Warriors: Viking Warriors

By Michelle Styles

In 793 the Vikings exploded on the European stage with their raid on Lindisfarne. The precise cause of the raid is lost in the mists of history,  but something happened to make the Nordic people suddenly decide to export war to other countries. One recent theory is that the belligerent Christianity of the Franks under Charlemagne led to an increase in warlike behaviour from various pagan tribes. Other theories have to do with the increased mobility through technological innovation, in particular the Viking long ship. The word Viking means one who goes out on piratical raids and can be used as a verb — to go Viking. Scholars are divided on the origins of the word. Vik in old Norse means bay or inlet. So it is possible that a Viking was originally used to mean a man from a bay or a man with a ship from a bay. It also could be a reference to the Viken,  a part of southern Norway, pre-unification of Norway in the 10^th century. There is some evidence that the Lindisfarne raid did originate from that area.  In general during this period, the Vikings are referred to as Northmen or Norsemen and eventually the Viking who settled in France became the Normans.  The Viking age ends in 1066 when the last large Viking invasion force is defeated at Stamfordham, shortly before the battle of Hastings.

Were Vikings warriors as fierce some as they are often portrayed in various chronicles? It was a war like age. The Vikings at the beginning of the period were pagan and certainly Christian chroniclers had no reason to  praise the pagans . It is clear from surviving Viking mythology that the society prized warlike behaviour, and dying gloriously in battle. Unlike most other cultures, Viking mythology predicts the Doom of the gods and the destruction of the known world as the gods fight the giants and various other  creatures for supremacy.  In the final battle, Odin’s warriors (those particularly brave warriors who died on the battlefield) will fight. In the meantime, they reside in Valhalla, fighting every day to keep their skills honed and then at night they feast in the great hall.

There is no pure warrior caste in Viking society. In the early part of the Viking period, there was no central government and the region was divided into a series of tribes or countries which shared a common language and religion. However at the start of the Viking period, you do have various countries such as Viken being expansionist and seeking to subject other tribes.  It is a rare king who dies in his bed.  It is clear from the surviving sagas and myths that there was a code of conduct and a concept of honour and shame. Vikings appear to have fought on foot, using horses for transport only.  They used spears, swords,  axes as well as bows and arrows. The shields tend to be round and they wore helms. There is no direct evidence that they wore helmets with horns for fighting. It is thought that the horned helmet is a Victorian invention and misinterpretation of some of the sagas.

Overwhelmingly the warriors were male. There are a few references to female warriors. However,  it is impossible to say if women did fight as the sagas were written down  in post Christianity Iceland.  No grave of a Viking  woman has been yet discovered with weaponry.

 Because of the violent nature of this tribal society, every man had to be prepared to fight and defend his home. The Vikings also were heavily dependant on trade. Scandinavian land can be difficult to farm successfully but it also provided other wealth such as fur, timber, iron and soapstone. The Vikings in the East did follow the trade routes down to Byzantium and because they did not know what they would encounter, they did have to be prepared to fight. Their skill at fighting did not go unnoticed and the Byzantium emperor enlisted various Vikings as his body guard. This guard became known as the Varangian  guard. Var was the god of solemn vows in Norse mythology. Serving in this guard provided disposed Viking warriors the opportunity to acquire wealth and men. Harald Finehair used his time in the Varangian guard to great effect and was able to launch his bid for supremacy of Norway because of his experience.

Many of the Viking ideals about the proper behaviour of a warrior are incorporated into the code of chivalry as the Norman knights are direct descendants of these earlier warriors.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances in a wide range of time periods. Her next Viking set romance will be published in the second half of 2013. Her most current release is a Regency set romance His Unsuitable Viscountess. You can read more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk

Dynasties: The Ynglings

By Michelle Styles

One of the problems with researching the early Vikings is that so much is shrouded in myth and mystery. Various sources mention the Ynglings as an early Norse dynasty, but how real were they? And do they still exist today?

The Ynglings are known as semi-legendary because scholars are fairly certain they existed; they are mentioned in a number of independent sources that appeared shortly appeared after the Age of Migration finished in around 700 AD. The problem with the Age of Migration or the Dark Ages is very few primary sources exist for the tribes who were migrating around Europe. The Ynglings are mentioned in Saxo Germanicus, Beowolf (in Beowolf, they are referred to as Scyling), and in the Ynglinga saga and a shorter work by Snorri Sturulson.

Yngling means "descendant of Frey" and they supposedly subdued most of Sweden between the 500-700 AD. Sturluson also mentions that they may have been descended from a man called Skelfir, and thus were more properly called Skalfings.

One of the most famous of the Ynglings, Ottarr or Ohthere, refused to pay tribute to the Danish king Frodi (and yes, you do have the Anglican version, Frodo, used by Tolkien--encountering Tolkien is a slight hazard when researching the early Vikings!), and freed his part of Sweden from the tribute. He and his sons are mentioned in Beowolf and Saxo Germanicus. The details are vaguely given which leads some scholars to conclude that the story was so well known that the skalds did not have to relate the full details.

The last Yngling king in Sweden was Ingjald Ill-Ruler who enlarged his kingdom with the simple expedient of burning the other kings inside his hall. His daughter Asa was considered to be devious. One of his sons, Olof Tratalga, who was the last true Yngling, ruled part of Norway for awhile but proved such a bad ruler that he was eventually burnt to death in his long house. The remains of burnt long house dating from this time and roughly in the correct area have been found.

Later, the descendants of Harald Finehair (so called because he refused to cut or comb his hair until after a certain princess, Gyda, married him, something she refused to do until he became king of all Norway) claimed to be part of the Yngling dynasty in order to give Finehair's unification of Norway some legitimacy in the early 9th century. The Finehair dynasty (or at least claims to have been descended from him) ruled Norway until about the 14th century. If you do various twists and turns and leaps of faith, the current Norwegian kings are related.

So real or not, it is interesting that some in Norway would still claim descent from the Ynglings.

Humans In Nature: When Continents Meet

By Michelle Styles

Iceland is one of the most geographically interesting places on the planet. Besides, the thermal springs, the glaciers, and the volcanoes, it boasts of a land-based rift valley. A rift valley is formed when two continental plates are physically tearing apart. Mostly this happens in one of the world's oceans, but in Iceland, the Eurasian and the North American plates are moving apart and have created a rift valley at Thingvellir.

The region around Thingvellir is an other-worldly landscape, where ropes of lava cut through the walls of the valley. Two great rock mountains--Hrafnabjorg and Armannsfell, where the mythical guardian of the region, Armann Dalmannsson, is supposed to dwell--rise above the valley. It looks as if nothing ever changes. Nature at one of its most majestic. However, every year the plates continue to drift apart by approximately 1.5 cm. This means that the valley floor is constantly changing, generally dropping by a few millimeters each year. In 1789 after an earthquake, the floor dropped by half a meter.

For Icelanders, it is hard to underestimate the historical importance of Thingvellir as it is where the Icelandic chieftains or godar first met to form the Althing or General Assembly. One man was elected as the lawspeaker. The great Icelandic poet, Snorri Snorrisson served as the law speaker in the 12th century, for example.

The Althing was held for two weeks every summer, and everyone who could attend did so. They lived in tented camps called buds and disputes were settled, laws given and democracy flourished. In the year 1000, it was here that Christainty was proclaimed as the national religion.

As various Icelandic sagas make clear, the Althing did not necessarily posses the power to enforce its laws, and sometimes, such as in Njal's saga, the disputes led to bloody feuds. Public executions began to take place in the 16th century. For example in the pools of Oxara, women convicted of witchcraft or sexual offences were drowned.

The last Althing met in 1798 in Thingvellir and was replaced by a national court and parliament in Reykjavik (also now called the Althing), but despite the move, the valley has never been forgotten. It served to inspire poets as well as the nationalist movement in the nineteenth century. When Iceland was granted its independence from Denmark in 1944, the declaration was read out at the historic site of the Althing in Thingvellir.

Today, it is a popular tourist destination and many come to marvel at Nature's power. But to Icelanders, it also represents the soul of their nation.