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História da Língua Inglesa   

The Vikings: Invaders or Colonists?

by Anna Ritchie

The Vikings as Invaders

The Vikings attacked Britain's holy places, slaughtered its monks and carried away countless treasures. Well-designed boats and convenient winds helped the Vikings come and go as they pleased. Britain was devastated as the raiders divided the land amongst themselves.

Terror from the Sea

In 789, three Viking ships arrived on the Wessex shore. The local reeve had been sent to greet them but he was killed on the spot. This event was recorded in a short entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But worse was to come. Four years later, Lindisfarne, one of Britain's most sacred sites, was sacked. Word of the Viking threat spread throughout Europe.

'Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples...'.
Letter from Alcuin to Ethelred, king of Northumbria

The first Viking raids were hit-and-run affairs. There was no co-ordination and no long-term plan behind them. Raids were not even a new hazard in a society well-used to warfare on any scale from local skirmishes to great battles. The Vikings' sin was to attack and pillage the holy monasteries, the sacred places of the Christian world. And the leaders of that world were quick to condemn them. One of those leaders whose words have come down to us was Alcuin of York.

Lindisfarne Sacked

Alcuin was a scholar and monk living in Germany, who heard the news of a devastating Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria on 8th June, 793. He wrote long letters to the Northumbrian king and to the Bishop of Lindisfarne commiserating with their plight and blaming it on the sinful lives of their people.

'Consider carefully, brothers, and examine diligently, lest perchance this unaccustomed and unheard-of evil was merited by some unheard-of evil practice… Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people.'
Letter from Alcuin to Ethelred, King of Northumbria.

It was unthinkable that such a holy place should suffer attack from foreign heathens.

The raid of 793 was the first recorded Viking raid on Britain. Alcuin's words express the horror of his Christian world at the ferocity of pagan raiders, whose attack was sudden, unexpected and devastating. Lindisfarne (Holy Island) lies just off the coast of Northumberland and its monastery was revered for its link with St Cuthbert more than a century earlier. It was unthinkable that such a holy place should suffer attack from foreign heathens, that its monks should be slaughtered and its treasures taken. Yet this was to happen again and again to other monasteries throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Alcuin's letters are just one piece of historical evidence for Viking attacks. Other raids were recorded in the annals kept in monasteries at Iona and in Ireland: 'devastation of all the islands of Britain' reads an entry for 794 in the Annals of Ulster. Columba's famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona was pillaged the following year, and again in 802, in 806 and in 825. Nowhere was safe from the Vikings.

Who were the Vikings?

We tend to think of the Vikings as a single phenomenal race of Scandinavian warriors, but the reality is more complex. Raids on the British Isles and the coasts of France and Spain were the work of Vikings from Norway and Denmark (Swedish Vikings set out across the Baltic Sea into Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia). The word Viking means one who lurks in a 'vik' or bay, in effect, a pirate.

The word 'Viking' has come to describe a whole new age in Europe between about 800 and 1150. This is despite the fact that Vikings were not just pirates and warriors but also traders and colonists. But at the start of the Viking Age in the last decade of the 8th century, loot and adventure were the main goals of the Norwegians who raided in Scotland and Ireland and of the Danes who attacked England. Gold and silver treasures accumulated by the great monasteries could be converted into personal wealth, and thus power, and captives could be sold as slaves. What better way for the young sons of good families to earn their way and see the world?

'The work of angels' were looted and taken home by Vikings.

The monks who recorded Viking activities could not know the origins of their tormentors, but discoveries of precious metalwork from Britain in Norway and Denmark are clues to their homelands. Decorative mounts from church plate such as the Ardagh Chalice could be removed and made into brooches, the rest of the chalice melted down and the silver re-used. Such pieces have been found in pagan graves of around 800 in Scandinavia. The Ardagh Chalice escaped this fate, but many other beautiful examples of what has been called 'the work of angels' were looted and taken home by Vikings. One exquisite reliquary box, made in the 8th century to hold a saint's relic, became a Norwegian lady's jewellery casket in the 10th century, when an inscription in runes was carved on its base: 'Ranvaik owns this casket'.

Ships and Navigation

Successful raiding and adventures overseas required good fast ships, and that is exactly what the development of boat technology had provided by the 8th century. The use of a sturdy keel meant that a mast could be properly supported and that boats could be sailed as well as rowed. Long sea voyages were possible even if navigation was still a matter of watching the movement of the sun and of observing landmarks and seabirds.

Vikings preferred not to spend the night at sea if they could avoid it...

We know what their ships looked like because many Vikings were buried with their worldly goods and sometimes this included their boat! The Gokstad ship from a burial south of Oslo in Norway is the sort of warship to which the Viking raiders aspired - an elegant 23 metres of curving oak planks that would skim the waves. Tree-ring dating has shown that this particular ship was built towards the end of the 9th century, but its efficient design was developed earlier - fast, flexible and, with its shallow draught, easy to beach. Few warlords could afford to send such a magnificent vessel to the grave, and no Viking boat of the size of Gokstad has been found in Britain. Smaller rowing boats could be spared for funerary use, and the most recent discovery of a boat-burial at Scar in Orkney contained a vessel some 7 metres long. But the existence of large warships in British waters can be inferred from the historical evidence - Vikings preferred not to spend the night at sea if they could avoid it and would rather camp in tents on shore.

A Fair Wind for Raiding

Alongside the efforts of boat builders was a gradual improvement in climate and overall weather patterns. This led to calmer seas and fewer storms in summer. There are many clues that point to this change in climate. If you slice a tree trunk horizontally, you can see the rings that represent annual growth: thick rings in good years and thin rings in bad years. If you dig down into a peat bog, you will find that there are horizontal layers, caused by variations in climate: in dry summers the surface of the bog will dry out and compact, whereas high rainfall will encourage the peat to grow. Plants can also provide evidence. They have different needs in terms of temperature and moisture, and the presence or absence of the pollen of certain plants on an archaeological site can indicate what the climate was like when people were living there. A cool and wet climate, for instance, will encourage the growth of ferns.

So we know that the summers were getting warmer but that was not the whole story. For Norwegians intent on reaching Scotland and the honeyed seaway to Ireland the wind was on their side too. The prevailing winds helpfully blew westwards into their sails in springtime to take them to the Scottish islands and eastwards in the autumn to bring them home.

The Need for Land

Raids and loot were not the whole story. Land to farm was also a desirable commodity, especially for the families along the western seaboard of Norway where fertile land was in short supply. Younger sons, political exiles, mercenary warriors and traders all had the option of becoming colonists in the lands now familiar from the tales of returning raiders. Once based in the northern and western islands of Scotland, they could farm and trade and still turn their hand to raiding whenever convenient. And we know from the 12th century Icelandic Sagas that this is exactly what they did. Svein Asleifarson lived on the island of Gairsay in Orkney in the 12th century and his lifestyle was recorded in one of these sagas.

'This was how Svein used to live. Winter he would spend at home on Gairsay, where he entertained some eighty men at his own expense. His drinking hall was so big, there was nothing in Orkney to compare with it. In the spring he had more than enough to occupy him, with a great deal of seed to sow which he saw to carefully himself. Then when that job was done, he would go off plundering in the Hebrides and in Ireland on what he called his 'spring-trip', then back home just after mid-summer, where he stayed till the cornfields had been reaped and the grain was safely in. After that he would go off raiding again, and never came back till the first month of winter was ended. This he used to call his 'autumn-trip'.'
Orkneyinga Saga, chapter 105

Protection money had been extorted from the English.

The pattern of Danish colonisation in England was more organised, as had been Danish raids after about 850. In that year a Viking army had spent the winter encamped on the Isle of Thanet at the mouth of the River Thames, and protection money had been extorted from the English. Large forces of warriors, winter camps and payments in silver or food became the norm, even deep inland - a Viking camp of 873 has been excavated at Repton in Derbyshire. In 876 a Viking leader shared out the farmlands of Northumbria amongst his warriors. The Danish colonisation of England had begun.

The Vikings as Colonists

Many Viking raiders settled, slowly becoming part of the local community. Pagan graves reveal their secrets as everyday objects buried within help build a picture of the Viking past.

War or Peace?

What happened when Viking raiders turned into Viking settlers and took land to farm? There is considerable debate and controversy even today about the nature of the relationship between the colonists and the local population in Britain and Ireland. The historical sources are clear that the relationship was hostile and that negotiation was by the sword. Most modern historians argue that the Norwegians who settled in Scotland and the Danes who settled in England simply took what they wanted by force, killing or enslaving anyone who got in their way.

Place names are an invaluable source of information on the extent of Scandinavian influence...

But there is also the evidence of place names and archaeology, and they can be interpreted in more than one way. Place names are an invaluable source of information on the extent of Scandinavian influence, and their distribution mirrors the geographical spread of colonisation known from historical and archaeological evidence. In England, for instance, Scandinavian names are concentrated within the Danelaw, the area of northern and eastern England that was in Danish hands.

In Scotland, the most densely concentrated area of Scandinavian names is Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, where a Norwegian earldom was established. But we should not assume that density of place names equals numbers of colonists, or that the creation of place names can be dated precisely. Blanket replacement of native names, as in Orkney and Shetland, may have happened gradually rather than suddenly. Above all, we need to remember that the story is likely to have varied across Britain and Ireland, and that we should balance historical, linguistic and archaeological evidence within a local framework.

People and Daily Life

History tells of events, places and important people. The spread of Scandinavian place names not only helps to chart the extent of Scandinavian settlement but records the names of lesser people and how they reacted to the landscape around them. For example, in Shetland, Haroldswick in the island of Unst means Harold's bay, while Lerwick or 'mud bay' perpetuates the Vikings' scorn for what was for them a useless harbour. But for the details of everyday life, we depend on archaeological evidence from excavations. Pagan graves are particularly useful because the bodies were fully dressed and accompanied by personal belongings, some of which indicate important activities of the living.

Women often had the iron sickles with which they harvested the flax for making linen; the toothed iron heckles or combs with which they straightened the fibres; and the stone discs or whorls that weighted the wooden spindle for spinning the fibres into thread. Very occasionally they had beautifully carved boards of whalebone on which they rubbed a high gloss on to the linen. Men were usually buried with their weapons (sword, shield, spear, arrows, axe) and sometimes with blacksmith's tools such as iron tongs and hammers.

Cooking, eating, storytelling and sleeping all took place in this one room.

Farmhouses in the 9th and 10th centuries were long rectangular buildings with rounded corners, built of stone and turf or stone and timber with thatched roofs. Most consisted of a single room, 15-20 metres long, with a central long hearth and low benches lining the long walls. Cooking, eating, storytelling and sleeping all took place in this one room, along with weaving and carving bone pins and whatever else was needed. There were separate outhouses for the cattle. Houses in towns tended to be smaller and were usually built of wood and wattle. Wherever people lived, domestic rubbish accumulated and with it invaluable information about diet, hygiene, equipment and everyday activities.

A Viking Brooch

One of these everyday objects and something that is found wherever the Vikings settled is the oval brooch. This was a favourite item of jewellery in Scandinavia, and it is so standardised in design that it is instantly recognisable. This makes it very useful to the archaeologist as an indicator of Viking activities. It turns up in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland and even as far away as Iceland and Russia. About 10-12 centimetres long, the oval brooch was mass-produced in hundreds in workshops throughout Scandinavia during the 9th and 10th centuries. It was cast in bronze (copper alloy) in a two-piece clay mould, and the decoration was often quite elaborate, with interlaced designs and sometimes settings for projecting bosses of amber or glass.

When pagan female graves are excavated, the textiles have normally rotted away but the two oval brooches will still be in place above the ribcage.

Female dress was very conservative and the equivalent of a folk-costume was worn for 200 years, not just in the homelands but everywhere that the Vikings settled from Ireland in the west to Russia in the east. It consisted of a pinafore of wool or linen, which was worn over a long and sometimes pleated linen shift. The pinafore had shoulder straps that were fastened by a pair of oval brooches, one below each shoulder. Wealthy women might have a string of brightly coloured beads linking the two brooches across the chest. When pagan female graves are excavated, the textiles have normally rotted away but the two oval brooches will still be in place above the ribcage. We assume such burials to be those of Scandinavian women who came as colonists, but of course such brooches could equally well have been worn by local women married to Viking warriors.

Styles of Settlement

Typical Scandinavian artefacts like oval brooches, whalebone plaques and ornate swords can be found throughout the Viking world - but there were remarkable differences in the way that the newcomers lived. There is a contrast between the essentially rural pattern of Norwegian settlement in Scotland, with its individual farms and family estates, and the urban development of Dublin and later Waterford in Ireland. There the Vikings established trading centres on the coastal fringe of a rural hinterland that was little affected by Scandinavian activities. York was the northernmost of the Viking towns of England, and it seems possible that the Viking takeover of rural estates may have stimulated urban growth in the sense that some of the dispossessed English farmers sought a new life in trade or industry in towns.

Timber buildings set in plots of equal size suggest a degree of town planning, while the debris from workshops tells of urban industries.

Viking York in the 10th century was larger than contemporary Scandinavian towns, a fact that underlines the importance of the Danish settlement of England to the balance of wealth and power around the North Sea. It was enclosed by an earthen bank topped by a stout wooden fence, and in places within the heart of the modern city excavations have revealed deposits of Viking Age material several metres deep. Timber buildings set in plots of equal size suggest a degree of town planning, while the debris from workshops tells of urban industries such as leather-working, bone comb-making, textiles and metalworking. Crucial to urban development is the discovery of coin-making dies, for the Viking economy had previously been based not on currency but on silver bullion and the exchange of goods.

Towns were not a Viking invention, and the growth of towns such as York depended on their existing foundations. This is perhaps why towns did not develop in Scandinavian Scotland before the 12th century because there had been no previous urban development. Kirkwall in Orkney was one of the first, stimulated by the building of St Magnus Cathedral which began in 1137. Until then, despite being the seat of the Norwegian earldom of Orkney, Caithness and Shetland, Orkney was essentially rural. Wonderfully fertile, Orkney was a prime target for settlement in the 9th century. There may even have been Viking winter-camps in Orkney in the late 8th century from which raiding parties set out for Lindisfarne, Iona and the monasteries of Ireland.

Viking Orkney

We have no written records left by the ordinary people who lived in areas that were taken over by the Vikings. There is no way that we can tell for certain what happened, but we can use the evidence of artefacts from excavations as clues. Orkney, perhaps the first place to be colonised, is an ideal place to search. The original people who were living in Orkney at the start of the Viking Age were Celtic-speakers. They were known as Picts, and inhabited part of the Kingdom of the Picts which made up most of mainland Scotland. The question of what happened to them is still hotly debated, especially between historians, linguists and archaeologists.

By the end of the 9th century, the colonisation of Orkney had been so successful that it had become a Norwegian earldom.

According to Scandinavian historical sources, the Orkney islands were either deserted at the time of the earliest Norse settlement or their inhabitants were slaughtered. Very few Celtic place names survive, lending weight to this picture of desertion or wholesale genocide. But by the end of the 9th century, the colonisation of Orkney had been so successful that it had become a Norwegian earldom. The very strength of this Norse settlement would ensure that in time the pre-Norse names would disappear, and we simply do not know how quickly that happened. The archaeological evidence shows that Pictish artefacts were still in use in the early Norse settlements. The question is how this evidence should be interpreted. Does it mean that Pictish slaves were servicing new masters? Or that the Norse colonists needed to acquire tools and equipment from the Picts? At the very least it ought to imply that there were still Picts around and that they had not been exterminated by the Vikings.

Christian Vikings

Critical to this issue are excavations of Pictish sites in use before the Viking Age began. Some farms were abandoned, others were much reduced in size. The evidence seems to suggest that Pictish society was in decline in Orkney in the 8th century, perhaps from epidemics of disease or bouts of civil war, which would have made the Viking takeover of the islands much easier. It is even possible that the Vikings were welcomed as protectors against the Picts and Gaels of mainland Scotland. Whatever the reason, the Picts of Orkney survived alongside their new political masters. They even influenced the Viking way of life, most notably converting them away from their pagan Nordic gods to Christianity. Pagan burials with their useful array of grave goods ceased soon after 950, a couple of generations before the official conversion of Norway in 995.

The influence of the Vikings on our native population continues to raise many questions about the effects of their colonisation of parts of Britain. Perhaps some of these questions will never have satisfactory answers, but new discoveries, campaigns of excavations on targeted sites and new research into scientific sources of information, such as DNA, will add to our knowledge and help to explain our Viking ancestry.

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