The Golden Rule of Viking Society

Gold was the glue of Viking society, and the longships took them to it. The strongest and wealthiest, Viking chieftains and kings ruled by giving generously to those under their command; trade and conquest filled the coffers of the kings, and the Viking Age simply would not have existed without the longship, the best boat of the day, taxis of terror and trade.^{1,2, 3}

Viking trade gold; Flickr: by Arild Finne Nybø

The Vikings lived in a highly structured society with a chieftain-priest at the top. Below the chieftain the class of freemen included warriors, farmers, artisans, lawyers, and poets; these roles were fluid, and while every warrior was also a farmer, some were also poets and blacksmiths, lawyers and priests. Viking society also included slaves, the bottom of the social ladder; the slaves, often other people captured during Viking raids, could be killed in any season and for any reason.^4,5,6

“Harald Finehair” Battle of Stiklestad,
Pal Christian Eggen som konge i spelet 2014; Wikipedia

During the Viking Age, 800 to 1066, the Kings rose to ultimate power by might and bloody battle, killing or cowing all other chieftains. Harald met a bedazzling princess who refused to marry him unless he made something more of himself. The frailty of the male eye, the lure of love, her face would launch a thousand ships. To meet her challenge and gain her as his wife, he aimed to conquer all of Norway, and he refused to cut, comb or wash his hair until he achieved this lofty goal. He succeeded by sea using longships with berserks growling in the prow; only on the whale road or sea could he reach and defeat the populated regions of mountainous Norway. After ten years, he became that country’s first King and when he finally did wash, cut and comb his hair for the wedding, people commented on how fine his hair was, hence his nickname: Harald Finehair.^7,8,9

IMG_7023 “Reinas por una causa . Junio 2014. Miss Universe Canada”; Flickr: by Jorge Mejía peralta

The Kings or chieftains won their place by military might, by winning battles and killing their own kind, and the Vikings were eager to share their violence with others, turning the Christian peace of Europe to pandemonium. The Vikings prized a matrix of four interconnected virtues above all: courage, honour, generosity, and loyalty.¹⁰

A curious blend of fearlessness and fatalism guided them to face inevitable death with stoic fortitude, an idea captured in the poem Havamal, The Sayings of the High One: “Cattle die, wealth dies, kinsmen die, you yourself must one day die but word-fame never dies for him who achieves it well.”¹¹ The top god, the High One, Odin was an unscrupulous philosopher-king worshipped by the Viking nobility, the poets and berserks; as Lord of the Slain his animals the wolf and raven ate the dead bodies after battles. The common folks worshipped Thor, whose name lives on in Thursday.^{12, 13}

Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders in an illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript – Wikipedia

The freemen, chieftains and kings were also strongly independent people, and this appears in the very advanced, for the times, rights of women. Women were married at a young age to men chosen by their fathers, but the Icelandic sagas record numerous accounts of women playing an active role in this process. Because the men rather frequently left home to fish, trade and raid, the women had to manage the farms in their absence. Viking women could own property, inherit estates and even divorce their husbands.^14,15

Backstage Lancaster in Montreal; Flickr: by Mathieu Lebreton

Here is an illustrative passage from Laxdaela saga: Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir is introduced as "the most beautiful woman ever to have grown up in Iceland, and no less clever than she was good-looking." Guðrún has dreams that cause her concern. A wise kinsman interprets the dreams to mean that Guðrún will have four husbands; she will divorce the first one but the other three will die. And indeed, Guðrún marries her first husband at the age of fifteen and he turns out to be a man she dislikes. She makes him a shirt with a low-cut neck and then shortly thereafter divorces him on the grounds that he wears women's clothing.¹⁶

Viking kings and chieftain-priests gained the gold for their gifts by military conquest and increasingly by trade. The desire to extend the net of trade certainly explains part of the volcanic movements of the Vikings in this period. The great wealth in the Christian territories of Europe also attracted Viking swords like a magnet. They got to the gold by boat.¹⁷ In the firestorm that would be, overpopulation and climate change made the tinder dry in Scandinavia, but the massacre of 4,500 pagan Saxons at Verden by Charlemagne in October of 782 provided the spark for the conflagration; the resulting Viking attacks and the rise of the kings provided a riposte to the military and ideological threats posed by such Christian nation states.¹⁸

IMG_3052B “Pierre Paul Rubens. 1577-1640. Anvers. Saint Ambroise et l'Empereur Théodose KHM Vienne; Flickr: by jean louis mazieres

The swan-breasted and swan-necked longships would carry merchants and warriors to distant shores in search of the silver, gold and other goods to fuel their gift-giving economy.^19,20,21 Skimming over the rough waves of the north Atlantic by sail, or rowed up a river, these versatile and sleek swans took the adventurous and warlike Norse to lands far west, east and south. The Viking craftsmen, important artists in the society, built the hull first, overlapping the planks in what is termed the clinker-built or lapstrake style, and the internal cross beams were often tied to the ribs near the keel to provide added elasticity.^22,23,24 Archaeology has proven that Norwegians traded at Ribe, the oldest commercial centre in Denmark, prior to the start of the Viking age, so the development of naval skills and technology began under the aegis of peaceful trade.²⁵

Gudvangen vikingmarknad 2015; Flickr: by Øyvind Nondal

History, although sometimes written in stone, is fragile like ice. Each historian and each age has limitations and biases, the imperfections and shortfalls of our shared humanity, and the hard facts that furnish history are often too many today and too few in the past.²⁶ Modern archaeology has greatly improved our knowledge of the Viking Age, but we owe a debt to the early writings of Iceland, primarily the sagas, the only extant written sources on the Vikings by a Viking people, our clearest window on that past.²⁷

End Notes

¹Magnusson, Magnus. Viking History Part 1 to Part 9. These ideas appear throughout Magnusson’s study. I have written this like a newspaper article, so the first sentence is the lead; the second expands on that lead, so hopefully this will help keep the focus.

²Richardson, Hazel. Life of the Ancient Vikings. Pages 10 – 11. Throughout, I have used Richardson’s interpretation, but very often supplemented it by adding personal knowledge taken from an extensive reading of the Icelandic saga literature in English translations.

³Wilkinson, Philip. Vikings. Wilkinson, in his brief section “The Viking Classes” (on page 15) corroborates the more detailed examination by Richardson. He uses the word “Jarl” instead of “Chieftain”, but I have chosen to avoid Norse words and use the synonymous English words, hence my use of chieftain and chieftain-priest.

⁴Richardson, Hazel. Life of the Ancient Vikings. Pages 10 – 11.

⁵Wilkinson, Philip. Vikings. Page 15.

⁶Increased nuance from the saga literature: all of the sagas are very clear on the fact that the Viking society was not one with the kind of specialization we are accustomed to. Egil’s Saga depicts Egil, the greatest poet of the Viking age, as a farmer, warrior, poet and blacksmith; he certainly never made a living from writing poetry, as perhaps Seamus Heaney does today! Njal’s Saga (considered the masterpiece of the genre) revolves around a series of court cases, perhaps the first of this genre! Each summer on the Logberg (Law rock) at the democratic parliament of Iceland the Law-speaker would recite the laws of the land; he completed it over a three-year period. The sagas are full of legal wrangling, and though most often the lawyer was also the chieftain, freemen also did testify in court settings acting on their own behalf as a lawyer. The chieftain acted as the judge in such proceedings, or occasionally the King did.

⁷Magnusson. Viking History Part 5: 3:30 – 9:37.

⁸Deary, Terry. Horrible Histories: Vicious Vikings; page 57 – 58.

⁹Green, W. C., translator. Egil’s Saga. This saga tells of the descendants of Kveldulf, who fled Norway when Harold killed his talented son, Thorolf Kveldulfsson. The family settles in Iceland after killing some of the berserks of King Harold who killed their son and brother. Egil later kills the son of the Norwegian king Erik Bloodaxe, continuing the process of revenge between a chieftain family on noble birth living in Iceland and the kings of Norway. A great deal of explicit detail on Harold Finehair appears in this saga.

¹⁰Potter: “The Vikings were cruel and relentless sea-rovers who honored three virtues above all: courage, loyalty, and generosity.” (27) I added honor based on my readings of the sagas and wider literature of such heroic societies. It appears repeatedly, for example, in the legal fighting and the revenge that often follows in the Icelandic sagas.

¹¹ Magnusson. Viking History Part 2: 6:11 – 7:03.

¹²McCoy, Dan. Norse Mythology for Smart People. Odin. Thor. McCoy offers some good scholarship on his online site, with detailed and well selected references at the bottom of each entry.

¹³Encyclopedia Mythica. Origin of the Names of the Days. This is a wonderful site that could be useful for any school teacher.

¹⁴Richardson, Hazel. Life of the Ancient Vikings. Page 11.

¹⁵The saga literature is full of stories about the human heart and the betrothal of young girls. And well, yes, some of the Viking fathers would have been like Mr. Capulet, Juliet’s harsh dad in Shakespeare, but some (perhaps most) loved their daughters (and sons) deeply and did not deploy them like chess pieces. In my mind, one of the most eloquent sagas on this theme is Laxdæla Saga. The unique freedom given to women appears in almost every saga in some shape or form, and is an important idea I hope you keep. Today, as you may know, the Nordic people continue to value and respect their daughters, sisters, mothers and all other women. In fact “A Doll’s House” by the great Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, which offers a strong critique of the paternal control put upon women (no doubt as he observed in 19^th century Norwegian society), also advocates for the independence of women, so is very much in the best of the Viking spirit! I think also it is no mistake that the masterpiece of Halldor Laxness, the Icelandic Nobel laureate, was called Independent People; trust me on this one, the Vikings have this in spades – men and women both, kids and adults! My great-grandmother from Norway, whose English was imperfect as a first generation pioneer in Canada, coined the word “stubbery” to refer to us; she knew it well.

¹⁶Laxdaela Saga. Wikipedia.

¹⁷Magnusson, Magnus. Viking History Part 1 to Part 9. Magnusson documents this throughout his well-researched video series.

¹⁸Freyia Völundarhúsins, Christophe Adrien, and Wikipedia (“Massacre of Verden”) all support this hypothesis.

¹⁹Magnusson. Viking History Part 2: 3:30 – 6:11.

²⁰Magnusson. Viking History Part 3: 10:15 – 11:41.

²¹Magnusson. Viking History Part 4: 0:00 – 2:30; 7:45 – 10:55.

²²Magnusson. Viking History Part 2: 8:10 – 8:51.

²³Magnusson. Viking History Part 3: 10:15 – 11:41.

²⁴Magnusson. Viking History Part 4: 0:00 – 2:30.

²⁵The Viking age began in Denmark web article relates this in more detail.

²⁶My final reflections on History, I believe are very well founded, both on the limits of knowledge as reflected in Philosophy (i.e., Soren Kierkegaard and the whole swarm of existential philosophers) and modern literature (i.e., the masterpiece of William Faulkner “Absalom, Absalom” or throughout the extensive oeuvre of another Nobel laureate Samuel Becket – my two favorite recent authors, and men rightly regarded as having genius), and also in the field of history as a discipline. Also the idea of “bias” is a hard one for school-age children to understand, primarily because they lack the background in significant readings that can arm them to see bias. Magnusson himself, as I do implicitly in this final statement, notes his personal bias as an Icelander in his video series, cited pervasively here; I think such intellectual humility is warranted, and not widely expressed in such a vehicle as a Ted Ed animation – but maybe I am wrong, you do such beautiful work, and not all known to me. One Ted Talk that touches on this important issue (the limitations of human knowledge – our umwelt) is the following: David Eagleman: Can we create new senses for humans? The other insight here came to me years ago when I spoke with a scholar of the French Revolution (1789 – 1799). He was one of the most highly regarded scholars on this period, and he told us that the amount of primary source data on this period was so extensive that no human being could possibly even read it all! If this is the case, as I trust it is, for a period of history in the late eighteenth century, just think of all the facts – primary sources alone – for something like the First World War! I also read widely in ancient Greek and Roman history, where the paucity of facts often comes to the surface. The Dark Ages are dark because we know almost nothing about it, as with dark matter and energy – our ignorance is pretty good!

²⁷Again this goes back to the brilliant scholarship of Magnusson. I hope also, that from my notes, you also can detect how I have used my knowledge of Icelandic literature to provide a more nuanced account of this topic.

Works Cited

Adrien, Christophe. “Catalyst: How the Saxon Wars may have Sparked the Viking Age.” 14 March 2015. Web. 30 December 2015.

Deary, Terry. Horrible Histories: Vicious Vikings. London: Scholastic Children’s Books, 2007. Pages 57 – 58.

Eagleman, David. David Eagleman: Can we create new senses for humans? March 2015. Web. 7 September 2015.

Encyclopedia Mythica. Origin of the Names of the Days. 1995 – 2007. Web. 7 September 2015.

Green, W. C., translator. Egil’s Saga. 1893. Web. 23 August 2015.

Laxdaela Saga. Wikipedia. Web. 30 December 2015.

Magnusson, Magnus. “Viking History Part 1 – Part 9.” YouTube: 21 October 2014. Web. 19 August 2015.

Massacre of Verden. Wikipedia. Web. 30 December 2015.

McCoy, Dan. Norse Mythology for Smart People. 2012 to 2015. Web. 7 January 2015.

Persson, Charlotte Price. “The Viking age began in Denmark.” 23 April 2015. Web. 30 December 2015.

Potter, Simeon. Our Language. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd. 1950. Print.

Richardson, Hazel. Life of the Ancient Vikings. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2005. Print. (Pages 10 to 11)

Völundarhúsins, Freyia. “The Real Origin of Viking Raids.” Wed. 30 December 2015.

Wilkinson, Philip. Vikings. London: Carlton Books Limited, 2014. Print. (Page 15)

Works Cited: Fair Use Images used in iMovie Video

1. liquid gold; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by milena mihaylova

2. Harald Fairhair (2); Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Sten Dueland

3. Gold filigree, Viking Museum; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Brian Gratwicke

4. Viking long ship museum; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Suw Charman-Anderson

5. The sagas of Icelanders; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Helgi Halldorsson.

6. Wax figures in the Saga Museum; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by RJ

7. The well-preserved head of the Tollund man, “Tollundmannen” – Wikipedia by Sven Rosborn, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

8. Lofotr Viking helmet and sword; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Kjell Joran Hansen

9. IMG_7023 “Reinas por una causa . Junio 2014. Miss Universe Canada”; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Jorge Mejía peralta

10. Counties of Norway; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Bjørn Normann jr.

11. Berzerker chess piece: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Jon Wiley

12. “Harold Finehair” Battle of Stiklestad, Pal Christian Eggen som konge i spelet 2014; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

13. Arbo-Olav den helliges fall i slaget på Stiklestad - Battle of Stiklestad; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

14. Settlement of Iceland, “Viking Expansion” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

15. Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders in an illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

16. Laocoön V; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Nick Thompson

17. 10th century Eyrarland statue of Thor found in Iceland “Þrymskviða” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

18. Backstage Lancaster in Montreal; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Mathieu Lebreton

19. Signe Hasso; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by kate gabrielle

20. Yohanna & Friðrik; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Daniel Kruczynski

21. Sonja Henie - early 1940s - Sonja - from Norway - The ice skating movie star; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by BJ Alias

22. Viking trade gold; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Arild Finne Nybø

23. Viking Voyages; Wikimedia; Google search labelled for noncommercial reuse with modification

24. Equestrian statue of Charlemagne by Agostino Cornacchini 1725 CE; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Mary Harrsch

25. IMG_3052B “Pierre Paul Rubens. 1577-1640. Anvers. Saint Ambroise et l'Empereur Théodose KHM Vienne; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by jean louis mazieres

26. Viking long ship museum; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Suw Charman-Anderson

27. The Viking Warship "Sea Stallion"; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by William Murphy

28. Le bateau viking d'Oseberg; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra

29. Gudvangen vikingmarknad 2015; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Øyvind Nondal

30. Gudvangen vikingmarknad 2015; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Øyvind Nondal

31. lund university library rune stone (detail); Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by mararie

32. fpx073011-33; Flickr: Creative Commons licensed for noncommercial reuse with modification by Dennis Hill