Latest / Vikings / 13 - Vikings by Allen Mawer

Transcript

13 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve of the Vikings by Alan Mauer. This librvox
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kevin Johnson,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve Scandinavian Influence in the Empire and Iceland. Considering
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the long and devastating campaign of the Vikings within the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Frankish Empire, and more especially within its western portion, it
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: is surprising that they only formed permanent settlements in one
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: small area, leaving practically no marks of their presence elsewhere.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Great portions of the Low Countries were an almost continuous
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: occupation by them during the ninth century, but the opportunity
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: was lost, and beyond an important share in the development
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of the trade of dusted the Vikings hardly left a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: sign of their influence behind them. The case of Normandy
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: is different. Here we have a definite district, a sign
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to the invaders, just as the Dane was given to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: them in England, and the whole of that territory is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: deeply impregnated with their influence. Many of the Norman towns
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: in Ville contain as the first element in their name
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a Norse personal name e g. Kataville, Calverville, Corlville, Foulkville, Haqueville,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: containing the names kit, coulfer, Cohler, folkey, hakon, while the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: suffixes beck, bouff, dale, a guard, Lawnde, torp, tott, tweet,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: vic as in Bolbeck, elboeuf, sasidal, jersey, epigard, mandalande, torgestorp, abetote, brackwittweet,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: barbick go back to Old Norse becker booth, bracket booth
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and a bracket dollar, a bracket island and a bracket
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: garther lundur thorpe, topt thwaite, vick. The dialect of Normandy
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to this day contains a good number of Scandinavian words,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and others have been introduced into the standard language. Some
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of these have also found their way into English through
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: are Norman conquerors e g. Abbett, baggage, elope, equip, jolly, rubbish, scoop, strife,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: just as the Bulbeck in Swaffham Bulbeck, bracket, cams and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a bragget and Bulbeck common above. Blancheland in Northumberland is
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: from the Great Norman barony of Bulbeck, so named after
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Bolbeck in Normandy, of which they once formed part. Norman
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: law and customs also show many traces of Scandinavian influence,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and so does Norman folklore. The Normans still look to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Denmark as their home land down to the end of
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the tenth century, and at least twice during the reign
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of Herald Blue Tooth their dukes received help from that country.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: The nobles soon ceased to speak their old Northern language,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: but it is probable that it remained current on the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: lips of the people for some considerable time longer. The
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Vikings always showed themselves keenly sensitive to the influence of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: a civilization higher or more developed than their own, and
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: this is nowhere more apparent than in Normandy. Heathenism found
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: a champion as late as nine forty three, when, on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the death of William Longsword, a rising of Heathen Normans
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: was crushed with the aid of the Frankish king. But
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: for the most part the Normans soon showed themselves devout
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: sons of the Church, and were destined in the eleventh
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: century to be numbered among the most ardent supporters of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the Crusades. With the adoption of Christianity, they learned to
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: respect and honor those homes of learning which they had
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: once devastated for their wealth of hoarded treasure, and the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: famous school at Beck whence came lanfranc and Anselm was
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: only one among many which they richly endowed and supported.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Their religious and artistic feeling found expression in that development
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of Romanesque architecture which we know as Norman, and which
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: has given so many famous buildings, not only to Normandy,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: but to England, to Sicily, and to southern Italy generally.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: In literature, the Norman French trueverat did much towards popularizing
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the romances of war and adventure, which play so important
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a part in medieval literature, and when they settled in England,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: it was largely due to Anglo Norman poets that the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: matter of Britain became one of the great subjects of
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Romance for all time. In its social organization, Normandy seems
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: speedily to have been feudalized. Rollo divided the land among
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a comparatively small number of large landholders, and the system
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: of land tenure was quite different from that in the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: English Danelog with its large number of small freeholders. On
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the other hand, it was probably due to Norse traditions
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of personal freedom that serfdom disappeared earlier in Normandy than
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: in any other of the French provinces. Trade and commerce
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: were fostered here as everywhere by the Vikings. It was
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the Normans who first taught the French to become a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: power at sea. Many French naval terms are of Norman origin,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and from the Norman province have come some of France's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: greatest sea captains. The Vikings, like the Franks before them,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: threw off their old speech and submitted to the all
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: embracing power of Latin civilization, and the result was a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: race endowed with vigorous personality, untiring activity, and the instinct
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: for ruling men. The Normans may have become largely French,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: but they lost none of their old enterprise and spirit
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of adventure. In the eleventh century they conquered England and
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: found great kingdoms from themselves in Sicily and South Italy.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: No Viking stock was more vigorous than that which resulted
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: from the grafting of Gallo Latin culture on the ruder
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: civilization of the Teutonic North. Their influence on France as
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a whole is not nearly as great as the influence
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of their kinsmen in England, probably because English government was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: centralized bracket under Norman rule, and a bracket much sooner
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: than French government, and their influence was thus able to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: make itself felt outside the actual districts in which they settled.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: The settlement of Normandy helped, however, towards the consolidation of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: power in the hands of Charles the Bald and his successors,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: much as the settlement of the Danelog helped in establishing
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the final supremacy of Wessex. It remains to speak of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the one great home of Viking civilization, to which more
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: than one reference has been made in previous chapters, viz Iceland.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: The story of its settlement is a very simple one.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: It commenced about eight seventy, when many great Norwegian noblemen
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: sought there for themselves and their followers a freer life
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: than they could obtain under the growing power of Harald
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: fair Hair. It was greatly strengthened by settlers both from
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Norway and from Ireland and the Western Islands when that
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: power was firmly established by the Battle of Hafersford, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: by the year nine thirty the settlement was practically complete.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Iceland was more purely Scandinavian than any other settlement made
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: during the Viking Age. Here we have not the case
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: of one civilization grafted on to another and earlier one,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: as in England, Ireland or the Frankish Empire, but the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: transference of the best and finest elements in a nation
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: to new and virgin soil wear for good or ill.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: They were free to develop their civilization on almost entirely
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: independent lines. From the Western Islands and from Ireland may
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: have brought Celtic elements, and Christianity was not without influence
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: when it was introduced from Norway the close of the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: tenth century, but on the whole we see in Iceland
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: just what Viking civilization was capable of when left to itself.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: At first, the settlers lived in almost complete isolation, political
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and religious from one another, but they soon found that
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: some form of organization was necessary, and groups of settlers
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: began by choosing from amongst their number a goothie or chieftain,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: half priest, half leader, who was the speaker at their
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: moot and their representative in negotiation with neighboring groups. Then
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: continued disputes, and the lack of a common law led
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to the establishment of a central moot or alding, with
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the speaker to speak one single law for all but
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: the Norsemen were much better at making constitutions and enacting
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: laws than they were at observing them when instituted, and
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the condition of Iceland has been vividly, if roughly, summarized,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: as one of all law and no government. The local
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: things or the national all thing might enact perfect laws,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: but there was no compelling force except public opinion, to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: make them be obeyed. Even the introduction of Christianity made
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: no difference. The Icelanders quarreled as bitterly over questions of
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: ecclesiastical as of civil law, and the authorities of the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: medieval Church were scandalized by their anarchic love of freedom.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: In the words of Professor Kerr, the settlers made a
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: commonwealth of their own, which was in contradiction to all
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: the prejudices of the Middle Ages and of all ancient
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and modern political philosophy. A commonwealth which was not a state,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: which had no government, no sovereignty. It was anarchy without
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a police constable. The result was that the rich men
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: grew richer, the poor became poorer, the smaller gentry died out,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: and the large estates fell into fewer and fewer hands.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: The great men quarreled among themselves intrigued against one another
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and played into the hands of the Norwegian kings, who
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: were only waiting their opportunity. It came in the days
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of Hakon. The old Lands and Thanes were sworn into
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: subjection to that king at the all Thing in twelve
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: sixty two, and in twelve seventy one the old Icelandic
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: common law was superseded by a new Norse code. The
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: failure of the Icelandic Commonwealth is amply compensated for by
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the rich intellectual development of Icelandic literature, which owed many
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of his most characteristic features. To the fact that it
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: was written in a land almost completely isolated and detached
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: from the main currents of Western medieval thought and the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: general trend of European history in itself, that failure is
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: full of deepest import for a right understanding of the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: part played by Viking civilization in Europe. Powerful and highly
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: developed as that civilization was in many ways, it only
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: reached its highest and best expression when brought into fruitful
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: contact with other and older civilizations. There it found the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: corrective for certain inherent weaknesses, more especially for certain tendencies
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of too strongly individualistic character, leading to political and intellectual anarchy,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: while at the same time, by its own energy and vigor,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: it quickened the life of the older civilizations where they
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: were tending to become efete or outworn. The Germanic peoples
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: had done much for the development of European civilization in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the time of the Wanderings of the Nations, but by
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the end of the eighth century they had lost much
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: of their pristine vigor through contact with the richer and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: more luxurious civilization of the Roman world. It was reserved
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: for the North Germanic peoples, or the Northmen, as we
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: can more fitly describe them, in the ninth and tenth
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: centuries to give a yet more powerful stimulus to European life,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: if not to European thought, a stimulus which perhaps found
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: its highest expression in the great creations of the Norman
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: race in the world of politics, the world of commerce,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the world of architecture, and the world of letters. End
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: of Chapter twelve, End of the Vikings by Ellen Mauer