SAXONYWhen the central Carolingian territory treated above began to disintegrate politically
after the Treaty of Verdun in 843 , this only gradually led to a division of the earlier
cultural unity of Carolingia. The political and economic consolidation of the German
kingdom during the first half of the tenth century, however, brought about a new
situation of great significance for Scandinavia. During the tenth and eleventh centuries
the connections with Continental Europe were mainly with this successor state of
the Carolingian Empire. With its centres more closely situated to Scandinavia and
with great territorial ambitions towards the east, the German kingdom was bound to
play a significant role in the connections between Scandinavia and the Continent. The
political connections between the Danish kingdom(s?) and the German kingdom were
complicated and Jutland was invaded probably twice in the tenth century. For some
short periods the German king controlled parts of southern Jutland. When Christianisa-
tion of the entire population in Scandinavia begins in the tenth century, Christian
mission and ecclesiastical organisation are dominantly connected with the Church in the
German kingdom.
The development of kingship with pretensions to controlling state territories in
Scandinavia in the tenth and eleventh centuries is connected with models taken from
the German kingdom although inspiration also from post-Alfred England should not
be completely ruled out. The cultural expression of this new idea of kingship was to a
considerable degree taken over from the Continent. Only during the end of the tenth
century and at the beginning of the eleventh was Anglo-Saxon influence strong. The
architectural expression of the ambitions, both secular and ecclesiastical, of central
power in the eleventh century is stone architecture. In these manifestations we find
influences from the German kingdom and from Anglo-Saxon England as well.
Unfortunately we have no basis for an evaluation of external influence on the develop-
ment of aristocratic architecture of the late Viking Age. The Scandinavian aristocratic
residences mentioned above were in existence until the beginning of the eleventh cen-
tury or until c. ad 1000. What their replacements looked like we do not know.
It is likely that the foreign influence on the culture of the topmost social stratum in
Scandinavia continued to be strong in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The culture of
the German royal household and the high aristocracy, both spiritual and material, was a
very influential model for the upper social strata in Scandinavia. As before this was
probably primarily the situation in south-western Scandinavia but it was from there as a
secondary phenomenon also felt in other, more remote parts of Scandinavia. The very
restricted availability of investigated graves and the low standard of knowledge of the
material culture of aristocratic residences of the eleventh century, as pointed out above,
make detailed evaluation difficult. Difficulties for example with the recovery of
unstable potassium glass make it uncertain to what extent ceremonial drinking from
glass vessels was still important. Metal beakers may have been increasingly favoured.
Hunting as a pastime was still popular but we do not know to what extent new
innovations were taken over from the Continent (signal horns?). The dress of the
aristocratic stratum in Scandinavia was certainly strongly influenced by the Continental
pattern (see below).
The economy of the German kingdom was strong as it could fall back on considerable
deposits of silver in the Harz highlands. Coined silver from the German kingdom begins
–– Johan Callmer––