2019.10.07
VIKING EXPANSION IN THE WEST
BY DENIS SUKHINO-KHOMENKO (DOKTORAND I HISTORIA)
DENIS.SUKHINO-KHOMENKO@GU.SE
Suggested extracurricular literature
2019.10.07
• Ashby, Steven P. 2015. “What Really Caused the Viking Age? The Social Content of Raiding
and Exploration.” Archaeological Dialogues 22 (1): 89–106
• Barrett, James H. 2008. “What Caused the Viking Age?” Antiquity 82: 671–685.
• Christiansen, Eric. 2002. The Norsemen in the Viking Age, 214–235. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing. (NB: requires a level of factual knowledge before reading!)
• Gore, Derek. 2016. “A Review of Viking Attacks in Western England to the Early Tenth
Century: Their Motives and Responses.” In Danes in Wessex: The Scandinavian Impact on
Southern England, c. 800—c. 1100, edited by Ryan Lavelle and Simon Roffey, 56–70.
Oxford — Philadelphia: Oxbow Books.
• Jones, Gwyn. 1968. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (NB: a very
classical style, no easy-read for an unprepared reader; some hypotheses outdated!)
• Hadley, Dawn M. 2000. “‘Cockle amongst the Wheat’: The Scandinavian Settlement of
England.” In Social Identity in Early Medieval Britain, edited by William O. Frazer and
Andrew Tyrrell, 111–135. London — New York: Leicester University Press.
• Haywood, John. 2015. Northmen: The Viking Saga 793–1241 AD. London: Head of Zeus.
(NB: a very old-school and syncretic narrative!)
Regional expansion: a structural overview
2019.10.07
In the West, the Viking expansion could be delineated in three main regions,
depending on the character of interaction with the local population and the end
product:
• The North Atlantic
• The British Isles
• Western [and Southern]
Europe viz. Francia
(The Viking expasinon ↑)
The question of the day: can we identify any common features between these regions,
and if so, what contributed to the (dis)similarities?
What caused the Viking expansion?
2019.10.07
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The causes behind the Viking Age are still being debated. Possible (intertwining)
factors:
• population pressure;
• shortage of fertile soils;
• cultural shifts;
• technological development;
• political turmoil/novelties;
• etc.
It is possible to speak of “push and pull”
motivations to sail overseas:
• push:
o growth of the rural population;
o social and political changes;
o climate change;
• pull:
o wealth acquisition;
o struggle for political power;
(↑ The Oseberg longship, reconstruction, after: Graham-Campbell, James, and Batey,
o commercial profit;
Colleen. 1994. The Cultural Atlas of the Viking World, 77. New York: Facts on File)
o development of currency;
• The take-away of the day: history is complicated! Avoid o sheer curiosity (?).
single-factor explanations! 🤓
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
2019.10.07
•
(↑ Viking raids in Francia)
The first Viking incursions in Europe are recorded in
799, an unsuccessful raid in Aquitane. Emperor
Charlemagne reacted and blocked the river mouths
in Northern France. The first successful raid
occurred in 810, when the Danish king
Godfred forced the Frisians to pay him 100 pounds
(45 kg) of silver in tribute.
• After Charlemagne’s death (814), the Vikings
unleash a series of successful raids (below are
the most devastating ones):
o 834: the first sack of Dorestad (the mouth of the
Rhine):
o 843: the sack of Nantes;
o 845: the first sack of Paris;
o 851, 852, 854, 857: raids in Frisia;
o 879: a raid in Flanders:
o 885–86: a failed siege of Paris;
o 911: unable to stop piracy, Charles the Simple
cedes Armorica to Rollo, thus founding Normandy;
o 919/921–939: raiding and attempt at settling in
Brittany.
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
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(↓ The Vikings in Brittany, ibid.: 145)
(↑ The Viking Settlement of Normandy, after: Graham-Campbell and Batey 1994: 144)
(A modern Viking boat monument in Bayeux, Normandy ↑; own photo)
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
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(The Carolingian empire by 843 ↓, after: Halsall, G. 2003. Warfare and Society in
the Barbarian West, 450–900. London – New York: Routledge. P. xviii)
•
The Vikings on the continent owed a lot of their
success to the internal strife in the crumbling
Carolingian empire:
o Troubled succession of Charlemagne: his
only son Louis the Pious (r. 814–840) had
to quell his own sons’ rebellions.
o Troubled succession of Louis: after a civil
war, his three sons divided the empire in
843.
o Troubled rule and succession of Charles
the Bald (r. 843–877): Charles succeed to
Louis in the western part of the empire
and had to fight his own brothers and quell
vassals’ rebellions throughout his reign.
Charles’ priority was his own crown, and he did not really stop the raids in rebellious
counties. His successor, Charles the Fat (r. 881–888) hesitated to raise the siege of Paris
and was the last West Frankish Carolingian emperor. The new kings, Arnulf and Odo, were
more successful, and in 892 Arnulf drove the Paris army into England.
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
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• Besides actual military resistance, the Carolingian rulers came up with three
general strategies to repel the Scandinavian pirates:
o Paying tribute: in the short term, the
military consequences of the tribute
payments were invariably positive; in
the long run, tribute-paying must
have attracted more Vikings.
o Building defences: following
Charlemagne’s precedent, Charles
the Bald had river crossing at Pont
de l’Arche fortified in 862 (the river
Seine; the bridge was completed in
(The fortified bridge at Pont de l’Arche ↑, after: Haywood, John. 1995. The Penguin
873) and ordered fortifications at the
Historical Atlas of the Vikings, 60. London: Penguin Books)
Marne, Oise and Loire rivers.
o Hiring Vikings against other Vikings: one of Louis the Pious sons, Lothar (r. 840–855),
granted Walcheren to the Danish king Harald in 841; the same year he granted land in
Frisia to Harald’s relative Rorik, and the same fief was granted by Charles the Fat to one
Godfred in 882; in 860, Charles the Bald hired one Vǫlundr to attack the raiders at Oissel;
in 911, Charles the Simple granted the Norse chieftain Rollo (Hrólfr?) lands in the estuary
of the Seine, and the future duchy of Normandy was founded.
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
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(↑ Paris in the 850s, according to the Vikings, produced by
the History Channel)
(A fantasy town, Heroes of Might and Magic V ↓)
NOPE!
The Viking expansion in mainland Europe
2019.10.07
(A fantasy town, Heroes of Might and Magic V)
(↑ An artistic reconstruction of Paris in 845)
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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• In this region, the Viking raids fall into two distinct periods.
• The first Viking period (c. 789–954) in England.
General chronology:
o 789: the first raid (landfall in Portland),
followed by the sack of Lindisfarne in 793.
o 835: desolation of the Isle of Sheppey.
o 851: the first wintering (at Thanet).
o 865: the invasion of the “great heathen army”;
867 defeat of Northumbria, 869 of East
Anglia, 873 subjugation of Mercia; 878 defeat
of the Danes by King Alfred; division of
England between Alfred and Guthrum; 892–
896 Alfred repels a new army from the
continent, repelled by King Arnulf.
o 910–918/920: the re-conquest of the southern
Danelaw by King Edward the Elder and his
sister Æthelfled, the “lady of the Mercians”.
o 927–939: the hegemony of King Æthelstan in
Britain; 938 the Battle of Brunnanburg.
o 954: final annexation of the kingdom of York
(↑ The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms c. 800)
by the West Saxon monarchy.
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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(↑ Scandinavian place names in England, after: Higham, Nicholas J., and Martin J. Ryan. 2013. The Anglo-Saxon World, 288. New Haven —
London: Yale University Press)
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
(Cnut’s “empire”, after: Graham-Campbell and Batey 1994: 211 ↓)
o
o
o
o
2019.10.07
• The second Viking period (c. 980–
1066) in England. General
chronology:
o 980: the first renewed attack;
o 991: the Battle of Maldon;
o 990–1000s: endemic warfare and
raiding from all directions;
o 1010s: the virtual breakdown of the
English kingdom; King Æthelred
flees to Normandy and King Swein
Forkbeard seized the crown (1013).
o 1013–1016: struggle between
Swein’s son, Cnut, and Æthelred’s,
Edmund; division of the kingdom,
Edmund dies soon after.
1016–1035: the reign of Cnut, creation of a large “Northern Empire”.
1042–1066: the reign of Æthelred’s son, Edward the Confessor.
1066: the death of Edward, succession crisis, the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings;
William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy and Edward’s distant cousin, emerged victorious.
1085: last (failed) attempt to seize the English crown by the Danish king Knut IV.
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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• The West Saxon response to the Viking invasions, apart from fighting in the
field, was of three kinds:
o Paying tribute: during the first period, this was sporacidal and occasional, often
worked; in the second period, King Æthelred used this tactics on a centralised level,
but hardly succeeded.
o Rallying defences: 1) building fortifications (the burghal system); 2) building a fleet
(first by Alfred – success, then by Æthelred – failure); 3) reforming the army by Alfred.
(The burghal defence line; after: Baker, John, and Stuart Brookes. 2013. Beyond the
Burghal Hidage, 394. Leiden – Boston: BRILL ↓)
o Negotiating: when strong, imposing
own power by means of treaties
and/or oaths of allegiance; when
weak, hiring the raiders or
negotiating peace (in 994, with Óláfr
Tryggvasson; in 1009, with Thorkell
the Tall).
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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• The first Viking period (c. 795–902) in Ireland. General chronology:
o 795: the first raid (landfall in Rechru).
o 807: first circumnavigation around Ireland.
o 830s: renewal of the raids after a generation-long
peace;
o 841: the first wintering (in Dublin).
o 840s: the building of the longphorts (Dublin, Cork,
Waterford, Limerick, et al.); defeats of the raiders by
the Irish kings.
o 853: brothers Ívarr (Ímar) and Óláfr (Amlaíb)
recapture Dublin and found a new dynasty, the Uí
Ímair; 860–70s: the brothers raid in Scotland.
o 880–890s: infighting
among the Dublin Vikings
between “dark” and “fair
foreigners” and different
dynastic claimants.
o 902: a joint Irish army
drives the Vikings from
Dublin.
(↑ The Vikings in Ireland, the first wave, after: Haywood 1995: 73)
(Most important longphorts)
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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• The second Viking period (c. 914–980/1014) in Ireland. General chronology:
o 914: the first renewed attack;
o 917: two members of the Dublin
dynasty, Ragnall and Sitric Caech, join forces,
took Dublin, Ragnall then conquers York, Sitric
dies in 927.
o 938: the Dublin king Óláfr (Amlaíb) leads a
coalition against the West Saxon king,
Æthelstan, at Brunnanburg, loses but returns
to Ireland; after Æthelstan’s death (939) seizes
York but dies in 941.
o 941–980: the rule of Óláfr (Amlaíb) Cuarán,
son of Sitric; 941–945 and 948–953 failed
rulership in York, then in Dublin; 980 the siege
of Dublin by the Irish and expulsion of Óláfr.
o 1014: the Battle of Clontarf between the High
King Brian Boru and a Norse-Irish alliance;
victory but also death of Brian, the end of
political influence of the Scandinavians in
Ireland.
(↑ The Vikings in Ireland, the first wave, after: Haywood 1995: 75)
The Viking expansion in the British Isles
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• The Scandinavian presence in [modern-day Scotland] is highly convoluted.
The three main problems are:
1. Lack of reliable chronology.
2. Late written accounts.
3. Contradictions between different types of sources.
It is certain that by 1014 there existed the Orkney earldom (its
ruler mentioned among the defeated at Clontarf). Hence the
question: what preceded it?
By the early 2000s, the four main theories (depending on
the source preference) are:
1) A full annihilation of the indigenous Pictish population:
evidence derived from the place names.
2) The Laithlind hypothesis: the land of Laithlind, mentioned
by the Irish sources in the 9th century, was in fact the
earldom;
3) The “pagan reaction” hypothesis: the Northern Islands had
been a contact zone between the Gaels, Picts and Norse
since the 8th century; evidence derived from archaeology.
4) The earldom hypothesis: in the late 9th century, the
Norwegian king Haraldr Fairhair established the earldom
and a set a dynasty from Mœri that ruled through the Middle
Ages; evidence derived from the written sources.
(↑ Viking Scotland, 800–1014, after: Haywood 1995: 77)
• The take-away of the day: history is complicated!
Use multiple sources! 🤓
The Viking expansion in the British Isles:
harm or contribution?
2019.10.07
• Did the Scandinavians do more good or more bad for the British Isles?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• pro:
o urban impulse;
o pulling the Isles into a larger commercial
network;
o cultural exchange;
o contribution to the
state formation
processes.
• contra:
o violent
piracy/warfare;
o cultural damage
(assault on the
Church);
o political disruption;
o population
(↑ Viking humour)
displacement.
• The take-away of the day: history is
(↑ Vikings trade routes in the Irish Sea 800–c. 1050)
complicated! Avoid judgemental verdicts! 🧐
The Viking expansion in the North Atlantic
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• There are indications of Gaelic pre- (↓ Journeys of the first Scandinavians in Iceland during the 9th century)
Norse presence in the North
Atlantic: the Irish monk Dicuil
mentions some “holy men” in the
Northern Isles in the 820s; the
Íslendingabók (1120s) mentions
some “Christian men” who left
Iceland because of the incoming
heathens.
• The discovery of Iceland by the Scandinavians:
o Landnámabók says that the first explorer was one Naddoddr sometime in the 850s.
He called this land Snæland (“Snowland”).
o The second traveller was Garðarr in the 860s who circumnavigates the island and
called it after himself, Garðarshólmr (“Garðar’s island”).
o In the late 860s, one Flóki follows Garðarr’s path and landed in Iceland. He calls it
“Iceland” after the ice he saw in the Ísafjörður and later returned home.
o The first permanent settler in Iceland is Ingólfr Arnarson, who deliberately immigrated to
Iceland c. 872, being driven from his home in Norway.
The Viking expansion in the North Atlantic
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Modern estimates give early Iceland between 10 and 20 thousand people for the 10th century;
Landnámabók provides names of c. 400 pioneer chieftains and more than 3,500 commoners’
individual names + 1,500 farmstead names.
By the 930s, most of the well-located lands had been occupied and divided; around the same
time, the Alþingi (“Common assembly”), or the supreme legal organ, had been established in
the Þingvellir (“Assembly Fields”); by 964, the country was divided into 39 goðorðar (later 48),
or local chieftaincies led by the goðar; in 999/1000, the Alþingi instituted Christianity as the public
religion in the land.
•
•
• Contradictions between the written narrative and other data:
•
o The written accounts are largely confirmed by the archaeological data: the island was
rapidly settled after the 870s, though not by individual “privateers” but by family groups.
o The written sources downplay the Gaelic
presence among the early settlers: up to 60%
of the females and 20% of the males.
o Landnámabók claims that c. 47% of the first
settlers fled from South-West Norway and
King Harald Fairhair’s tyranny; but of the c.
300 known Viking-Age Icelandic burials none
is a cremation, though in South-West Norway
(↑ Viking colonists)
c. 90% are.
The take-away of the day: history is complicated! Use multiple sources! 🤓
The Viking expansion in the North Atlantic
2019.10.07
• Between 900 and 930, an Icelander by the name of Gunnbjǫrn seems to have
discovered Greenland by mistake.
• The successful Greenlandic colony was
established in the 980s by Eiríkr the Red.
He called this land “green” to promote its
settlement.
• Archaeological excavations at Brattahlíð
largely confirm the information from
the Grænlendinga saga. Hunting
expeditions reached Kingigtorssuaq, a small
island about 72º north; by c. 1170, the
Scandinavians encountered the Thule
Inuit whom they called Skrælingar.
(↑ Reconstruction of the church at Brattahlíð)
• At its peak in c. 1100, the Greenlandic colony had about 4,000 people, 2 monasteries, 1
cathedral, 16 churches, and more than 210 households.
• The climate change: the Little Ice Age doomed the survival of the Greenlandic colony. By
1300, the Inuits migrated south. By 1341, the old sea route to Greenland was out of use
due to navigational obstacles; the same author reported empty settlements and blamed
the Inuits for its devastation. By the 15th century, the colony died out.
The Viking expansion in the North Atlantic
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•
According to Grænlendinga saga and Saga of Eric
the Red, the Scandinavian settlers from Greenland
(← L’Anse aux made several expeditions to Vinland starting
Meadows,
from the 980s, the most famous of the explorers
reconstruction)
was Leifr Eiríksson, son of Eiríkr the Red.
• Leifr discovered and named Helluland (“Slab
Land”), Markland (“Forest Land”), and Vinland (“Wine Land”),
in the latter of which he settled.
• The Scandinavians encountered the native Americans
(presumably the Algonquians). Due to internal strife and hostile
relationships with the Skrælingar, the colony never survived.
(↓ Location of Point Rosee)
• In 1961–68, seven
excavations at L’Anse
aux Meadows confirmed
the Scandinavian colony
in Newfoundland.
• In 2015, at Point Rosee a
possible Scandinavian
(↑ Voyages to Vinland, after: Grahamsite was discovered:
Campbell and Batey 1994: 177)
no finds are clearly Norse, but it was an iron production
• The take-away of the day: history is
site from 800 to 1300.
complicated! Use multiple sources! 🤓
Classwork
2019.10.07
• Assignment #1 (map work):
o On the map, using the pewter models, pencils, and pens, demonstrate the most important
events and processes of the Viking westward expansion in your respective region
(Francia, the British Isles, the North Atlantic); please, include the following: essential
dates, names, locations.
• Assignment #2 (individual conclusion):
o Summarise the end result of the Scandinavian expansion by the end of the Viking Age (c.
1050/1100 or later, depending on your respective region); please, include the the
following: subjective and objective contributing factors to the success/failure of the colony;
interaction with the local population and consequences for both it and the newcomers
(supply with examples wherever possible).
• Assignment #3 (general conclusion):
o Synthesis for all groups: summarise the overall character, process, effect, and outcome of
the Viking westward expansion as a whole and briefly compare the three region.