To Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland
Norwegian Vikings focused on many of the outer islands. For instance, they occupied the Orkneys and the Shetlands in the eighth century and the Faeroes, the Hebrides, and eastern Ireland in the ninth century. Vikings even colonized Iceland. There they established the parliamentary body the Althing. Still existing as the governing body of Iceland, the Althing is the West’s oldest parliamentary assembly.
In 985 C.E., a Viking named Erik the Red established a colony in Greenland. Later that year fellow Norseman Bjarni Herjolfsson set off from Iceland to join his parents in Greenland. But he was blown off course and overshot Greenland. “Bjarni was probably the first Norseman to sight North America,” says the Cultural Atlas of the Viking World.
On the basis of Bjarni’s report, and probably after the year 1000, Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, sailed westward from Greenland to Baffin Island and then down the coast of Labrador. He came to a promontory of land he called Vinland, after the wild grapes or berries growing there. Leif wintered there before returning to Greenland. The following year Leif’s brother Thorwald led an expedition to Vinland, but he was killed in a skirmish with natives. A few years later, however, between 60 and 160 Vikings established a settlement in Vinland, but because of the ongoing hostility of the indigenous people, they stayed only about three years, never to return. Almost 500 years passed before an Italian explorer in the service of England, John Cabot, claimed North America for England.
The End of the Viking Era
By the end of their era, the Vikings had created a number of new political states over which Scandinavian dynasties ruled. But they did not remain foreigners for long, for many Vikings were eventually assimilated into their newfound cultures, even religiously. For example, Viking chieftain Rollo, who seized part of the territory on the French coast that is called Normandy (meaning “Land of the Northmen,” or Normans), converted to Catholicism. One of his descendants was William, Duke of Normandy. After the battle of Hastings in 1066, which pitted descendants of Norman and English Vikings against one another, victorious Duke William was crowned king of England.
William promptly blocked all further Scandinavian influence in England and introduced a new feudal era involving medieval French systems of government, land ownership, and economics. Hence, “if one date has to be chosen to mark the end of the Viking Age,” says the book The Vikings, by Else Roesdahl, “it has to be 1066.” The 11th century also saw the original Viking kingdoms in Scandinavia make the transition to independent nation states.
The three centuries of Viking history are action packed. Yet, the image of the Vikings as being nothing more than raiding barbarians who wielded sword and ax is not complete. They also proved to be adaptable by eventually colonizing distant lands and even becoming absorbed by the local cultures. As farmers they settled down to permanent residences, and as rulers they sat on foreign thrones. Yes, the Vikings proved to be masters not just of sail and sword but of plow and politics as well.
Outside Scandinavia the Vikings were usually called heathen, Danes, Northmen, or Norsemen. As most modern historians use the term “Viking” for all Scandinavians of the Viking era, we have adopted that term in this article. The origin of the term “Viking” is obscure.
VIKING RELIGION
Vikings worshiped many mythical gods, including Odin, Thor, Frey, Freya, and Hel. Odin, the god of wisdom and war, led the pantheon. His wife was Frigga. Thor was a slayer of giants and ruler of winds and rain. Frey was an immoral god of peace and fertility. His sister Freya was goddess of love and fertility. Hel was goddess of the underworld.
Norse mythology is the basis for the names of certain days of the week in English and some other languages. Tuesday is named for Tyr, son of Odin (also known as Woden); Wednesday is Woden’s day; Thursday, Thor’s day; and Friday, Frigga’s day.
Like their worshipers, Viking gods supposedly obtained their wealth through theft, daring, and guile. Odin promised that those who died valiantly in battle would have a place in the celestial realm of Asgard (a home of the gods), in the great hall of Valhalla. There they could feast and fight to their hearts’ content. Viking nobles were often buried with a boat or with stones laid out in the form of a boat. Food, weapons, ornaments, slaughtered animals, and perhaps even a sacrificed slave were also interred. A queen’s maid might be buried along with her.
The horned helmet often associated with the Vikings predates the Viking era by over 1,000 years and was apparently only worn ceremonially. Viking warriors wore simple conical helmets made of metal or leather, if they chose to wear a helmet at all.
As Rome withdrew its legions from Britain, Germanic peoples - the Anglo-Saxons and the Jutes—began raids that turned into great waves of invasion and settlement in the later 5th cent. The Celts fell back, into Wales and Cornwall and across the English Channel to Brittany, and t ie loosely knit tribes of the newcomers gradually coalesced into a heptarchy of kingdoms (see Kent, Sussex, Essex, Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria)
Late in the 8tn cent., and with increasing severity until the middle of the 9th cent, raiding Vikings (known in English history as Danes) harassed coastal England ana finally, in 865, launched a full-scale invasion They were first effectively checked by King Alfred of Wessex and were with great difficulty confined to the Danelaw, wnere their leaders divided land among the soldiers for settlement. Alfred's successors conquered the Danelaw to form a united England, but new Danish invasions late in the 10th cent, overcame ineffective resistance. The Dane Canute ruled England by 1016. At the expiration of the Scandinavian line in 1042, the Wessex dynasty (see Edward the Confessor) regained the throne. The conquest of England in 1066 by William, duke of Normandy (William I of England), ended the Anglo Saxon period.
The freeman (ceori) of the early Germanic invaders had been responsible to the king and superior to 'he serf Subsequent centuries of war and subsistence farming, however, had forced the majority of freemen info serfdom, or dependence on the aristocracy of lords and thanes, who came to enjoy a large measure of autonomous control over manors granted them by the king (see manorial system). The central government evolved from tribal chieftainships to become a monarchy in which executive and judicial powers were usually vested in the king The aristocracy made up his witan, or council of advisers (see witenaqemot). The king set up shires as units of local government ruled by earldormen. in some instances these earldormen became powerful hereditary earls, ruling several shires. Subdivisions of shires were called hundreds There were shire and hundred courts, the former headed by sheriffs, the latter by reeves. Agriculture was the principal industry, but trie Danes were aggressive traders, and towns increased in importance starting in the 9th cent.