THE VIKINGS



'A furore normannorum libera nos domine'
'Skona oss herre från nordmännens raseri'
'Oh lord, save us from the rage of the Nordic people'
[A common prayer in the French churches during the 9th century]

Perhaps the best known period of Swedish history (internationally), is the time of the Vikings. The stereotype Viking is a tall blond figure possesed with a raging fury which he releases upon other countries.. Although this period was short compared to the rest of the long history of Sweden, it is one of the most widely known.

The 8th of June was a beautiful summer day on the holy Island of Lindisfarne, situated on the Northumberland coast in the north east of England. It had a monastary which was founded in the 6th century and was famous for the fact that some of the finest literature of its time came from here. Some of the books written there are still intact and readable. The monks, who didn't suspect anything unusual, went down to the shore to greet the strangers who had arrived.
This is what an author said about 100 years later: 'The same year the heathens arrived from the north to Brittany with a fleet of ships. They were like stinging wasps, and they spread in all directions like horrible wolves, wrecking, robbing, shattering and killing not only animals but also priests, monks and nuns. They came to the church of Lindesfarne, slayed everything alive, dug up the altars and took all the treasures of the holy church'. The Vikings had arrived.


The attack wasn't the first. Numerous smaller attacks had been made earlier. However, they tended to be rather sporadic. This was something completely different. The attack came as a shock to the rulers of Brittany and the rumours about the fearless Nordic men spread over Europe.
The French king Karl the Great had an English adviser by the name of Alcuin. As soon as he heard of the attack on Lindesfarne, he wrote: 'In nearly 350 years we and our forefathers have been living in this the best of countries and never before has such terror struck Britain as the one we now have to suffer from this heathen race. Nor was it thought to be possible that such an attack could be carried out from the sea. Look at S:t Cuthbert's church sprinkled with the blood of the holy priests, deprived of it's decorations, a room more venerable than any in Britain given as spoils to this Heathen race'.
The next year the Vikings returned and plundered the convent in Jarrow, just a few miles from Lindisfarne. This was the real start of the Viking Age. The Vikings were to be the first Europeans who passed the winter in Labrador and New foundland. They populated Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, Orkney, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. They founded states in Ireland and in Britain. They conquered Normandy in France and founded a dynasty which lived and ruled far into the Middle Ages.
They built merchant towns in Birka (Sweden), Hedeby (Denmark) and Kaupang (Norway). They even founded the first colony in America long before anyone else in Europe even thought that there existed land that far westwards. Vikings also founded kingdoms in Russia and built trade stations along the rivers all the way down to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. They went to Constantinople and Bahgdad, Gurgan and Chorezm. They even came into contact with Byzantium and they formed a feared elite regiment for the East Roman Emperor, a guard which existed for some hundred years.
They conquered London, besieged Lisbon, burnt Santiago, assaulted Seville, attacked Mallorca, and sold European slaves in North Africa. They terrorized Paris (on numerous occasions) and burnt Hamburg and many other German cities. They even went to Jerusalem and possibly also to Alexandria.
During a quarter of a century, from 8th June 793 until 15th October 1066, these men would come in waves, often young and seeking a fight, and extremely skilled as sailors and warriors.

Traces of the Vikings

Their activities left traces for eternity. Over 900 of the most common English words come from the Vikings (sky, skin, scrape, skirt, husband (husbonde) and window (vindue) are some examples). There are over 600 village names in England which can be directly related to the Vikings (Grimsby, Thoresby, Brimtoft, Langtoft and so on). There are English counties where about 75 percent of the village names derived from the Vikings. On the Shetland Islands the percentage goes up to about 99 percent. In the North East of England the Nordic languages were spoken until as late as the 12th century, on the Isle Of Man until the middle of the 15th century.

In Normandy there are still village names which have their originn in the Nordic countries like: Dalbec, Runitot, Bourguebu (Borgeby) and sex la londe (av lund, offerlund). And every French sea captain still gives the commands 'babord' and 'tribord' when he means left and right. In Russia, which was founded by the people from Rus (the Swedish Roslagen County), millions of people still hold the name Oleg, Olga and Igor - from the names of the Viking gods Helge, Helga and Ingvar. When Russians politely address each other as 'gentlemen', the word comes from the Viking word 'husbonden'.
Foreigners have never stopped wondering about and being fascinated by the Vikings. They have been called the Giants from the North, 'heathens', 'savages', 'the first knights' and so on. They have been described as barbarians but also as noble poets with female goddesses. Even today some French schoolbooks explain the Viking temperament in terms of the climate in which they lived. Since they came from such barbaric, cold and boring (!) countries, they were forced to break the melancholy by a bit of good old fashioned slaughtering of innocent people (and getting some sun into the bargain!).

The succes of the Vikings

As always, their (admittedly) enormous success as traders and warriors can't be easily explained. How was it possible for such a small population of perhaps about .800,000 inhabitants to instil the feeling of fear the way they did throughout the whole of Europe? At the beginning of the Viking era there were no united kingdoms in Scandinavia, and the people who went out on crusades were a minority. Most people spent their time at home, farming and trying to run the matters in general.
One of the main reasons for their success is the fact that Europe at the time had a hard time getting united. As it was, many small kingdoms fought with each other to form a big country. The Vikings, who from birth were taught how to fight well (and encouraged by their religion to do it) and how to manouvre a boat (which by the way was by far the best ever built in Europe by that time, possibly even the best in the world), were given rather easy targets. When they started to take horses on board the boats, the Vikings were more or less invincible when attacking a town, especially as the attacks came very suddenly and often from the open sea by boats which could travel at a good 15 knots all the way in to the shore.



The boat was one of the key factors behind their success. It was a long, rather narrow boat built of oak. The boat building skills had been developed over hundreds of years in countries where the only practical way of travelling was by boat. When the wind was not blowing it was possible to row the boats, and when the wind came from the stern the boats were very fast. They didn't need deep water (normally a Viking boat could be used as a landing vehicle) and they could still take a heavy load. They were very easy to manouvre and they could carry large numbers of warriors (there were boats which could take a crew of up to 200 men or more). Life on board was rather hard. The normal boat was about 30 metres long and had a maximum width of five metres at the broadest place.

The Vikings ate dried and salted meat, and fish which was caught en route. For drink they usually had sour milk, water and beer (or mead). To prevent scurvy they ate cloudberry and a plant called cochleria officinalis. The only protection from the weather was a small tent (in the best of cases). Every man had his own chest with his personal belongings. The chest also served as the bench they sat on when they had to row the boat. The ship was steered by a large oar on the right side, therefore called 'styrbord' (starboard), and the first mate's back pointed to 'babord' (the port side). At the stem and the stern there were small platforms named 'lyftingar'.
There were many types of boats. In an attack fleet there usually was a couple of battleships with long and narrow design so as to be fast and able to take many men. Then there were the merchant ships which were much broader so that they could take a great load (up to 20000 kilograms of weight). These boats were called 'knarr', possibly because of the sound that they made when they moved in the sea. The navigation was handled by specially trained personnel who mostly navigated by the stars and the sun. Sometimes they brought birds with them which they let go and then followed to the nearest shore. They had peloruses (astonishingly similar to the ones used today) and the famous 'sun stone'. The latter was thought to be a fraud, but later findings make it clear that it wasn't. The sun stone is a mineral found in Iceland or Norway which could polarize the sun light. That way you could see where the sun was even if it was cloudy and the sun itself was not visible to the naked eye. To measure the sailed distance they used their experience when studying the wash (The flow of water around the stem). But there were no exact methods to measure the speed. Usually the Vikings followed the coasts as closely as possible, but they weren't afraid to make long voyages over the open sea without any contact with land if they had to.

De foro manligen
fjärran efter guld
och österut
gåvo örnen föda
De dogo söderut
i Särkland.

Inscription in a stone outside Gripsholms castle.

Travels of the Vikings

While the Vikings from Norway and Denmark went hunting for new land in the west and southwest, the Vikings from present-day Sweden usually went east and south-east. There was another aspect to their business abroad. While the Danes and the Norwegians usually conquered and colonized, the Swedes traded (although they were well armed and certainly knew how to fight) and didn't seek to establish kingdoms and colonies. There were Swedes that went on voyages with the Danes and Norwegians (at that time the differences between the countries were much less than they are now), but the main stream of Swedish Vikings went eastward. They travelled much farther east than any other European people. The Swedish Vikings even travelled as far as Jerusalem (or Jorsalir as they called it), the Caspian sea, and Baghdad (they called it Särkland). Hundreds of Swedes travelled to the eastern Roman city Constantinople (or Miklagård). Many of them r eturned rich from their combined trading/plundering expeditions. There are more ancient English coins found in Sweden than there are in England, and over 90% of all the coins found in Europe from Baghdad and surroundings have been found in Sweden (Gotland to be precise).

No one knows exactly when Birka was founded, but it boomed in the 9th century. Birka was situated in one of the more populated areas of Sweden at that time. (It still is, as it is in the Stockhom area, with 1 million inhabitants). It lay somewhere on the Island Björkö. It was ideally= placed in the middle of the counties of Mälardalen, Gästrikland and Dalarna. The total population of the area at that time was around 50,000. The city was protected by a wall made of dirt and wood, and had a population of a couple of thousand inhabitants who served and protected the city. In the end of the 9th century activity there came to an abrupt end, and we are still looking for an explanation. Perhaps they were invaded by a Viking fleet from Denmark? Or perhaps they moved their business to the more protected city of Sigtuna?

What historians do know is that the contacts eastward were very profitable, and they reached their highest levels when the city Helgö (not far from Birka) was booming. A lot of trading was also done with Finland and the Baltic states. Most of the Swedes who went out traveling were `rospiggarna', the people from Roslagen. That may be one of the reasons why Finns call Sweden `Ruotsi' which means `Roslagen'. And even farther east there was a country named `Tavastaland'. The Vikings traveled farther and farther east up the river Neva to Ladoga, where it is believed they founded a settlement, from which they started to travel south. A monk named Nestor, who lived in Kiev, wrote a chronicle which tells the story behind the Viking travels and why they settled in Russia. In the chronicle he states that Russia was founded by the Vikings, or as they called them `Varjager'.



According to Nestor the Vikings levied taxes on the Slavic peoples and therefore were eventually chased out of the country. The local people wanted to have a king of their own. Unfortunately this was not a success, and after awhile there was total anarchy in the country. Then someone came up with a bright idea: Why not get a king from elsewhere? No sooner said than done, they sent for a king from the foreign country Sweden, and after awhile a Viking turned up. Nestor writes: "Let us find a king from another country who will give us justice and rule over us. And they went over the sea to the land of the Varjager, to Ruserna. Because this people is called Ruser as others are called Svear. Yet others are called Norrmaner, Anglianer and some Goter. So even all these have their names." When the messengers with their unusual offer from the foreign country turned up in Sweden three men were promptly selected to take on the responsibility. These men were brothers and their names were: Rurik, Sinjeus and Truvor. The oldest (Rurik) of them settled down in Novgorod; the other ones went to White Russia (Sinjeus), and Izborsk (Truvor). Nestor writes: "It's after these Varjager that the country of Novgorod now bears the name `land of Rusers'."

Soon Rurik was the only one left in "Russland"; his brothers went on a trip along the river Dnieper to the city of Kiev (Könugård), which they successfully invaded. From Kiev they made small expeditions down to Constantinople. Rurik died sometime about 879, and another Viking chief took over, Oleg. Oleg also invaded Kiev and declared this city of all Russian cities the mother. Oleg was soon replaced by his former master's son, Igor. The Swedish names after Rurik, Oleg and Igor are: Rörek, Helge and Ingvar. But there are uncertainties about the Swedish connections.
In any event, there are Swedish names involved in the earliest peace treaties which are quoted in their entirety in the Nestor chronicle. Their names have been a bit misspelled but they can be read as: Sven, Gunnar, Tord, Ulf and Karl. These Swedes, as with all other Viking settlements, soon became assimilated with the natives. Igor's son got the name Sviatoslav and founded the Rurikidernas dynasty, Rurkovitch. They in turn ruled over the Volchov-Lovat-Dnieper area until the year 1610, when the last Rurikiden, Vassilij IV Sjusjkij, died and was replaced by the Romanov dynasty. Just as in the British Isles and Normandy, the Vikings soon lost their Nordic traditions. They were simply too few to have any impact on the natives. The Swedes had four main routes to choose from, traveling through mighty Russia down to the richness of the South. Their ships could be carried against the current on smaller rivers until they reached the tributary rivers of Volga. If they chose this way they would pass Finnish speaking peoples all the way between Ladoga and a place called Bulgar at the bend of the Volga. This was a larger city where Swedes met with Turks and other people from the south. From Bulgar a caravan went to China and the silk that has been found in Birka was most probably brought by this route. For the most part the Vikings did business with so-called `radamiter' (Jewish merchants). An= Arab writer, Ibn Khordo Adbeh, described them like this: "These merchantmen speak Arabic, Persian, French, Spanish, Romerska, Slaviska. They travel from the Occident to the Orient. From the Occident they bring with them eunuchs, female slaves, little boys, fabric, skins of different kinds and swords." According to his tales they travel to "Sind, Hind and China". On their trips home they bring different sorts of spices and other exotic things. Some of the evidence of the trading is silver coins which have been found in the city of Birka. They show that trade between Swedes and the area between Baghdad and the Volga was rather extensive.



The way of the Viking

The reason that we know that the Vikings did travel this route is that the Persian and Arabic diplomats have written about their meetings with the northerners, or Ruser as they called them. They have written in rather great detail about the traditions of the Vikings. The Arabic messenger Ibn Fadlan, who was in Bulgar during the summer of 922, saw the Vikings arrive, and he wrote: "I have never before seen such perfect bodies; they were tall like palm trees, blonde, with a few of them red. They do not wear any jackets or kaftaner, the men instead wear dress which covers one side of the body but leaves one hand free. Every one of them brings with him an Axe, a sword and a knife. They never leave these things. Their swords are broad, grooved, and of French make. From their bellies to their necks they are tattooed in green with trees and other pictures. All of their women have a small box attached over the breast. This can be made of iron, silver, copper or gold. On each box there is a ring to which a small knife is attached. Around their necks they wear necklaces of gold and silver." The Vikings obviously made an impression on the messenger, but he also writes about their bad hygiene. He continues, "Each morning the girl comes early in the morning with a deep dish of water. She gives this to her master who in turn washes his hands, face and hair. When he is through the girl takes the dish to the man nearest the master. This man repeats the process. And so the dish wanders from man to man until everyone has washed himself in the water." To Ibn Fadlan's friends this story must have been horrifying, as they were educated Muslims. They would probably never think of washing themselves in anything other than flowing water.

Another thing which interested Ibn was the Nordic men's sexual habits. This is what he wrote: "At the beach they build large houses made of wood. In one house there live ten to twenty persons. Each one has a bed to sit on (sic). With them they have beautiful women slaves who are to be sold to the slave dealers. They have sexual intercourse with their slaves while their friends are watching. Often a group of men does this in each other's presence." One of Ibn=92s most interesting stories is about a real Viking burial which he witnessed in the city of Atil (placed a bit south of Bulgar). According to him the dead person's ship was brought up on shore and was surrounded with fetishes of wood. The body was clothed in its finest clothes, placed on cushions in a sitting position in a tent which was built in the middle of the boat. Around him he had several items which could be useful on his way to the land of the dead. Among the items there were a harp, food, axes and so on. A dog was killed and divided into two parts and thrown on to the ship. The dog was followed by two oxen and two horses and one hen. One of the man's female slaves was chosen to follow the man to the land of the dead (Valhall, hopefully). She was intoxicated with alcohol, brought forward to the chief and then moved to a tent by the chief's six closest men. They each had intercourse with her and then she was killed by an old woman (called the angel of death) with a knife (at the same time as the men were strangling her with a rope). Then the relatives of the man set the ship on fire. Afterwards they would throw a large heap of dirt over the ashes and on top of it all they put a wooden pole on which they wrote the name of the dead man and the name of their king.

Ibn tells us further: "When they arrived in this harbour (Bulgar) they left their ships on the shore and brought with them meat, bread, milk and nobid (an alcoholic beverage) and went to a high wooden pole with a carved head. Around this pole there were other smaller statues and behind them other large poles. The merchantman goes forward to the large pole in the center and then he gets down on his knees and puts his head against the ground and says: 'O, my god, I have been traveling a long way and I have brought so and so many slaves and swords. Now I bring you these offerings.' This said, he puts what he has in front of the wooden pole and says: 'I wish that you send me a merchant of great wealth who will buy on my terms without questions.' If the business is good he returns and sacrifices animals; if not, he brings other offerings to the statues and asks them for help." The Arabian historian Ibn Miskaweich tells us about the Ruser attacks on Bredaa, just south of Baku, in the year 943. He describes them as a powerful people who didn't seem to know how to yield in a fight. They were equipped with axes, swords and long knifes. They fought with spears and shields. They killed the Arabic governor and chased his people away. The Arabs who survived had to buy their own lives at great expense. The women weren't included in this deal; the Ruserna kept them for themselves. According to the chronicles over 6,000 Ruser held the city against repeated attacks from the Arabs. Every time one of the Ruser died he was buried with the women he liked and his weapons.

In the end the Vikings left Bredaa of their own accord, but only after they had brought everything of value, including the women, to the river Kura where they had their ships. One of the other routes south through gårdarike which the Vikings traveled was through the city Starja Ladoga on the river Volchov. There was a trading station named Aldeigjuborg, from which the Vikings could make their way to Novogorod, which they called Holmgård. From here they crossed Lake Ilmen and went along the river Lovat. When they couldn't travel by ship any more they pulled their ships overland until they reached a navigable river from which they could travel to the Dnieper, which in turn led them through Kiev and eventually to the Black Sea. As soon as they had reached the Black Sea they were near their final target; they just had to pass the Bosporus and then they were in Constantinople, which was called Miklagård, 'the big city', by the Vikings. There were two reasons for the Vikings to come all this way, business and war. They even tried to invade the city but for the very first time they found that they had a superior enemy. The defenders were equipped with a form of napalm (oil, sulphur and resin - Greek fire) which they sprayed over their enemies from a kind of flame-thrower. To shield themselves from the heat they had jackets made of asbestos. This certainly made a big impression on the Vikings. Many stories are told in the North about the fire breathing dragons and magical shirt that Ragnar Lodbrok received from his wife Kraka. After a while a treaty was signed between the parties and more peaceful trading began. The treaty was rather harsh, the Vikings weren't allowed to travel in groups larger than fifty persons, they weren't allowed to carry arms and they couldn't buy more silk or fabric than they were allotted. They weren't allowed to stay the winter in the town either. In return they were given access to the public swimming halls, their ships were fitted without cost for their return and they got free food and drink. The Emperor of Constantinople was very impressed by the fearless men from the North, so impressed in fact that he formed a life guard composed of only Vikings. But they weren't satisfied with this, they went even farther east. Exactly how far east we cannot tell today, but we know that they made serious attempts to reach Samarkand.





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