The age of the Vikings was intense and violent, dated from 793 AD to 1066 AD. It lasted less than three centuries. The start is often dated to June 8th, 793. In June of 793, a group of Vikings, probably originating from Norway, arrived at the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, which was a monastic community, and they essentially slaughtered everyone, burned a couple of buildings and grabbed everything that had any value, and left. That was the first Viking raid that came in force. I do think Lindisfarne is a good beginning date because the terror that it brought really signified what was to come for the next two to three centuries.
"It is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. Nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made."
Alcuin was not just a regular scholar β he was Charlemagne's favorite scholar, largely responsible for the Carolingian Renaissance. The spaces between words we use today are likely a result of Alcuin's work. The church was viewed as a sacred place β an area of safety, a literal ark from the troubles of the world. There were rules in England that if you had killed someone, you could flee to a church and civil authorities were not allowed to enter for up to 40 days. To violate this was the worst possible offense.
The monks dedicated themselves to a life of studying the Bible, copying scriptures, prayer β removing themselves literally from the temptations of the world. They sought monasteries that were remote β the most remote locations being islands in the North Atlantic, because it was so difficult to get there. The ocean was considered a place of safety. The fact that the Vikings hit this place of all places was the most terrifying kind of offense against medieval sensibilities.
There's a line that you understand you don't cross. Let the scholars do their scholarly work. The other line is from a military perspective: you assume the sea is not a place from which a threat could come, especially the north. Your conception of the world is shattered by the brutality, by the fact that the sea can bring a threat, and by the fact that these raiders don't give a damn about any of the lines society has established.
The Vikings themselves β Viking was not their day job. They were mostly merchants and farmers who lived in little bays called vΓk in Old Norse, which is probably where we get the word "Viking" from. The English, Frankish, and Irish writers all called them Danes. No matter where they came from, they didn't stop to ask, "Are you from Norway or Sweden?" They're all called Danes, pagans, heathen, or Northmen.
There's a very famous story of a Swedish Viking putting a sword in the crib of his newborn son and saying, "May you have nothing in this life but what you can gain with this." That underscores the kind of violent life you could expect as a Viking. Strength was valued more than anything else.
The way they would build their ships β they were clinker-built, so they were overlaid like planks overlaying. They were undecked as well, so they had tents. Can you imagine crossing the northern Atlantic with these huge waves splashing over, with an inch of oak between you and the ocean? The amount of bravery that must have taken is astounding. Plus, they didn't have a compass. They navigated by where the sun is, where the stars are, what birds are in the sky, what color of water, leaves floating.
This was the Vikings' great secret, and I think it's underappreciated. They built different types of ships for different purposes. But the thing that blows my mind is that they built these ships that could cross an ocean and at the same time had a draft of less than 2 feet, so they could sail up rivers that were 2 feet deep, and if they came to a block, 20 men could pick up the ship and port it around. They were incredibly portable. Speed was the most frightening thing about the Vikings.
An English army on a good Roman road could average 10 to 15 miles per day. A cavalry unit, about 20 miles a day. The Viking longships could average 70 to 120 miles a day. They could hit a place, raid it, drag off whoever they wanted, and get away before you could get your army there. That's just absolutely terrifying.
The Vikings absolutely used terror. It was a main weapon in their arsenal. They would attack specifically on high holy days like Easter and Christmas because they knew there'd be higher value targets with richer clothing and richer offerings. They were rather sophisticated. They would show up as traders in an English port, get everyone's schedule, then sail away and come back as Vikings. They knew exactly where to go, where all the money was held, where all the churches were, when to attack, the entire Christian calendar. They knew when someone's baptism was, when someone's confirmation.
Monasteries were storage for gold. Rich people's faith had to be an active faith. They couldn't just say their prayers and go to church on Sunday. They would donate huge sums to the church. By the time of the French Revolution, the church was the largest single landowner in France. The monasteries, filled with monks who had taken vows of poverty, were some of the richest places in Europe.
There are two main theories about why the Viking age starts. Will Durant puts it best: "the fertility of the Viking women outstripped the fertility of the Viking land." It's basically overpopulation. The second is the technological breakthrough with the keel, and pressure put on Charlemagne's consolidation. I don't see why both can't be true.
I'm a romantic. I would like to believe Ragnar existed. He's probably a composite of a lot of different figures. The last name is a little suspicious β Lothbrok means "hairy breeches." He supposedly had magic pants that would prevent him from being poisoned by dragons or snakes. Maybe a clue we're dealing with myth here. But he is really the template for Vikings. If you want to figure out what the Vikings wanted, who their success story was β it's Ragnar Lothbrok.
In his late teens or early twenties, he decides to sail up the Seine and raid Paris. He takes the hinge of one of the gates from Paris to prove he's been there. Γthelred the Unready paid in one year 7.5 million silver pennies to the Vikings to get them to go away β the equivalent of 50 adult elephants, 48,000 pounds of silver. It's a bit like someone's mugging you, so you pay them more money so they go away. It's not going to work β but it will bring more muggers. Over his reign he paid something like 20 tons of gold and silver.
Ragnar gets about Β£7,000 of silver from Charles the Bald, which essentially destroys Charles the Bald's kingship. But he goes back home to Denmark and the Danish king doesn't want him around because he's too powerful, too rich. He's a ring-giver β think Beowulf here. He's got this large personal army which is a threat.
The most famous bit of the story: he's shipwrecked and King Γlla of Northumbria captures him and decides to kill him by throwing him into a pit with vipers. The snakes are biting him but he's got his hairy breeches on, so it's not working. He's singing a hymn to Odin. They take the pants off and throw them back, and his last words are: "When the boar bleeds, the piglets come." Meaning: I have sons. He had 12 of them, and they will avenge me.
Ragnar's wife Aslaug was also important. He wanted a clever wife. So he tells her: come to my ship without clothes but not naked, having not eaten a meal but not having fasted, and without a companion but not alone. She shows up with a dog (companion but not alone), having taken a bite out of an onion (eaten but not a meal), and with her very long hair covering her (naked but clothed). This is the cleverness expected of a Viking woman.
Ragnar's sons β Ivar the Boneless, BjΓΆrn Ironside, and others β lead the Great Heathen Army to invade and eventually conquer England in 865. Γlla, fun fact, not so fun for him, was supposedly captured by Ivar the Boneless. He's the first person a blood eagle was performed on.
It's when they remove the lungs. While you're still alive, they cut you open and remove the lungs and put the lungs on your back. When you try to breathe, they flutter like wings. So it's called the blood eagle. That is what Γlla deserves according to BjΓΆrn Ironside and Ivar the Boneless. This is the piglets coming to the old boar.
There's this famous scene in the Viking siege of Paris in 845, which is really Europe's introduction to a Viking army β not just a raid. The Emperor Charles said, "Let's find out what they want and how much I have to pay to get them to leave." His ambassador went to a Viking and said, "Who is your king?" The Viking looked at him, didn't understand, and said: "We have no king. We are all kings." They were decentralized. They only valued leaders who could prove they had won, who could give out the rings.
That's gangster. The Mongols, Genghis Khan, was famous for this same meritocracy. It's one of the components of an extremely effective military force. The same is true for succession β if you're just giving it to your oldest son, that's going to be a problem. There are some problems with meritocracy and civil war, though β like Alexander the Great. Who does your empire belong to? "To the strongest" guarantees civil war. At least giving it to your oldest son provides stability, although you may end up with a Caligula.
The Vikings were ultimately a pragmatic people who, if it worked, would keep it. The Viking age is so short because they conquer and then start state-building, doing the usual β build institutions, start a state β and stop being the "Vikings." The best example is France. The Vikings settle in the Northmen's duchy, shortened to Normandy. Within a generation β Rolo, whose real name is Ralph Eric β names his son William. That's not a Viking name. The language is gone, the Viking names are gone, the worship of Odin is gone. Their "Vikingness" is gone except for one thing: their incredible vitality.
The Viking gods are quite terrifying. Their basic conception of the universe is an eternal struggle between chaos and order β which chaos will eventually win. The cosmology is concentric circles, with Utgard being the outer realm where the chaos is β that's where the frost giants are. All the monsters seek to destroy the gods who represent order and stability. It's an eternal war between the two.
Odin's domain was war, kingship, wisdom, death. Thor was protection, thunder, fertility. Freya was love, magic, the battle dead. Odin was more aristocratic β the god of poetry. Only the elite would know how to read. Thor is a more earthy god β you want the waves to be less, pray to Thor. Odin is the most disturbing β the god of madness and the god of poetry. Those are related.
In battle, the berserkers β probably the most famous type of Viking warriors β were considered to be Odin's chosen warriors. They would show no pain and just run at the enemy and attack with their nails and their teeth. Even if their arms could be hacked off, they would still keep going. They would attack other Vikings. They were berserk β it's where we get the word from.
One of Odin's names is the Raven Feeder. By creating corpses, which ravens feed on, you're doing the work of Odin. The Viking view of the afterlife was unique. There weren't really punishments unless you did something really bad β then you ended up as an evil spirit haunting your grave. But if you were brave, you got taken to the house of the dead, which was Valhalla. Every day you would fight, and whatever wounds you got would be magically healed that night, and then the next morning you'd get up and do it again. You're essentially practicing for Ragnarok β the final battle. Which you would lose.
Ragnarok is the end of the world. Odin's going to die. Thor will die β killed by one of Loki's children, the Midgard Serpent. Odin will be devoured by a wolf. The sun and moon, being chased by giants, will be caught and swallowed, plunging the world into eternal darkness. Then there would be a new earth and a new heaven and a new god who's all-powerful β this is mostly from Snorri Sturluson, writing right at the end of the Viking age, who was probably a Christian. So we're fusing things here.
Religion is a kind of social technology that stabilizes society. Hospitality is very important in a northern climate where food is scarce, winters are long and harsh. If you don't share what your hearth has, someone else might not share it with you. The idea was that Odin would travel incognito knocking on people's doors and would remember if you let him in or not. If hospitable, he would bless you. If not, he would murder you.
They reached North America 500 years before Columbus. They sailed to England, Spain, Italy, Russia, North Africa, the Middle East, Paris. They didn't have a compass. Can you imagine shoving off from some fjord in Norway, West? That's your only "west."
There's this poem by Tennyson, "Ulysses," my favorite poem. The last line is "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." That spirit is one of my favorite aspects of human beings. I think that's why the Vikings remain so popular today. There's this romantic hook of a people who did not yield.
Eric the Red was forced to flee Norway when he was probably 10 because his dad had killed some people β "for a few killings," as the saga says. He went to Iceland and got a farm, but the population was beginning to crash because they had cut down all the trees. He killed his neighbor and was exiled from Iceland. He had heard about land to the west. A Viking had aimed for Iceland, missed, and hit Greenland.
Greenland is the greatest real estate scam in history. Eric called it "Green" β said there were so many salmon in the rivers you could scoop them out with your hands. It's a lie. It's the most misnamed place in the world. But land equaled wealth in Europe. He took 25 ships, 14 made it, started the colony. The settlements survived until the 1400s, when they just go silent.
His son Leif Ericson sailed further west to a place he called Vinland because he found things he could ferment β Vikings made wine. He landed on a new continent with essentially inexhaustible stores of food and timber. The perfect place. Unfortunately, it's also inhabited by natives β probably the Algonquin tribe. He calls them SkrΓ¦lings, which is just Norse for "screechers" because he can't understand their language. They stayed there for 3 years and then gave up and went back home.
Why did they leave? They stubbornly refused to give up husbandry. L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland β the climate was too cold, the grasses weren't appropriate. They were 2,000 plus miles away from Norway. And the native resistance was incessant β they were outnumbered millions to one.
This was the most surprising part for me β the Vikings went east. A good way to think of this: the Vikings launch themselves in whatever direction their country is facing. Sweden goes east, Denmark goes down toward Germany, Norway goes to England and the new world. A Viking named Rurik goes east and sets up an encampment on a lake called Staraya Ladoga, which is a launch pad to both the Volga River and the Dnieper River β major river systems that take you all the way down to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
This allowed them access to the caliphates in the east and to the Byzantine Empire β where, being Vikings, they immediately decided to attack the city. The Byzantines essentially set the Sea of Marmara outside of Constantinople on fire and burned up all the Viking ships. So the Vikings decided: we can't take Constantinople, we might as well join them.
Greek Fire was developed by the Romans. We don't really know what it was β it was a form of napalm. They would fill it into clay pots and throw them β as soon as it's exposed to oxygen, it would start burning. They also had siphons β flamethrowers on their back. The really devious thing: it would float on water and continue to burn. If you jumped off the ship into the oil patch on fire, you'd be coated and burn underneath the water. It was a state secret, so closely guarded it remains a mystery to this day.
They end up as the Varangian Guard β Varangian means "the men of the oath." An analog of the Praetorian Guard in ancient Rome β famously loyal to the throne, but not necessarily to the person sitting on it. Basil II, the last of the great Byzantine emperors, formalized them in the late 900s, and they're there until the end. Many famous Vikings, including Harald Hardrada, served in the Varangian Guard. If you go to Constantinople today, inside Hagia Sophia on the second floor there's a marble balcony with Norse runes carved into the railings by Varangian Guards who were bored during a particularly long sermon in a language they didn't understand.
The Volga river system brings you to the Abbasid Caliphate β the great enemy of the Byzantines. They had lots of trading links with the north β furs, amber, slaves from the Islamic world going up. In a Swedish coin hoard, a Buddha has been found. In Sweden. These networks of trade transformed the Vikings' understanding of geography β from the geography of land to the geography of river networks.
Rolo (Rollo) β the first ruler of Normandy. He's called Ralph Walker, Ralph "the Ganger," because he was so tall he couldn't ride the little Viking ponies. In 911 he makes the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte with the Frankish king Charles the Simple β "simple" meaning straightforward, no guile. Charles makes an interesting deal: settle here, integrate into the local aristocracy, and defend the French coast against the Vikings. It's like putting a burglar in charge of your security. But it works.
When Rolo signs the treaty, he becomes a liege lord of the French king. Rolo has to bend down and kiss the foot of the king. Rolo is probably 6 foot, Charles is 5'10". Rolo says, "I'm not going to do that." He turns to one of his guards and says, "You kiss the foot." The guard bends down and picks the king's foot up to his mouth, and Charles goes falling on his back. I can't think of a better example of the relationship between the Norman Dukes and the French kings.
The Normans, by destroying things they destroyed, cleared the ground for something stronger to grow. Creative destruction. They lead the charge in the first crusade. They create the state of England. Before the Vikings arrived, there were seven kingdoms in England β the heptarchy. The Vikings destroyed all but one. Only Wessex was preserved. There's a young king β Alfred the Great β and his grandson Γthelstan is the first man called King of England.
Canute the Great was an early 11th-century Danish ruler who became king of England, Denmark, and Norway, creating the North Sea Empire. He's regarded as one of the most effective kings in Anglo-Saxon English history. He introduced the penny. He went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1027 and attended the Holy Roman Emperor's coronation.
People are telling him all the time how wonderful he is. He takes his whole court down to the seashore and orders his courtiers to carry him on his throne into the water. He commands the seas to stop. They don't, obviously. His point is: "You're all saying how great I am. I have no control. Stop telling me I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread." This act of humility β to embarrass himself β is what makes great leaders.
The Byzantine collapse really starts at the end of the reign of Basil II β 1025. The court convinced themselves they could run the empire without the emperor. They specifically selected weak rulers, which led directly to the disastrous battle of Manzikert in 1071, where the Turks defeated and destroyed the Roman army. Anatolia got flooded by nomadic warriors. Once they've lost the heartland, they've lost their source of troops, taxation, food. At this point, it's impossible to recover.
You can see the same kind of thing in the Viking world β this stultifying bureaucratic inflexibility combined with growing threats from all directions. Your own success becomes a problem. You can't adapt as quickly. You're not as lean and mean anymore. Too many traditions. The weight of history breaks you.
Frederick Douglass said, "I could sit with Plato and Cicero, and they would not flinch." The great conversation is for everyone, no matter your skin color, your level of income, even your intelligence. History comes alive because these are not alien people. Human nature has not changed and I don't think it will. We are flawed and broken β that's the human condition. If you want to understand history, you have to know about human nature.
From the VΓΆlsunga Saga, a 13th-century Icelandic prose epic: "Fear not death, for the hour of your doom is set, and none may escape it." And: "Better to fight and fall than to live without hope."