A Brief History of the Vikings (34 page)

6
Ibid., p.69.

7
Russian Primary Chronicle
, quoted in Brønsted,
The Vikings
, pp.67–68.

8
Duczko,
Viking Rus
, p.78 and 81. Volkoff,
Vladimir the Russian Viking
, p.40, goes further, equating the legendary Rurik with a historical Rorik who raided France and England, and eventually signed a treaty with Charlemagne’s grandson, Lothaire I. Duczko,
Viking Rus
, p.235, also dismisses a nineteenth-century suggestion that Rurik was a composite character based on a group of Swedes who used the wings and beak of a falcon (Slav:
rarog
as their insignia.

9
For the cataracts and the rune stone, see Jones,
History of the Vikings
, pp.257–8; Davidson,
Viking Road to Byzantium
, p.85.

10
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, pp.249–50. These additional etymologies for Rus are from Davidson,
Viking Road to Byzantium
, p.59, and from Haywood,
Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age
, p.162. Duczko,
Viking Rus
, p.210, adds still another possible origin, noting that Rhosia may have been the ‘Area of the
Rod’
, an old term for
kinfolk. If this is true, then the Rus may simply have referred to their people as The Kin.

11
Norwich,
Byzantium: The Apogee
, p.66;
Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State
, p.228; Duczko,
Viking Rus
, pp.83–5.

12
Magnusson,
Vikings!
, p.116 and Haywood,
Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings
, p.107, both believe that Oleg himself only ‘negotiated’ with Constantinople after threatening the city with his own army around 907, but Norwich,
Byzantium: The Apogee
, p.150 regards this story as ‘almost certainly apocryphal’. However, in parts of Scandinavia, 11 June is the traditional day for the renegotiation of contracts – perhaps in some ironic way the fleet was indeed intended as a bargaining tool.

13
From the Arabic
sharq
, ‘orient/sunrise’ or possibly corrupted from ‘silk’.

14
These are, of course, the Muslim profession of faith, along with passages CXII and IX:33 from the Quran. For the
dirham
inscriptions in full, see
Encyclopaedia Britannica
, ‘Islamic Coins of the West and of Western and Central Asia.’

15
Davidson,
Viking Road to Byzantium
, p.52. Muslim
dirhams
form 35 per cent of the silver in Gotland graves. Of the remainder, 45 per cent are German and around 17 per cent are English, dating from the period after the tenth century. See Malmer, ‘What does coinage tell us . . .?’, p.157.

16
Griffith,
Viking Art of War
, p.48.

17
By accident or design,
bereza
is modern Russian for birch. Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.258.

18
Abu-Chacra,
Vikings Through Arab Eyes
, p.8.

19
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.255.

20
Abu-Chacra,
Vikings Through Arab Eyes
, pp.35–36. There has been a long debate among scholars as to whether the Rus met by Ibn Fadlan were Vikings or Slavs. They appear to be both, with an allegiance to a king in Kiev (Igor) but offering religious observances at wooden poles, which is more in keeping with Slav traditions.

21
Ibid., p.38; also Duczko,
Viking Rus
, pp.l37ff.

22
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.261. Duczko,
Viking Rus
, p.121, notes that
German
silver mines became productive in the 950s, and tempted European traders with cheaper silver closer to home that was easier to obtain.

23
Davidson,
Viking Road to Byzantium
, pp.280–1, even presents the intriguing argument that the tale of Beowulf’s final battle with the fire-breathing dragon may be a confused reference to a battle between Scandinavians and dragon-headed ships that spit Greek fire.

24
The recipe for Greek fire remains unknown to this day, though it presumed to be a petroleum-based mixture.

25
Volkoff,
Vladimir the Russian Viking
, p.13.

26
Ibid., pp.17–19.

27
Ibid., pp.25–26.

28
Svyatoslav to Emperor John Tzimisces, 970, quoted in Norwich,
Byzantium: The Apogee
, p.211. Constantinople was an ultimate Russian objective thereafter, even as late as 1915, when it was promised to the last Czar in the secret Allied Istanbul Agreements.

29
See Volkoff,
Vladimir the Russian Viking
, pp.69–72.

30
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.247n. The idea of a double wave of Viking expansion in Russia would certainly help explain the differing nomenclatures. If it is correct, then the meanings of Rus and Varangian are not the same at all, but refer to different eras of arrival for Swedish settlers.

31
Some years earlier, Rogned had supposedly turned down the offer of Vladimir’s hand in marriage, calling him a slave’s son. She had insulted Vladimir even more by claiming that she would happily consider his brother Jaropolk. Volkoff,
Vladimir the Russian Viking
, pp.88–94.

32
Norwich,
Byzantium: The Apogee
, p.245.

33
Ibid., p.245.

1
So called because he had a grey cloak, and caused a brief fad for such clothing among his men.
Heimskringla
, p.137.

2
See Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.124.

3
Heimskringla
, p.142.

4
By this time, only two sons were surviving, Ragnfroth, who failed in an attempt to attack Trondheim, and another, Guthroth, who was only defeated much later, during the reign of Olaf Tryggvason.

5
Haywood,
Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age
, p.51. Payments began in 978, but were not regarded as tribute until 991, and not referred to as
danegeld
until retrospectively, after the Norman conquest. Although payment of
danegeld
officially ceased in 1016, kings would continue to levy
heregeld
until 1162.

6
Adam of Bremen, pp.75–6.

7
Heimskringla
, p.147, uses the term ‘viking’ here, even though the captors are later revealed to be Estonian, not Scandinavian.

8
Ibid., p.171.

9
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.125.

10
Ibid., p.126.

11
Tale of Thorvald the Far-Travelled
, CSI V, p.358. For Forkbeard’s mother, see Weir,
Britain’s Royal Families
, p.25.

12
Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue
, CSI I, p.315.

13
Stafford,
Queen Emma & Queen Edith
, p.214. Upon her arrival in England, Emma took the local name Aelfgifu, but I have not used it here, since it only serves to confuse her with a later Aelfgifu, concubine of King Canute.

14
Heimskringla
, p.185.

15
Ibid., p.204

16
The Tale of Svadi and Arnor Crone’s-Nose
, CSI V, p.355, recounts an incident where a Viking assembly votes to allow the old and infirm to starve to death in a time of famine, only to be told by dissenters that such behaviour is abominable. Christianity was already taking root.

17
Byock,
Viking Age Iceland
, p.299.

18
Njal’s Saga
, CSI III, p.123.

19
Ibid., CSI III, p.125.

20
Byock,
Viking Age Iceland
, p.300.

1
Some Roman coins have been discovered in Iceland, but it is thought that they were brought there by much later travellers, not Romans; Marcus,
Conquest of the North Atlantic
, p.24–7. It does not help that the chronicler Dicuil persisted in retroactively referring to Iceland as ‘Thile’
[sic]
, thereby leading later geographers to believe that Pytheas had visited it. Some authorities, e.g. Magnusson,
Vikings!
, p.182, suggest that some Romans may indeed have reached Iceland, if only to be wrecked on its shores.

2
Compare, for example, to the much later assumption that Australia belonged to Britain because a Briton had been the first to sail around it: Fleming,
Barrow’s Boys
, p.277.

3
Compare to the similar double-crossing that accompanied the Frey-dis mission to Vinland, in
Greenlander Saga
8, Magnsson and Palsson,
The Vinland Sagas
, pp.67–9.

4
O’Donoghue,
Old Norse-Icelandic Literature
, pp.55–7.

5
If Olaf the White can be matched with Amlaíb, King of Dublin, then Aud might even have been the daughter of Cerball mac Dúnlainge, and hence Irish herself. See Haywood,
Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age
, p.138.

6
Davidson,
The Viking Road to Byzantium
, p.102.

7
Ibid., p.298.

8
Ibid., p.300.

9
Marcus,
The Conquest of the North Atlantic
, p.55.

10
Eirik’s Saga
, 2, in Magnusson and Palsson,
The Vinland Sagas
, p.76.

11
Eirik the Red’s Saga
, CSI I, p.2.

12
Íslendingabók
6, in Magnusson,
Vikings!
, p.215.

13
Marcus,
Conquest of the North Atlantic
, p.57.

14
Greenlander Saga
, 2, in Magnusson and Palsson,
The Vinland Sagas
, p.52.

15
Ibid., p.53.

16
Many authorities assume it was Labrador, but I have followed Haywood’s
Historical Atlas of the Vikings
, p.99, chiefly for its consideration of climatic change. The land described in
Greenlander Saga
may
resemble modern Labrador, but Canadian forests extended considerably further to the north in the year 1000 than they do today.

17
Greenlander Saga
, 4, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, p.57.

18
Greenlander Saga
, 4 and 6, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, p.59 and 62.

19
Nesheim, however, in ‘Eastern and Western Elements in Culture’ p.156, suggests that
skrit
simply means ‘on skis’, and that it is (a) not pejorative at all, and (b) bears no cognate relationship with the Skraelings.

20
Greenlander Saga
, 6, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, pp.62–3, particularly the strange phrases that accompany Gudrid being ‘comforted’ by yet another man (confusingly also called Thorsteinn) before meeting Thorfinn.

21
Greenlander Saga
, 7, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, pp.65–6.

22
Erik’s Saga
, 9, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, pp.96–7.

23
Greenlander Saga
, 7, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, p.66.

24
Freydis supposedly charged a group of attacking Skraelings while pregnant at this point. A variant manuscript of
Erik’s Saga
mixes occurrences of the name Freydis and Gudrid. See
Erik’s Saga
, 11, in Magnusson and Palsson,
Vinland Sagas
, pp.100–1.

1
Adam of Bremen, p.80; see also Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.137.

2
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.131.

3
Ibid., p.133.

4
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.l35n.

5
Williams,
Aethelred the Unready
, p.54 disputes the date of Gunnhild’s death, and suggests it may have been considerably later. Since she probably didn’t exist, this doesn’t really make much difference!

6
Williams,
Aethelred the Unready
, p.52.

7
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.135.

8
Magnusson,
Vikings!
, p.276–7. The entry from Pepys’ diary is from 10 April 1661.

9
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.139.

10
Barlow,
The Godwins
, p.26.

11
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.365.

12
Weir,
Britain’s Royal Families
, p.23. Thorkell the Tall is the ‘Thurcytel Thorgils Havi’ in Weir’s account, who may have married Aethelred’s daughter Edith. Edith’s sister Wulfhilda had been the wife of Ulfkell Snilling.

13
Swanton, The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles
, p.141. Aelfheah, later Saint Aelfheah, was also known as Godwine, perhaps suggesting a connection
with the Godwin family who were so prominent in Aethelred’s England.

14
Ibid., p.144.

15
Since no source refers to Sigrid the Haughty as the ‘Queen of England’, we must assume that she was dead by this time.

16
Williams,
Aethelred the Unready
, p.132.

17
Stafford,
Queen Emma and Queen Edith
, p.12. A Norman Latin poem of the eleventh century suggested that Emma was like Semiramis, an Asiatic queen raped by Zeus in animal form.

18
Mills,
London Place Names
, p.199.

19
Heimskringla
, p.264.

20
Ibid., p.400.

21
Jones,
History of the Vikings
, p.382.