Håkan Eriksson
Commander of the Swedes.
A part of Swedish History: The Viking Age.
'A furore normannorum libera nos domine'
'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 (no, not the football team in America). 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. 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!). 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 .8 million 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.
This sirty goes on in A part of Swedish History, PART 2: The Viking Age.
'A furore normannorum libera nos domine'
'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 (no, not the football team in America). 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. 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!). 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 .8 million 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.
This sirty goes on in A part of Swedish History, PART 2: The Viking Age.
