The Viking Great Army and the Making of England

Dawn Hadley, Julian Richards

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780500776353
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The Viking Great Army that swept through England between AD 865 and 878 altered the course of British history. Since the late 8th century, Viking raids on the British Isles had been a regular feature of life, but the winter of 865 saw a fundamental shift that would change the political, economic and social landscape forever. Instead of making quick smash-and-grab summer raids for silver and slaves, Vikings now remained in England for the winter and became immersed in its communities. Some settled permanently, acquiring land and forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. The Viking army was here to stay. Its presence was a catalyst for new towns and new industries, while transformations in power politics would ultimately see the rise of King Alfred the Great and make Wessex the pre-eminent kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England. Drawing on the most up-to-date discoveries and the latest scientific techniques, the authors recent research at the Viking Great Armys winter camp at Torksey in Lincolnshire has revolutionized what we know about its size, activities and social makeup, as has the wealth of newly recovered evidence from metal-detectorists. Unfolding like a great detective story, this account traces the movements of the Great Army across the country, piecing together a new picture of Viking Age England in unprecedented detail, from swords, coins, jewelry and the burials of great warriors to the everyday objects that ordinary farmers and craftsmen discarded. It is the definitive story of a vital period in British history.

PART I

The Vikings and Their World

1

Warrior-Chiefs and Kings

Major changes were underway in southern Scandinavia in the 9th century AD. The region had lain beyond the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire and so had never had the substantial walled towns seen in western Europe and England – nor experienced the military, economic and social changes that were needed to support them and to pay taxes to Rome. Nonetheless, while the inhabitants of southern Scandinavia still effectively lived in the Iron Age, the region had not entirely escaped Roman impact. To protect its own borders, the Roman Empire had sought to make alliances with what its rulers viewed as the barbarian tribes beyond them. Diplomatic gifts of Roman silver plate, bronze flagons and glass beakers, as well as weapons, turn up in Scandinavian graves and treasure hoards. Such prestige items must have reinforced the power and status of the local chiefs, whose control of imports of precious metals and other luxuries allowed them to buy the loyalty of their followers. Scandinavian leaders typically took tribute from those who were in a weaker position and passed on these gifts to others to acquire status and support. If gifts were not forthcoming then they could be extracted by force instead. The emergence of these Scandinavian social elites and their quest for wealth underpinned the transition from the Iron Age to the Viking Age.¹

The Viking diaspora also needs to be set against a background of an ideology based upon warfare. The spoils of battle were given as offerings to the gods in great bog deposits of slaughtered enemy warriors and captured weapons of defeated Iron Age armies, such as those excavated at Illerup Ådal in Jutland. Hoards of gold offerings and exotic treasures were another sign of the establishment and legitimation of an elite, who now communicated with the gods on behalf of the community. Since literacy and book production would be later Christian developments in the region, we lack any contemporary Scandinavian written sources, but in the 13th- and 14th-century Norse saga literature strong leaders are characterized as ‘ring-givers’ because they bestow silver arm-rings on their followers to secure and reward their allegiance. As access to portable wealth became essential, but supplies from the Roman Empire dried up, Viking chieftains began to turn their attention overseas, trading or raiding as seemed best.

By the 8th and 9th centuries there are occasional references in continental sources to individuals described as kings, who apparently controlled territories, although the modern countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden did not yet exist. There is also archaeological evidence for early stages of state formation, including monumental military works such as the Danevirke, a system of fortifications c. 35 km (22 miles) long, closing the Schleswig pass between the Schlei fjord, which cuts in from the east, and the marshy areas around the rivers that flow into the North Sea to the west. The first phases of construction are now thought to be as early as the 6th century AD, but the ramparts were heavily reinforced in the 8th century and in 808 they were extended under a ruler named in the Frankish Royal Annals as King Godfred.² It would be a mistake, however, to take this as evidence for an 8th-century state that corresponded to modern Denmark. From the 8th century major trading sites with wide-ranging connections also began to emerge and, while at first temporary, they soon developed a settled, urban character. The foundation of these international trading ports was intrinsically linked to the growth of royal power and the establishment of the early Scandinavian states. These trading sites must have been hubs that conveyed news about opportunities for wealth abroad.³ In the 8th and 9th centuries traders from many nations found their way to these sites. A late 9th-century traveller and trader, Wulfstan, source of a contemporary Old English account of the Baltic and North Sea trading sites, testifies to the presence of Anglo-Saxons in the region, but the predominant non-Scandinavians were a people known as the Frisians.⁴ Frisia was a coastal territory in what is today a large part of the Netherlands as well as northern Germany. The people were a maritime nation and important traders, with their own major trading site at Dorestad, near Utrecht, which had been established on the site of a Roman fortress in the 7th century.

The North Sea in the 9th century.

One of the earliest Scandinavian towns, founded in the early 8th century at Ribe in southern Jutland [pl. 2], was clearly modelled on Frisian sites. Excavations have revealed a network of regular plots, surrounded by wattle fences and separated by small ditches. These plots were already laid out when the first merchants arrived and have been taken as direct evidence for royal patronage and organization. Ribe was first thought to have been a seasonal market town for generations before people started to settle there more permanently, but excavations in 2018 demonstrated that solid houses existed in Ribe only a few years after the earliest activities in the area, no later than the 720s. Specialized metalworkers were casting a range of jewellery types, while others were making glass beads from reused Roman and Byzantine mosaic tiles. There were also imported lava querns (grindstones), pottery from the Rhineland, whetstones and reindeer antler from Norway. From the 8th century, silver coins known as sceattas were minted in Ribe. Although these coins appear to have been used only in towns, the evolution of a monetary economy was essential in the development of early medieval states: it facilitated trade, removing the reliance on barter and reciprocity, and it allowed taxes to be paid in coin. By the mid-9th century Ribe was surrounded by a town ditch. However, as this ditch was only 2 m (6 ft) wide and 1 m (3 ft) deep it cannot have had a defensive function and appears, instead, to have denoted a mercantile zone, possibly under royal protection and tax jurisdiction.⁵

Hedeby, in what is now northern Germany, developed as a major town thanks to its commanding position at the foot of the Jutland peninsula at one end of the Danevirke, which enabled it to control east-west trade. The earliest activity dates to the 8th century, when the first jetties were built and a number of workshops came into use. During the 9th century streets were laid out at right angles, parallel to a stream, defining fenced building plots of regular size. The town was enclosed by a semi-circular rampart and defended by a small fort, while the harbour was protected by a semi-circular arrangement of piles. There were over 10,000 graves in Hedeby, of which c. 1,350 have been excavated; it has been estimated that the town had a population of c. 1,500, including both traders and craftworkers. Imported materials supported a range of industries: ironworking with Swedish ore; the dressing of lava querns; bronze jewellery production; antler-, bone-, leather- and woodworking; and the manufacture of glass and amber beads. From the early 9th century Hedeby also minted its own sceattas.

The earliest town in Sweden lay at Birka, situated on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren, near modern Stockholm. On the neighbouring island of Adelsö, separated from Björkö by a narrow strait, stand the remains of a royal estate centre. It is tempting to see this as the power base from which Birka was controlled and taxed, from a distance. Birka was fortified, on land and water, from its foundation in the mid-8th century. Like Hedeby, the first town was enclosed by a semi-circular rampart, which at its northern end extended out into the harbour in Lake Mälaren as a series of piles. Like Ribe, Birka appears to have been permanently occupied from the start.

The trading site at Hedeby, at the neck of the Jutland peninsula. The trees follow the line of the semicircular ramparts.

Selection of artefacts from the trading site at Kaupang, in southern Norway.

The first Norwegian town was at Kaupang (literally, ‘marketplace’), on the west side of the Oslo fjord. Excavations have revealed that the laying-out of individual plots was preceded by a very short-lived phase of itinerant craft production. Permanent buildings, for year-round use, were then constructed on each of the plots, probably in the early 9th century. Kaupang had wide-ranging trading connections. The traded goods include German wine in Rhenish pottery, accompanied by glass drinking-vessels also from the Rhineland, Danish or Slavonic honey and Norwegian whetstones. The inhabitants of Kaupang were also melting down precious metals and the excavated finds include ingot moulds and pieces of gold and silver jewellery that may have arrived as the result of raiding activity. There are at least eight cemeteries, including both inhumation and cremation burials, many under mounds, and over 60 high-status boat burials. It has been suggested that the cremation graves reflect the local burial rite, but that the boat burials may indicate Danish merchants. Tree-ring dating of the jetty proves that it was erected after 803. It is therefore argued that, like Hedeby, Kaupang may have been founded by Godfred in the early 9th century, as southern Norway was under the control of Danish kings at this time.

Towns at this time would have been quite small by modern standards, with perhaps 500–1,500 inhabitants. The majority of the Scandinavian population still lived in the countryside in farming settlements, although there were also aristocratic residences, such as Tissø on western Sjælland in Denmark. Here an exceptional settlement has been discovered on the shores of a lake, 7 km (c. 4 miles) from the coast and accessible from the sea via river.⁶ Tissø was not an agricultural estate – there are few stalls for cattle and it must have been supplied with food by dependent farms in the area. Instead it was sustained by tribute, trade and manufacture. By the 9th century there was a substantial bow-sided timber hall set within an enclosure and a craft and market area with workshops and small booths in which goods may have been traded under the lord’s protection. Here goldsmiths and silversmiths worked, and bronze was cast into costume brooches, while other craftsmen made combs, as well as glass and amber beads. Over 100 coins have been found at the Tissø settlement, including 8th-century Scandinavian and Frankish coins, although most are later Islamic issues; their distribution suggests that trading was taking place on-site. A mid-9th-century Byzantine lead seal bears the name of Theodosius, head of the Byzantine armoury and recruiting office in Constantinople (now Istanbul). It is known that Theodosius travelled overland to the Frankish court in Ingelheim on the River Rhine, where he was seeking assistance against Arab attacks on Byzantium.⁷ The Tissø seal is identical to examples from Ribe and Hedeby, and it has been suggested that he may have been buying iron or recruiting mercenaries from Scandinavia. Viking trade routes extended throughout Scandinavia and western Europe, but also eastwards through the Russian river systems to the Black Sea, linking with the Silk Road.

Some of the weaponry deposited as offerings in the lake at Tissø, on western Sjælland in Denmark.

Tissø may be an example of an aristocratic or even royal residence. Weapons and riding gear, including spurs, bridles and a large number of arrowheads and sword mounts are concentrated in the enclosure. Frankish and Carolingian drinking vessels were also found around the central halls. Miniature amulets, including Thor’s hammers and tiny lances, recovered from this part of the site may indicate a small enclosed cultic area. Tissø means ‘Týr’s Island’ and was named after the war god Týr. In the 19th century some 50 swords, axes and lances were found on the lake bottom. They date back to the start of the settlement, but continue into the 9th century and probably represent offerings to Týr. Tissø demonstrates that Viking Age lords had several functions: they were responsible for military protection of the local area; they controlled trade and crafts in the marketplace; and they were responsible for heathen cult ceremonies, including feasting in the great hall.

In trading or raiding Scandinavians were aided by a strong seafaring tradition and their skills in shipbuilding and ocean navigation. In the islands and steeply sided coastal fjords on the Norwegian coastline it was easier to travel by boat than by land. One contemporary written account of this way of life comes from a Norwegian merchant called Ottar (Ohthere in Old English) who visited the English King Alfred in the late 9th century; Alfred asked Ottar about his travels and had them recorded.⁸ Ottar’s homeland was in the far north of Norway, above the Ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Other titles of interest
• Contents
• Prologue: Heroes and Villains
• Part I: The Vikings and Their World
• Part II: The Viking Great Army
• Plate Section Two
• Part III: The Making of a Nation
• Epilogue: Immigrants and Artisans
• Timeline
• Notes
• Further Reading and Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Sources of Illustrations
• Index
• Copyright