The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

Abstract

During the Viking Age, Arctic Scandinavia was a source of exquisite furs, down, walrus ivory, and other commodities that met with high demand in England and on the Continent. Hitherto, the earliest firm evidence of this trade has been Ohthere's account c. 890, but in light of this paper's findings, its history may be pushed further back in time. Geological analyses of whetstones retrieved in eighth-to early ninth-century Ribe, southwestern Jylland, in present-day western Denmark, demonstrate that the majority were quarried near the aristocratic manor Lade ('loading/storing place') in Trøndelag, present-day central Norway, some 1100 km by sea to the north. Because of their high numbers and durability, whetstones retrieved in Ribe and other urban sites may be regarded as a proxy for long-distance seaborne trade from the Arctic. The peak in this trade on the threshold of the Viking Age invites a reconsideration of the coinciding and conflicting interests of Scandinavian long-distance traders, kings, and Vikings. It is argued that coalitions and conflicts that arose from these interests, and new constraints and opportunities that emerged for these three types of agents, provide keys to understanding why and where Vikings raided overseas up to the mid-ninth century.

The Earliest Wave of Viking Activity? The Norwegian Evidence Revisited

“…Second, concerning the importance of maritime communication, the distribution analysis has shown that most of the early Insular finds are found in areas along the Nordvegr , which indicates early maritime mobility and sometimes early links with urban networks further south in Scandinavia. This observation is in accordance with Sindbæk's (2011) and Baug et al’s (2018) suggestions that pre-Viking journeys to such urban markets may have facilitated the movement of knowledge and improved maritime mobility, which ultimately led to the Viking expansion.…”

“…Likewise, Baug et al (2018) have recently shown how there was a 'steady supply' of 'Mostadmarka' type whetstones from Trøndelag to markets in southern Scandinavia from at least the early eighth century. These results also suggest increasing economic activity in the North Sea area which drew large parts of Norway into supra-regional networks in the decades before and after the first recorded Viking attacks (as underlined by Myhre, 1993, andBaug et al, 2018). Frisian Tating ware is found as far north as Borg in Lofoten (Holand, 2003: 203-09), and seventh-and eighth-century Frankish coins were recently recovered in excavations at Ranheim, Trøndelag (Grønnesby & Heen-Pettersen, 2015: 176).…”

“…The location of early Insular material is often considered to be an indicator of where the first Vikings originated (Wamers, 1998: 52; Barrett, 2010: 293; Baug et al, 2018). Most early Insular finds are found in western Norway, in Hordaland to Sunnmøre, but there is also a number of notable finds from further north, including Trondheimsfjord, Melhus in Overhalla (Figure 6), and Kvarøya in Lurøy (see distribution in Figure 1).…”

“…Through these early voyages, seafarers developed the necessary environmental knowledge, which, in addition to a range of social and political causes (see Barrett, 2010; Ashby, 2015; Baug et al, 2018 for recent summaries or discussions), must have been a vital precondition for the successful attacks from the last decade of the eighth century onwards. These experiences were materialized in distinctive foreign goods brought back to the Norse homelands, creating a visual distinction between families involved in overseas ventures and others within their community (Aannestad, 2015).…”

Echoes of the Past: Women, Memories and Disc-on-Bow Brooches in Vendel- and Viking-period Scandinavia

“…In recent years, research into Viking Age ( c. ad 790–1050) society has explored its complex social compositions, group formations, and social identities (Svanberg, 2003; Downham, 2009; Raffield et al, 2016). The reassessments of object-based, chronological frameworks (Skibsted Klæsøe, 1999) and new dating of trade patterns and maritime ventures (Ashby et al, 2015; Price et al 2016; Baug et al, 2018) have furthermore shown that the early Viking Age comprises multifaceted and overlapping sets of processes and events that extend back to the early eighth century. One illustrative example of this long overlap is the change in jewellery sets from around ad 700 on the Scandinavian peninsula, including large disc-on-bow brooches, arm-rings, and the introduction of domed, oblong brooches (Callmer, 1984: 67).…”