The Politics of Violence and the Transition from Viking Age to Medieval Scandinavia

The Politics of Violence
and the Transition from Viking Age
to Medieval Scandinavia
THOMAS LINDKVIST
The Age of the Vikings ( ca 7 5Ü-ll 00) is one of the most spectacular periods
in the history of the Scandinavian peoples. The Viking Age corresponds
in Northern Europe to what in general is termed the High Middle Ages.
This age is often considered as a violent and cruel one. The word ‚Viking‘
contains both an ethnic classification, a Northener, and a functional one,
a man of violence.
During this period profound social changes took place. The gradual
conversion to Christianity was one of the more important changes and
it implied a changed world-picture and attitudes. An ecclesiastical organisation
was built up. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish kingdoms,
including more solid and permanent political structures, emerged. In all
it meant that societies with more or less tribal patterns were transformed
to complex societies with an ernerging or primitive state. Medieval ideologies,
mentalities, institutions and organisations of the Western feudal
culture were rather momentarily adopted. This fundamental social change
included as well a functional change of violence.
The Viking Age was violent. lt was also an era of expansion. Scandinavians
pillaged and plundered in the West as well in the East. They
frequently raided the British Isles, Northern France and along the shores
of the Baltic Sea. They colonized virgin lands as the Faroe Isles, leeland
and Greenland, or they settled in ancient territories, e. g., in England, Normandy
or Russia, where they quickly merged with the native population.
Traditionally the assault in 793 against the rich Northumbrian monastery
Lindisfarne is considered as the starting point of the Viking Age;
although the raids probably commenced some years earlier. The violent
Viking raids petered, however, out during the course of the eleventh century.
The colonization was in general peaceful. They became ordinary
peasants and holders of land. The Northeners eventually somewhere established
themselves as a political and social elite; but that position ceased
139
when the ethnic distinctions faded. Occasionally the Scandinavians establishecl
bases aimed primarily for pillage and plunder raids; the Norwegian
earldom of the Orkneys is a good example, recorded in the Orkneyinga
saga.1 There seems in general to have been more of violent activities in
the West than in the East. In chronicles and annals from the monasteries
on the British Isles and in France, the Scandinavian Vikings were described
as violent and cruel men. They were God’s punishment. „A furore Normannorum,
libera nos Domine!“ was a prayer regularly performed in the
Frankish kingdom during the High Middle Ages.2
The Viking achievements and their successes is explained by their
strategic and military superiority. The long shallow ships were at first an
excellent factor of surprise. From the more or less comtemporary chronicles
and annales we are informed that the Scandinavians not only were settlers,
but that they plundered, burnt and killed. This fame is partly a bias
explained by the character and nature of those sources. The aims of the
chroniclers were to record spectacular and memorable events, evil as well
as good ones. The first raids were more deliberate violent and cruel than
the la.ter ones. The Scandinavians‘ expeditions became more organized
towards the end of the Viking Age. The resistance became more effective
and the Vikings became more inclined to demand tribute under the menace
of violence. But the elapsing Viking Age also included temporary political
conquests. The most spectacular example is the kingdom of the Da.ne
Canute in England.
The cruelty of the Vikings was a common theme and topic in the
contemporary writings. The German bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, i. a.,
recorded in his ehronkle an assault against Stade close to Bremen in the
year 994. Prisoners were taken, i. a., close relatives to Thietmar, and the
„pirates“ maimed and mutilated them in a most brutal and pitiless way.3
Frankish, Irish and Anglo-Saxon chronicles have similar, sad stories to tell
us.
It has, however, been pointed out that this extremely unfavourable
and bad reputation of the Vikings partly depends on the origins of the
1 Barbara E. Crawford, Scandinavian Scotland (Leicester 1987), pp. 39 ff.
2 See e. g. Erling Albrectsen, Vikingerne i Franken (Odense 1976).
3 Thietmar von Merseburg, Chronik, eh. IV, 23-25.
140
sources. The British historian Peter Sawyer once remarked that the Scandinavians
in practice did not differ from other peoples of that period.4
During the late first rnillennium Europe experienced a lot of violence
and atrocities. The political and jurisdictional structures were weak and
inconsistent. Warfare between different pettier and rnightier lords was the
routine of the day. But the Scandinavians were pagans and thus they
could plunder monasteries and other ecclesiastical establishments without
any ideological and emotional restraints. The written culture and the
dwellings of the recorders of the collective memories belonged to the religious
communities. To them the Vikings were more cruel and more violent
than others.
Eventually the Vikings were not more violent and more cruel than
others. But they were, together with the Saracens and the Magyarian
horsemen, considered as a deadly threat to the entire Christian community.
The Vikings and their activities in Northern Europe were unique
manifestations of a general European economy of plunder. Pillage and
predatory expeditions were at the end of the first millennium essential
means whereby wealth could be acquired by kings, princes, lords, chieftains
and other men, airning to obtain and uphold a position of power.
There were but minor possibilities to levy regular taxes, rents or tributes
within their own realms.5
Wealth, the material base for a leading social and political position,
was to a rninor degree founded upon control of land and production. On the
contrary, a dominant position was upheld through distribution of wealth
in diverse forms. Hereby allies, followers, retinues were recruited and rewarded.
Wealth was possibly acquired through an exchange of prestigious
products, an exchange often described as trade. But wealth was as well
amassed by violent means. This appropriation through violence comprised
pillage and plunder as well as, on a more organized level, the taking of tributes
under the threat of violence. The French historian Georges Duby has,
4 Peter H. Sawyer, The Age of the Vikings, second ed. (London 1971), pp. 12 ff. and
202 ff. Cf., however, Peter H. Sawyer, Kings and Vikings. Scandinavia and Europe AD
70D-1100 (London 1982), where the character of the Vikings as primary assaulters is
stressed.
5 Thomas Lindkvist, ‚Social and Political Power in Sweden 1000-1300: Predatory Incursions,
Royal Taxation, and the Formation of a Feudal State‘, in Ross Samson (ed.),
Social Approaches to Viking Studies (Giasgow 1991), pp. 137 ff.
141
e. g., pointed out how a feudal society emerged around the year 1000, preceded
by a stage of plunder. 6 The social, political and econom.ic importance
of plunder for the coherence of the political power within the Carolingian
empire are furthermore underlined by Timothy Reuter.7
The particular economy of plunder of the Vik.ings emerged momentarily
during a period when the more peaceful exchange of products became
insufficient to supply and sustain the more hierarchical and stratified society
that orginiated in Scandinavia. A changing political and social structure
demanded more wealth that could be acquired peacefully. An important
form of wealth was silver. The import of silver from the caliphate of
the Abbasides, in exchange of other precious products: i . a. furs, slaves
and amber, was disturbed due to the invasions of steppe peoples into the
South of Russia and political upheavals within the caliphate.8
The outhurst of violence during the Vik.ing Age can thus be explained
by a combination of internal and external factors: the lack of prestigious
products and wealth that could be acquired by a potential social elite. The
age of intensified external and violent appropriation meant a transformation
of this social elite from warlords and pillagers to feudal lords of land,
from lords of armed men to lords of a dependent peasantry. A society
dominated politically by pagan petty k.ings was followed by the Christian
k.ingdoms. This transformation of the society meant that the necessary or
accepted violence was turned from being directed against other societies to
be directed internally, to uphold a new social order. In other words: violence
during the Vik.ing Age was mainly used for appropriation externally.
In the medieval society the violence was monopolized by the representatives
of a state. A ruling caste or dass upheld a new order, where the taxes
and rents were demanded from the peasants. The violence became more
organized, sophisticated and professionalized in the medieval society. The
6 Georges Duby, The Early Growth of the European Economy. Warriors and Peasants
from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (London 1974), pp. 112-154; Georges Duby,
The Three Orders. Feudal Society Imagined (Chicago 1980), pp. 150-153.
1 Timothy Reuter, ‚Plunder and Tribute in the Carolingian Empire‘, Transactions of
the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser. 35 (1985).
8 Sture Bolin, ‚Mohammed, Charlemagne and Ruric‘, Scandinavian Economic History
Review, vol. 1 (1952); Richard Hodges, Dark Age Economics. The Origins of Towns and
Trade AD 600-1000 (London 1982); Richard Hodges & David Whitehouse, Mohammed,
Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe (London 1983).
142
precarious economy of plunder and external appropriation was superseded
by a more stable and regular internal exploitation.
How common was violence during Vik.ing Age? In order to illustrate
everyday life and social attitudes in pre-medieval and pre-state Scandinavia
the Icelandic sagas (and the Norse Iiterature in general) are often
used. The sagas were all written down during the Middle Ages, but the
action is often of the Viking Age. 9 It is frequently told in these sagas that
younger men went „in Vik.ing“ regularily during the summer season. To
go „in Viking“ could imply peaceful trade or violent pillage, or, rather
common, a combination of both. These Vik.ings were often younger sons,
lack.ing farm or family. They often joined the retinue of a chief or another
leader. But Viking expeditions were also organized by martial confraternities.
The Vikings of Jomsburg were such a confraternity, partly surrounded
by fictitious legends. Eventually the stories about the Vik.ings of Jomsburg
more reßect a martial and male ideal than an actual institution. But evidently
some Vik.ing confraternities were well organized and got a more or
less permanent or at least long-lasting structure. Jomsburg was probably
a base at the mouth of the river Oder for institutionalised piracy.
To participate in Vik.ing expeditions is described as something adventurous
and hazardous, but it often rendered honour, fame and respect.
The Viking was a hero of the Norse literature. But it was the open or plain
violence that made a hero. The clandestine violence was considered contemptible.
In the saga of Egil Skallagrimsson, one of the masterpieces of
the Icelandic saga literature, there is an illuminating episode. Egil participated
in Viking expeditions along the shores of the Bastern Baltic. During
a raid in present Estonia Egil and his followers were captured and gaoled.
They managed, however, to escape after dark. They stole precious objects
and ran away. When leaving the farm Egil, however, hesitated. It was not
in accordance with the concept of honour to run away like a thief in the
night. He therefore returned, woke the lord of the house and his household
up, and then slayed all the men. Thus Egil payed respect to the general
concept of honour.
This dichotomy between the open and the clandestine violence is reßected
in, i. a., the medieval Swedish law codes of the thirteenth century.
9 See e. g. Carol J. Clover, The Medieval Saga (Ithaca 1982), and Jesse L. Byock,
Medieval Iceland. Society, Sagas and Power (Berkeley 1988).
143
A manslaughter committed cladestinely was punished more severely than
a fra11k and open murder.
A particular form of violence of the Viking Age was practiced by the
berserks. They were professional men of violence. A berserk could at
certain convenient occasions fiy into a towering and uncontrollable rage.
In skirmishes or in combat a berserk could at the right moment run amok.
He then „went berserk“ ; Juror berserkicus is the Latin term. But the
berserk was not the average and regular Viking. He was instead considered
as someone exceptional, dreadful and frightening. He did not in general
execute the heroic Viking violence.
Sometimes berserks were members of the retinues of the kings or the
earls. A berserk could be sent as a gift to another prince as a confirmation
of friendship. According to Eyrbyggja saga the Swedish king Eric segersäll,
the victorious, sent two berserks to earl (jarQ Haakon of Lade in Norway
as an act of benevolence and alliance.
The berserks are only known from the Viking age and they were often
associated with the pagan or pre-Christian religion. A berserk was often
described as gentile in the post-conversion literature. Their extraordinary
qualities derived from Woden (Oden); it was imagined that they changed
guise and became wolves when they „went berserk“ .10
The Viking Age society is often considered as violent, not only externally,
but also internally. Brutal actions, murder, homicide are common in
the Icelandic sagas and the Norse literature. Violence was, however, punished;
wergeld had to be paid; violence menacing the social order could
be sentenced by outlawry, i.e. the exclusion from society. Violence was
necessary to sustain the honour of an individual or the kin.11
The Icelandic society in the age of the sagas was characterized by a
comprehensive and elaborated legal system; probably this was common in
entire Scandinavia, but we have but scant information. Society was defined
through the law. To be a member of society was identical to be within
or to belong to the common law.12 But an executive power was lacking
before the development of a state. The more stratified and hierarchically
10 Nils Lid, ‚Berserk‘, Kulturhistoriskt Iexikon för nordisk medeltid, vol. 1 (1956); Folke
Ström, Nordisk hedendom. Tro och sed i förkristen tid (Stockholm 1985), p. 110.
11 Agneta Breisch, ‚Fredlöshetsbegreppet i saga och samhä.lle‘, Scripta Islandica. Islä.ndska
samhä.llets ä.rsbok, vol. 39 (1988).
12 Aaron Ya. Gurevich, Das Weltbild des mittelalterlichen Menschen (Dresden 1978),
144
ordered society, that followed the classical Vik.ing Age, meant that an
older, community-based social balance was disturbed. More powerful men,
with new means of power, undermined an established, more egalitarian
community. As a consequence there were periods with outrageous social
violence within the elite during the formation of an early state.
The first half of the thirteenth century is commonly termed the age of
the Sturlungs in Icelandic history. The history of that period is recorded in
the Sturlunga saga, which in fact is a collection of separate sagas.13 That
was a period with intensified violence, combined with malevolent cruelty.
Maiming and mutilations were frequent. It has been demonstrated that
about 350 murders or homicides are recorded in the Sturlunga saga.14 But
the violence was confined to a limited social elite. But this intensified
violence reflects new social conflicts. Similar violent and cruel conflicts
within a social elite occurred also in mainland Scandinavia after the Viking
Age, although they are not documented in such detail as the Icelandic ones.
The end of the Viking Age, the end of the age of plunder meant intensified
internal violence. But that violence was probably confined to this
social elite, seeking to establish new forms of domination and hegemony.
The gradual outcome of these brutal struggles for power was the rise of
the kingdoms in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In leeland the result was
the end of the independent community and the incorporation of the island
within the realm of the Norwegian kingdom.
The genesis of the medieval society was violent, but it meant the birth
of a feudal society with a new social order. The social function of violence
and the attitudes towards it changed in Scandinavia as elsewhere. The
origins of a kingdom and an incipient state meant a more ordered society.
The power of the arising kingdoms was indicated through the attempts
to prevent internal social violence. In ideology and in legislation the kings
became the warrants of the peace. That was one of their primary functions.
From all the Scandinavian countries it is known that the kingdom
pp. 188-246; Kirsten Hastrup, Culture and History in Medieval lceland. An Antrhropological
Analysis of Structure and Change (Orlord 1985), pp. 205-222.
13 Jakob Benediktsson, ‚Sturlunga saga‘, Kulturhistoriskt Iexikon för nordisk medeltid,
vol. 17 (1972).
14 Jesse L. Byock, ‚The Age of the Sturlungs‘, in Elisabeth Vestergaard ( ed. ), Continuity
and Change. Political Institutions and Literary Monuments in the Middle Ages ( Odense
1986), p. 31.
145
sanctioned a new legislation, partly in conflict with an older, customary
law. The intention of this royal and rnedieval legislation was mainly to
prevent and obstruct internal violence. In Sweden, e. g., the earllest royal
legislation, the edsöre, was directed against the breaking of the peace of
the realm. This legislation meant that the king together with some of the
most prominent aristocrats had sworn to punish some certain severe acts
of violence, i. a., violence committed against women, in the church or at
the court community meeting (the thing) .
This the earllest medieval royal ( or state) legislation was mainly directed
against a social ellte. The former local big men or chiefs were the
primary target for this legislation. It was directed against an older premedieval
aristocracy. The kingdom with its increasing legal instruments
suppressed, i. a., the blood feuds that were common and a menace to social
peace.
The Viking society with its important element of external appropriation,
based upon violence, was replaced by a feudal society, based upon
internal control. In the new social order internal violence became less acceptable.
There was a tendencey in Scandinavia towards a polltical power
that discipllned the violence. This Scandinavian evolution was obviously a
counterpart to the general European development and the peace movement
and the new ethical values concerning war and violence.15
The violence became monopollzed by the kingdom and the state. The
kings got control over the organizations that were used for external pillage.
The Vikings plunderers had at their disposal men who joined them more or
less voluntary. The capacity to execute violence depended on the social and
economic position of a war Ieader, on the possibilities to attach followers.
A final step towards the medieval society was taken when the king gained
control over these private retinues and assembled them to a ßeet that could
be used for offensive (and to some extent, defensive) purposes.16
The professional man of violence of the Middle Ages was primarily
the armoured knight. The knights constituted the aristocracy, a secluded
privileged estate in entire Europe during the High Middle Ages. The
chivalry and cavalry were more appropriate for control over the domestic
15 Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages (Oxford 1984), pp. 270 ff.
16 See e. g. Niels Lund, ‚The armies of Swein Forkbeard and Cnut: leding or Iid?‘,
Anglo-Saxon England, vol. 15 {1986).
146
territories and realms. And this new, medieval politics of violence fostered
a new life-style, a new ethics and new culture of the warrior .17
The heroic violence that prevailed in the old Norse literature disappeared.
In the Scandinavian kingdoms a new chivalrous ideal, imported,
but adopted, was gradually introduced. The medieval knight was as well
as the Viking a warrior, but new ethics surrounded him. There were new
ideals for the professional warrior to fulfil. Violence became controlled
and curbed. The privilege to practice violence was associated with Christian
ideals. The good violence should be used to protect society from its
enero1es.
Probably the Middle Ages were not more peaceful than preceding
periods. But the politics of violence changed during the transition from
Viking Age to the Middle Ages. This was a general European trend. The
external violence, the violence directed against other peoples and societies,
became more centralized. The predatory expeditions were followed by the
war that could be used for internal control and for territorial conquests.
17 See e. g. Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New Haven 1984) and Erik Lönnroth, Frän svensk
medeltid (Stockholm 1959), pp. 68-87.
147
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON GERHARD JARITZ
SONDERBAND II
CRUDELITAS
The Politics of Cruelty
in the Ancient and Medieval World
Proceedings of the International Conference
Turku {Finland), May 1991
Edited by
Toivo Viljamaa, Asko Timonen
and Christian Krötzl
Krems 1992
Front page illustration: Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (detail),
Friedrich Pacher, Tyrolian, 1480-1490,
Neustift (Novacella), South Tyrol (Italy), Stiftsgalerie
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
– ISBN 3-90 1094 05 9
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich – Druck:
KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1050 Wien.
Contents
Preface 7
Andrew LINTOTT (Oxford): Cruelty in the Political Life
of the Ancient World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Maarit KAIMIO (Helsinki): Violence in Greek Tragedy 28
Toivo VILJAMAA (Thrku): „Crudelitatis odio in crudelitatem
ruitis“ . Livy’s Concept of Life and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Katarüna MUSTAKALLIO (Helsinki): The „crimen incesti“
of the Vestal Virgins and the Prodigious Pestilence
Asko TIMONEN (Thrku): Criticism ofDefense. The Blam-
56
ing of „Crudelitas“ in the „Historia Augusta“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Christer BRUUN (Helsinki): Water as a Cruel Element in
the Roman World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4
Luigi de ANNA (Thrku): Elogio della crudelta. Aspetti
della violenza nel mondo antico e medievale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Greti DINKOVA-BRUUN (Helsinki): Cruelty and the Medieval
Intellectual: The Case of Peter Abelard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Christian KRÖTZL (Tampere): „Crudeliter affiicta“ . Zur
Darstellung von Gewalt und Grausamkeit in mittelalterlichen
Mirakelberichten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5
Thomas LINDKVIST (Uppsala) : The Politics of Violence
and the Transition from Viking Age to Medieval Scandinavia
Alain DUCELLIER (Toulouse): Byzance, Juge Cruel dans
un Environnement Cruel? Notes sur le „Musulman cruel“
dans l’Empire byzantin entre Vlleme et XIIlerne siedes
Asko TIMONEN (Turku): Select Bibliography
6
139
148
181
Preface
The present volume is a collection of the papers read at the conference
which was held in May 1991 at the University of Turku on the theme
The Politics of Cruelty in the A ncient and Medieval World. The general
aim of the conference was to advance interdisciplinary and international
collaboration in the fields of humanistic studies and particularly to bring
together scholars who have common interests in the study of our past.
The choice of the subject of cruelty naturally resulted from different study
projects concerning the political and social history of late antiquity and
the Middle Ages – the Roman imperial propaganda, the conß.ict between
paganism and christianity, the history of the Vandals, the Byzantine empires,
the Medieval miracle stories, to name some of them. Perhaps also
contemporary events had an influence on the idea that cruelty could be
the theme which conveniently would unite those various interests. And
the idea emerged irrespective of considerations whether or not we should
search for models in the Ancient World or join those who, as it seems to
have been a fashion, insist on investigating what we have common with
the Middle Ages.
One might argue – and for a good reason indeed – that cruelty is
a subject for anthropologists and psychologists, not for philologists and
historians. Where does the student of history find reliable criteria for
defining the notion of cruelty in order to judge the men of the past and their
actions, to charge with cruelty not only individuals but also nations and
even ages („the crudelitas imperatorum“ , „the Dark Ages“ , „the violence of
the Vikings“, „the cruel Muslims“ )? Is it not so that the only possibility is
to adapt our modern sensibilities to the past and to use our own prejudices
in making judgements about others? The prejudices – yes, but this is just
what makes the theme interesting for the historian because our prejudices
– our conception of cruelty, for instance – are part of the heritage of past
centuries. The events of our own day – maybe more clearly than ever – have
demonstrated that we live in a historical world. When we investigate the
history of the concept of cruelty we, as it were, Iook ourselves at a mirror
and learn to understand ourselves better. The concept of cruelty has two
sides. It is a subjective concept used to define and describe those persons
7
and those acts that according to the user of the term are negative, harmful,
humiliating, harsh, inhumane, primitive and unnatural; in everyday life
it is associated with religious habits – with crude remnants of primitive
religion, it is associated with passion, an uncontrolled mental state, or with
violence and with the exercise of power without justice. On the other hand
the term is used to classify people by their ethical and social habits, to
accuse, to invalidate and injure others; therefore the accusation of cruelty
refers to basic features of ancient and also Medieval thought, to the fear of
anything foreign, to the aggressive curiosity to define and subsume others
simply by their otherness.
Such were the considerations wich gave inspiration for arranging the
„cruelty“ -seminar. The conference was accommodated by the Archipelago
Institute of the University of Turku, in the island Seili („Soul island“) , in
an environment of quiet beauty of the remote island and sad memories of
the centuries when people attacked by a cruel fate, lepers or mentally ill,
were banished there from the civilized community.
The conference was organized by the Department of Classics of the
University of Turku in collaboration with the Departments of Cultural
History and Italian language and culture of the same university. It is a
pleasure to us to be able to thank here all those who helped to make the
congress possible. We would like especially to express our gratitude to
Luigi de Anna and Hannu Laaksonen for their assistance in preparing and
carrying out the practical arrangements. The financial assistance given by
the Finnish Academy and by the Turku University Foundation was also
indispensable. Finally, we close by expressing our gratitude to Gerhard
Jaritz, the editor of the Medium Aevum Quotidianum for the Gesellschaft
fü r Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, for his kind COoperation
and for accepting this collection of papers to be published as a
supplement to the series of the studies on the Medieval everyday life. One
of the starting-points for organizing the „cruelty“ -conference was the firm
conviction that the Graeco-Roman Antiquity did not end with the beginning
of the Middle Ages, but these two eras form a continuum in many
respects, and the continuity was felt not only in the literary culture, in the
Greek and Latin languages which were still used, but also in the political,
social and religious structures of the Middle Ages. We think that this
continuity is amply demonstrated by the studies of the present volume.
Department of Classics, University of Turku, Finland
8