CHAPTER XII
SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE IN THE EMPIRE AND ICELAND
Considering the long and devastating campaign of the Vikings within the Frankish empire and more especially within its western portion, it is surprising that they only formed permanent settlements in one small area, leaving practically no marks of their presence elsewhere. Great portions of the Low Countries were in almost continuous occupation by them during the 9th century, but the opportunity was lost, and beyond an important share in the development of the trade of Duurstede, the Vikings hardly left a sign of their influence behind them.
The case of Normandy is different. Here we have a definite district assigned to the invaders, just as the Danelagh was given to them in England, and the whole of that territory is deeply impregnated with their influence. Many of the Norman towns in -_ville_ contain as the first element in their name a Norse personal name, e.g. Catteville, Cauverville, Colleville, Fouqueville, Hacqueville containing the names _Káte_, _Kálfr_, _Kolr_, _Fólki_, _Hákon_, while the suffixes -_bec_, -_beuf_, -_dale_, -_ey_, -_gard_, -_londe_, -_torp_, -_tot_, -_tuit_, -_vic_ as in Bolbec, Elbeuf, Saussedalle, Jersey, Eppegard, Mandelonde, Torgistorp, Abbetot, Bracquetuit, Barvic go back to O.N. _bekkr_, _búð_ (booth), _dalr_, _ey_ (island), _garðr_, _lundr_, _þorp_, _topt_, _þveit_, _vík_ (_v. supra_, pp. 124-5). The dialect of Normandy to this day contains a good number of Scandinavian words, and others have been introduced into the standard language. Some of these have also found their way into English through our Norman conquerors, e.g. _abet_, _baggage_, _elope_, _equip_, _jolly_, _rubbish_, _scoop_, _strife_ just as the _Bulbeck_ in Swaffham Bulbeck (Cambs.) and Bulbeck Common above Blanchland in Northumberland is from the great Norman barony of Bulbeck, so named after Bolbec in Normandy, of which they once formed part. Norman law and customs also show many traces of Scandinavian influence and so does Norman folk-lore.
The Normans still looked to Denmark as their home-land down to the end of the 10th century, and at least twice during the reign of Harold Bluetooth their Dukes received help from that country. The nobles soon ceased to speak their old northern language, but it is probable that it remained current on the lips of the people for some considerable time longer.
The Vikings always showed themselves keenly sensitive to the influence of a civilisation higher or more developed than their own, and this is nowhere more apparent than in Normandy. Heathenism found a champion as late as 943 when, on the death of William Longsword, a rising of heathen Normans was crushed with the aid of the Frankish king, but for the most part the Normans soon showed themselves devout sons of the Church and were destined in the 11th century to be numbered among the most ardent supporters of the Crusades. With the adoption of Christianity they learned to respect and honour those homes of learning which they had once devastated for their wealth of hoarded treasure, and the famous school at Bec, whence came Lanfranc and Anselm, was only one among many which they richly endowed and supported.
Their religious and artistic feeling found expression in that development of Romanesque architecture which we know as Norman and which has given so many famous buildings not only to Normandy but to England, to Sicily and to Southern Italy generally. In literature the Norman-French _trouvères_ did much towards popularising the romances of war and adventure which play so important a part in medieval literature, and when they settled in England it was largely due to Anglo-Norman poets that 'the matter of Britain' became one of the great subjects of romance for all time.
In its social organisation Normandy seems speedily to have been feudalised. Rollo divided the land among a comparatively small number of large landholders and the system of land tenure was quite different from that in the English Danelagh with its large number of small freeholders. On the other hand it was probably due to Norse traditions of personal freedom that serfdom disappeared earlier in Normandy than in any other of the French provinces.
Trade and commerce were fostered here as everywhere by the Vikings. It was the Normans who first taught the French to become a power at sea, many French naval terms are of Norman origin and from the Norman province have come some of France's greatest sea-captains.
The Vikings like the Franks before them threw off their old speech and submitted to the all-embracing power of Latin civilisation, and the result was a race endowed with vigorous personality, untiring activity, and the instinct for ruling men. The Normans may have become largely French but they lost none of their old enterprise and spirit of adventure. In the 11th century they conquered England and founded great kingdoms for themselves in Sicily and South Italy. No Viking stock was more vigorous than that which resulted from the grafting of Gallo-Latin culture on the ruder civilisation of the Teutonic north.
Their influence on France as a whole is not nearly as great as the influence of their kinsmen in England, probably because English government was centralised (under Norman rule) much sooner than French government, and their influence was thus able to make itself felt outside the actual districts in which they settled. The settlement of Normandy helped however towards the consolidation of power in the hands of Charles the Bald and his successors, much as the settlement of the Danelagh helped in establishing the final supremacy of Wessex.
It remains to speak of one great home of Viking civilisation to which more than one reference has been made in previous chapters, viz. Iceland. The story of its settlement is a very simple one. It commenced about 870, when many great Norwegian noblemen sought there for themselves and their followers a freer life than they could obtain under the growing power of Harold Fairhair. It was greatly strengthened by settlers both from Norway and from Ireland and the Western Islands when that power was firmly established by the battle of Hafrsfjord, and by the year 930 the settlement was practically complete. Iceland was more purely Scandinavian than any other settlement made during the Viking age. Here we have not the case of one civilisation grafted on another and earlier one as in England, Ireland or the Frankish empire, but the transference of the best and finest elements in a nation to new and virgin soil where, for good or ill, they were free to develop their civilisation on almost entirely independent lines. Settlers from the Western Islands and from Ireland may have brought Celtic elements, and Christianity was not without influence, when it was introduced from Norway at the close of the 10th century, but on the whole we see in Iceland just what Viking civilisation was capable of when left to itself.
At first the settlers lived in almost complete isolation, political and religious, from one another, but they soon found that some form of organisation was necessary and groups of settlers began by choosing from among their number a _goði_, or chieftain, half-priest, half-leader, who was the speaker at their moot and their representative in negotiation with neighbouring groups. Then, continued disputes and the lack of a common law led to the establishment of a central moot or _alþing_, with a speaker to speak one single law for all. But the Norsemen were much better at making constitutions and enacting laws than they were at observing them when instituted, and the condition of Iceland has been vividly if roughly summarised as one of 'all law and no government.' The local _þings_ or the national _alþing_ might enact perfect laws, but there was no compelling force, except public opinion, to make them be obeyed. Even the introduction of Christianity made no difference: the Icelanders quarrelled as bitterly over questions of ecclesiastical as of civil law and the authorities of the medieval Church were scandalised by their anarchic love of freedom. In the words of Professor Ker 'the settlers made a commonwealth of their own, which was in contradiction to all the prejudices of the middle ages and of all ancient and modern political philosophy; a commonwealth which was not a state, which had no government, no sovereignty.' 'It was anarchy without a police-constable.' The result was that the rich men grew richer, the poor became poorer, the smaller gentry died out and the large estates fell into fewer and fewer hands. The great men quarrelled among themselves, intrigued against one another and played into the hands of the Norwegian kings who were only waiting their opportunity. It came in the days of Hákon the Old. 'Land and thanes' were sworn into subjection to that king at the Althing in 1262, and in 1271 the old Icelandic common law was superseded by a new Norse code.
The failure of the Icelandic commonwealth is amply compensated for by the rich intellectual development of Icelandic literature, which owed many of its most characteristic features to the fact that it was written in a land almost completely isolated and detached from the main currents of Western medieval thought and the general trend of European history, but in itself that failure is full of deepest import for a right understanding of the part played by Viking civilisation in Europe. Powerful and highly developed as that civilisation was in many ways, it only reached its highest and best expression when brought into fruitful contact with other and older civilisations. There it found the corrective for certain inherent weaknesses, more especially for certain tendencies of too strongly individualistic character leading to political and intellectual anarchy, while at the same time by its own energy and vigour it quickened the life of the older civilisations where they were tending to become effete or outworn. The Germanic peoples had done much for the development of European civilisation in the time of the wanderings of the nations, but by the end of the 8th century they had lost much of their pristine vigour through contact with the richer and more luxurious civilisation of the Roman world. It was reserved for the North Germanic peoples, or the Northmen as we can more fitly describe them, in the 9th and 10th centuries to give a yet more powerful stimulus to European life, if not to European thought, a stimulus which perhaps found its highest expression in the great creations of the Norman race in the world of politics, the world of commerce, the world of architecture and the world of letters.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[The appended bibliography does not attempt to deal with primary authorities, with the large mass of valuable periodical literature which has been published within the last thirty years, or with books only incidentally concerned with the movement. It is much to be regretted that so few of the important Scandinavian books on the subject have been translated into English.]
BJÖRKMAN, E. Scandinavian Loan-words in Middle English. Halle. 1906.
BUGGE, A. Vikingerne. 2 series. Christiania. 1904-6. (German trans. of 1st series. Leipzig. 1896.)
---- Vesterlandenes Inflydelse paa Nordboernes i Vikingetiden. Christiania. 1905.
---- Norges Historie. Vol. I, Pt. II. Christiania. 1910.
COLLINGWOOD, W. G. Scandinavian Britain. London. 1908.
CRAIGIE, W. A. The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. London. 1906.
DIETRICHSON, L. and MEYER, S. Monumenta Orcadica. Christiania. 1906. (Abridged English edition.)
DU CHAILLU, P. B. The Viking Age. 2 vols. London. 1889.
GUSTAFSON, G. Norges Oldtid. Christiania. 1906.
HENDERSON, G. The Norse Influence on Celtic Scotland. Glasgow. 1910.
KEARY, C. F. The Vikings in Western Christendom. London. 1891.
KERMODE, P. M. C. Manx Crosses. London. 1907.
MAURER, K. Die Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes. 2 vols. Munich. 1855-9.
MONTELIUS, O. Sveriges Historia. Vol. I. Stockholm. 1903. (German tr. Kulturgeschichte Schwedens. Leipzig. 1906.)
MÜLLER, S. Vor Oldtid. Copenhagen. 1897. (German tr. Nordische Altertümskunde. 2 vols. Strasburg. 1897-8.)
OLRIK, A. Nordisk Aaandsliv i Vikingetid. Copenhagen. 1907. (German tr. Nordisches Geistesleben. Heidelberg. 1908.)
STEENSTRUP, J. C. H. R. Normannerne. 4 vols. Copenhagen. 1876-82.
---- Danmarks Riges Historie. Vol. I. Copenhagen. 1876-82.
THOMSEN, V. The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia. Oxford. 1877.
VOGEL, W. Die Normannen und das Fränkische Reich. Heidelberg. 1906.
VOGT, L. J. Dublin som Norsk By. Christiania. 1906.
The Publications of the Viking Club (Saga-Book and Year Book) include papers on various aspects of the movement and notices of the literature of the subject as well as descriptions of various archaeological discoveries.
INDEX
Aethelflæd of Mercia, 29, 32, 57
Aethelstan, 35-6
Alfred the Great, 25-8
Altar-ring, 26, 89
_Althing_, 116
Anlaf Godfreyson, 35; Sihtricsson (Cuaran), 34, 36, 56, 60-1, 90
Arabic historians, references in, 20, 76, 109
Auðr the deep-thoughted, 20, 66, 68, 85, 89
_bautasteinar_, 110
Björkö, 86, 96, 98
Björn Ironside, 22, 44, 46
Black Foreigners, 10
Brian Borumha, 56, 62-4
Brunanburh, 35, 61, 64
Burial ceremonies, 99-100, 108-10
_carucates_, 132-3
Christianity, 16, 37, 41, 83, 86-93
Clontarf, 63-4, 67, 98, 120
Cnut, 41-2, 87, 101
_Daci_, 10, 134
Danegeld, 38-9, 48
Danelagh boundaries, 27, 128-9; reconquest, 29-32
Danes, _passim_
Denmark, 5, 16, 22-3, 44, 86-7
_drengs_ 135-6
_Dubh-gaill_, 10
Dublin, 15, 23, 33-4, 55, 59-60, 64, 89, 103, 120-2
East Anglia, 11, 14, 27-8, 32, 134-5
Eddaic poems, 2, 93-4
Edmund Ironside, 40-1
Edward the Elder, 29, 31
England, invasion of, 12, 22-43; influence in, 123-37
Eric Blood-axe, 36-7
Ethelred the Unready, 37-40
Faroes, 6, 98
_Fin-gaill_, 10
Five Boroughs, 11, 30, 36, 134-6
Frisia, 15-8, 49
France, invasions of, 17-21, 43-53; influence in, 138-42
Frisians, 8
_Gaill-Gaedhil_, 56, 65, 67
Galloway, 65, 116
Gokstad ship, 99
Greenland, 99
Guthrum of East Anglia, 26-7
Hásteinn (Hastingus), 28, 44, 46, 50
Hafrsfjord, 7, 56
Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri, 35-6, 88
Halfdanr, 22, 25, 33, 58
Harold Bluetooth, 37, 70-2, 87
Harold Fairhair, 7, 35, 58, 67, 142
Harold Hardrada, 42, 81, 99
Harold of Mainz, 16, 18-9, 86
Heathenism, 83, 86-93
Hebrides, 5, 60, 65, 67-8, 114
_Hiruath_, 11
_holds_, 135
Hörðaland, Hörðai, 5, 11
_hows_, 108
Iceland, 83, 85, 117, 142-4
Ireland, attacks on, 12-13, 15, 54-64; Danes and Norsemen in, 54-8; influence in, 116-23
Ívarr the boneless, 22, 24-5, 57-8
_jarls_, 103, 134
Jellinge stone, 111
Jómsborg, Jómsvikings, 70-2, 98, 102
jury, presentation by, 136
Ketill Finn, 67
Ketill Flatnose, 56, 67
_lawmen_, 103, 116, 136
Limerick, 59, 62, 98, 120
_Lochlann_, 10
_Ludwigslied_, 47
_Madjus_, 20
Maeshowe, 23, 113
Maldon, battle of, 38
Man, Isle of, 12, 39, 63, 65-8, 114-5
_nithing_, 137
Noirmoutier, 17, 19, 21
Norsemen, Norwegians, _passim_
Northumbria, 11, 24-5, 28, 83-4, 37, 41, 60, 63, 126-8
Normandy, 52-3, 138-42
Norway, 7, 16; Christianity in, 88-9
Odin, 88, 95, 115
Ohthere, Óttarr, 96, 99
Olaf Tryggvason, 4, 38, 87, 89, 101
Olaf the White, 20, 57-8, 66, 68
_ore_, 133
Orkneys, 23, 63, 65, 112-3, 117
Ornamentation, style of, 79, 106-7
Ornaments, 104-6
Oseberg ship, 99-100
_Ostmen_, 122
_Oðal_, 67, 113
Paris, 21, 49-50
Place-names, influence on Scottish, 114; Irish, 118-9; English, 123-9
_prime-signing_, 91
Ragnarr Loðbrók, 21-4, 44, 57, 102
Rhôs, 19, 47, 73-4
_ridings_, 131
Rollo, 9, 53, 103
Runic inscriptions, 23, 81, 85-6, 110-1, 113-5
Rus, 73-9
Russia, founding of, 73-80
St Anskar, 70, 86
St Edmund, 25
St Olaf, 41, 89
_Scaldingi_, 11
Scandinavian loan-words in English, 130-1
Sculptured stones, 91, 111, 114-5
Seven Boroughs, 40
Shetlands, 5, 6, 65, 112-3, 117
Ship-burials, 99-100
Ships, 29, 98-100
Shires, origin of, 31 _n_., 134
Sigurd of the Orkneys, 63, 66-7
Slesvík, 15, 87, 96
Sodor and Man, 65
Stamford Bridge, 42
_Suðreyjar_, 65
Svein Forkbeard, 37, 39, 40, 87
Sweden, 7, 96
Swedes, 9, 19, 72-9
_thing_, 103, 115-6
Thor, 89, 95, 115
Trade, character of, 96-8; Oriental, 71, 79-80; Russian, 75-80; Irish, 120
Turf-Einar, 67
Turges, 13, 20
Tynwald Court, 115
_udal_ and _udaller_, 113
Varangians, Variags, 73, 77-9
Vestfold, 11, 16
Viking, the term, 1
Viking movement, causes of, 4-11
Vinland, 99
_Wapentake_, 132
Weapons, 101-2
Wedmore, peace of, 27
_Westfaldingi_, 11
White Foreigners, 10
Women, position of, 54-6, 94
York, 24, 31, 33
CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
THE CAMBRIDGE MANUALS OF SCIENCE AND LITERATURE
Published by the Cambridge University Press
GENERAL EDITORS P. GILES, Litt.D. Master of Emmanuel College
and
A. C. SEWARD, M.A., F.R.S. Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge
SIXTY VOLUMES NOW READY
_HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY_
Ancient Assyria. By Rev. C. H. W. Johns, Litt.D.
Ancient Babylonia. By Rev. C. H. W. Johns, Litt.D.
A History of Civilization in Palestine. By Prof. R. A. S. Macalister, M.A., F.S.A.
China and the Manchus. By Prof. H. A. Giles, LL.D.
The Civilization of Ancient Mexico. By Lewis Spence.
The Vikings. By Prof. Allen Mawer, M.A.
New Zealand. By the Hon. Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G., LL.D., and J. Logan Stout, LL.B. (N.Z.).
The Ground Plan of the English Parish Church. By A. Hamilton Thompson, M.A., F.S.A.
The Historical Growth of the English Parish Church. By A. Hamilton Thompson, M.A., F.S.A.
Brasses. By J. S. M. Ward, B.A., F.R.Hist.S.
Ancient Stained and Painted Glass. By F. S. Eden.
_LITERARY HISTORY_
The Early Religious Poetry of the Hebrews. By the Rev. E. G. King, D.D.
The Early Religious Poetry of Persia. By the Rev. Prof. J. Hope Moulton, D.D., D.Theol. (Berlin).
The History of the English Bible. By the Rev. John Brown, D.D.
English Dialects from the Eighth Century to the Present Day. By W. W. Skeat, Litt.D., D.C.L., F.B.A.
King Arthur in History and Legend. By Prof. W. Lewis Jones, M.A.
The Icelandic Sagas. By W. A. Craigie, LL.D.
Greek Tragedy. By J. T. Sheppard, M.A.
The Ballad in Literature. By T. F. Henderson.
Goethe and the Twentieth Century. By Prof. J. G. Robertson, M.A., Ph.D.
The Troubadours. By the Rev. H. J. Chaytor, M.A.
_PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION_
The Idea of God in Early Religions. By Dr F. B. Jevons.
Comparative Religion. By Dr F. B. Jevons.
The Moral Life and Moral Worth. By Prof. Sorley, Litt.D.
The English Puritans. By the Rev. John Brown, D.D.
An Historical Account of the Rise and Development of Presbyterianism in Scotland. By the Rt Hon. the Lord Balfour of Burleigh, K.T., G.C.M.G.
Methodism. By Rev. H. B. Workman, D.Lit.
_EDUCATION_
Life in the Medieval University. By R. S. Rait, M.A.
_ECONOMICS_
Cash and Credit. By D. A. Barker, I.C.S.
_LAW_
The Administration of Justice in Criminal Matters (in England and Wales). By G. Glover Alexander, M.A., LL.M.
_BIOLOGY_
The Coming of Evolution. By Prof. J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S.
Heredity in the Light of Recent Research. By L. Doncaster, M.A.
Primitive Animals. By Geoffrey Smith, M.A.
The Individual in the Animal Kingdom. By J. S. Huxley, B.A.
Life in the Sea. By James Johnstone, B.Sc.
The Migration of Birds. By T. A. Coward.
Spiders. By C. Warburton, M.A.
House Flies. By C. G. Hewitt, D.Sc.
Earthworms and their Allies. By F. E. Beddard, F.R.S.
_ANTHROPOLOGY_
The Wanderings of Peoples. By Dr A. C. Haddon, F.R.S.
Prehistoric Man. By Dr W. L. H. Duckworth.
_GEOLOGY_
Rocks and their Origins. By Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole.
The Work of Rain and Rivers. By T. G. Bonney, Sc.D.
The Natural History of Coal. By Dr E. A. Newell Arber.
The Natural History of Clay. By Alfred B. Searle.
The Origin of Earthquakes. By C. Davison, Sc.D., F.G.S.
_BOTANY_
Plant-Animals: a Study in Symbiosis. By Prof. F. W. Keeble.
Plant-Life on Land. By Prof. F. O. Bower, Sc.D., F.R.S.
Links with the Past in the Plant-World. By Prof. A. C. Seward.
_PHYSICS_
The Earth. By Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S.
The Atmosphere. By A. J. Berry, M.A.
The Physical Basis of Music. By A. Wood, M.A.
_PSYCHOLOGY_
An Introduction to Experimental Psychology. By Dr C. S. Myers.
The Psychology of Insanity. By Bernard Hart, M.D.
_INDUSTRIAL AND MECHANICAL SCIENCE_
The Modern Locomotive. By C. Edgar Allen, A.M.I.Mech.E.
The Modern Warship. By E. L. Attwood.
Aerial Locomotion. By E. H. Harper, M.A., and Allan E. Ferguson, B.Sc.
Electricity in Locomotion. By A. G. Whyte, B.Sc.
The Story of a Loaf of Bread. By Prof. T. B. Wood, M.A.
Brewing. By A. Chaston Chapman, F.I.C.
SOME VOLUMES IN PREPARATION
_HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY_
The Aryans. By Prof. M. Winternitz.
The Peoples of India. By J. D. Anderson.
Prehistoric Britain. By L. McL. Mann.
The Balkan Peoples. By J. D. Bourchier.
The Evolution of Japan. By Prof. J. H. Longford.
The West Indies. By Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G.
The Royal Navy. By John Leyland.
Gypsies. By John Sampson.
English Monasteries. By A. H. Thompson, M.A.
A Grammar of Heraldry. By W. H. St John Hope, Litt.D.
Celtic Art. By Joseph Anderson, LL.D.
_LITERARY HISTORY_
The Book. By H. G. Aldis, M.A.
Pantomime. By D. L. Murray.
Folk Song and Dance. By Miss Neal and F. Kitson.
_PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION_
The Moral and Political Ideas of Plato. By Mrs A. M. Adam.
The Beautiful. By Vernon Lee.
_ECONOMICS_
The Theory of Money. By D. A. Barker.
Women's Work. By Miss Constance Smith.
_EDUCATION_
German School Education. By Prof. K. H. Breul, Litt.D.
The Old Grammar Schools. By Prof. Foster Watson.
_PHYSICS_
Beyond the Atom. By Prof. J. Cox.
The Sun. By Prof. R. A. Sampson.
Wireless Telegraphy. By C. L. Fortescue, M.A.
Röntgen Rays. By Prof. W. H. Bragg, F.R.S.
_BIOLOGY_
Bees and Wasps. By O. H. Latter, M.A.
The Life-story of Insects. By Prof. G. H. Carpenter.
The Wanderings of Animals. By H. F. Gadow, M.A., F.R.S.
_GEOLOGY_
Submerged Forests. By Clement Reid, F.R.S.
Coast Erosion. By Prof. T. J. Jehu.
_INDUSTRIAL AND MECHANICAL SCIENCE_
Coal Mining. By T. C. Cantrill.
Leather. By Prof. H. R. Procter.
Cambridge University Press C. F. Clay, Manager London: Fetter Lane, E.C. Edinburgh: 100, Princes Street
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
Inconsistent hyphenation fixed.
P. 67: Murray -> Moray.
P. 147: Nordisk Aaandsliv -> Nordisk Aandsliv.
P. 148: Cnut, 42-2 -> Cnut, 41-2.