Viking Age

Viking Age is a term of historical science. It is applied to northern Europe insofar as it was populated by the Vikings, and to central, southern and western Europe insofar as they were affected by their attacks.

The term "Viking Age" was coined by the Danish archaeologist Jens Jacob Asmussen Worsaae (1821-1885). The definition is essentially determined by the history of events and is therefore to a certain extent arbitrary. Today, the Viking Age in the Scandinavian region is defined differently by different researchers. As the earliest starting date, the war campaign of the Dane Chlochilaicus between 516 and 522 AD is occasionally mentioned. Although there had already been the attack on the Pictish Burghead Fort in 742 and on Portland in Dorset in southern England in 787, it is usually the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 that is seen as the beginning of the Viking Age. The end is traditionally dated to 1066 (coinciding with the end of the Early Middle Ages in England and the destruction of Haithabu), although the predatory individual actions of smaller groups of Vikings had declined earlier. The Viking Age was coming to an end with the waning of the Viking campaigns. Sven Estridsson's reputation (1020-1074), for example, began as a Viking on raids. Later, Bishop Adam of Bremen praised him for his learning. The rough dating commonly used today is 800-1050 AD, although the Viking ship graves at Salme show that North Germanic warriors died in warfare in the Baltic as early as 750 AD, 50 years earlier.

The Viking Age was characterized by a large-scale network of friendships. This included, on the one hand, personal ties based on the ritual exchange of gifts with mutual obligations, the attachment of the individual to the clan and ancestors, and, on the other hand, the confrontation with Christianity. This confrontation was prepared by gradual change from smaller dominions to stronger central powers. The progress in shipbuilding and the resulting mobility in both war and trade led to wealth and cultural flourishing.

In the case of war campaigns, a distinction must be made between those campaigns that were conducted on private initiative for personal enrichment and those that had a political objective and were therefore led by rulers or their competitors. What they have in common is that the war was financed by plunder or the spoils of war. These wars by no means ceased with the year 1066. Magnus Berrføtt was still waging wars against the Orkneys, the Isle of Man and Ireland between 1098 and 1103, in which plunder financed the war and was intended to produce a surplus if possible. Sweyn Asleifsson, a figure in the Orkneyinga saga, fell in a Viking raid against Dublin in 1171. The last time there is said to have been talk of Vikings was when the Birkebeiners moved into Scotland as Vikings in 1209. But these were only individual enterprises, which no longer dominated the social life.

In Scandinavian historiography, the Viking Age is followed by the "Christian Middle Ages". It is preceded in Sweden by the Vendel period, in Denmark by the "Germanic Iron Age". Those authors who, in addition to the warlike existence, also assign trade and handicrafts to the Viking concept, see less narrow boundaries and place the beginnings already in the first half of the 8th century and the end only in the period after 1100. Others reject this: this would obscure the formative characteristic of contemporary perception, which has been preserved in the Viking concept up to the present; the concept would lose its usefulness. The Viking Age essentially ran parallel to the Carolingian and Ottonian periods of continental Europe.

Some authors also apply the term Viking Age to the history of Rus. This is due to the fact that many cultural developments in the Viking Age were concentrated in the Baltic region.

Old Scandinavian calendar

The calculation of time followed the then common pattern of counting by the years of the respective ruler. A ubiquitous uniform time system did not yet exist. Thus a letter ended as follows:

The Landnámabók dates the first settlement of Iceland from the reign of Pope Hadrian II. The chronology from the birth of Christ came only after Christianization. At first it was also only an ideological instrument. The ecclesiastical and the secular calendar existed side by side for a while:

In Iceland, until 1319, the reckoning was usually done according to the reigning years of the Norwegian kings or the Ladejarle, very rarely also according to the times of great Icelandic chieftains. For Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Greenland the same is assumed.

Christianization

Ansgar and Rimbert had already begun their missionary work in the 9th century in the most important nodes of the trade routes Haithabu, Ripen and Birka. This was at the time when the Viking campaigns were still swelling, to which Adam von Bremen also attributed the lack of continuity of the mission after these missionaries. The (Swedish) Viking domination of the Schlei seems to have acted as a bar, for it was not until Henry I had defeated the Swedes and Danes on the Schlei that a missionary again set out, Archbishop Unni, who was killed at Birka in 936. On the other hand, the Scandinavians already came into contact with Christianity in many places on their long-distance journeys, which must have led to a relativization of their own beliefs. In the Danelag the native cult was not taken up again, at least no place name testifies to it. The beginning of the final missionization of the whole north can be put down to the second third of the 10th century. For Denmark the baptism of Harald Blauzahn was the decisive turning point. Not only the Jelling Stone testifies to this, but also the transformation of King Gorm's sanctuary, a large building stone triangle with a rune stone in the middle and Queen Thyr's burial mound as the end, into a churchyard. A whole series of missionary bishops, among whom was the Danish nobleman Odinkar the Elder, endeavoured with varying success to bring about Christianisation. He is also said to have worked in Scania and the islands. In Sweden, Sigtuna became the Christian centre of Svealand. The connection of Christianized Varangians in Rus with their old homeland, of which the marriage of Olof Skötkonung's daughter Ingegerd with the Grand Duke Jaroslav I is a testimony, led to the influence of Eastern Church-influenced Christianity in Sweden. The runestone custom in the middle of the 11th century had a rather early Christian influence there. In contrast, in Denmark at the time of Sven and Knut, only one-fifth of the stones bear Christian features. The contemporaneous stones of Västergötland, on the other hand, are already one third Christian, and in the slightly younger material of Östergötland they are already half to almost two thirds Christian. Also Småland's stones of this time are already almost two thirds Christian.

The manly virtues remained unaffected. They are praised with the same words on pagan and Christian runestones: Generous, capable, good householder (or farmer), without falsehood, mild of words, wise in his speech (probably at the Thing meeting), skilful and agile. Even the desire for revenge survived Christianization on the runestones.

The introduction of Christianity led beyond a mere change of faith to a profound change in the political landscape. The kingdom strengthened into a divinely legitimized central power. It assumed the new tasks of legislation and jurisdiction. At the same time, a new power emerged alongside the king that was controlled by Rome, which was bound to lead to fierce disputes over competences. The consolidation of the kingship was also accompanied by the weakening of the local chiefdoms. Since the chieftaincy still derived its legitimacy from clan and ancestors according to the pagan pattern, pagan mythology was not rigorously suppressed, but pagan cult practice was. King Olav (the Saint) bloodily suppressed the sacrificial festivals in fairy tales.