Viking History | Cover Story

Say Viking and most people think of Hagar the Horrible or a fierce warrior clan who wore tin caps with horns as they sailed around looting and plundering. Once in Norway, we found there was a lot we didn't know about the Vikings.

It turns out the Vikings were not a clan. It's a term coined by modern scholars for nordic-speaking people from southern Scandinavia who raided Europe and the British Isles roughly between A.D. 793-1066. They probably identified themselves as Danes, Svear, Goths, or Norwegians. Our notion of Viking culture is actually a body of shared ideas, economies, religious beliefs, and especially a common Germanic language known today as Old Norse.

In the good ol' days everyone accepted that the world was flat. Travel was limited, most people didn't go further than the next village. In this environment the daring Vikings sailed into uncharted oceans. The Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the North Atlantic was familiar to them, enabling them to spread through Europe and North America for trade and immigration.

None of it would have been possible without their superior ships. The Longship and the merchant ship or Knórr, were well equipped to handle long ocean voyages. Every ship had an anchor, bailey and gangplank. Navigational tools like sunboards, sunstones, semiwheels and weathervanes were indispensible. Each man had a chest for his belongings that doubled as seats. The Vikings went ashore to set up camp very evening because ships had no accomodation. The ships were propelled either by the wind in the single main sail or by oars. Their raids nearly always came as a total surprise, having the advantage of the fastest ships of the day. Although they are decribed as raiders the Vikings were also traders, explorers and settlers.

In Constantinople (Istanbul) they traded silk and spices for slaves brought from Russia. Amber they found in the Baltic area. From the north and Greenland in the west, they brought furs, skins and walrus tusk ivory to the trading towns in western Europe. The Vikings founded trading cities in Scandinavia such as Birka, Ribe, Hedeby and Skiringsal. In Ireland they founded Dublin and in England they made York flourish.

Leif Eriksson, a Viking, is credited with being the first European to reach North America, centuries before Christopher Columbus began his journey. Remains of a Viking settlement were found in Canada near St. Lunaire, Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows. Some historians believe native American Indians forced the settlers to abandon what has been described in ancient nordic literature as the bountiful and fertile Vinland.

Viking society was divided into three classes: a small ruling elite who controlled economic and judicial powers, free farmers who could bear arms and attend the Thing and slaves who didn't have any rights. The Vikings lived in large family groups.

Women were responsible for the farms when the menfolk left on their journeys. With her right to property, inheritance and divorce, the Viking woman had more legal rights than most women elsewhere in Europe at the time.

The Vikings left more clues about their culture in short inscriptions on stone and wood, usually of a commerative nature, in a 16 letter alphabet called runes. The letters are similar to the Roman characters but with more straight lines, making carving easier. Runic insciptions display the importance that individuals paid to their visible status in society.

Religion was important in their daily lives. They believed the gods lived in Asgard, and were like humans. The most popular was Thor, god of thunder. His amulets were popular throughout the Viking world. Animal sacrifices called blota, and even human ones on rare occasions, were made to placate the gods. In the 10th century, the Vikings brought Christianity back to their country and only a few old traditions survived. One of them was Yuletide which became Christmas. The Vikings believed in the after life that the burial ship excavated in Oseberg, Norway confirmed. It contained trade items, cooking and camping equipment, as well as staple food items like meat, grain, fruit and herbs.

The law was central to Viking life. The English word 'law' is actually a Viking one. It was the balance between good and evil from the beginning of time, and had to be upheld or disaster would ensue. If convicted in the 'ting' (or thing), a criminal was either fined or declared an out-law, and became free game for people to hunt down and kill. Disputes were commonly solved by duels (holmgangs), ordeals by fire (jernbyrd) or fire-walking, the last two was introduced and later abolished by the Christian church.

The hardy (and gorgeous looking) Viking stock is apparent in modern day Norwegians although nobody had horns growing out the side of their head. And Hagar the Horrible is called Harek in Norway.
So much for stereotypes!