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Class Notes Vikings in the Celtic World
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Week 1 29/09/2021 QUI-015 - 113 LectureThe Celtic world —> the Celtic speaking countries around the Celtic sea, Ireland, Brittany,
Scotland, Wales, Isle of man.
The Viking age
- 717-1050 —> Starts the time the raids started
- Most important thing at that time was producing textiles
- This industry was controlled by women
- Sails were incredibly hard to make
- Icelandic Sagas are written in the 13th century, with a christian context
- Valkyries —> they ght and after battle they rise again and ght again
- Battle of Clontarf
- The battle will be won but the person leading it will be killed
Viking Settlement
- Carved gure —> Fishamble street
- Fishamble Street was the main street of viking settlement in Dublin
- Vikings themselves didn’t have towns, but they had settlements in Ireland and at home
- Colonisation did they do really well.
Vikings in the wider world
- Vikings are the stereotype for maritime violence
- Raids devastated large areas of western Europe from the 8th to the 11th century
- Other aspects
- Extraordinary ‘geographical restlessness’
- Travelled at least 37 modern countries
- From Asian steps to eastern seaboard of North America
- Encountered at least 52 contemporary cultures
- A conservative estimate
- Viking travel / Viking raids
- They did this as Pirates and mercenaries
- Later as soldiers on military campaigns
- They come in massive numbers from the 830s
- On business as merchants and traders
- As politicians, envoys and diplomats
- As colonisers, settlers - people in search of a new life
- As explorers - Iceland, Greenland, North America
- How can the raids have re ected in Scandinavia
- Once the raids begin Hopperstad Farm is full of treasures.
- Things were found from an Irish Bride, she had broaches and fancy glass work.
- Likely engaged in trading of some sort.
- People for Hopperstad were likely taking part in the raids of some sort.
Medieval Scandinavian Sources
- The Norse were ‘silent people’
- We learn of them from those they encounter
- Biased sources
- Later on we have Icelandic sources
- Written within a christian context
- They create a backstory for themselves
- 13th century
- Poetry 8th - 13th century
- Eddic - mythology and heroes
- Skaldic – designed to be remembered accurately in an oral culture
- Usually a tribute to a king or jarl
- Rune Stones 5th - 12th century
- Most can be found in Sweden
- Rökstenen —> one of the few runic stones left behind that’s telling a narrative
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, - Isle of Man 30
- Commemorative: people, events, construction
- Boundary or Territorial marker
- Most vikings that came to the Celtic World were from Norway.
Sagas
- Icelandic Sagas give us the most information
- Most sagas speak of the raiding, some speak of the settlement of Iceland
- Written in. Old. Norse
- Iceland in the 13th century
- Kings, ordinary people, historic events, settlement, feuds, legendary people & events
- Alternative theories
- Transmitted orally & written down in 13th century
- Conscious artistic creations based on oral and written tradition.
Burials
- Buried with a gaming board —> the person was good at strategy
- Speaks directly to the audience
- They give us an insight into what their life was like.
- Speaks of gender, status, culture
- We can’t assume that everyone buried with a sword was a man and everyone buried
with beads was a woman.
- Regard held for deceased
- Did they love this person?
- Importance attached to objects by the community
- Filtered by vision of survivors
- You see the vision of the people doing the burial
- Religious practice but also an act of performance
- The story is about the person’s life, what they did and who they were
- Tracks continuity and change
- People were buried with axes as prestigious weapon, as they went on westward this
changed into swords over time.
- Message nuanced & subtle
Why were the raids happening?
- Pull —> weakness of neighbouring empires
- Push —> the centralisation of power within Scandinavia
- A number of theories
- Technological developments
- Environmental changes
- Demographic pressure
- Economic changes
- Growth of urbanisation & trade
- Early travels were out from Denmark and Sweden and the raid points in the west
quickly became settle points,
- Political determinism (likely not really)
- Ideological determinism (likely not really)
- Status
- Reputation was important, you were trying to improve yourself
- In almost all the raids slaves were taken, as a commodity slaves were very useful
- Bulge of young males in Scandinavia set out to get treasure to underpin their chances of
marriage and a separate domicile. (John Barrett)
Most of the early insular material comes from women’s graves
Gift-giving
- Norway 500 individual nds of insular / Irish metalwork
- Irish mount was found in bergen
- Irish metalwork
- Most from burials
- Cup-up fragments re-worked as brooches or pendants
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, - Little intrinsic value
- Great artistic value
- Concentration of insular items in women’s graves in speci c areas
- Important economic and political centres in the viking age
- Melhus
- Shrine from high-status 9th century boat burial - intact
- Well-equipped warrior & woman - ritualist?
- Other insular metalwork re-worked as jewellery
- Highly decorative and exotic items - …
Guðriður Porbjarnadottir
- Woman of Norwegian heritage
- Born in Iceland
- Settled in Greenland
- Saw & spoke to Native Americans
- Visited the Pope in Rome
Summary
- Vikings stand as the most cosmopolitan of cultures
- Polyglot of languages heard at the market places of Dublin, orkney, Llanbedrgoch, Peel,
Noirmoutier, Cork, Limerick
- With immigrants to Scandinavia as well as northerns constantly heading out and returning
they were among the most international of people – in their mental and well as physical
horizons – of the ancient world - Neil Price
Week 1 29/09/2021 QUI-014 - 060 Lecture
Medieval Scandinavia: farmer and berserkir, ship settings and picture stones.
Scandinavia in the Viking Age
- Vikings are broadly christians from 650.
- On the Scandinavian stones. Is written who carved them, this is not the case in the
Celtic World.
- Viking age marks the end of Scandinavian prehistory
- Scandinavia not literate in the viking age
- Runes used for charms and memorials
- Valuable information
- Homeland of Vikings are modern countries
- Denmark, Norway & Sweden
- Viking activity related to location Norwegian expansion to the west: Ireland, Scotland,
the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland & North America
- Norwegian expansion to the west: Ireland, Scotland, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland,
Greenland & North America
Norway
- Norway
- Mountainous, deeply intended coastline
- Internal travel di cult
- Only two areas of extensive farmland
- Trondheim in North
- Oslo Fjord in the south
- Huge distance apart
- Rival power centres
- United Norwegian kingdom in the 12th century
- Sea is a critical factor of life
- Lack of arable land
- Fish and essential food source
- Boar-building & steamship essential skills
- Re ected in burial: ship & boat burials.
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, - Oseberg Ship Burial, Norway
- Discovered in 1904.
- Mound re-opened 2007 & skeletons examined
- Burial of two women
- Youngest aged 50 at death
- Teeth showed little wear indicating good food
- Collarbone broken just before death
- Second woman 70-80 when she died
- Sustained. Number of injuries over her life and had arthritis
- Relationship?
- Burial of Volva (a priestess)
- Image of Freyja in a carriage being pulled by cats, Freyja was the patron saint.
- Broken into 100 years. After burial
- Volva’s were buried with their sta
- Hanging men on tapestries —> odin would hang from a tree to think
Religion
- No systematic theology
- All we know comes from late Icelandic sources that are rooted in christianity, so we
have to be careful
- No concepts of absolute good & evil or afterlife
- Souls of heroic warriors dead in battle taken by Valkyries to Valhalla, Odin’s hall of slain
- Freyja, goddess associated with fertility, had a share of these & also some women
- Twilight world of Hel
- Some dead lined on in grave
- Challenge to go break into a grave to prove bravery
- Religion was correct performance & observance of sacri ce, rituals & festivals.
- Not personal spirituality
- King or local leader responsibility for observing festival
- All things, including gods, subject to fate
- Gods perish at Ragnarök & world is destroyed
- The Gods
- Gods ruled every aspect of life
- Most important Odin, Thor & Freyr
- Odin —> god of wisdom, power, war & poetry
- God of kings, warriors & poets
- Thor —> god of strength, thunder & lightning
- Used his hammer to defend world against giants
- Freyr —> god of wealth, health and fertility
- Freyja —> god of sexuality & love
- Loki —> cunning, witty
- Capable of great wickedness
- Responsible for Ragnarök
Peoples of the lordship
- Unfree
- Slaves
- Treatment varied according to skills
- Could be freed for good service
- Free
- Range of wealth & status - landless labourer to aristocracy
- Right to bear arms, speak at local assembly & protection of law
- Inequality
- Fines for homicide - depended on status
- Legal judgement had to be enforces
- Needed protection of. A strong lord
- Lagmann held oral legal tradition - later and o ce
- Most freemen tenant or freehold farmers
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