HIST 310-Vikings

More reflections from Else Roesdahl's THE VIKINGS.

Viking society was made up of many different classes. These were based on social and economic differences. We know the most about kings/cheiftian, free farmers, and slaves.

The slave class of the Vikings were usually poor and had no political status. They could be born into slavery or were sentenced to slavery for some crime they committed. Slaves could be sold or bartered for something else. The vikings often brought slaves home from their raiding expeditions. One buyer of Christian slaves was the Christian church. Their policy did not tolerate Christians being the slaves of pagens!!

Slaves were under the control of their owners, but slavery was regulated. Higher ranking women slaves and beautiful women could find themselves living better off than their counterparts. The book also states that talented men could also find themselves better off than non talented slaves.

They could also earn their freedom. It could either be granted or they could work it off.

FREEMAN

Another class was the free man. They were the majority of society. They included farm owners, large land owners, tenant farmers, hunters, farm workers, servants, craftsman, professional warriors and merchants. They had the right to express their opinions at THE THING (if anyone has found a website that tells more about the Thing please let me know!!) They had the right to bear arms and were under the protection of the law. It seems that depending on how wealthy you were also depended on your status in this class. A more wealthy man had more clout than a less well off man.

A major status of wealth was how much land you owned.

These are my reflections from the book THE VIKINGS by Else Roesdahl.

The land that the Vikings originated from was a difficult one. It varies from high mountains to low fjords to being partially in the Artic Circle and down to Mediterrean climate. The vast differences in this would make it unpredictable. The vast amount of land that they had to travel on, through, and around it just mind blowing based on the transportation technology they had.

Many vikings did not travel around the world destroying things. They made homes and worked their land or they performed some sort of craft/trade and provided it to the public. The book tells us about the eddaic poem Rigspula. The poem talks about three classes of people: Slaves, Free Farmers, and Warlords. There seems to have been distinct differences in classes and that they readily displayed their class by what they wore.

Clothes were found to have been made out of linen, wool, fur, and sometimes silk. Some had decorative arm bands and gold embrodery. They were usually dyed from natural products such as walnut shell. Men wore britches and tunics with belts. Over the tunics they wore cloaks that were broached and left open on the sword arm. The cloaks were usually made out of heavier material perhaps wool. I am sure this was needed living in the cold wintery climates. Women wore a underdress with tunic over the top. Its straps were held by broaches, but this depended on your wealth and social status by what size or if you had any broaches.

Jewerly was also a favorite of the vikings, but it served more than the purpose of accessorizing your outfit. It was a display of social status, but you were also carrying your money on your body. Silver neck and arm bands were usually about the same weight and you could pay for items with them. You could also cut them up to make change if you needed to. I wonder what the grocery clerk would think if I went in and paid for my groceries with one silver bracelet and two links from my gold watch!! Jewerly worn by women also displayed their husbands wealth. Depending on how many coins he had the wife wore a certain amount of neck bands. Usually the bigger your broach or jewerly was sign of how high ranked you were in society.

Their lives also revolved around the home. It was usually a house on a plot with locked outbuildings. The women of the house possesed the keys for them, so that does show how respected women were. They seemed to have good design in houses with the open hearth being in the center room. This again show how important food was to them. The roof had loveres for smoke to escape the house, but I bet it was not that much fun to be in there. You probably had a headache within 5 minutes of coming inside.

Today I was going to just check out a few of the websites from the syllabus. I ended up surfing for 2 hours by continually clicking a link to a different site.

The guide: historymedren.about.com/cs/vikings was loaded with links of information. There were two that gave me some information that would be used more for Trivial Pursuit. www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.html gave a list of archaeological finds of ninth and tenth century foods in the viking era. They actually ate alot of the same foods that we do now. Deer, Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Chicken seemed to be the most common meats throughout the Viking region. Those communities that were along the sea had fish and shellfish in their diets.They also seemed to have a good selection of fruit in their diets. Plums were the most common fruit between the communities listed.

Another website that I linked on to was www.gamecabinet.com/history/Hnef.html. It was about a game called HNEFATAFL. It translates into Kings Table. The board looks like a chess board, but varies in size from 7x7 inches to 19x19. The pieces are pegged so the board has holes drilled into it. It was known in Scandinavia before 400 and the Vikings brought it to the areas they conquered. From the description it sounds like a cross between checkers, stratigo, and chess.

There were also other games that the Vikings used to play. Chess (Skak-Tafl), Tabula (Kvatru-Tafl) it is the ancestor of Backgammon, Fox and Geese (Ref-Skak), Three Men's Morris (Harae-Taft), and Nine Men's Morris.

On the website www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~cherryne/myth.cgi is a good site to learn about the Norse Gods and creation theory. It gives a brief description of each of the gods. This site also had a copy of Runes. It was the Elder Germanic Futhark. There is a link at the bottom of the page that will take you to other sites about Runes.

I had to cut my visit short to viking.no/e/people.htm . I found information on some famous vikings like Knud the Great, Leif Ericsson, and Olav the Stout. There are also link words in these stories that will give you greater detail in to that subject.

These are my observations from my current readings of THE PENGUIN HISTORICAL ATLAS of THE VIKINGS by John Haywood, Pengiun Group, 1995

I have made it to the Viking Raids. When I picture a Viking Ship I am think more along the line of Hagar the Horrible. A beautiful ship that consisted of about 20 oarsmen and a few crewman walking around, but not big like The Mayflower. I am getting a broader picture reading about how they traveled and the size of their ships. How they came up with the calculation of the Viking Army size by figuring how many men needed to guard the burhs really amazed me.

To me the Vikings have always been portrayed as destroyers and the cause for loss of historical docturnes and some cities extintion. This is not necessarly true. If anything their raids had a short term effect on the agricultural ecomomy and most towns were able to rebuild. They did have a positive effect on Ireland and England by benefitting trade and promoting people living in cities, by either establishing them or by making the Anglo-Saxons cities a more heavly guarded town.

The only real long term damage the Vikings did was to the monastaries, which people were just appalled that they would have attacked a place of God. They caused an end to monastick life in northwest Europe. Many books were destroyed for their covers or for the precious metals.

This post is my observations from my current readings of The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings by John Haywood, Pengiun Group, 1995.

I have been very interested in the role of women in the Viking era. What I am learning has really surprised me. The role of women was usually confined to household duties, but they took charge when their husbands were away. This, to me, shows a great respect and equality that instead of having a father or brother take over while he was away, he just had his wife do it. The Pengiun Historical Atlas of Vikings describes marriages as "an alliance between equals". Women were also entitled to part of the assets when they divorced. This sounds almost more like a modern tradition. After marriage she also owned her dowry, which I am not familiar with this, but always thought it went to the husband. The Atlas also states that women grew in status as they aged and men decreased.

If you lived in the Danish Kingdom from about 808-853 you would have had to check everyday to see who your leader was. It changed every few years because either the king died, killed in battle or by exhiled relative, or exhiled by a previous king or relative. I don't think that I would have wanted to be a leader during this time. You never would know if your cousin was coming to visit you or was coming to kill you and take over tour throne!

I am also interested in the Shipbuilding and Seafaring. The Vikings displayed great shipbuilding skills. Just having the craftsmanship to cut the lumber and put it together for ocean readiness. They obviously took great pride in their ships by displaying carvings on them. The designing of the ships in itself was a great feat. I do wonder what the ratio of ships that set off to sail to those who did not make it back. It is amazing to me that they were able to travel as far as they did with such simple navigational tools.