Menu

Vestvågøy Theme - 13
Viking Age

One historical event on the 8th of June 793 AD, the attack at the monastery on Lindisfarne in Britain (on the coast of Northumberland), has been said to mark the start of the Viking Age. After this, there were numerous Scandinavian raids on the British Isles.

But some critical questions should be raised in the start: Why have journeys undertaken for trade and experience been described purely as a spate of plundering? Have we uncritically accepted the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic writers' view of the period? Could there be other motives than pure plunder and the hunger for gold and women? Studies of economic, political and ideological motives in Norway and abroad may help us to understand the Vikings. In spite of this proviso, we must also recognise that many journeys were motivated by plunder. Iona was raided several times, for example, along with many other Irish and Scottish monasteries, not to mention attacks on French cities - Rouen in 841, Nantes in 843 and Paris in 845.

We need a dynamic understanding of developments in Norway to understand what changes are taking place at this time

• The construction of sails and the building of Viking ships are of great importance for the contact with the rest of Europe. Through archaeological finds (imported wares) we have proof of contact across great distances.
• At Lofotr, in Vestvågøy archaeologists excavated the remains of a chieftain's house from the Viking age. Many of the excavated artefacts can be traced from all over Europe and even further.
• On the west coast of Norway 60 stone-crosses made earlier than 995 have been found, similar in some ways to crosses found in Britain and Ireland. Some graves indicate contact with the British Isles, mainly the graves on the southwest coast of Norway, interpreted as a result of expansion from Rogaland (the most western county of Norway) to Ireland.
• During this period we can see a growth in population and a centralisation of power among the chieftains. Towards the end of the period, there's a change from chiefdoms to kingdoms
• Some scholars suspect that a shortage of women may lie behind some of the voyages - perhaps as a result of female infanticide.
• Advances in boat-building technology give Norwegians a new superiority at sea.

There also exists a variety of written sources that inform us about this period, both Norse sources, written during the 11th and 12 century, and foreign contemporary sources with certain information regarding Norwegian conditions and history:

• Àgrip, Historia Norvegiae, Historia de antiquitate regum Norvagiensium.
• Saga-literature, where the main amount is written some hundreds years later:
  • Fagrskinna, Heimskringla (Snorre), Skaldic poems and lays, eddaic poems.
  • The Landnámabók and Islendingabók (written of Are Frode around 1120) tell about the settlement at the islands of the Vest Sea
  • Alfred of Wessex (Alfred the Great)
  • Adam of Bremen
  • The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
• Ottar's voyage to the White Sea

  "Othere was among the foremost men of [Halogaland]; yet he did not have more than 20 head of cattle, and 20 sheep, and 20 pigs; and the little that he ploughed, he ploughed by horses."

With his victory in the battle of Hafrsfjord (872 AD), king Harald Hårfagre (Harold Fairhair) made great progress in uniting Norway into one kingdom, and according to Snorre's Saga he chose Avaldsnes, on the west coast, as his residence.

• Huge field of graves in southern Norway: The Borre graves: largest collection of chieftain-graves in northern Europe. (The Danish king controlled the area around Oslo up till around 1035 AD.)

Religious thought in the Viking period focused on the Norse mythology of gods and goddeses: Odin was the god of the warriors and battle, of wisdom and poetry. Thor was the god of thunder, and Frøy was the god of fertility, marriage and growing. But a great change gradually occurred in the centuries around 1000 AD. From the British Isles, and from further south in Europe a rumour emerged about a new belief, Christianity. Norwegian settlers elsewhere had also encountered, and sometimes accepted, Christianity. Informal contacts had made it known in Norway itself. Apart from this gradual diffusion, several royal efforts were also made to Christianise the country:

• Håkon the Good (Adalsteinsfostre) grew up in England with the Christian belief. When he took power in Norway around 930 - he tried to promote Christianity but largely failed. In the process he dedicated churches and nominated rectors, but the churches were burned and the rectors were killed.
• Then the sons of Erik Blodøks (Blood-Axe) took power. Like Harald, they came from England where they had accepted Christianity, but they did not reach far with the new belief.
• Finally king Olav Tryggvason managed to consolidate Christian faith. Baptism was celebrated in the county of Rogaland as early as 997 AD. This was gradually consolidated throughout Norway, as Olav also built up his political power in a country that had been split up among warring chieftains and partly ruled from Sweden and Denmark. Uniting the country under his own rule as King of all Norway, he also promoted Christianity. In 1024, at a 'Thing' held on the island of Moster, with a bishop called Grimkjell in attendance, Christian faith became the official national belief of the country. Norse laws were to be brought into conformity with the laws of the Church - though some things took rather a long time to disappear, such as infanticide.

One of Olav's principal struggles was to unite Norway under one ruler, and to keep it united, even when local chieftains sought to assert their independence. At one point Olav had to flee Norway, when the chieftains supported a take-over by the Danish King Canute, and he lived in exile in the Russian town of Novgorod. Olav Haraldsson was finally killed in the battle of Stiklestad in Norway 1030 AD, attempting to regain his kingdom. After his death he was regarded as a saint by the church and even by his former enemies. Today St Olaf's churches are common in Scandinavia, and are even found in Britain.

Symbols were used to express religious belief: the Christians had the cross while pagans used Thor's hammer as their symbol. In some places one can trace a mixed use of symbols, like one artefact from Iceland, interpreted as both a hammer and a cross. Also in England there are gravestones with both Thor's hammer and a cross. On the west coast of Norway stone crosses are situated on the top of heathen burial mounds. One example is at Jæren (Rogaland) where the old "Tinghaug" which originally was made around 450 AD is situated. The buried person was a rich woman, equipped in some luxury. Five hundred years later a stone cross was raised on the mound, and thereafter the heathen grave-mound is known as a cross-mound, symbolizing a new time, a new religion, a new social organisation. Sixty such crosses are found in the three counties on Norway's west coast: Rogaland, Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane, and obviously influenced by similar crosses in England, Scotland and Ireland.

Cross placed upon heathen burial-cairn. Jæren in Rogaland
(Photo : Jon Arne Sæter)

Important Dates

793	Attack at Lindisfarne
795	Vikings start attacks on Ireland
Around 820	Norwegian immigration to Ireland
836	Ships arrived in the area which today is the city of Dublin: the fort in Dublin built in
841	Vikings founded Dublin (from Kaupang in Norway?)
852	The Norwegian chieftain Olav Hvite (the White) arrived Ireland
866-67	City of York captured
870-930	Landnam period on Iceland; Viking settlers reach Iceland
871-99	The North Norwegian chieftain Othere/Ottars travel
872	Battle in Hafrsfjord, Harald Hårfagre (Harold Fairhair) starts the assembling of Norway
950	King Håkon Adalstenfostre first attempt to Christianize Norway
960-962	Harald Blåtann - King of Denmark re-establish the Danish influence in Norway
997	Olav Tryggvason made Christian actions in the county of Rogaland
1000	Leif Ericsson reached North America
1000	Iceland adopts Christianity
1030	Battle at Stiklestad
1066	Harald Hardråde defeated by king Harold Godwinsson at the battle of Stamford Bridge
1066	Vilhelm of Normandie defeat the English army and becomes the king of England

Pagan Christian continuities

The old pagan "Yuletide" was a mid-winter feast which became associated with Christmas. In Norway we still use the word "Jul" for Christmas.

The rites used in spring to ensure fertility were transformed by the Christian priests - especially with Easter, which celebrated the triumph of life over death. But even Christian farmers (and their priests) continued to pray for fertility, and some continuted to observe a few of the old rites just to be sure. Each Viking farm had its own "farm-god" or "protector", in modern Danish and Norwegian called a "Nisse" and in Swedish a "Tomte". The modern Santa Claus merges the Christian Saint Nicholas with the Nisse/Tomte. On Christmas Eve the children in present-day Scandinavia wait for Father Christmas, or as they call him, the Nisse or Tomte, to arrive with gifts.

Mayo - Vestvågøy - Mid-Argyll

Travels in Time | Overview | Themes |

Timelines | 700BC to 0 | 0 to 800AD | 800AD to 1100AD |

Landscape | Mayo | Vestvågøy | Mid-Argyll | Archaeology |

Other Media | Education | Exhibition | Publication |

Information | Bibliography | Project | Links | Contact |

This project has been supported by the EU as part of the Culture 2000 programme.