1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature
3. poetry

Who Were
the Vikings?
A look into the Society
and Culture of the Viking
Age
Week 2: May 1st, 2015
AM 113 a or b fol, a page from
a 17th-century copy of the 12thcentury manuscript of
Íslendingabók
Arnamagnæan institute,
Reykjavík, Iceland
This Week
•Language, Literature and Runes
•Scandinavian written sources for the Viking Age
•Runes and Runic Monuments
•Oral Literature
•Post Viking Age writing
•Sagas
Written Sources
Konungsbók (Codex Regius) of the Poetic Edda, 2nd half of the 13th century. Árni Magnússon Institute /
Culture House, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Scandinavian Sources
•Scandinavians start writing in Latin script, using codices (books), only
when Christianity is introduced.
•Though this happens to varying degrees of success at various times in
various places, a convenient catch-all date for conversion would be the
year 1000.
•But: communication with Latinised Christian neighbours of course
occurs before then: the Scandinavians do not live in a cultural vacuum
disconnected from Europe (cf. contact with the Roman world during
the “Roman Iron Age”).
•Even so: before the advent of Latin script, Scandinavians are not
illiterate!
Language
•Old Norse: the language of the Vikings
•Ancestor of all the modern Scandinavian languages and
dialects, including Faroese and Icelandic
•Related to other older Germanic languages, like Old English,
Old High German, and Gothic.
•Two main branches: West Norse (Norway, Iceland, the
British Isles and the North Atlantic expansion) and East
Norse (Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic and the Eastern
expansion)
Language
•Runic inscriptions and all post-Viking Age Scandinavian
writing is in Old Norse.
•Editions of Old Norse material usually use a standardised
editorial version.
•However, in the post-VA medieval period, regional dialects
are already starting to differentiate Old Norse into what will
become the Scandinavian languages.
•(Note that some Modern Scandinavian languages are still
mostly mutually intelligible in writing, and in some cases,
even in speech)
Runes and Runic Monuments
•Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples use an
alphabetic writing system known as Runes.
•Runes are a set of angular characters, likely meant to be
carved on hard surfaces, rather than written. They are best
suited to expressing the sounds of Germanic languages (Old
Norse).
•Many Runic alphabets exist, in many parts of the Germanic
world, including the Continent, Scandinavia, and AngloSaxon England. These change over time and display some
internal variation.
Runes and Runic Monuments
•The runic alphabet is called the “FUTHARK” based on its
first six characters: F U Þ A R K.
•In Old Norse (and Old English) written in Latin Script, the
“th” sounds are represented by “thorn” Þ/þ and “eth” Ð/ð
(still used in Icelandic, for example). The “thorn” character is
derived from a rune.
The “older” fuþark
•Very early, used between c. AD 100 to c. AD 700 (so
predating the Viking Age) in various parts of the Germanic
world, including the continent.
•Very few inscriptions.
The “younger” fuþark
•Appears in Scandinavia after AD 700. These are the true
Viking Age runes. There is much variety in their script, but
hare are two examples:
The medieval runes
•Appears in Scandinavia around AD 1200. The younger
fuþark has been expanded to express more sounds in the
evolving Scandinavian languages, and also as an influence of
Latin script. There is little consistency, and the example
below is a conventional approximation.
Uses of Runes in the Viking Age
•Memorial monuments
•Ownership marks
•“Official” documents (e.g. coins, legal judgment on the
Forsa ring)
•Graffiti
Runic ring from Forsa,
Sweden (c. 800 AD)
Stones at Jelling, Denmark
Moesgård Museum, Denmark
Lund, Sweden
Lund, Sweden
Högby, Sweden
Västra Strö, Sweden
Gamla Stan, Stockholm, Sweden
Gotlands Fornsal Museum, Visby, Island of Gotland, Sweden
Ramsund, Södermanland, Sweden
Rök, Sweden
Greenland (National Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark)
Irish reliquary casket with
Runic ownership mark
(National Museum,
Copenhagen, Denmark)
Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway
Medieval
runes
14th C. (?) bell, National Museum,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Baptismal font from
Småland, Sweden (Historiska
Museet, Stockholm)
Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway
Bryggens Museum, Bergen, Norway
Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Graffiti!
•Piraeus Lion (originally
in Piraeus, the port of
Athens). Late VA-style
(11th C.?) graffiti.
(Copy in the Historiska Museet,
Stockholm, Sweden)
Graffiti!
•Hagia Sophia
(Byzantium, now
Istanbul, Turkey)
The inscription is partially
illegible and difficult to
date, but the name
“Halfdan” is legible.
Large stone, Jelling, Denmark
Jelling Museum, Jelling, Denmark
Harald Blutooth’s Stone (Jelling II)
Transliteration of runes:
haraltr : kunukR : baþ : kaurua / kubl : þausi : aft : kurmfaþursin / aukaft
: þáurui : muþur : sina : sa / haraltr [:] ias : sáR: uan : tanmaurk / ala :
auk : nuruiak / : auk t(á)ni [:] (karþi) [:] kristná
Old Norse Reconstruction (compare with Old West Norse normalised version in the textbook, pp. 87-88)
Haraldr konungr bað görva kumbl þausi aft Gorm faður sinn auk aft
Þórví móður sína. Sá Haraldr es sér vann Danmörk alla auk Norveg au
dani gærði kristna.
English Translation
King Harald ordered these memorials to be made after Gorm, his father,
and after Thorvi (Thyra), his mother. That Harald who won for himself all
of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians.
Source: A New Introduction to Old Norse . Part II: Reader, 4th edition, ed. by Anthony Faulkes (London: Viking Society for Northern Research,
2007), p. 226
H
H
H A
H A
H A R
H A R
H A R A
H A R A
H A R A L
H A R A L
H A R A L T
H A R A L T
H A R A L T R
Oral Literature
•How do we know about literature that wasn’t written
down?
•Things like laws, which had to pre-exist their written
form.
•Poetry: complicated metre and rules, written in later
manuscripts but also on Runic monuments.
•Linguistic clues: the evolution of language before its
written form.
“Eddic” Poetry
•Refers to poetry contained in the “Elder” or “Poetic Edda”,
an anonymous compilation of texts referring to mythology
and worldly wisdom.
•Mostly contained in the 13th century Icelandic manuscript
known as the Codex Regius (Konungsbók)
•Several different poems. Their content and linguistic
features sometimes point towards a very early composition.
“Eddic” Poetry
•Some examples from the poem Hávamál, or “Words of the
High One”, supposed to be advice given by the god Odin to a
mortal man.
(Stanza 52)
Mikit eitt
skala manni gefa:
opt kaupir sér í litlu lof;
með hálfum hleif
ok með hǫllu keri
fekk ek mér félaga.
Translation: Teva Vidal
Not only large gifts
should one give:
often one buys praise for himself with little;
with half a loaf
and with a tilted cup
I got myself a comrade.
“Eddic” Poetry
(Stanza 3)
Elds er þǫrf
þeims inn er kominn
ok á kné kalinn;
matar ok váða
er manni þǫrf,
þeim er hefir um fjall farit.
Fire is needed
for him who has come inside
and is cold to the knee;
food and clothes
are needed for the man
who has travelled in the mountains.
(Stanza 4)
Vatns er þǫrf
þeim er til verðar kǫmr,
þerru ok þjóðlaðar,
góðs um œðis,
ef sér geta mætti,
orðs ok endrþǫgu.
Water is needed
for him who has come to a meal,
towels and a friendly invitation,
a good disposition,
if he can get it,
conversation and silence in return.
Translations: Teva Vidal
Skaldic Poetry
•Poetry written by skalds, poets of great skill.
•Written along very difficult rules of metre, alliteration,
internal rhyme and use of figurative speech.
•Especially “kennings”: metaphoric or periphrastic
constructions to refer to objects, creatures or concepts.
•A modern “kenning”: the Ship of the Desert.
Skaldic Poetry
•An example written by Harald Sigurðarson, “Hardradi”, King of Norway, supposedly
shortly before his death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066:
Faithful falcon-field goddess
commanded this of me:
not to creep behind the shield
In the noise of weapons.
The necklace-support told me
to hold my helmet-base high
Where valkyrie-ice and skulls
Meet in the clash of metal.
(falcon-field = arm, its goddess = woman; noise of weapons = battle; necklace
support = woman; helmet-base = head; valkyrie-ice = sword; clash of metal = battle)
Translation: Judith Jesch
Skaldic Poetry
•An example attributed to Egill Skallagrimsson, hero of Egil’s Saga, supposedly in the
10th century, encouraging his fellow Vikings during an attack on Lund:
Reddener of the wolf’s tooth,
let’s hold gleaming swords high,
we’ve got deeds to perform
In valley-fish relief.
Every man up to Lund,
As quickly as he can!
Let’s chant the song of spears
before the sun goes down.
(reddener of the wolf’s tooth = warrior; valley-fish = snake, its relief = summertime;
song of spears = battle, to chant it = to do battle)
Translation: Judith Jesch
Scandinavian Writing
after the Viking Age
•An explosion of written composition occurs once the Viking
Age has ended, Scandinavia and its colonies have been
Christianised, and the use of Latin script has become
generalised.
•Law codes (as we’ve seen)
•Religious texts (sermons, psalms, etc.)
•Mythological and grammatical texts
•Histories
•Sagas
Histories
•Two “superstars” in this field:
•Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1150 – c. 1220), Danish historian
and political advisor.
•Writes his Gesta Danorum, “Deeds of the Danes”, a
history of Denmark and its wider Scandinavian
context up until his day, in Latin.
•Very nearly contemporary of the Viking Age.
•Even he sings the praises of Icelandic lore, both
written and oral, in the preservation of the common
Scandinavian heritage.
Histories
•Two “superstars” in this field:
•Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). Icelandic aristocrat,
political leader, twice elected Lawspeaker, grammarian,
historian, author and antiquarian.
•There’s nothing cool that this guy doesn’t do. AND he’s
super rich.
•We’ll look at some of his other work later, but in terms
of history, he writes Heimskringla, the “History of the
Kings of Norway”, an extremely important compilation of
historical and mythological material.