Indholdsfortegnelse for Vikings i Inside History Collection

The monk Alcuin, a brother from the island monastery of Lindisfarne, was stunned. He had never believed that “such an incursion from the sea could be made”. The year was 793, and a band of Vikings had just sailed unseen along England’s coast and sacked the remote religious house in a brutal, lightning attack. Before the Norsemen arrived, Lindisfarne’s inhabitants had felt secure, believing that the sea would protect them from any enemies. And even if an enemy did attack the island, the community reckoned that they would have ample time to arrange a defence before their attackers could dock and put their weapons ashore. The Vikings, however, struck quickly and without warning. They stormed up the beach with axes held high and headed straight for the monastery. Before the…

The entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 835 is short and to the point: “In this year, the heathen devastated Sheppey.” At first sight, the invasion of the little island in the Thames estuary was indistinguishable from any other Norse attack on the British Isles over the past half a century. But it was a turning point in England’s history. The raid began a period of far more frequent raids in the British Isles. And unlike previous campaigns, the Norse didn’t hurry home afterwards. Icelandic sagas describe Vikings as “mad as dogs or wolves, [who] bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild bulls”. VIKINGS OVERWINTER The England that the predominantly Danish Vikings encountered was divided into several kingdoms, like Scandinavia, each ruled by its own…

Starting around AD 980, hundreds of workers toiled for years on four impressive structures in Denmark. Circular forts, equipped with ramparts and moats, rose at key locations around the country. They were enormous for the era. The largest, at Aggersborg in North Jutland, measured 240 metres in diameter. As with others of its type, the ring fortress was built using rigorous mathematical principles, with gates placed at the four cardinal points, leading to the four corners of the world. Advanced engineering underpinned the ramparts’ construction, and the streets were covered with oak planks. The forts were commissioned by the Danish king Harald Bluetooth. They were a show of power intended to awe all who saw them. As the first real king of Denmark, Harald needed to ensure that he commanded…

One day in the mid-ninth century, the people of Hedeby were greeted by an unfamiliar noise. From the Viking town’s church came the sound of a bell calling people to worship. In 848, Hedeby was the first place in Denmark to have its own church, and it was there that the missionary Ansgar preached to the town’s inhabitants and visiting traders. The Christian foreigners rejoiced. The sound reminded them that even in the pagan North there were Christians like themselves. For most Vikings, however, who had not yet embraced Christianity, the tolling of the bell was disturbing. At least, it was according to the German monk and future archbishop Rimbert, who accompanied Ansgar on his travels in the North. He wrote that the “pagans regarded [the use of bells] as…

SWEDEN BIRKA IS FOUNDED AD 800 In the early ninth century, Swedish Vikings founded one of the most important trading towns of the time: Birka. Goods are loaded and unloaded from jetties in its harbour, on the island of Björkö, west of Stockholm. The town is a hub for trading slaves and furs from Rus’, luxury goods from Byzantium and silver coins from the Arab empires. In the town’s workshops, craftsmen make jewellery and craft amber into beads and amulets, which they sell at the big winter markets in February, where the guaranteed snow and ice also ensures that warm luxury slippers are in high demand. EMIGRATION EAST 850 In search of pastures new, Swedish Vikings attack and conquer trading posts along the Volkhov River and around Lake Ladoga, in…

Experienced Vikings arriving in the Faroe Islands for the first time must have felt anticlimactic. There were no thriving towns or bustling marketplaces, no rich men’s treasures or glittering monastic silver to plunder. Only a rugged coastline with mountains and desolate tundra of heather, juniper and rye grass. But there was at least land to build houses on, to cultivate and to call your own. And for the Vikings who had come to the 18 small islands in the North Atlantic in the early years of the ninth century, land was worth more than gold. Back home in western Norway, the Vikings had cultivated the strip of fertile land that lay between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, but gradually it became crowded. Power – and therefore land – was…

THE MOST IMPORTANT GODS ■ Belief in gods and giants permeated Viking life. They were convinced, for example, that Thor really rode across the sky in his chariot and spread lightning and thunder. Before the Vikings went to war, they made offerings to Odin – the mightiest of the gods – while stallions and boars had to die to satisfy the fertility god Freyr and ensure next year’s harvest. BIGGEST Odin was the most feared god. He was worshipped for nine days every nine years, with nine sacrificial animals of each species. The enormous giants were considered stupid and ugly, yet terrifying. Cunning Loki had a giant for a father, but became Odin’s blood brother and moved to Asgard. THE WAY TO THE AFTERLIFE ■ Vikings wanted to die honourably on the battlefield, so they would be…

The builders were hard at work in Hedeby. The sounds of scraping shovels, thumping axes and smashing hammers rang out as the new town was raised up on the orders of the Viking king Gudfred. Everything had been meticulously planned and organised to the last detail. The streets were paved with thick planks and laid at right angles to each other so that half of them ran parallel to the Hedeby stream – a small watercourse that ran through the town. The harbour area facing the fjord was carefully demarcated using small landing stages, which later expanded into larger jetties for bigger ships. A strip of bare beach along the water could be used to pull up smaller ships. Neither the time of the construction of Hedeby – around the…

One day in the 11th century, Halfdan, a Viking, stood in the mighty Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople. Above him, the dome rose more than 55 metres into the sky. Hagia Sophia was the most important church in the powerful Byzantine Empire and the largest cathedral in the world. It was here that emperors were crowned, and gold and marble shone from every wall and every nave. Images of saints, angels and cherubs adorned the walls and ceilings. Whether the splendour and beauty overwhelmed Halfdan to a degree that made him wish to be part of the mighty spectacle for ever, or whether he was merely bored during a long church service it is not known. But it is certain that he wrote a message to posterity where he stood.…

One day in the late eighth century, a group of men set sail in sleek ships from western Norway. The longboats went from island to island until they reached the open sea. Then the men set course for the English coast. Everything they dreamed of awaited: monasteries and churches filled with gold and silver, markets overflowing with fine goods, rich men’s estates, and glory. The men came from Hordaland, a province in south-western Norway, and we know about their expedition because it is described in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – historical annals written by British monks over the centuries. The chronicle describes how the Norse landed on the island of Portland in southern England, where they were met by the king’s bailiff, who “would drive them to the king’s town; for…

The Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard was impressed when, before the Battle of Svolder in 999, he saw the enemy Norwegian force’s longship Ormen Lange sail past his army. Not only was the ship a full 45 metres long and manned by hundreds of warriors, but it was also decorated with the finest craftsmanship of the time. On the prow was the head of a dragon forged in gleaming gold. From the stern, the beast’s tail shot into the air. As the Ormen Lange ploughed through the water, sail hoisted and sun glinting off the gold, the Norwegian warship looked like a dragon soaring over the sea, ready for battle. A dragon’s head was one of the Viking Age’s most widely used symbols of power and invincibility, and the creature was…

There’s a slate stone on the Scottish island of Inchmarnock that paints a bleak picture. Carved into the soft stone are the outlines of a Viking. His long hair sticks out on all sides. His face is contorted in what looks like a grim smile. The broad shoulders are covered in solid chain mail, and the warrior pulls a man after him with a chain. He is heading for a longship that lies waiting with its oars in the water. Soon the chained prisoner will be taken across the sea, away to a life of servitude. The tablet depicting this scene was uncovered in 2001, and historians have described the find, which they have dated to the last year of the eighth century, as nothing short of sensational. The stone…

The local traders sought the banks of the Volkhov River as they’d done so many times previously. They brought with them their usual fare: sacks and carts containing stacks of fur along with tubs filled with wax and honey. Downstream, long, slender ships with regular oars glided swiftly upriver, heading for the trading post. On board were the Norsemen the traders knew so well. But this Viking visit would not be like the many that had preceded it. Rather than calmly docking to unload their goods, the Vikings now rowed at high speed up the riverbank, where battle-clad men tumbled out of the boats. With shouts and sharpened axes, the Vikings stormed up the bank, heading for the trading post and the settlements around it. The peaceful traders had been…

At the Gokstad farm in Norway’s Vestfold region, a story had been passed down for generations. It claimed that a chieftain was buried under a mound near the farm. On a bitterly cold day, just after New Year 1880, curiosity got the better of a couple of the landowner’s sons, who climbed the mound armed with shovels. The ground was frozen, but they managed to dig a hole in the hard surface. Before long the pair came across a piece of wood. It turned out to be the prow of a ship. Soon, archaeologists arrived, painstakingly combing the mighty mound. Led by Norway’s foremost archaeologist, Nicolay Nicolaysen, they uncovered an unprecedented find. The mound turned out to hide the well-preserved skeleton of an adult man, carefully laid out on a…