The term “Viking” is actually a modern attribution.  These aggressors were, instead, known commonly within the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as “Northmen”.   The main premise, however, of what occupied a “viking” and related them to Britain, was their zeal for invasion and settling on lands they deemed profitable.  

The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms were first introduced to Vikings during the reign of King Beorthic of Wessex (786-802), when three ships of “northmen” landed at Portland Bay in Dorset.  The story goes that the local administrative official in Britain mistook them for merchants and directed them willingly to the nearby royal estate.  Being bloodthirsty Vikings as they were, they instead killed the official and his men with him.

 

They were labelled similarly as “heathens”.  On the 8th June 793, a scholar wrote, “the ravages of heathen men miserably desecrated God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.”   Other references from the past further express their brutality.  According to the 12th Century Anglo-Norman chronicler, Symeon of Durham, a group of Viking raiders killed the resident monks and either threw others into the sea to drown or carried them away as slaves. Church treasures, they attested, also went with them.

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Vikings therefore were bloodthirsty murderers, despised by the Anglo-Saxons. Indeed, most Britons, nearby to Viking conquests, were fleeing for their lives.  In 875, after enduring eight decades of repeated Viking raids, the monks fled Lindisfarne, escorting the ancient relics of Saint Cuthbert and others with them.

  

It was Anglo-Saxon versus Viking and no other intermediary.  This wicked period of strife would, in fact, continue for over a century.  It continued as more and more settlements, more and more kingdoms were pillaged and destroyed. Finally, King Alfred of Wessex defeated Guthrum’s army at the battle of Edington in 878. In the aftermath, a ceasefire was orchestrated.  The Treaty of Wedmore was signed in 878 and the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum a few years later in 886. What was particularly important about these treaties was the establishment formally of the boundaries of the English Kingdoms and Viking Danelaw territory. It is also lay the foundations for a peaceful relation between Viking and English. 

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Despite minor conflict between the two opponents, it would be Alfred again, along with his successors, who drove back the Viking frontier and retook York. Eventually, it would be the Norman conquests of William The Conqueror, which dismantled the Viking presence within the British Isles.  

 

These groups of invaders had far different customs and cultures in comparison to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.  The Vikings were largely illiterate people.  Thus literary information cannot be found to enlighten them in the same way as Ancient Rome or the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.   Nonetheless, they did have an alphabet. It was this alphabet that they used to describe themselves on “runestones”.  Aside from this, however, information regarding The Vikings can only be gathered by external third parties who came across them.

 

Assessing the runestones nonetheless, archaeology into their phenomenon has been conducted from the 20th Century onwards.  From this we can principally study The Viking’s settlements, crafts and productions, ships and military equipment, trading networks, alongside their spiritual beliefs and practices. Principally, written on a runestone is a message using sound values called “rune”. Typically, runestones that have been found were created as burial stones, located across their dominion.  To give an idea of how many have been found, 250 have been discovered in Denmark, 50 in Norway, none in Iceland, yet roughly 1,700 in Sweden. 

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And this is where we can get an on original account from these “Vikings” themselves.  Runestones were used for a variety of phenomena, including commemorating men who died on Viking expeditions, honouring royalty, celebrating conquests and describing lengthy voyages to far-away settlements.  

Specifically, discovered runestones were created to describe the following phenomena:

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1. Kjula runestone:  This related extensive warfare taking place in Western Europe.

2. Turinge runestone:  Informs of a war band in Eastern Europe.

3. English runestones:  This was a collection of about 30 runestones that were found in Sweden, which describe Viking Age voyages to England.

4. Ingvar runestones:  These were a collection of 26 runestones that referred to a Viking expedition to the Middle East.  They were engraved in Old Norse the Younger Futhark alphabet.

5. The Jelling Stones:  Dating from between 960 and 985, these were two runestones.  The older, smaller stone was raised by King Gorm the Old, who was the last pagan king of Denmark.  The engraving was intended as a memorial honouring Queen Thyre.  The larger stone, alternatively, was raised by King Gorm’s son, Harald Bluetooth, to celebrate the conquest of Denmark, Norway and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity. Harald’s runestone, exceptionally had three sides: one with an animal image, another with an image of crucified Jesus Christ and a final third one engraved with a particular inscription.  This was: “King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyre, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.”  

 

Runestone’s alphabet was an amalgamation of imagery and iconography.  Most Viking Age runestones were painted with the colour, falu red.  Some of the Old Norse descriptions equally encourage the view they were painted in red colour. For instance, the Old Norse words for “writing in runes” was “fa”, which originally meant “to paint” in Proto-Norse (“faihian”).  Yet further, in “Havamal”, Odin says: “So do I write / and colour the runes” and in the “Guorundarkivoa II”, Gudrun says:  “In the cup were runes of every kind / Written and reddened, I could not read them.

  

Some runestones themselves go as far as to say they were painted in red.  For instance, a runestone found in Sodermanland showcases an engraving in Norse. This states, “Here shall these stones stand, reddened with runes.”  Similarly a second runestone from the same province reads, “Asbjorn carved and Ulfr painted,” and a third states, “Asnjorn cut the stone, painted as a marker, bound with runes.”  On top of this, a low number of fully intact runestones have been found, in particular one found in the church of Koping on Oland, which was discovered and painted over in a mixture of black and red.

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Specifically, what the runestones depicted in terms of iconography and imagery was a varied plethora of Norse legends and myths.  Apparent from the imagery of the Swedish runestones, the most popular Norse legend in Sweden was “Sigurd”, the dragonslayer.  The legend is found on a number of runestones, but the most famous artefact found is the “Ramsund inscription”.  Here the legend of “Sigurd” is elaborated upon extensively.  The inscription (simply and clearly) speaks of the building of a bridge, but the decoration shows Sigurd sitting in a pit thrusting his sword (the legendary one forged by Regin) through the body of a dragon (the dragon also forms the runic band in which the runes are engraved).   Further on the left, aside the inscription, Regin appears as beheaded with the assortment of his smything tools scattered on the ground. On the right side, Sigurd is sitting and appears as if he has just burnt his thumb, specifically on the dragon’s heart that he is just roasting.  He puts the thumb into his mouth and at the same time starts to understand the language of the marsh-tits sitting in the tree.  They, in turn, warn Sigurd of Regin’s schemes. Aside this, also, is a depiction of Sigurd’s horse, Grani, who is tethered to a tree.

    

Alternatively, another popular figure from Norse mythology was “Gunnaar” from the legends of Nibelungs.  Specifically, on the Vasterljung Runestone a legendary depiction presents Gunnaar in line with an older depiction of the Gunnaar legend (where he plays the harp with his fingers – apparent in the archaic eddic poem Atlakvioa) but furthers this with an depiction of a man whose arms and legs are encircled by snakes yet stretches forward holding an object that appears like a harp, which is also flaking and decaying away.  The climatic depiction is, in fact, broadcast across three sides.

 

Nordic gods were, further, a central part of Viking mythology.  Aside from legends, they underpinned the central Nordic religion.  One of the most popular of these across Scandinavia was “Thor” (The Thunder God).  He is commonly portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, which he does whilst holding his legendary, mountain-crushing, thunderous hammer, officially called Mjolnir, in his hand.  Specifically, according to Norse mythology, Thor defeats the various foes to the gods and humanity, labelled jotnar, and is accompanied by his beautiful wife, the goddess Sif.  

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Central to Nordic mythology, also, is the god “Odin.”  He is frequently described in surviving texts.  Amongst these, he is depicted as one-eyed and flanked by a wolf and raven.  He holds a spear in his hand.  His task is to pursue knowledge throughout the nine realms.  He is said to have willingly hung himself upside down for nine days and nights upon the cosmological tree, the Yggdrasil, to gain knowledge of the runic alphabet and subsequently pass it on to humanity. Consequently, Odin is associated with death, wisdom and poetry.  However, he is the ruler of Asgard (the realm of the gods) and leader of the Aesir (the gods). Further folklore incorporates his family.  Specifically, he is married to the powerful goddess, Frigg, who can see the future but keeps her visions a secret and has with Odin a child called Baldr.  After several premonitions of his death, Badlr is killed by Loki.  Thereupon, Baldr resides in the realm of Hel – a form of afterlife.

 

Turning to cosmology, Nordic folklore at its crux describes reality as comprised of Nine Worlds that centre around the cosmological tree, Yggdrasil.  The gods inhabit the heavenly land of Asgard, humanity inhabits Midgard (which is a region in the centre of the cosmos) and outside of the gods, humans and jotnar, there are Nine Worlds, which are inhabited by creatures such as Elves and Dwarves.  When Vikings reach the afterlife, further complications come into play. According to their beliefs, the dead may go to Hel, a murky realm ruled over by a female.  Alternatively, they may be ferried away by Valkyries to Odin’s martial hall, “Valhalla” or, in another strand, be chosen by the goddess Freyja to dwell in her field, named Folkvangr.  Yet further, according to Viking mythology, the goddess Ran may claim those that die at sea.

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The language used to describe Viking society and culture was, unfortunately, not understood widely in written format.  The bulk of Vikings were illiterate. Writing did exist in the form of inscriptions on runes, however these were almost always short and formulaic.  Where written evidence does exist, it is found most abundantly through documentary sources which were written texts among Christian and Islamic communities, outside Scandinavia.  This was largely as a result of these communities having been negatively affected by Viking activity.

 

A greater written depiction, however, emerges slowly in later centuries, where Old Norse texts begin to appear that were largely based on earlier Latin writings.  In the 11th and 12th centuries, Scandinavia and its colonies became incorporated within the “Holy See” – within the realm of Christian culture.  As a result, native written sources began to appear in Latin and Old Norse.   Medieval prose narratives started to emerge.  Although their accuracy is doubtful, they can still pose as a useful tool for study, albeit romanticised.  There is a great quantity of skaldic poetry attributed to court poets during the 10th and 11th centuries.  These, for instance, expose family trees, the self-images, and ethical values.

 

Having said that, placenames across the British Isle, even surviving today, are able to provide us with a window into Viking language, albeit minuscule.   Examples include: “Egilsay” (from Eigils ey meaning Eigil’s island), “Ormskirk” (from Ormr kirkja meaning Orms Church or Church of the Worm), “Meols” (from merl meaning Sand Dunes),” Snaefell” (Snow Fell), “Ravenscar” (Ravens Rock), “Vinland” (Land of Wine or Land of Winberry), “Kaupanger” (Market Harbour), “Torshavn” (Thor’s Harbour) and the religious centre of “Odense”, meaning a place where Odin was worshipped.  The same can be applied to other vocabulary, and, using geographical knowledge, they can help illuminate the history between The Vikings and British Isles.