IN THE BLOOD: Events of the Viking Age

During most of the Viking Age, the kings and Jarls, or earls, of the north reigned in glorified farmsteads, and the chief business of the courts—particularly through the long gloom of winter—centered upon nightly drinking bouts. Scandinavian royalty possessed a limitless capacity for mead—a beverage made of fermented honey. Howard LaFay

THEIR LEGACY LIVES ON in the sagas and myths of the Eddas. Their customs continue in traditions such as feasting, the Yule tree, toasting, courts of appeal, whaling, and belief in elves. Their gods are remembered in the days of the week: Tuesday for Tew (Tyr), Wednesday for Woden (Odin), Thursday for Thor, and Friday for Freya or Frigg.

In their time, they built kingdoms and earldoms from the Volga to the Thames. They discovered North America 500 years before Columbus. They often settled in the lands they conquered. One after another they colonized groups of islands like the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faeroes, Hebrides, Iceland, and Greenland.

An Anglo-Saxon chronicle from 793 CE states, “The Harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne by rapine and slaughter.” This event marks the Vikings’ explosive entry into recorded history. “Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain,” notes another contemporary chronicler.

In the following centuries, similar groups targeted monks, looted sanctuaries, and plundered libraries and storehouses. Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes surged out of their frosty lands to conquer much of Europe. What they couldn’t carry away, they burned. Throughout Europe, the faithful prayed, “A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine—From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord!”

Those fierce marauders who went ‘a Viking’ were not representative of all the Norse. To go Viking, a term that only recently has come to represent a people, meant to embark on voyages of piracy and pillage. However, many Norse in those days lived peaceful, humble, and productive lives.

The timeline below spans about eight hundred years and presents known events. However, much that occurred before the sixth century cannot be dated precisely, as their history was largely passed down through oral tradition.

ca. 4^th Century

A warrior aristocracy rules Scandinavia. Fierce competition between small rulers begins to develop into centers of power.

Boat building and navigation skills are well developed.

The Norse pantheon of Gods narrows to those still familiar today, including Odin, Thor, Loki, and Freya. King Svafrlami acquires a cursed sword from Dvalin and Durin and thus begins the Tyrfing Cycle.

ca. 5^th Century

Tyrfing Cycle continues. The Mythmaker adventure In The Blood is set mid-century.

ca. Sixth Century

Emergence of Vendel Period, which lays the groundwork for later expansion; features distinctive art styles and boat designs, and the establishment of an assembly system called the ‘thing’.

630

Expelled from his native Sweden, Olaf Tratelia founds a colony in Vermeland (now Norway).

787

First invasion of Britain by Danes.

793

At the Monastery of St. Cuthbert, on the island of Lindisfarne, off the east coast of England: a multitude of flaming dragons are seen flying above the migrating birds, taken as an omen of sorrow by the monks. The church is sacked six days later in the first of many raids along the English coast.

795

Northmen land in Ireland.

800

Northmen discover the Faroe Islands.

802

Vikings dominate Ireland.

834

Danes raid England.

837

War between the Danes and Wessex.

ca. 840

Viking raids begin in Germany and France.

841

Northmen plunder Rouen on their way to Paris.

843

Rus Vikings attack Byzantium (Istanbul).

845

Northmen destroy Hamburg and penetrate Germany, raid Paris and Spanish towns.

851

Danes sack Canterbury Cathedral (rebuilt ca. 950). Danish army winters in England.

859

Chieftains Bjorn and Hasteinn lead 62 ships from their base on the Loire on an epic voyage. They loot the Iberian coast, pausing at the Rock of Gibraltar to sack the neighboring city of Algeciras. They ravage southern France and the Spanish coast and overwinter in the Rhone River delta. They despoil the cities of Arles and Nimes. In Italy they attack Pisa. However, on the return they suffer defeat to the vengeful Moorish fleet. The few vessels that manage to escape hasten north. Forty ships are lost, but the survivors gain much wealth and glory.

861—864

Northmen raid Cologne, terrorize the Rhineland.

Northmen discover Iceland.

862

Swedes begin trading in Russia.

866

Vikings take over York.

872

Norway, Harold Haarfagr crowns himself king.

872-930

Norwegians settle Orkneys and Shetlands.

878

King Alfred retakes London from the Danes and defeats them at Edington.

875-900

Colonization of Iceland by Danes.

885

Northmen besiege Paris.

893

Danes renew attacks on England and are defeated.

ca.10^th Century

A female Viking commander, known as Inghen Ruaidh—or Red Girl, so-called for the color of her hair—leads a Viking fleet to Ireland.

911

Rollo, or Hrolf, granted land by the Frankish King Charles the Simple in return for leaving the rest of France alone. His terms also require Rollo to become a Christian and Charles’s vassal. After 911 the north shores of France are defended by the Danish chieftain.

912

Rollo parcels out his fief among his followers. Their name Nordmanni, or Northmen, is given to their new homeland, Normandy.

934

Eric Blodoxe is King of Norway; his cruelty sparks revolts.

ca. 980-1100

Christianization of Iceland, Greenland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

982

Viking raids occur in Portland, Dorset, and South Wales coasts.

Greenland is discovered by Eric the Red.

986

Bjarni Herjulfsson sees the New World.

Eric the Red settles Greenland.

988

Vikings attack Somerset and Devon.

994

Sweyn of Denmark and Olaf of Norway besiege London.

998

Danes attack the Isle of Wight.

1000

King Olaf I of Norway is killed in the Battle of Svolder and Norway turns Danish.

Heroic poem Beowulf is written.

Leif Ericson, or Leif the Lucky, son of Eric the Red, discovers North America (Nova Scotia). Leif comes first to the mountains and glaciers which he names Helluland (now Baffin Island). Then he sails south to put ashore on a sandy beach with a forest beyond, which he calls Markland, now Labrador. Farther south he comes upon choice land.  They find salmon there in river and lake, bigger than they had ever seen before. Leif builds a house and winters there in what he calls Vinland, now the Island of Newfoundland.

ca.10^th-century

“I have never seen more perfect physiques than theirs. Every one of them carries an ax, a sword, and a dagger.”  Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, Arab soldier, and diplomat from Baghdad.

1066

The Normans defeat the English at Hastings; the English defeat the Norwegians at Samford Bridge.

The Viking world begins to shrink. Settlements in Greenland slide into decay. Seamanship declines. Greenlanders and Icelanders are left to their own resources.