WHO WERE THE VIKINGS?

Stefan Brink

T

he Viking Age was the period when the Scandinavians made themselves known,
or rather notorious. From around 800 to around 1050 Scandinavians stirred up
northern Europe in a way they had never done before or since. Norwegians in particular
controlled and colonised the whole of the North Atlantic, from Norway, to the Faroes,
Iceland, Shetland, the Scottish islands, parts of Ireland, Greenland and all the way to the
eastern brim of North America. Especially Danes, but also Norwegians and Swedes,
ravaged and had an impact on the political and social development of England and parts
of France. Swedes travelled eastward, traded along the Russian rivers, and down to the
Byzantine and Islamic world. They established in Kiev, under the name of Rus’, a new
policy, the embryo of Russia.
Why Scandinavians were able to change the social and political map in such a
profound way in northern Europe is still under discussion. Early on one idea was that
Scandinavia had been overcrowded with people, or that it was because of years of bad
harvests that people had to leave. This cannot be the case. Today we instead stress power
struggles within Scandinavia and an escalating incentive to trade. One important factor
may be the new kind of sea-going ships that Scandinavians started to build. These
ships were long, narrow and shallow; hence they had no need of special harbours: you
could make land at any (sandy) beach. The smaller types, used on the rivers in the east,
could be dragged or even carried between watercourses.
One side of the Vikings, which has been toned down during the past fifty years, is the
ravaging, killing, raping, burning Viking; instead the peaceful, industrious, trading
Viking has been on the research agenda. Viking-age Scandinavians, no doubt, spent time
on both activities. However, the fear of the Northmen, of which we read in documents
and chronicles from Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland, probably had nothing to do with
them as traders. Still today, the word Viking is in the Anglo-Saxon world associated
with pirates and men of violence.
The reason for focusing on Vikings as traders in research during the past decades, is
partly because this side of the Northmen was neglected in early, romanticised history
writing, but it partly also mirrors society as a whole. Every era uses history for its own
purposes; every time shapes its own history. And especially during periods of strong
political hegemony and with strong political will in a country, it has been common to