Who Were the Vikings?
The word Viking, and the general image that it conjures in most people's minds today is actually a word English priests in the Dark Ages (around 800 A.D.) would have applied to warlike raiders that targeted Christian Monasteries. For about three Centuries starting about 100 years before the date just mentioned any settlement on the sea or a river the Vikings could navigate in thier shallow draft boats was a potential target for plunder. The waterborne hit and run tactics of these raids give us the picture we generally have of the Vikings. Some war chiefs had dragon heads on thier longships intended as a scare tactic to frighten their targets as they approached. It is very possible that this was not a universal feature of longboats, but it did exist, and has become a lasting part of the Viking image. Some sagas even mention removing the heads when on a trading or other friendly mission.
The shields arrayed along the side of the longboat are another lasting image, and it is something Vikings did when planning an attack, but since the shields appear to have been hung loosely on the side with leather thongs the image of a Viking ship under sail on a rough sea with shields arrayed on its gunwales is probably inaccurate. The horned helmet is another faulty image. Iron helmets were indeed standard Viking gear, but the horns were likely fairly rare rather than a standard feature.
But back to the point, the Vikings didn't call themselves Vikings, and considered themselves a part of various tribes such as Danes, Norwiegans, Swedes, and maybe Finns and Jutes. A few might even consider the Saxons in their migration to what became England to be a sort of early Viking, although by the period we are talking about, the so called "Viking Age" (maybe 700-1000 A.D although 800-1000 is often used), the Saxons had become Christians and were the ones being raided.
The reason the word, "Viking", used mostly by frightened monks from northern England has become so widely used as the name for this wide variety of related Scandinavian peoples (who were of Germanic/Celtic origins and who were likely pushed into the far North when Rome and the Gauls were powerful and fighting each other) is that in English virtually all the written sources we have from this time were written by monks. Although all of the Norsemen did have similar culture, and were known to sometimes form alliances amongst themselves, they do not seem to have seen themselves as Vikings, or even as one people.
And so although the horn helmeted Vikings of legend attacking in a dragon ship with their shields arrayed along the sides may have been more the exception than the rule, and although the Vikings were traders and farmers at least as often as they were raiders. Their legend lives and grows, as it well deserves to do. The romantic manly warrior image of sailing the world in an open boat, ready for anything, ready to go beserk and fight to the death against any odds for a place of honor in Valhalla is not something people want to forget. Their legend enriches our culture, and the facts although usually not quite so stereotypical are generally equally, if not more, impressive.
The shields arrayed along the side of the longboat are another lasting image, and it is something Vikings did when planning an attack, but since the shields appear to have been hung loosely on the side with leather thongs the image of a Viking ship under sail on a rough sea with shields arrayed on its gunwales is probably inaccurate. The horned helmet is another faulty image. Iron helmets were indeed standard Viking gear, but the horns were likely fairly rare rather than a standard feature.
But back to the point, the Vikings didn't call themselves Vikings, and considered themselves a part of various tribes such as Danes, Norwiegans, Swedes, and maybe Finns and Jutes. A few might even consider the Saxons in their migration to what became England to be a sort of early Viking, although by the period we are talking about, the so called "Viking Age" (maybe 700-1000 A.D although 800-1000 is often used), the Saxons had become Christians and were the ones being raided.
The reason the word, "Viking", used mostly by frightened monks from northern England has become so widely used as the name for this wide variety of related Scandinavian peoples (who were of Germanic/Celtic origins and who were likely pushed into the far North when Rome and the Gauls were powerful and fighting each other) is that in English virtually all the written sources we have from this time were written by monks. Although all of the Norsemen did have similar culture, and were known to sometimes form alliances amongst themselves, they do not seem to have seen themselves as Vikings, or even as one people.
And so although the horn helmeted Vikings of legend attacking in a dragon ship with their shields arrayed along the sides may have been more the exception than the rule, and although the Vikings were traders and farmers at least as often as they were raiders. Their legend lives and grows, as it well deserves to do. The romantic manly warrior image of sailing the world in an open boat, ready for anything, ready to go beserk and fight to the death against any odds for a place of honor in Valhalla is not something people want to forget. Their legend enriches our culture, and the facts although usually not quite so stereotypical are generally equally, if not more, impressive.
posted by John S. Crandall | 6:53 AM
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