Introduction
Norwegians were probably the first Scandinavians to set sail for Scotland and we need to consider why and when they did so. To answer these questions we shall look first at the Norwegian homeland.
1. The Lands
We are looking at a large area - some 2000 kms from the tip of Jutland, Denmark, (just visible at the centre bottom of the map) to northern Norway. The land is largely granite overlain in the south with some limestone and chalk, which gives a rather gravelly infertile soil interspersed with some clays which are productive. Only about 3% of Norway is capable of producing arable crops today and it would have been the same in the Viking Age. The best areas of land are around Trondheim and Oslo Fiord and on the south-west tip - Horthaland and Jaeren. Much of the land is over 600m, but away from the coast it rises fairly abruptly to 2,500m, with oak and pine growing on the lower slopes. Much of northern Norway is frozen throughout the year.
2. Fiords
Landward end of a fiord: note how the mountains rise abruptly leaving
little cultivable or pasture land and just a small area for settlement
These deep glacial valleys, with steep sides running straight into the water, are a feature of Norway. They break into the land, dividing it into segments occupied by isolated communities usually living at the head of the fiord, with the area available for settlement finite. These populations became dependent on the sea for communications and resources. Some 150,000 islands off the coast provided a sheltered route - the Norwegur - which gave Norway its name. Anyone wanting to gain substantial political power would have to gain control of the sea.
3. Economy
The economy of these communities would have been very delicately balanced. Even a slight increase in population in an area might have severe consequences. Minor fluctuations in climate might also have dire effects. Essentially three ecological zones were useable:
- coastal: fishing, catching [whale, walrus, seal] and communication
- the slightly higher land of the middle zone: hunting [elk, reindeer], trapping [marten, fox] and sources of bog iron, honestones and steatite
- the lower slopes of the mountains: sources of timber and use as summer pasture- shielings
4. Settlements
Our knowledge of the settlements of the Viking and pre- Viking Age in Norway is scanty. This is partly because sites have been continuously occupied and are thus rarely available for excavation.
Here, at the fiord end, a modern settlement is situated on the only available piece of land. With so few places available for settlement in Norway, the modern settlement pattern is likely to follow more ancient patterns and thus obscure them.
Single farmsteads with outbuildings were probably the norm, although at the heads of fiords and perhaps in some southern valleys, settlements of independent farmsteads occupying the same site probably existed. At Ytre Moa, on Sognefiord a 50m long rectangular farmstead with outer long walls of stone and turf, end walls of timber and the whole lined inside with timber existed in the 9th - 10th centuries. Close by were a byre, barn and store building. At Borg an aisled long-house, with byre and domestic area under the same roof was built of timber with turf outside. Its exceptional length and finds from the site suggest it was a chieftain’s residence. Its earliest phase was in the Merovingian period (see History below).
Place-names may give further clues.They do perhaps indicate an expansion of the population in areas such as Trondelag and Sognefiord in the 8th century, when names ending in -land and -setr seem to have been applied to new, secondary settlements, which grew out of existing holdings. Some of these at least appear to be given up again in the 9th century and this is perhaps the period when such names begin to appear for sites in Scotland. Internal expansion and competition may have led to external expansion into other areas such as the provinces of the Irish Sea.
5. History
Norway was relatively unaffected by the break up of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century. It had never been part of the Empire and obviously it lay at a distance from it. Germanic speaking peoples probably emerged in Norway about the 5th century BC.Their language was a branch of the west Germanic language, which eventually developed into the old Norse used by the Vikings. The 5th and 6th centuries AD seem to have been a stable period in Norwegian society. Norwegian archaeologists tend to take chronological periods from developments elsewhere, so roughly AD 400 - 600 is labelled the Migration Period; 600 - 800 is usually labelled Merovingian, from the contemporary Frankish royal dynasty. The Viking Age is therefore c. AD 800 - 1100.
The Merovingian period is characterised by increasing contacts between Norway the rest of Scandinavia and western Europe, as the desire of the secular and ecclesiastical nobility of Western Europe for products only or principally obtainable from Norway grew.These were furs, walrus ivory, iron, whetstones and honestones and these goods appear to have been traded locally, ie using internal forms of exchange, as well as to Denmark and further afield
6. Society and Politics
For catching, hunting and trapping, as well as for local and more distant exchange of goods some communal effort and organisation were required. Specialist sites for iron production and quarrying must have existed in the middle zone and these activities too required forms of dependence on others leading to control and organisation. Christopherson’s suggestion of the growth of chiefdoms is important here because they are linked to exploitation, production and trade.
Christopherson has identified a number of coastal chiefdoms in southern Norway, using place-names, archaeological material and topography. These were embryonic political units with at least one port or landing place in each. It is likely that each was dominated by one high status family, who derived income from commerce and craft-working.They controlled the coastal and middle zones and burial and religious ritual was practised on the border of the two zones, close to high status settlements.
Graves with rich grave goods accompanying the dead began to appear towards the edge of the coastal/ middle zone showing some sections of society growing in status and power just before the beginning of the Viking Age. Place-names such as kaupang meaning a port or trading place were in use in the coastal chiefdoms at about this time. There may be changes in religious ritual too with some families adopting inhumation rather than the usual cremation and being buried with grave goods imported from abroad. These high status families also began to control religious ritual. In the Viking Age new regional leaders emerged and competition between them resulted in the long term in the growth of kingship in Norway, with first regional and finally national kings emerging.
7. Ships and Shipping
To judge from the sparse record, there was a tradition of propelling ships by paddling and by oars in northern waters in the period of the Roman Empire and the migrations. This is shown by rock engravings and picture stones from Sweden. It is re-inforced by finds such as the Nydam ship, a 24m long oak vessel of early 4th century date found in a bog in southern Jutland in the 19th century. It had 15 rowlocks on each side , but opinions differ as to whether it could have been rowed on the open sea or only in sheltered rivers and estuaries. Most recent scholarshiop suggests that the sail was known and used in northern waters from the Roman period, though no actual sailing vessel has so far been recovered. The argument is based on fleeting references in classical writers plus the long distances which some barbarians ships are known to have travelled from the third century onwards. Both the Romans and Celts further south had a long tradition of the use of sailing vessels and given the contact with the Germanic barbarians particularly in the Rhineland and along the north Sea coast it seems unlikely that Germanic seafarers would not have adopted this relatively simple, but speedy method of propulsion.
By the 8th or possibly 7th century Swedish picture stones depict ships with masts and sail. Note here the steering oar at the stern, the mast, rectangular sail and implied rigging. Certainly, by the beginning of the Viking Age ships with true keels, capable of taking the weight and tensions of a mast had been developed.
Modern replica of a four-oared vessel, clinker built with the shaped side strakes riveted together. Note the high prow and stern, the handle for the steering oar (foreground) and the tholes against which the boat could be rowed.
So, by the time Norwegian Vikings wanted to make the voyage across to Scotland, probably in the late 8th century, they had the means to do so. The ships were light-weight, fast and flexible sailing ships up to 35m in length, which rode over the waves rather than cutting through them, but flat bottomed so that they could be rowed in shallow estuarine and riverine waters and easily beached. Navigation, ship-handling, tides, prevailing winds had all been experienced in the Norwegur. Now shiploads of up to 60 men or more were ready to explore away from the land. The Viking Age had begun!
Questions for you to think about
- What was the Norwegur?
- What resources were available to Norwegians in the pre-Viking Age and how did they exploit them?
- What use is Ohthere’s account to us in trying to understand the lives of the Norwegian population in this period?
Quiz
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