in mutual connection with each other but their chronological phases and their factual
content are different. Saxony only becomes important in the tenth century. Frisia is
important at the beginning of the Viking Age and possibly also towards the end of the
period. The Carolingian heartland is most important in the late eighth and ninth
centuries. The lands of the Baltic Slavs are important throughout the Viking period but
seemingly this cultural link also has an early and a late main focus. Certainly the cultural
interaction was no one-way process. Scandinavia also influenced the Continent of
Europe. Mainly, we must sadly contend that this influence was negative and destructive
(Zettel 1977 ). The picture of the Vikings in the west also as carriers of economic
initiative and culture is a grave misconception initiated as a positive model from the
past some fifty years ago in the name of contemporary west European cooperation.
Connections between the western Slavs and the Scandinavians had a more mutual
character.
FRISIAIn the early medieval period, as for the Barbarian parts of the coast much earlier, the
populations along the southern North Sea coast had developed a number of similar
variations of a coastal culture with strong internal links. These links of cultural
exchange and political connections not only bound this zone together but also brought
ideas and cultural patterns along the coast, mostly from the south-west to the north-
east. This communication system was bound together effectively by links of coastal
shipping routes. These coastal populations were known under the label of Frisians
and they spoke a language of their own, although not so unlike those of their inland
neighbours and the insular population on the other side of the Channel. Politically the
entire Frisian territory was never united under one single polity. However, considerable
power had been wielded by Frisian kings in the central part of the Frisian area in the late
seventh and early eighth centuries (Heidinga 1997 ). Later the Carolingian state
expanded stepwise into the entire Frisian coastal zone. Frisia was Christianised during
the eighth and ninth centuries. The process was however slow and only in the later part
of the ninth century did the population of the coastal lands north of the Elbe estuary
convert.
Groups in Frisia had for a considerable time kept up regular shipping both across the
sea to England and along the Continental coast northwards into Scandinavian waters at
least to south-western Jutland and possibly even further. The most important entrepot
for this shipping was Dorestad in the Rhine estuary but there were some additional
ports of great importance. In the pre-Viking Age centuries traditional links with
Scandinavia had increased and Frisians certainly played an important role in connection
with the foundation of the earliest major trading place in Scandinavia (later emporium)
at Ribe in south-western Jutland in the early eighth century. In fact the idea behind the
artificial tongue of sand on which the market at Ribe was located may be more Frisian
than Scandinavian. In fact the whole idea of the emporium as a socio-economic focal
point was taken over from north-western Europe to northern Europe and the Baltic
region. There are of course some differences but the general pattern is very similar. It has
often been assumed that Scandinavians took over the further transport of goods as soon
as the Continentals reached Danish territory in southern Jutland. This remains very
unclear and it is indeed not unlikely that some individuals and some ships crossed into
–– Johan Callmer––