Vikings in the North Atlantic

This chapter focuses on acts of speaking, writing, and hearing verbalized accounts of Icelandic place, and their role in establishing a distinct Icelandic identity in Íslendingabók and Landnámabók. The chapter opens by considering how the landscape of Iceland is verbally mapped, and argues that this is a textual priority for the Icelanders. While many of the places featured in Íslendingabók and Landnámabók were historically real, verbalized topographies, which can collapse time, animate foundational events and actors, accomplish something more. Like pilgrimage and travel accounts, verbal topographies enable moving, affective experiences and provide admission to an aspirational Icelandic national space fusing real and imagined elements. This chapter demonstrates that through the combination of writing, oral performance of placelore episodes (on site and otherwise), and the resultant experience of living within a re-imagined, storied landscape of Iceland, important lessons about Icelandic identity are transmitted.

Rollo, the viking who captured Rouen over 1100 years ago and is ancestral to the Normandy Dukes and Norman Kings of England, was not the son of Rognvaldr, Jarl of More in Norway as has been popularly believed.  His true origin was nevertheless preserved in the sagas.  His placement among the Norwegian nobility and identity as Gongu-Hrolfr are now established with certitude.  The discovery of his true family origin, his assumed identities and the etymology of his name will fascinate and thrill scholar and layman alike.

Transhumance of livestock away from the home farms during the summer months played an important role in the subsistence economics of small farms in Iceland since the settlement in the ninth century. However, the role of summer pastures (shielings) went beyond being an important feature of the farming economy. Shielings were also places which transcended the boundary between the social world of the farm and unknown world of the wilderness, and as such they played an important role in shaping (and breaking of) traditional social relationships. The ambiguity of shielings was reinforced by their association with women whose place was traditionally in the safe and socialized space of innangarðs (‘within the enclosure/inside the fence’) and not in the uncontrolled and dangerous útangarðs (‘outside the fence/enclosure’). At shieling sites women enjoyed immense social freedom, away from the watchful eyes of their male relatives, but at the same time they were also removed from the protection of their families, and according to Íslendingasögur and later folktales they were under constant threat of attack by feuding men, outlaws, and supernatural beings that were believed to have frequented these remote locations. The unclear status of shieling sites and their role in shaping female identity in the Viking and Medieval Iceland will be the main focus of this paper. By examining artefactual assemblages at Viking and Medieval shieling sites and high-resolution sedimentary histories of shieling occupation contextualised against a review of saga and folk literature I will explore the nature of gendered activities at shieling sites and the role of Icelandic women as shieling keepers.

This paper seeks to provide a new contribution to the debates on Viking Age women by focusing on a rather controversial notion of ‘female warriors’. The core of the article comprises a preliminary survey of archaeological evidence for female graves with weapons (axes, spears, swords and arrowheads) from Viking Age Scandinavia. Attention is focused not only on the types of weapons deposited with the deceased, but first and foremost on the meanings which similar practices may have had for the past societies. The author discusses why, where and how the weapons were placed in female graves and attempts to trace some patterns in this unusual funerary behaviour. In addition to exploring the funerary evidence, the iconographic representations of what could be regarded as ‘female warriors’ are also briefly considered. Lastly, a few remarks are also made on the notion of armed women in the textual sources.

Our aim with this paper was to discuss two possible Viking Age and Early medieval wooden hall buildings from Viklem at Ørlandet in relation to the Scandinavian Viking Age halls. To do this we analysed the buildings from Viklem to see to what extent they meet well-established criteria for Viking Age halls in Scandinavia. Since the Viklem halls are the northernmost known examples of such freestanding hall buildings, we have to take local and regional conditions into consideration, such as fundamental geographical factors, political demands and its physical manifestations at Ørlandet and the surrounding areas. Our results showed that the large buildings at Viklem meet many of the criteria that have been established by research in southern Scandinavia. However, we see that the Viklem halls are smaller, and lack the large number of prosperity items that that are associated with most in most of the known halls in the south. We discuss these differences in the perspective of Viklem's l...

Scandinavian women are regularly depicted as warriors, or shieldmaidens, fighting both in international raids and in defending their homes in the popular television series Vikings. But is this portrayal likely to be accurate? Following an examination of the depiction of warrior women in the series, this paper will try to answer this question by focussing on one of the regions that shieldmaidens in the series are shown fighting in, Anglo-Saxon England. England benefits from having primary written sources for the Viking Age, as well as numerous excavations, including the burials of three females with weapons, making them potential shieldmaidens.

A draft version of a paper in Vísindavefur til heiðurs Þorsteini Vilhjálmssyni prófessors í vísindasögu við H.Í., eds. Orri Vésteinsson, Einar G. Guðmundsson, Eyja Margrét Brynjarsdóttir, Gunnar Karlsson & Sverrir Jakobsson (Reykjavík 2010), 231-38.

Este trabalho visa mostrar os aspectos das sociedades vikings e sua participação no
contexto social, político e econômico do período medieval em contrapartida com as
análises que são feita dos mesmos em produções didáticas do ensino básico, cujo o
propósito é alertar os produtores de conteúdo destes materiais, sobre os problemas que
vem ocorrendo com a parte do conteúdo que se refere aos vikings. E divulgar os meus
estudos á cerca dos mesmos como contribuição para o meio acadêmico e cientifico e
também para ajudar os alunos e profissionais do ensino básico a compreender melhor
sobre esse tema, além de mostrar a sua importância para a historiografia.
Utilizei um conteúdo bibliográfico extenso que vão desde artigos científicos á livros
didáticos para fazer uma análise detalhada do conteúdo e de informações sobre os
vikings, mediante a isso os resultados foram bastante positivos com o uso de livros e
conteúdos acadêmicos específicos sobre os vikings. Em contrapartida os livros didáticos
precisam de ajustes e melhorias para repassar esta temática para alunos e professores do ensino básico, que é onde centrei a crítica do meu trabalho.
Conclui-se que há muitas possibilidades para se compreender o funcionamento da
sociedade viking com destaque para a cosmologia nórdica como condutor das ações dos mesmos e a possibilidade de uma melhora no conteúdo didático á cerca desse tema por meio de novas pesquisas, e do saber crítico construtivo em sala de aula por meio de
diversas metodologias ativas que inspirem os alunos a se interessarem e a se
aprofundarem no tema.

Palavras-chave: Vikings, livros didáticos, ensino básico, período medieval, cosmologia
nórdica.

This paper demonstrates the use of tephrochronology in dating the earliest archaeological evidence for the settlement of Iceland. This island was one of the last places on Earth settled by people and there are conflicting ideas about the pace and scale of initial colonisation. Three tephra layers, the Landnám ('land-taking') tephra layer (A.D. 877 ± 1), the Eldgjá tephra (A.D. 939) and the recently dated V-Sv tephra (A.D. 938 ± 6) can be found at 58% of 253 securely-dated early settlement sites across the country. The presence of the tephras permits both a countrywide comparison, and a classification of these settlement sites into pre-Landnám, Landnám and post-Landnám. The data summarised here for the first time indicate that it will be possible to reconstruct the tempo and development of the colonisation process in decadal resolution by more systematically utilising the dating potential of tephrochronology.

This week I take you along a trip, in what appears to be in some respect a sort of the 'Antiques Roadshow' as initiated by the Vikings. The Norsemen weren't any different than us in their desire to hold the past. As the Viking Age is desirable mystery to us, the age of Anglo-Saxon England was captivating their minds in their own way.

This is for sure: the Vikings loved antiquities. It can be seen, per example, on the viking merchant weights.

Cette communication propose de revenir sur le terme « viking » en analysant la notion de piraterie dans les sources norroises. Si les historiens sont familiers des témoignages des victimes de ces pirates du Nord, les sources norroises demeurent encore trop méconnues hors de Scandinavie. Les sagas, chroniques rédigées essentiellement au XIIIe siècle, sont des récits provenant des descendants de ces fameux Vikings et jouissant depuis ces vingt dernières années d’un regain d’intérêt de la part des historiens. 
Le mouvement de piraterie des Vikings, daté approximativement du VIIIe au XIe siècle, marqua profondément le Moyen Âge. De la route de l’ouest (vestrvegr) à la route de l’est (austrvegr), l’œkoumène des Vikings s’étendait de Terre-Neuve à Constantinople et de l’Islande au Maghreb. Ces pirates furent à l’origine de changements dans l’ensemble du monde médiéval : création d’États et de dynasties, consolidation du pouvoir, transfert des richesses, imposition de tributs aux peuples vaincus, explorations, mercenariat, etc. 
Devant la foule de problèmes soulevés par l’étude des Vikings, nous proposons ici de revenir à la notion de piraterie au sein des sources norroises. Nous tenterons tout d’abord de revenir sur la sémantique du mot víkingr et du champ lexical qui lui est associé. Puis à travers divers témoignages issus des sources norroises, nous essayerons de définir les enjeux et modalités de la piraterie vue par les Scandinaves.

Mots-clés : Vikings, piraterie, sagas, histoire maritime.

This report outlines the research that was conducted over the course of one week in late June, 2008. A total of five réttir – sheep folds – were surveyed using a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). Each réttir displayed a variety of forms, and different uses of local materials, and these results will be used to analyse the typological characteristics of these monuments. Also, it is hoped in the next stage of this research to correlate the sheep numbers for each farm and its district with its contemporary réttir. In many ways the activities associated (gathering, sorting, community places, maintenance) with réttir bonded communities together – providing a year round community focus – and cemented the important reciprocal relationship between humans and animals. Therefore, the study of réttir are an important avenue of research for understanding how past societies worked as farming communities, and their interactions with environments. Whilst commenting on much of the specific research ideas that are touched on through this study, this report is a provisional one by summarising the fieldwork, but also points towards some future directions in the research.

Summary in English

In spite of being the most widespread place-name element in the western Viking-Age colonies, the place-name element toft has received very little attention since Bengt Holmberg’s thesis published in 1948. During surveys undertaken by me in the early 2000’s, it is, however, clear that there is a good deal more information to be culled from this name type and its importance as an active naming element in the Viking-Age colonies than has hitherto been acknowledged.

This article is partly a réevaluation of the hundreds of examples of the name type in Normandy (ending in -tot/-tôt) and partly a comparison with occurrences of the name type in England (-toft), Scotland (-toft and  -tobhta) and the Faeroes (-tóft(ir)). The result is a considerable amount of reinterpretations of the Normandy toft-names, particularly reducing the number of personal names hitherto claimed to form part of the specifics in this material, see appendix.


Résumé en français

En dépit d’être l’élément de nom de lieu le plus répandu dans les colonies de l’Âge Viking occidentales, l’élément toft a reçu très peu d’attention depuis la thèse de Bengt Holmberg publié en 1948. Au cours de mes enquêtes menées dans les années 2000, il devient evident que beaucoup plus d’informations pourra être extraites à partir de ce type de nom et de son importance en tant qu’élément de nomination actif dans les colonies de l’Âge Viking qu’antérieurement reconnu.

Cet article est en partie une réévaluation des centaines d’exemples du type de nom en Normandie (se terminant en -tot/-tôt) et en partie d’une comparaison avec les occurrences du type de nom en Angleterre (-toft), Ecosse (-toft et -tobhta) et les îles Féroé (-tóft(ir)). Le résultat est une quantité considérable de réinterprétations des noms toft en Normandie, en réduisant notamment le nombre de noms de personnes revendiqué jusqu’à présent pour former une partie des spécificités de ce matériau, voir l’appendix.

Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas is an introduction to the language of the Vikings offering in one book graded lessons, vocabulary, grammar exercises, pronunciation, student guides, and maps. It explains Old Icelandic literature, Viking history, and mythology. Readings include runestones, legends, and sagas.  Viking Language 1 focuses on the most frequently occurring words in the sagas, an innovative method which speeds learning. Because the grammar has changed little from Old Norse, the learner is well on the way to mastering Modern Icelandic. It provides a wealth of information about Iceland, where the sagas were written and Old Scandinavian history and mythology were preserved. Viking Language 1 is accompanied by Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader.

As exemplified in this short paper, for instance, the case study of pre-modern Greenlandic farming shows how initial
inexperience in farming and herding in the specific Greenlandic setting led to catastrophic declines in livestock numbers;
consequences, and subsequent adaptations which may also  have been experienced and implemented by the Norse settlers.

ABSTRACT: Pdf copy of a power point presentation summarizing selected aspects on the Vikings, with text and images, and accompanying an in-class, video/dvd viewing of
(a). NOVA / Pbs: "The Vikings" (120 minutes; full online link not yet located);
(b). NOVA / Pbs: "The Secrets of the Viking Sword" (also available online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz4_h58rfOw [54 minutes]).
(c). BBC: "Blood of the Vikings, parts 1-4," documentary mini-series (see online via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9c_dEhzbE [235 minutes]).
Both the video/dvd viewing and power point presentation form the main sources from which students are asked to extract answers/data regarding 12 culture response questions on (1) early searchers, (2) the nature of the evidence, (3) more recent survey and excavation projects, (4) dating methods and chronology, (5) social organization, (6) the associated environment, (7) subsistence and diet, (8) technology, (9) trade and exchange, (10) cognitive archaeology, art, and religion, (11) bioarchaeology, and (12) why and how did things change.  These response questions/topics follow and reinforce readings in the first 12 chapters of the course textbook, Renfrew and Bahn, 2012.  Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practices (6th edition).  UPDATED 25 March, 2015: Re-formatted to 12-topic approach used in questions sheets, with additional slides/data.  Most recently added several pages of sources (books on Vikings in Scandinavia, Europe, Iceland, Greenland, and exploration; Viking sagas; Viking documentaries; contemporary Native North Americans in Newfoundland, Labrador and related areas). REVISED: Feb. 2023

From Samarkand to Göta river- actual archeological finds from roman iron age to early Viking age. Three important finds spots along the river. “Grönån-Wooden manufacturing center” - wooden object dated from roman iron age to Germanic iron age (“pre Viking”). Key words: Tools made of wood, objects from carriages, charts as well as boats and ships, wooden wheel, wooden bowls, ladder, basket, oarlock, oar, tools for making ropes. Next findspot is the “Brakteats of gold from Trollhättan”. Väner region brakteats and south west Norway. Göta river and magnificent falls of Trollhättan, similarity to Sorte mull (Black soil) Bornholm Denmark, brakteat and wetlands, two brakteats has runic inscription and should be read in a reversed manner, the text is: “ I the eril is named Märthief, I wrote a powerful spell”. Key words: gold, runic inscriptions, wetland, eril, earl, Oden. Next subject is “Early Viking age trading centers along the Göta river”, there are locality names that indicate early trading as “kiöping” (Grönkiöping and Kiöping). Key words: finds of weights, coins and lumps of silver, coins from the Arabic word (both from north Africa and Samarkand). Dated between around 750-869 A.D. Archaeological excavation, long-oval pit-houses dated to 660-780 A.D. Photos and figures, all text is in Swedish

Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader is now available with a limited-time offer. The reader immerses the learner in the legends, folklore, and myths of the Vikings. The readings are drawn from sagas, runes and eddas. They take the student into the world of Old Norse heroes, gods, and goddesses. There is a separate chapter on the ‘Creation of the World’ and another on ‘The Battle at the World’s End,’ where the gods meet their doom. Other readings and maps focus on Viking Age Iceland, Greenland, and Vínland. A series of chapters tackles eddic and skaldic verse with their ancient stories from the old Scandinavian past. Runic inscriptions and explanations of how to read runes form a major component of the book. Where there are exercises, the answers are given at the end of the chapter. Both Viking Language 1 and 2 are structured as workbooks. Students learns quickly and interactively. More information on our website: vikinglanguage.com

Throughout history, the Norse people of the Viking Age (commonly referred to as “Vikings”) were known as violent marauders who raided, raped, and pillaged innocent coastal villages throughout Western Europe. While that may be true, they were also an expansive culture that established extensive trade routes, founded a number of cities that still stand today, and explored the North Atlantic further than any other European culture at the time. Few can deny the prowess of the Norse on the seas, but few realize their significant impact on oceanic exploration. The Norse people were accomplished sailors and particularly skilled navigators.

There are a number of deserted farm sites in SW Norway; apparently more than in any other part of the country. In the Jæren district alone, there are nearly two hundred. The sites consist of a variety of monuments still visible in the cultural landscape: house foundations, stone walls, clearance cairns, burial mounds, etc. Most, but by no means all, of the deserted sites are situated in upland areas. The interpretative model states that the deserted farms are from the Migration period, and were deserted because of a general crisis at the end of this period, while later finds and structures on the same sites are evidence of a secondary settlement phase which also ended in abandonment, this time during the agrarian crisis of the Late Medieval period. Based on new pollen analyses from the well-known Sosteli site in Agder, excavated by Anders Hagen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and supported by a reconsideration of the many excavations of deserted farms carried out by Jan Petersen in Rogaland in the 1930s, this article argues that many, perhaps most, of the deserted farms were actually not deserted until the late Viking Age, and that this was linked not to a general crisis, but resulted from the demand for more grazing areas for sheep, caused by the great need of wool for ships’ sails in this period.

Tablet woven bands were widely used to embellish various garments and even in some cases worn alone as a headband throughout the Viking Age. Numerous surviving examples have been found at Viking Age Norse archeological sites all throughout Europe including (but not limited to) Scandinavia, the European Mainland, and the British Isles. Considering this, I thought that I should try my hand at learning how to do some basic tablet weaving and have created a thin band of weaving with a basic chevron design. I will use this band (and more in the future as my skills build) to further embellish the period costumes I create and create a more authentic look and feel.

The Viking Age is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of riches. Until recently, archaeologists and textual scholars tended to weave a male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society. Today, however, there is ample evidence to suggest that many of the most spectacular achievements of Viking Age Scandinavians would not have been possiblewithout women.

This pioneering and beautifully illustrated monograph provides an in-depth exploration of women's associations with the martial sphere of life in the Viking Age. The motivations and circumstances thatled women to engage in armed conflict or other activities are illuminated and interpreted through an interdisciplinary approach to medieval literature and archaeological evidence from the Viking world. Additional cross-cultural excursions into the lives and legends of female warriors in other past and present cultural milieus - from the Asiatic steppes to the savannas of Africa and European battlefields –lead to a nuanced understanding of the idea of the armed woman and its embodiments in Norse literature, myth and archaeological reality.

In Scandinavia, large scale abandonment of farms and farmlands is recorded in the 6th century. Most scholars today argue that this was linked to contemporary plague epidemics and climate change. The different social strategies for adapting to this crisis are, however, poorly understood. This paper investigates some of the largest, excavated, elite settlements in eastern Norway, and how these developed throughout this period. One strategy to counteract the crisis seems to have been to divide old estates into smaller production units. The lack of labourers may have led to problems maintaining production levels on the estates. The fact that more than 70% of the larger settlements abandoned during the Migration Period are located on the boundaries of later historic farms, supports this theory. This is further strengthened by an in-depth analysis of five larger settlements in eastern Norway, which were abandoned or reorganised in the mid-6th century.

Our aim with this paper was to discuss two possible Viking Age and Early medieval wooden hall buildings from Viklem at Ørlandet in relation to the Scandinavian Viking Age halls. To do this we analysed the buildings from Viklem to see to what extent they meet well-established criteria for Viking Age halls in Scandinavia. Since the Viklem halls are the northernmost known examples of such freestanding hall buildings, we have to take local and regional conditions into consideration, such as fundamental geographical factors, political demands and its physical manifestations at Ørlandet and the surrounding areas. Our results showed that the large buildings at Viklem meet many of the criteria that have been established by research in southern Scandinavia. However, we see that the Viklem halls are smaller, and lack the large number of prosperity items that that are associated with most in most of the known halls in the south. We discuss these differences in the perspective of Viklem’s locat...

Viking ou pirate ? Dans l'imaginaire commun, les vikings s'illustrent dans divers contextes, tour à tour marchands, pillards, explorateurs, poètes, artisans, démocrates, fondateurs d'États, mercenaires, etc.
moyen âge magazine n°112 CITE MÉDIÉVALE 1 moyen âge magazine n°112 Bouet, Moesgård museum, Højbjerg.