Viking Society
How Do We Know About Viking Society?
 Settlement of Iceland
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– Living Conditions
– Economy
The Sagas and Viking Age Iceland
 Social Structure in Iceland
 System of Justice
 Blood Feud
 Family Sagas
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How do We Know About
Viking Society?
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Archaeological Record
– Burial sites
– Imports and exports
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Place Names
– “-by”
– “Pedersturp”
– “-Thorp
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Oral and Print Culture
– Fluidity of oral culture
– Greater fixity of print
culture
– Christianity as religion of
the book
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Sagas
– Wealth of information
– “Textual” character
Iceland is major source of
information about the Viking Age
Settlement of Iceland
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Isolated settlements of Irish
monks in islands of North
Atlantic 700-800
Settlement of Iceland 870930
– Flleing Harald the Fairhaired’s
Unification of Norway
– 10-20,000 settlers
– Taking of fertile land

Thingvöllr: Site of original
Althing
Who came to Iceland?
– Scandianavians and Celts
– Chieftains
– Genetic studies
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Establishment of Althing 930
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Annual meeting
Recitation of laws
Settlement of disputes
Least hierarchy in Iceland
Living Conditions in Iceland
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Living Conditions in Iceland
– Poor Resources
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Volcanic Rock
Lack of wood
Severity of Climate
– Food
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Dairy farming
Problem of preservation
– Clothing
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Isolation
Relative lack of resources
Economy
Typical Viking-age long
house
– Barter and Money
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Foreign trade
Domestic agriculture
– Sources of wealth
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Wool
Dairy products
Wood
Luxury items
Wool: Source of wealth
Sagas as Historical Sources
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Saga are the narratives about
Icelandic society and its
mythology written down in
Christian Iceland during the
12th and 13th centuries
Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241)
Sagas of the
Icelanders(Family Sagas)
– Njal’s Saga
– Egil’s Saga
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Edda Poems
– Poetic Edda (Old)
– Prose Edda (Young)
– Skaldic verse
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Learned Sagas
– Icelanders’ Book
– Heimskringla
Vellum manuscript
page of saga
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Other forms
– Legendary sagas (Volsung’s
Saga)
– Saints lives
System of Justice
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Social Hierarchy
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Goði (Cheiftain)
Thingman (Backer)
Bondðr (Farmer)
Slave
The stakes
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– Personal fortune
– Honor
– Relative flexibility
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Assemblies
– Althing (930-1271)
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National summer assembly
Lawspeaker
Lögrétta
– Varthing
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Local assemblies of spring
and fall
– Prosecution
– Debt
Historical Icelandic Farm Site
Wergild System
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Amoral but pragmatic
system based on
compensation
Price of a life
Legal recourse
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Oral law
Declaration
Witnesses
Prosecution
Advocacy
– Devolved social system
– Respect
– Status
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Outlaw status
19th-century version of
Njal from Njal’s Saga
Blood Feud
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– Territorial dispute
– Murder and blood
money
– Dowries and
inheritances
– Satisfaction
– Mobilization
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Outlaw Grettir Asmundarson
from Grettir’s Saga illuistration
Causes of Blood Feud
Godi and thingmen
– Rising and falling
fortunes
– Restraint in violence
– Long-term
consequences
The Family Sagas
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Njal’s Saga most famous of family
sagas
Themes
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Style
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Brattahlíð, site of Eirik the
Red’s colony in southwestern
Greenland
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Honor, fortitude, heroism
Farmers and slaves, not kings and
princes
Contrast to Epic and Romance
Terse
Focus on actual social types
(genealogy) rather than psychological
experience
Typical plot
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Introduction of daily life in context
Conflict emerges out of daily life
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Marriage
Property
Jealousy
Tragic consequences
Potential for Feud
Conclusion
Maintenance of “Viking” society in
settlement society, Iceland
 So What? Relatively undisturbed
preservation of unique Viking heritage,
which provides knowledge of Viking period
 Sagas as historical record and compelling
medieval literature, from which we can
learn about Viking society
 Insight into Viking-age, pagan society
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