The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings

344 Pages·1997·52.26 MB·English

by  Peter Sawyer

OXFORD
The
ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY
the
of
.*?
n
r*
'
*- at
Edited tf
/ / /
Were the Vikings, as an early description
had it, a 'valiant, wrathful, foreign, purely
pagan people' who swept in from the sea
to plunderand slaughter? Or in the words
ofa Manx folksong, 'war-wolves keen in
hungry quest', who lived and died by the
sea and the sword? Or were they unusually
successful merchants, extortionists, and
pioneerexplorers?
This hook, by leading international
scholars, considers the latest research and
presents an authoritative account ofthe
Vikings and theirage. Excavations as far
apart as Dublin and Newfoundland, York
and Russia, provide fascinating
archaeological evidence, expertly
interpreted in this extensively illustrated
hook. Its chapters cover the different
geographical areas ofthe Vikingworld,
and trace the Viking story from the first
'hit and run' raids on isolated coastal
communities towards the end ofthe
eighth century tothe establishment of
permanent settlements and their
interaction with local cultures. The Viking
heritage and thedifferent uses it was put to
in subsequent centuries by, amongst
others, the Romantic movement in
literature, Scandinavian immigrants to the
American Midwest, and the Nazis is also
explored.
From sagas to shipbuilding technology,
from funeral rituals to fur-trading, The
Oxford IllustratedHistoryofthe Vikings offers
a comprehensive and absorbing overview
ofVikingactivityand the Viking legacy.
PeterSawyer is Emeritus Professorof
Medieval History at the University of
Leeds.

IH£ OXFORD ILLUSTRATED HISTORV
OF THE VIKJNIO

THE OXFORD
ILLUSTRATED
§m
HISTORY
OFTH6
VIKJNCS
EDITED BY PETER SAWYER
Oxford NewYork
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1997
Oxford UniversityPress, GreatClarendonStreet, Oxford0x26dp
Oxford NewYork
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay
BuenosAires Calcutta CapeTown DaresSalaam
Delhi Florence HongKong Istanbul Karachi •
KualaLumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
MexicoCity Nairobi Paris Singapore
Taipei Tokyo Toronto
BR BR a"dassociatedcompaniesin
Berlin Ibadan
0L65
a 034 Oxfordisa trademarkofOxford UniversityPress
1997
Publishedin the UnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc., NewYork
©Oxford UniversityPress1997
Allrightsreserved. Nopartofthispublication maybereproduced,
storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted, inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermission in writingofOxford UniversityPress.
Within the UK, exceptionsareallowedin respectofanyfairdealingforthe
purposeofresearchorprivatestudy, orcriticismorreview,aspermitted
undertheCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct, 19X8, orinthecaseof
reprographicreproduction inaccordancewith thetermsofthelicences
issuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency. Enquiriesconcerning
reproductionoutsidethesetermsandinothercountriesshouldbe
senttotheRightsDepartment, Oxford UniversityPress,
attheaddressabove
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublication Data
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCatalogingin PublicationData
TheOxfordIllustratedHistoryofthe \rikmgs
EditedbyPeterSawyer p. cm.
Includesbibliog—raphicalreferencesandindex.
1. Vikings. 2. \'ikings Pictorialworks. I. Sawyer, Peter.
D—L65.094 —1997
948'. 022 dt'2i 97 16649 CIP
ISBN0-19-820526-0
13579 8642
10
Printedin GreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
Butler&TannerLtd., Frome
EDITORS FOREWORD
As readers will discover, the contributors to this bookdo not agree on all
matters.Thatisnotsurprising:differencesofinterpretation,whichoccurin
all periods, areperhaps moreprominent in discussions oftheVikingsthan
in mosttopics in medieval history. Thereareseveralreasonsforthisdegree
ofuncertainty. Inthefirstplace,thevastrangeofVikingactivitymeansthat
our knowledge ofit depends on a great variety ofsources that were pro-
duced in very different circumstances, at different times, and in Old Irish,
Old English, Old Norse, Arabic, and Byzantine Greek, as well as Latin. As
few, ifany, scholars have mastered all these languages, any discussion of
Viking activity as a whole depends to some extent on translations that are
themselvesinterpretationsandmaybeunreliable.Whatismore,apartfrom
runicinscriptionsnotextswerewrittenbeforetheeleventhcenturyinScan-
dinaviaorinmanyoftheareasinwhichScandinavianssettledintheViking
Age. Greatweighthas, therefore,been putonthehistorieswritten in Scan-
dinavia and the Scandinavian colonies in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies that are discussed in Chapter 10. Until recently the history of the
Viking Age was largely based on Icelandic sagas, the history ofthe Danes
writtenbySaxo Grammaticus, the RussianPrimaryChronicle., andthe War
oftheIrish with theForeigners. Although fewscholarsstill acceptthesetexts
as reliable sources of information about the Viking Age, traditional
accountsoftheperiodthathavebeen based on them continueto influence
discussionsofthesubject.
HistoriansofScandinavia, theAtlantic Islands, and Russia in theViking
Age nowrelymore on archaeologyand numismatics, disciplines that have
in recent decades made remarkable contributions to our understandingof
the period, even in parts ofEurope that are relatively well provided with
contemporarytexts,fortheycastlightonmanytopicsaboutwhichthetexts
aresilent. Both material remainsandcoinscan also furnish valuabledating
evidence. Remains oftimber structures can, in suitable circumstances, be
closely dated by the pattern ofannual growth rings in the wood. This has
made it possible, forexample, to discover when some ships were built, and
to date the various stages ofthe construction ofDanevirke. The legends of
Islamic coins, many ofwhich reached Scandinavia in the ninth and tenth
centuries, indicate theyeartheywere struck; and from the end oi the tenth
€ditok's fokcwop.d to ^g beginning of the twelfth century the types of English coins were
changed frequently and can therefore be dated within at most six years.
Suchcoinsprovidedatelimitsforthebuildings,graves,orothercontextsin
which theyarefound. Such evidencecannot,however,providethecontin-
uouschronological frameworkbasedonthechroniclesandothercontem-
porary texts produced in Frankia, England, and Ireland. The lack of
contemporary texts particularly affects Orkney, Shetland, and the Heb-
rides; there is, for example, disagreement about when the Scandinavians
began tooccupytheseislands.
Even in well-documented parts ofEurope the written sources say very
little about the Scandinavian settlements. Place-names provide the best
evidenceforthiscolonization but, asemphasized in Chapter3, theycanbe
interpreted inverydifferentways.Themainproblemisthatthenamesrefl-
ect the influence ofthe Scandinavians on language and do not necessarily
indicate places in which Scandinavians settled. The fact that Scandinavian
influence on place-names in Normandy and Ireland is much less than in
Englandcannotbetaken toprovethatfewerScandinavianssettledinthose
coloniesthan in England.
Discoveries made in the future and the re-examination offamiliar evi-
dencemayhelptosettlesomedisagreements;theywillcertainlyenlargeour
understandingoftheperiod inwaysthatcannotbeforeseen.
VI