Vestvågøy
Theme - 13
Viking Age
One historical event on the 8th of June 793 AD,
the attack at the monastery on Lindisfarne in
Britain (on the coast of Northumberland), has been
said to mark the start of the Viking Age. After
this, there were numerous Scandinavian raids on the
British Isles.
But some critical questions should be raised in
the start: Why have journeys undertaken for trade
and experience been described purely as a spate of
plundering? Have we uncritically accepted the
Anglo-Saxon and Celtic writers' view of the period?
Could there be other motives than pure plunder and
the hunger for gold and women? Studies of economic,
political and ideological motives in Norway and
abroad may help us to understand the Vikings. In
spite of this proviso, we must also recognise that
many journeys were motivated by plunder. Iona
was raided several times, for example, along with
many other Irish and Scottish monasteries, not to
mention attacks on French cities - Rouen in 841,
Nantes in 843 and Paris in 845.
We need a dynamic understanding of developments
in Norway to understand what changes are taking
place at this time
- The construction of sails and the building
of Viking ships are of great importance for the
contact with the rest of Europe. Through
archaeological finds (imported wares) we have
proof of contact across great distances.
- At Lofotr, in Vestvågøy
archaeologists excavated the remains of a
chieftain's house from the Viking age. Many of
the excavated artefacts can be traced from all
over Europe and even further.
- On the west coast of Norway 60 stone-crosses
made earlier than 995 have been found, similar
in some ways to crosses found in Britain and
Ireland. Some graves indicate contact with the
British Isles, mainly the graves on the
southwest coast of Norway, interpreted as a
result of expansion from Rogaland (the most
western county of Norway) to Ireland.
- During this period we can see a growth in
population and a centralisation of power among
the chieftains. Towards the end of the period,
there's a change from chiefdoms
to kingdoms
- Some scholars suspect that a shortage of
women may lie behind some of the voyages
- perhaps as a result of female
infanticide.
- Advances in boat-building technology give
Norwegians a new superiority at sea.
There also exists a variety of written sources
that inform us about this period, both Norse
sources, written during the 11th and 12 century,
and foreign contemporary sources with certain
information regarding Norwegian conditions and
history:
- Àgrip, Historia Norvegiae,
Historia de antiquitate regum
Norvagiensium.
- Saga-literature, where the main amount is
written some hundreds years later:
- Fagrskinna, Heimskringla (Snorre),
Skaldic poems and lays, eddaic poems.
- The Landnámabók and
Islendingabók (written of Are
Frode around 1120) tell about the settlement
at the islands of the Vest Sea
- Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great)
- Adam of Bremen
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
- Ottar's voyage to the White Sea
"Othere was among the foremost men of
[Halogaland]; yet he did not have more
than 20 head of cattle, and 20 sheep, and 20
pigs; and the little that he ploughed, he
ploughed by horses."
With his victory in the battle of Hafrsfjord
(872 AD), king Harald Hårfagre (Harold
Fairhair) made great progress in uniting Norway
into one kingdom, and according to Snorre's Saga he
chose Avaldsnes, on the west coast, as his
residence.
- Huge field of graves in southern Norway: The
Borre graves: largest collection of
chieftain-graves in northern Europe. (The Danish
king controlled the area around Oslo up till
around 1035 AD.)
Religious thought in the Viking period focused
on the Norse mythology of gods and goddeses: Odin
was the god of the warriors and battle, of wisdom
and poetry. Thor was the god of thunder, and
Frøy was the god of fertility, marriage and
growing. But a great change gradually occurred in
the centuries around 1000 AD. From the British
Isles, and from further south in Europe a rumour
emerged about a new belief, Christianity. Norwegian
settlers elsewhere had also encountered, and
sometimes accepted, Christianity. Informal contacts
had made it known in Norway itself. Apart from this
gradual diffusion, several royal efforts were also
made to Christianise the country:
- Håkon the Good (Adalsteinsfostre) grew
up in England with the Christian belief. When he
took power in Norway around 930 - he tried to
promote Christianity but largely failed. In the
process he dedicated churches and nominated
rectors, but the churches were burned and the
rectors were killed.
- Then the sons of Erik Blodøks
(Blood-Axe) took power. Like Harald, they came
from England where they had accepted
Christianity, but they did not reach far with
the new belief.
- Finally king Olav Tryggvason managed to
consolidate Christian faith. Baptism was
celebrated in the county of Rogaland as early as
997 AD. This was gradually consolidated
throughout Norway, as Olav also built up his
political power in a country that had been split
up among warring chieftains and partly ruled
from Sweden and Denmark. Uniting the country
under his own rule as King
of all Norway, he also promoted
Christianity. In 1024, at a 'Thing' held on the
island of Moster, with a bishop called Grimkjell
in attendance, Christian faith became the
official national belief of the country. Norse
laws were to be brought into conformity with the
laws of the Church - though some things
took rather a long time to disappear, such as
infanticide.
One of Olav's principal struggles was to unite
Norway under one ruler, and to keep it united, even
when local chieftains sought to assert their
independence. At one point Olav had to flee Norway,
when the chieftains supported a take-over by the
Danish King Canute, and he lived in exile in the
Russian town of Novgorod. Olav Haraldsson was
finally killed in the battle of Stiklestad in
Norway 1030 AD, attempting to regain his kingdom.
After his death he was regarded as a saint by the
church and even by his former enemies. Today St
Olaf's churches are common in Scandinavia, and are
even found in Britain.
Symbols were
used to express religious belief: the Christians
had the cross while pagans used Thor's hammer as
their symbol. In some places one can trace a mixed
use of symbols, like one artefact from Iceland,
interpreted as both a hammer and a cross. Also in
England there are gravestones with both Thor's
hammer and a cross. On the west coast of Norway
stone crosses are situated on the top of heathen
burial mounds. One example is at Jæren
(Rogaland) where the old "Tinghaug" which
originally was made around 450 AD is situated. The
buried person was a rich woman, equipped in some
luxury. Five hundred years later a stone cross was
raised on the mound, and thereafter the heathen
grave-mound is known as a cross-mound, symbolizing
a new time, a new religion, a new social
organisation. Sixty such crosses are found in the
three counties on Norway's west coast: Rogaland,
Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane, and obviously
influenced by similar crosses in England, Scotland
and Ireland.
Cross placed upon heathen
burial-cairn. Jæren in Rogaland
(Photo : Jon Arne Sæter)
Important
Dates
|
793
|
Attack at Lindisfarne
|
|
795
|
Vikings start attacks on Ireland
|
|
Around 820
|
Norwegian immigration to Ireland
|
|
836
|
Ships arrived in the area which today
is the city of Dublin: the fort in Dublin
built in
|
|
841
|
Vikings founded Dublin (from Kaupang in
Norway?)
|
|
852
|
The Norwegian chieftain Olav Hvite (the
White) arrived Ireland
|
|
866-67
|
City of York captured
|
|
870-930
|
Landnam period on Iceland; Viking
settlers reach Iceland
|
|
871-99
|
The North Norwegian chieftain
Othere/Ottars travel
|
|
872
|
Battle in Hafrsfjord, Harald
Hårfagre (Harold Fairhair) starts
the assembling of Norway
|
|
950
|
King Håkon Adalstenfostre first
attempt to Christianize Norway
|
|
960-962
|
Harald Blåtann - King of Denmark
re-establish the Danish influence in
Norway
|
|
997
|
Olav Tryggvason made Christian actions
in the county of Rogaland
|
|
1000
|
Leif Ericsson reached North America
|
|
1000
|
Iceland adopts Christianity
|
|
1030
|
Battle at Stiklestad
|
|
1066
|
Harald Hardråde defeated by king
Harold Godwinsson at the battle of
Stamford Bridge
|
|
1066
|
Vilhelm of Normandie defeat the English
army and becomes the king of England
|
Pagan Christian
continuities
The old pagan "Yuletide" was a mid-winter feast
which became associated with Christmas. In Norway
we still use the word "Jul" for Christmas.
The rites used in spring to ensure fertility
were transformed by the Christian priests -
especially with Easter, which celebrated the
triumph of life over death. But even Christian
farmers (and their priests) continued to pray for
fertility, and some continuted to observe a few of
the old rites just to be sure. Each Viking farm had
its own "farm-god" or "protector", in modern Danish
and Norwegian called a "Nisse" and in Swedish a
"Tomte". The modern Santa Claus merges the
Christian Saint Nicholas with the Nisse/Tomte. On
Christmas Eve the children in present-day
Scandinavia wait for Father Christmas, or as they
call him, the Nisse or Tomte, to arrive with
gifts.
|
This
project has been supported by the EU as part of the Culture
2000 programme.