The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction (5 page)

The animal bones comprised unusual proportions of jaws and
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skulls, perhaps remaining from sacrificial meals, as well as a large
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number of horses, at least ten dogs, plus pups and some wolves.

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There were smaller numbers of cats, beavers, badgers, foxes, red
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deer, and geese, as well as the more usual domestic species. The sow and boar bones had been spatially separated: the boars (possibly representing Freyr, male god of lust and sexuality) with the furnace; the sows (possibly representing Freyja, his female counterpart) with the amulet rings. In the 11th century the cult building was demolished and the area covered with a thick layer of gravel; a stone church was built 100m east of the cult area in the 13th century, but may have been preceded by a wooden church.

Conversion and Christianization

Given the differences between Scandinavian belief systems and Christian religion it appears that conversion was as much a process of developing new approaches to ideology as dealing with a clash of religions. Traditionally, conversion took place under royal direction, first in Denmark (under Harald Bluetooth in 965), and later in Norway (under Olaf Tryggvason in 995) and finally in Sweden 24

(under Olof Skötkonung, in 1008). However, research has indicated that Christianization was a long process stretching over several centuries preceding its official ratification, and that it may have proceeded in parallel in each of Scandinavian countries, albeit with regional differences.

The initial contact was probably the result of early Christian missions. In the early 8th century, Willibrord, an English monk working in Frisia, extended his mission to the Danes. He probably sailed to Ribe where, according to Alcuin, he was welcomed at the court of King Ongendus, but making little progress he gave up and sailed back to Frisia with 30 boys.

It was recorded in Rimbert’s
Vita Anskarii
, or ‘Life of Ansgar’, that in 829 a king of the Svear, in eastern Sweden, asked the Frankish
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Emperor, Louis the Pious, for a missionary to visit his country as
agans an

many wanted to adopt the Christian faith. Two monks from the monastery of Corvey, Ansgar and Witmar, were appointed to the
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journey to Birka. They converted Herigar, described as a prefect of Birka, and some years later a church was built, although there was a revolt in 847 which led to suspension of pastoral activities until 854.

Ansgar then re-established the mission and received permission to build churches and appoint priests. Ansgar died in 865 but, according to Adam of Bremen, a new mission was launched in 936.

Unni, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, visited Gorm and his son Bluetooth, and also travelled to Birka, where he died. Unni’s successor, Adaldag, consecrated bishops for Hedeby, Ribe, and Århus in or before 948.

Christian objects, many found in Scandinavian graves, have often been regarded as loot, but it has been suggested that some at least may represent early missionary activity. These include over 30

cross- or crucifix-shaped pendants, five 8th- and 9th-century crosiers (from Hedeby, Lund, Helgö, Stavanger, and Setnes), six reliquaries, and some 15 Frisian or Tating-ware jugs. These vessels were frequently decorated with silver-foil crosses and they have 25

been associated with the Christian liturgy, possibly being used for storing and measuring liturgical wine. Five such jugs were found in 9th-century graves from Birka; one was found with an Irish hanging bowl with fish-shaped mounts in the grave of a woman laid out east–west and whose grave-goods also included two cross-shaped rectangular brooches.

Women played an important role in pre-Christian Scandinavian religion, but it has been argued that conversion was a disaster for women. There was no Christian goddess, and religious practice was officiated over by men. Anne-Sofie Gräslund and others have rejected this, arguing that the exclusion of women only comes later, and that women played an important role in the Christianization of Scandinavia. Some aspects of Christianity would have been attractive to them, including the prohibition of infanticide, the equality of the sexes before God, and belief in a paradise from which
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women were not excluded, unlike Valhalla. The majority of the
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kin

pendant crosses and Tating-ware jugs come from female graves and
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women had a key role in dedicating rune stones (see below).

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Christianization is generally visible in the burial record. Christian burials may still have contained dress items, but there was a decrease in grave-goods. A rich 10th-century Danish grave recovered from Mammen in 1868 is characteristic of the transition to Christianity. The grave-goods included a gaming board and a famous silver-inlaid axe but there were no other weapons, and a large candle had been placed in the chamber. Tree ring dating of the burial chamber places it in 970–1, just five to ten years after the conversion of the royal Jellinge dynasty.

Cremation was prohibited by the early church as a pagan practice and declined during the 10th century, although in some areas it continued to be practised. At Valsta, in the Uppland region of Sweden, there is a typical farm cemetery of the Mälaren valley comprising
c
.70 burials, the majority dating to
c
.800–1150. During the 9th and 10th centuries all graves were cremations, and there is 26

no indication of any Christian influence from Birka, although the grave-goods indicate broad contacts including a glass beaker, Frankish, Frisian, and Slavonic pottery, Arabic coins and weights, and continental sword types.

Around 950 the inhumation rite was introduced, but cremation continued to be used in parallel until at least the mid-12th century.

The inhumations may represent the introduction of Christian beliefs, and although they are orientated east–west, they also still contain pagan elements, including grave-goods, Thor’s hammer amulets, and food offerings. Around 1100 a third group of graves was established on the northern plateau at the top of the cemetery.

Secondary inhumations were inserted into a large mid-9th-century barrow by removing a 6m-diameter area from the centre of the barrow and inserting three cist burials. The earlier cremation layer
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was placed around the insertions and a kerbstone added to the
agans an

mound. Unfortunately all three cist burials were later robbed, but a small iron cross was recovered, as well as a rock crystal and white
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quartz beads. The symbolic placement of the burials indicates a strong identification with the earlier chiefly burial, but also clear Christian symbolism coexisting with 12th-century cremation.

The 10th-century introduction of monumental rune stones provided a new means of commemoration of the dead. There are 2,500 Viking Age runic inscriptions in Sweden,
c
.250 in Denmark (including southern Sweden), and
c
.65 in Norway. The densest distribution is in the Uppland region of central Sweden, with 1,300

rune stones, over 60 per cent of which date to the establishment of a diocese there in the late 11th century. Birgit Sawyer has argued that rune stones had a secular function in ensuring inheritance and marking individual claims to land and this is certainly true, but the vast majority of rune stones are also Christian monuments. Over half are decorated with a cross, and over 200 contain prayers in the form of ‘May God help his/her soul . . . ’ Several rune stones mention the conversion of whole regions (p. 16). The early church incorporated bridge building into a system of indulgences, 27

comparable to the giving of alms or going on a pilgrimage. Around 150 rune stones were erected as monuments close to bridges; of these it is notable that 55 per cent were erected by women.

The dating of the rune stones emphasizes that Christianization was a long-drawn-out process. Although it is believed that Ansgar established a church in Birka in the 9th century, the earliest churches found archaeologically belong to late 10th and 11th centuries. Following a pattern seen slightly earlier in England, many rural churches in southern Scandinavia appear to have started life as private estate chapels built of timber in the 10th century, followed by a documented explosion of stone church building in the 12th and 13th centuries. In some cases there is extraordinary evidence for continuity of sacred places. At Mære, for example, in the Trøndelag district of mid Norway the present stone church was built
c
.1150–1200. It was preceded by a wooden 11th-s

century church, which itself overlay Christian burials suggesting a
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kin

still earlier church. The first church lay on top of a cultural layer
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with four post-holes and 19 gold foils, maybe the location of the
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high seat of a 9th-century hall or
hof
site.

In conclusion, although ‘pagan’ practices and belief systems have become an essential part of the modern definition of Vikings, for 9th-century Scandinavians pre-Christian beliefs provided just another aspect of life. These beliefs were not exclusive and early Scandinavian kings soon embraced Christianity as another means by which they could legitimize their rule. In later chapters we shall see, however, that in some situations Scandinavian colonists overseas used burial rites as a means by which they could maintain a distinct identity, in the face of indigenous pressure to assimilate.

First, we need to examine changes in Scandinavian rural settlement.

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Chapter 4

Changes in the countryside

Archaeologists studying the development of early states in Scandinavia during the Viking Age have argued that their origins lay in social and economic processes already under way in the late Iron Age. Major excavations in advance of development, as well as the archaeological recording of metal-detected finds, particularly in southern Scandinavia, have revealed a process of gradual settlement evolution, as well as a growing complexity of settlement types.

In Norway and the Swedish interior a pattern of isolated farmsteads, with small clusters of dwellings and outbuildings, was established during the Iron Age. In Denmark and southern Sweden there were relatively mobile villages as well as individual farms before the 9th century, but there is evidence for new patterns of landholding during the 10th and 11th centuries, and the establishment of the modern settlement pattern by the 12th century, reflected in place names ending in
-toft
,
-torp
, or
-by
.

Denmark and southern Sweden

In Denmark the period 500–800 was once seen as a period of decline, but more recent excavations show this was a prosperous age with growing social stratification; they demonstrate that the apparent desertion of settlements actually represents localized settlement movement. Archaeological work and metal detecting 29

has also revealed a much more complex system of settlement hierarchies.

Throughout southern Scandinavia a number of more specialized sites begin to emerge from the 6th century. Some appear to have functioned as production sites and landing places, established by aristocratic families who were looking for the opportunity to exchange production surplus for prestige goods. Many also incorporated religious functions. They include sites such as Helgö in Uppland; Paviken in Gotland; Gudme, Strandy Gammeltoft, and Fyn’s Hoved in Fyn; Boeslunde, Vester Egesborg, and Næs in Sjælland; Sebbersund and Bejsebakken in northern Jutland.

At Gudme, in South-East Fyn, an Iron Age settlement complex of over 50 farms covered a square kilometre. Over 7,000 metal objects
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dated 200–1000 have been found within the settlement area,
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including six gold and five silver hoards, testament to the power
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base of the local aristocracy. Many of the farms belonged to
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craftsmen, on which goldsmiths and silversmiths worked, and where bronze casting was carried out. The main building was an imposing late Iron Age hall – an aristocratic residence whose inhabitants drank from Roman glasses and ate from Roman bowls.

The adjacent coastal trading site at Lundeborg acted as the port of trade. Gudme also had some cult function; the place name means literally ‘home of the gods’. Although it declined from the 6th century, its trading and manufacturing functions continued into the Viking Age.

A similar site existed at Uppåkra in Skåne. This also developed as a central place in the Iron Age, but maintained trading, manufacturing, and religious functions until
c
.1000, when it was superseded by the town of Lund, 5 kilometres to the north. Metal objects have been found over a 40-hectare area, including Arabic and Carolingian coins, tiny gold foil votive mounts or
guldgubber
, dies for their manufacture, and miniature amulets.

30

The site at Næs was occupied from the late 7th to 9th centuries.

There were over 20 timber halls, but also some 70 workshops which must have been used as spinning and weaving sheds as each contained loom weights and spindle whorls. In a low-lying part of the site there were also 57 wicker-lined pits, used for retting flax. A 150-metre long channel had been dug to facilitate changing the water. Antlers were also found in several of the pits where they were being soaked prior to being worked. At Sebbersund there is evidence for a zoned trading and manufacturing centre comprising over 300 workshops, where weaving and ferrous and non-ferrous metal-working took place.

Vorbasse, in Jutland, was the first site where a sufficiently large area was examined to demonstrate a process of localized settlement movement, culminating in the establishment of a permanent village
Chan
towards the end of the Viking Age. From 1974–92 over 260,000

ges in th

square metres were excavated, revealing at least eight separate settlement shifts between the 1st century bc and the 11th century
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