Vikings during the late ninth and early tenth centuries. Many concepts that now are considered “English” in origin, such as the idea that an individual’s freedom can outweigh the rights of the state and that even kings were subject to the law, or the right to trial by a jury of one’s peers, were brought to England by the Vikings and became custom there in the heavily Viking-settled area known as the Danelaw. From the late ninth century through the mid-tenth century, a Viking kingdom existed in the north of England, and Danish kings ruled all of England from A.D. 1016 through 1042.

  There is truth, of course, behind the popular image of Vikings as violent pirates who preyed upon the peoples of early medieval Europe. A truly dark side of the Viking culture is that they were heavily involved in the slave trade, for prisoners—particularly women and children—were often part of the plunder captured by the Vikings in their raids. The more fortunate prisoners were later exchanged for ransom, but many were carried away for sale as slaves in other lands if ransom could not be paid.

  This side of the Vikings must be viewed in the context of the times, though. Plundering the possessions of defeated enemies was a standard practice among all peoples long before and after the Viking Age. All of the cultures of Europe, and indeed most, if not all of the rest of the world, possessed and traded in slaves during this period. For example, the Frankish King Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, generally considered to be a paragon of culture and Christianity during the early Middle Ages, waged a brutal thirty-year war against the Saxon peoples who lived on the European continent just to the south of Denmark so he could take their lands for his own people. Charlemagne’s war against the Saxons, which almost amounted to a campaign of genocide, included such acts as the massacre of over four thousand unarmed Saxon captives and the sale into slavery of thousands of the Saxon people, once they were militarily defeated. Compared with such acts by their contemporaries, the ravages of Vikings were merely typical of their time.

  I have chosen to set the tale of Halfdan during the latter half of the ninth century, before Christianity began to spread through the pagan north, and while most Viking raids were still the exploits of private adventurers, rather than ambitious Viking kings. Though I am sure I have made mistakes, I have tried to the best of my ability to create for the reader a vivid and accurate picture of the ninth century Viking world. Although the character of Halfdan and his personal exploits are entirely works of fiction, some events described in this volume and the rest of the series actually occurred. The battle in England which proved to be Hrorik’s doom, for example, is based on an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a running account of the history of early England recorded by generations of English monks, which reads, for the year 845:

  This year ealdorman Eanwulf, with the men of Somersetshire, and Bishop Ealstan, and ealdorman Osric, with the men of Dorsetshire, fought at the mouth of the Parret [River] with the Danish army; and there, after making a great slaughter, obtained the victory.

  Additionally, in this first installment of Halfdan’s tale, there are rumblings of a plan by the Danish King to strike at the Franks, while their three kings are fighting among themselves. During A.D. 845 the Danes did in fact launch a massive two-pronged attack on the Franks, one prong of which was led by legendary Viking leader Ragnar Logbrod up the Seine River. But that is a tale to be told another day.

  One final note about Halfdan and his bow. As I have described it, the bow used by Halfdan is similar to the powerful and deadly longbows which the English used to dominate warfare during the late Middle Ages. Though the origin of the English longbow is a ma
tter of great speculation, it is a fact that a few Viking Age bows have been found in Scandinavia which precisely match in design and size the later English longbow. Several accounts exist in Viking sagas of exceptionally skilled archers who were highly valued for their ability to kill at long range, and several major battles during the Viking Age were decided when the king or leader of one of the armies was slain by a well-aimed arrow. Though Halfdan and his bow are works of fiction, such archers did exist during the Viking Age.

  I have created a website, at www.strongbowsaga.com, to provide readers of the Strongbow Saga with additional historical background, including photos and other illustrations, about the real Viking world as it existed during the late ninth century, when Halfdan’s tale is set. I encourage those interested in learning more to visit. Those wishing to learn more about the Strongbow Saga series are invited to visit my website at www.judsonroberts.com.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Telling this tale has long been a dream and passion of mine. Making Halfdan’s tale available to readers would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and support of Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, who secured the contract with HarperCollins for the original publication of the first three books of the series. My thanks also go to Susan Rich and Kristin Marang, for their excellent editorial assistance with this volume of the series.

  The republication of Viking Warrior in this revised, Northman Books edition, would not have been possible without the assistance of my good friend and fellow writer, Luc Reid (www.lucreid.com/dbweb). Luc—who has been a part of the Strongbow Saga since its inception, as the first reader of my earliest drafts—applied his mastery of computer programming and graphic design to take my rough ideas and turn them into the wonderfully evocative new cover of this edition, to transform my crude sketches into the map which is a new feature of this edition, and to prepare the text and layout for the new printing.

  My thanks also go to Matt Steinhausen (http://www.steinhausen.biz/), whose striking photograph of a burning barn was used as the background image for the front cover, and to loyal reader Melissa Morgan, whose sharp eyes and thorough knowledge of the story allowed me to correct a story error, and prevent Halfdan from an untimely tasting of Frankish wine.

  And finally, my greatest thanks go to my wife Jeanette, for her unwavering support and faith in me.