Latest / Vikings / 09 - Vikings by Allen Mawer

Transcript

09 - Vikings by Allen Mawer · Vikings

0:01
Speaker 1: Chapter eight of the Vikings by Allan Mauer. This libryvox
0:05
Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Kevin Johnson,
0:11
Speaker 1: Chapter eight Viking Civilization. The activities of the Vikings were
0:17
Speaker 1: all embracing, and before any attempt can be made to
0:21
Speaker 1: estimate their influence in the various countries which came permanently
0:25
Speaker 1: under their rule or were brought more or less closely
0:28
Speaker 1: into touch with them. Some account, however, slight must be
0:32
Speaker 1: given of Scandinavian civilization at this time, both on its
0:37
Speaker 1: spiritual and on its material sides. For the former aspect,
0:41
Speaker 1: we must turn chiefly to the poems and sagas of
0:44
Speaker 1: old Norse literature. For the latter to the results of
0:49
Speaker 1: modern archaeological research. So far as the poems and sagas
0:54
Speaker 1: are concerned, it is well to remember that they were
0:57
Speaker 1: to a large extent composed in Iceland and reflect the
1:01
Speaker 1: somewhat peculiar type of civilization developed there at a period
1:05
Speaker 1: just subsequent to the Viking Age itself. This civilization differs
1:11
Speaker 1: necessarily from that developed in Scandinavia or in the other
1:15
Speaker 1: Scandinavian settlements, and that it was free from Western influence.
1:20
Speaker 1: But this is to some extent compensated for by the
1:24
Speaker 1: fact that we get in Iceland a better picture of
1:27
Speaker 1: the inherent possibilities of Viking civilization when developed on independent lines.
1:34
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the Viking Age, the Scandinavian peoples
1:38
Speaker 1: were in a transitional stage of development. On the one hand,
1:42
Speaker 1: there was still much, both in their theory and in
1:46
Speaker 1: their practice of life that savored of primitive barbarism, while
1:51
Speaker 1: on the other in the development of certain phases of
1:54
Speaker 1: human activity, more especially in those of war, trade, and
1:59
Speaker 1: social organization, they were considerably ahead of many of their
2:03
Speaker 1: European neighbors. More than one writer has commented upon the
2:07
Speaker 1: strange blending of barbarism and culture which constitutes Viking civilization.
2:14
Speaker 1: It is evident when we studied their daily life, and
2:17
Speaker 1: it is emphasized in the story of their slow and
2:20
Speaker 1: halting passage from Heathenism to Christianity. We need not travel
2:26
Speaker 1: far to find examples of their barbarism. Their cruelty in
2:30
Speaker 1: warfare is a commonplace among the historians of the period.
2:35
Speaker 1: When the Irish found the Danes cooking their food on
2:38
Speaker 1: spits stuck in the bodies of their fallen foes, and
2:42
Speaker 1: asked why they did anything so hateful. The answer came,
2:47
Speaker 1: why not? If the other side had been victorious, they
2:50
Speaker 1: would have done the same with us. The custom of
2:53
Speaker 1: cutting the blood eagle bracket i e. Cutting the ribs
2:58
Speaker 1: in the shape of an ego and pulling the lungs
3:00
Speaker 1: through the opening and a bracket was a well known
3:04
Speaker 1: form of vengeance taken on the slayer of one's father
3:07
Speaker 1: if captured in battle, and is illustrated in the story
3:11
Speaker 1: of the Sons of Ragnar lothbroke himself. Another survival of
3:16
Speaker 1: primitive life was the famous Berzerk fury, when men in
3:20
Speaker 1: the heat of battle were seized with sudden madness, and,
3:24
Speaker 1: according to the popular belief, received a double portion of
3:28
Speaker 1: strength and lost all sense of bodily pain, a custom
3:32
Speaker 1: for which doctor Bug finds an apt parallel in the
3:36
Speaker 1: running a mock of the races of the Malay Peninsula.
3:40
Speaker 1: Children were tossed on the point of the spear, and
3:43
Speaker 1: the Viking leader who discouraged the custom was nicknamed Barnakarl
3:47
Speaker 1: i e. Children's friend. In contrast to these methods of
3:52
Speaker 1: warfare stands their skill in fortification, in which they taught
3:57
Speaker 1: many lessons both to their English and to their Frankish adversaries,
4:02
Speaker 1: their readiness in adapting themselves to new conditions of warfare,
4:06
Speaker 1: and their clever strategy, whereby they again and again outwitted
4:10
Speaker 1: their opponents. The same contrast meets us when we consider
4:15
Speaker 1: the position of women among them. The chroniclers make many
4:19
Speaker 1: references to their lust after women. We hear in an
4:23
Speaker 1: English chronicler how they combed their hair, indulged in sabbath baths,
4:29
Speaker 1: often changed their clothes, and in various ways cultivated bodily beauty,
4:34
Speaker 1: in order that they might the more readily overcome the
4:37
Speaker 1: chastity of the matrons and make concubines even of the
4:42
Speaker 1: daughters of the nobility. Wandering from country to country, they
4:46
Speaker 1: often had wives in each and polygamy, which seem to
4:50
Speaker 1: have been the rule, at least among the leaders. In
4:53
Speaker 1: Ireland we hear of what seemed to have been veritable harems,
4:58
Speaker 1: while in Russia we are told of the the great
5:00
Speaker 1: grandson of Rurik, the founder of the Russian Kingdom, that
5:04
Speaker 1: he had more than eight hundred concubines, though we may
5:07
Speaker 1: perhaps suspect the influence of Oriental custom in this case.
5:12
Speaker 1: Yet side by side with all this, the legitimate wife
5:16
Speaker 1: was esteemed and honored, and attained a position and took
5:19
Speaker 1: a part in national life, which was quite unusual in
5:23
Speaker 1: those days. In the account of an Arabic embassy to
5:27
Speaker 1: the Vikings of the West, we have a vivid picture
5:30
Speaker 1: of the freedom of their married life. Audur, the widow
5:34
Speaker 1: of Olaf the White, after the fall of her son Thorstein,
5:38
Speaker 1: took charge of the fortunes of her family and is
5:42
Speaker 1: one of the figures that stand out most clearly in
5:45
Speaker 1: the early settlement of Iceland. We have only to turn
5:49
Speaker 1: to the Icelandic sagas to see before us a whole
5:53
Speaker 1: gallery of portraits, dark and fair alike of woman cast
5:58
Speaker 1: in heroic mold. While the stone of Druna in Hadland,
6:02
Speaker 1: bearing the Runic inscription Gunvor, daughter of Thirek, built a
6:07
Speaker 1: bridge to commemorate her daughter Astrid. She was the most
6:11
Speaker 1: gracious maiden in hadaland gives us one of the most
6:15
Speaker 1: attractive pictures of womanhood left to us from the Viking age.
6:19
Speaker 1: It must be added, however, that beside the Runic inscription,
6:23
Speaker 1: the stone bears carvings of the Christ Child, the Star
6:28
Speaker 1: in the East, and the three Kings, and this may
6:31
Speaker 1: serve to remind us that the age was one in
6:34
Speaker 1: which the peoples of the North passed from Heathenism to Christianity,
6:39
Speaker 1: though the passage was a slow one and by no
6:41
Speaker 1: means complete. Even at the close of the period, it
6:45
Speaker 1: is probable that the first real knowledge of the White
6:48
Speaker 1: christ came, as is so often the case with the
6:51
Speaker 1: extension of trade, Frisians trading the Scandinavia and Danes and
6:56
Speaker 1: Swedes settling in Prisia and elsewhere for the same persse.
7:00
Speaker 1: Saint Willibrord at the beginning of the eighth century and
7:04
Speaker 1: Archbishop Ebbo of Reims in eight twenty three, as papal
7:08
Speaker 1: legate among the northern peoples undertook missions to Denmark. But
7:12
Speaker 1: it was innate twenty six, when King Harold was baptised
7:15
Speaker 1: at Maintz, that the first real opportunity came for the
7:19
Speaker 1: preaching of Christianity in Denmark. Harold was accompanied on his
7:24
Speaker 1: return by Saint Anscar, a monk from Corvee and a
7:28
Speaker 1: man filled with religious zeal. After two years mission in Denmark,
7:33
Speaker 1: Saint Anscar sailed to Sweden, where he was graciously received
7:37
Speaker 1: at Bjorko by the King Bjorton. He made many converts,
7:42
Speaker 1: and on his return home in eight thirty one, was
7:45
Speaker 1: made Archbishop of Hamburg and given jointly with Ebo jurisdiction
7:50
Speaker 1: over the whole of the northern Realms. Hamburg was devastated
7:54
Speaker 1: in eight forty five, and Saint Anscar was then appointed
7:58
Speaker 1: to the Bishopric of Bremen. Afterwards, united to a restored
8:02
Speaker 1: archbishopric of Hamburg, he labored in Denmark once more and
8:07
Speaker 1: established churches at Slesvig and Reebe. He conducted a second
8:12
Speaker 1: mission to Sweden, and his missionary zeal remained unabated until
8:16
Speaker 1: his death in eight sixty five. His work was carried
8:19
Speaker 1: on by his successor and biographer, Saint Rimbert, and by
8:24
Speaker 1: many others. Their preaching was, however, confined to Juteland and
8:28
Speaker 1: South Sweden, and there is no evidence of any popular
8:31
Speaker 1: movement towards Christianity. Gorm the Old was a steadfast pagan,
8:37
Speaker 1: but Gorm's son, Harold Bluetooth, was a zealous promoter of Christianity.
8:42
Speaker 1: His enthusiasm may have been exaggerated by monastic chroniclers in
8:47
Speaker 1: contrast to the heathenism of his son Sphain, but with
8:51
Speaker 1: the accession of Canute, all fears of a reversion to
8:54
Speaker 1: Heathendom were at an end. Canut was a devout son
8:58
Speaker 1: of the Church. The first Danish settlers in England were
9:02
Speaker 1: entirely heathen in sentiment, but they were soon brought into
9:06
Speaker 1: close contact with Christianity, and the terms of the Peace
9:10
Speaker 1: of Edward and Guthrum in the early years of the
9:13
Speaker 1: tenth century showed that already Christianity was making its way
9:18
Speaker 1: in the Danelog. In the course of this century, both
9:22
Speaker 1: archbishoprics were held by men of Danish descent, and the
9:26
Speaker 1: excesses of the early eleventh century were due not to
9:29
Speaker 1: the Danish settlers but to the heathen followers of Olaf
9:33
Speaker 1: Trigvesen and Spain Forkbeard. Similarly, the Danish settlers in Normandy
9:39
Speaker 1: were within a few years numbered among the Church's most
9:42
Speaker 1: enthusiastic supporters, and Rollo's own son and successor, William, was
9:47
Speaker 1: anxious to become a monk. The story of the preaching
9:51
Speaker 1: of Christianity in Norway is a checkered one. The first
9:55
Speaker 1: attempt to establish the Christian faith was made by Hakon
9:58
Speaker 1: Athelstein's fostri. Baptized and educated in England, he began warily
10:05
Speaker 1: inducing those who were best beloved by him to become Christians,
10:09
Speaker 1: but he soon came into conflict with the more ardent
10:12
Speaker 1: followers of paganism. At the Great Autumn Festival at Leide,
10:17
Speaker 1: when the cups of memory were drunk, Earl Sigurd signed
10:21
Speaker 1: a cup to Odin, but the king made the sign
10:24
Speaker 1: of the cross over his cup. Earl Sigurd pacified popular
10:28
Speaker 1: clamor by saying that the king had made the sign
10:31
Speaker 1: of the hammer and consecrated the cup to Thor. The
10:35
Speaker 1: Next day, the king would not eat the horse flesh
10:39
Speaker 1: used in their offerings, nor drink the blood from it.
10:42
Speaker 1: The people were angry, and the king compromised by inhaling
10:46
Speaker 1: the steam from the offering through a linen cloth placed
10:50
Speaker 1: over the sacrificial kettle. But no one was satisfied, and
10:54
Speaker 1: at the next winter feast the king had to eat
10:56
Speaker 1: some bits of horse liver and to drink cross all
11:00
Speaker 1: the cups of memory. Hakon died a Christian, but Ivandr
11:05
Speaker 1: Skaldaspitler in Hakkanaarmal describes how he was welcomed by Odin
11:10
Speaker 1: to Valhalla. Earl Hakon Sigurdsen, nicknamed bloat yarrow i e
11:15
Speaker 1: Sacrifice Earl was a zealous Heathen, but Olaf Trigisen, after
11:20
Speaker 1: his succession in nine ninety five, promoted the cause of
11:24
Speaker 1: Christianity by every means in his power, and it was
11:28
Speaker 1: largely by this that he owed his ultimate overthrow. Then,
11:33
Speaker 1: after a brief interval, the crown passed to Saint Olaf,
11:36
Speaker 1: greatest of all Christian champions in Norway, and during his
11:40
Speaker 1: reign that country became definitely Christian, though his rough and
11:45
Speaker 1: ready methods of conversion were hardly likely to secure anything
11:48
Speaker 1: but a purely formal and outward adhesion to the new faith.
11:53
Speaker 1: Sweden was the most reluctant of the three northern realms
11:57
Speaker 1: to accept Christianity, and the country remained and almost entirely
12:01
Speaker 1: heathen until the close of the Viking period. The story
12:06
Speaker 1: of the Norse settlers in Ireland and Western Islands in
12:09
Speaker 1: their relation to Christianity, was very much that of the
12:12
Speaker 1: Danes in England. Celtic Christianity had a firm hold on
12:17
Speaker 1: these countries, and from the earliest period of the settlement
12:21
Speaker 1: many of the Vikings adopted the Christian faith. Among the
12:24
Speaker 1: settlers in Iceland who came from the West were many Christians,
12:28
Speaker 1: and Aouther herself gave orders at her death that she
12:31
Speaker 1: should be buried on the sea shore below the tide mark,
12:34
Speaker 1: rather than lie in that hallowed ground. Most of the
12:37
Speaker 1: settlers undoubtedly remained heathen. In nine ninety six a ring
12:42
Speaker 1: sacred to Thor was taken from a temple in Dublin,
12:45
Speaker 1: and in one thousand King Brian destroyed a grove sacred
12:49
Speaker 1: to the same god just north of the city. But
12:53
Speaker 1: side by side with incidents of this kind must be
12:56
Speaker 1: placed others, like that of the sparing of the churches,
13:00
Speaker 1: hospitals and almshouses when Armagh was sacked in nine twenty one,
13:05
Speaker 1: or the retirement of anlaf Kuran to the monastery at
13:09
Speaker 1: Ionia in nine eighty one. In Ireland, as elsewhere, there
13:14
Speaker 1: seems to have been a recruitiscence of Heathenism in the
13:18
Speaker 1: early years of the eleventh century, and the Great Fight
13:21
Speaker 1: at Clontarf was regarded as a struggle between pagan and
13:25
Speaker 1: christian Outwardly, the Scandinavian world had largely declared its adhesion
13:31
Speaker 1: to Christianity by the close of the Viking period. But
13:35
Speaker 1: we must remember that the medieval church was satisfied if
13:39
Speaker 1: her converts passed through the ceremony of baptism and observed
13:43
Speaker 1: her rights, though their sentiments often remained Heathen. Except in
13:48
Speaker 1: purely formal fashion, it is impossible to draw a definite
13:52
Speaker 1: line of demarcation between Christian and Heathen, and the acceptance
13:57
Speaker 1: of Christianity is of importance not so much from any
14:00
Speaker 1: change of outlook which it produced in individuals, as because
14:05
Speaker 1: it brought the peoples of the North into closer touch
14:08
Speaker 1: with the general life and culture of medieval Europe. Leaders
14:12
Speaker 1: freely accepted baptism, often more than once, and even confirmation
14:18
Speaker 1: as part of a diplomatic bargain, while their profession of
14:22
Speaker 1: Christianity made no difference to their Viking way of life.
14:26
Speaker 1: Even on formal lines, the Church had to admit of compromise,
14:31
Speaker 1: as for example, in the practice of prime signing, whereby
14:35
Speaker 1: when Vikings visited Christian lands as traitors or entered the
14:39
Speaker 1: service of Christian kings for payment, they often allowed themselves
14:43
Speaker 1: to be signed with the Cross, which secured their admission
14:47
Speaker 1: to intercourse with Christian communities, but left them free to
14:51
Speaker 1: hold the faith which pleased them best. Strange forms and
14:55
Speaker 1: mixtures of belief arose in the passage from one faith
14:58
Speaker 1: to the other, the Lean was a Christian, but called
15:02
Speaker 1: on Thor. In the hour of need, the Christian saints,
15:06
Speaker 1: with their wonder working powers, were readily adopted into the
15:09
Speaker 1: Norse pantheon and Vikings. By their prayers and offerings, secured
15:13
Speaker 1: the help of Saint Patrick in Ireland and of Saint
15:16
Speaker 1: Germanus in France in times of defeat and pestilence, while
15:21
Speaker 1: we hear of a family of settlers in Iceland who
15:24
Speaker 1: give up all fate except a belief in the power
15:26
Speaker 1: of Saint Columba. On sculptured stones in the West may
15:31
Speaker 1: be found pictures of Ragnaroch, of Balder and of Loki,
15:35
Speaker 1: together with the sign of the Cross. Some of the
15:38
Speaker 1: heathen myths themselves show Christian influence. The Balder story, with
15:43
Speaker 1: its echoes of the lamentations for the suffering Christ, belongs
15:47
Speaker 1: to the last stage of Norse Heathendom, while a heathen
15:51
Speaker 1: scald makes Christ sit by the fountain of Fate as
15:55
Speaker 1: the mighty destroyer of the giants. When the virtue had
15:59
Speaker 1: gone out of their old beliefs, many fell a prey
16:02
Speaker 1: to the grossest superstition, worshiping the rocks and groves and
16:07
Speaker 1: rivers once thought to be the dwelling place of the gods.
16:11
Speaker 1: Others renounced faith in Christian and Heathen gods alike, and
16:15
Speaker 1: the nickname godless is by no means rare among the
16:19
Speaker 1: sailers in Iceland. Of such it is often said that
16:23
Speaker 1: they believed in themselves or had no faith in aught
16:27
Speaker 1: except their own strength and power. While in the saga
16:31
Speaker 1: of Frithiof we hear how the hero paid little heed
16:35
Speaker 1: to the sanctity of the temple of Balder, and that
16:38
Speaker 1: the love of Ingebjorg meant more to him than the
16:42
Speaker 1: wrath of the gods. For a parallel to such audacious
16:46
Speaker 1: skepticism as that of Frithiof, we must turn to southern lands,
16:50
Speaker 1: and later times with Occassans in Paradise. What have I
16:55
Speaker 1: to win therein? I seek not to enter, but only
16:59
Speaker 1: to have my Nicolette, my sweet lady, that I love
17:02
Speaker 1: so well. For some the way of escape came not
17:06
Speaker 1: by superstition or by skepticism, but in mystic speculation, in
17:12
Speaker 1: pure worship of the powers of nature. Thus we hear
17:15
Speaker 1: of the icelander Thorkelpmanni, whom all praised for the excellence
17:19
Speaker 1: of his way of life, that in his last illness,
17:22
Speaker 1: he was carried out into the sunshine, so that he
17:26
Speaker 1: might command himself into the hands of the God who
17:29
Speaker 1: made the sun, or of the Gothie Askelt, who even
17:34
Speaker 1: in the hour of famine, deemed it was more fitting
17:37
Speaker 1: to honor the Creator by caring for the aged and
17:40
Speaker 1: the children than to relieve distress by putting these helpless
17:44
Speaker 1: ones to death. One other illustration of the declining force
17:48
Speaker 1: of Heathenism must be mentioned. It is to the Viking
17:52
Speaker 1: Age that we owe the poems of the Older Edda,
17:55
Speaker 1: that storehouse of Norse mythology and cosmogony. They are almost
18:00
Speaker 1: purely Heathen in sentiment, and yet one feels that it
18:04
Speaker 1: could only be in an age when belief in the
18:06
Speaker 1: old gods was passing away, that the authors of these
18:10
Speaker 1: poems could have struck those notes of detachment, irony, and
18:15
Speaker 1: even of burlesque, which characterize so many of them. The
18:20
Speaker 1: condition of faith and belief in the Viking Age was
18:23
Speaker 1: then chaotic, but fortunately for purposes of clear statement, there was,
18:29
Speaker 1: to the Norse mind at least no necessary connection between
18:33
Speaker 1: beliefs and morality, between faith and conduct, and the ideas
18:39
Speaker 1: on which they base their philosophy and practice of life
18:42
Speaker 1: are fairly distinct. The central idea which dominate the Norse
18:46
Speaker 1: view of life are an ever present sense of the
18:49
Speaker 1: passingness of all things and a deep consciousness of the
18:53
Speaker 1: over ruling power of fate. All earthly things are transitory,
18:59
Speaker 1: And though one thing which lasts is a good name,
19:03
Speaker 1: wealth dies, kinsmen die, man himself must die. But the
19:08
Speaker 1: fame which a man wins rightly for himself never dies.
19:12
Speaker 1: One thing I know that never dies the judgment passed
19:16
Speaker 1: on every man that dies, says the poet of Havamab,
19:20
Speaker 1: the great storehouse of the gnomic wisdom of the Norsemen.
19:24
Speaker 1: All things are unstable and transitory. Let no man therefore
19:29
Speaker 1: be arrogant or overconfident. The wise man will never praise
19:33
Speaker 1: the day before it is evening. Prudence and foresight are
19:37
Speaker 1: ever necessary. All things are determined by a fate which
19:41
Speaker 1: is irrevocable and cannot be avoided. Every man must die
19:46
Speaker 1: the death that is appointed for him, and the man
19:48
Speaker 1: whose final day has not yet come may face unmoved
19:52
Speaker 1: the greatest danger. This sense of an inevitable fate must
19:57
Speaker 1: lead to no weakening of character or whereininess of life
20:01
Speaker 1: death must be faced with cheerful stoicism, and our judgment
20:05
Speaker 1: of the worth of any man must depend on the
20:08
Speaker 1: way in which he awaits the decree of fate. Place
20:13
Speaker 1: no great trust in others, whether friend or foe. Least
20:17
Speaker 1: of all, place trust in woman woman nace councils being
20:22
Speaker 1: full off ta corda, says Chaucer in the Nun's Priest Tale,
20:27
Speaker 1: using an old Scandinavian proverb, be friendly to your friends
20:31
Speaker 1: and a foemen to your foes. Practice hospitality and hate,
20:35
Speaker 1: lying and untruthfulness with their enemies. The Vikings had an
20:40
Speaker 1: evil reputation for cunning and deceit, But when we study
20:44
Speaker 1: the incidents on which the charge was based, as for example,
20:48
Speaker 1: the story of the capture of Luna, or the oft
20:51
Speaker 1: repeated trick of feigning flight only to lure the enemy
20:54
Speaker 1: away from safe ground, one must confess that they show
20:57
Speaker 1: an enemy outwitted rather than deceived. This aspect of Viking
21:02
Speaker 1: character perhaps finds its best illustration in the figure of
21:06
Speaker 1: Odin his common epithets are the wise, the prudent, the sagacious.
21:12
Speaker 1: He is a god of witchcraft and knows all the
21:15
Speaker 1: secret powers of nature, and stands in contrast to the
21:18
Speaker 1: simple minded Thor, endowed with mighty strength but less polished
21:23
Speaker 1: and refined. The development of the worship of Odin and
21:27
Speaker 1: Norway belongs specially to the latter Iron Age, and it
21:31
Speaker 1: is worthy of note that his worship seems to have
21:34
Speaker 1: prevailed chiefly in military circles among princes and the retainers.
21:40
Speaker 1: The Vikings were guilty of two besetting sins, immoderate love
21:44
Speaker 1: of wine and of woman. Of their relations to woman,
21:48
Speaker 1: enough has been said already. Their drunken revelry is best
21:52
Speaker 1: illustrated by the story of the orgy which led to
21:55
Speaker 1: the death of Saint Alphage in London in one thousand
21:59
Speaker 1: and twelve, when, after drinking their fill of the wine
22:03
Speaker 1: they had brought from abroad, they pelted the bishop with
22:06
Speaker 1: bones from the feast, and finally pierced his skull with
22:10
Speaker 1: the spike of the back of an axe of sin.
22:13
Speaker 1: In the Christian sense, the Vikings had no conception. An
22:17
Speaker 1: Irish chronicler tells us indeed, that the Danes have a
22:21
Speaker 1: certain piety, and that they can refrain from flesh and
22:24
Speaker 1: from woman for a time. But a truer description is
22:27
Speaker 1: probably not given by Adam of Bremen when he says
22:31
Speaker 1: that the Danes can weep neither for their sins nor
22:35
Speaker 1: for their dead. The chief occupations of the Vikings were
22:39
Speaker 1: trade and war, but we must beware of drawing a
22:42
Speaker 1: too rigid distinction between adventurers and peaceful stay at homes.
22:48
Speaker 1: The Vikings, when they settled in England and elsewhere, showed
22:52
Speaker 1: that their previous roving life did not hinder them in
22:55
Speaker 1: the least from settling down as peaceful traders, farmers or
22:59
Speaker 1: peasant laborers. While the figure of othe or Otar, to
23:04
Speaker 1: give him his Norse name, who entered the service of
23:07
Speaker 1: King Alfred, may serve to remind us that many a
23:11
Speaker 1: landed gentleman was not above carrying on a good trade
23:14
Speaker 1: with the Finns or undertaking voyages of exploration in the
23:19
Speaker 1: White Sea. Trading in those days was a matter of
23:22
Speaker 1: great difficulty and many risks. The line of division between
23:26
Speaker 1: merchant and viking was a very thin one, and more
23:29
Speaker 1: than once we read how when merchants went on a
23:32
Speaker 1: trading expedition they arranged a truce until their business was concluded,
23:36
Speaker 1: and then treated each other as enemies. Trade in Scandinavia
23:41
Speaker 1: was carried on either in fixed centers or in periodical
23:45
Speaker 1: markets held in convenient places. The chief trading centers were
23:50
Speaker 1: the twin towns of slesvig Hetepe in Denmark, Skiingsar in
23:55
Speaker 1: southwest Norway, and Burko Sigtuna and the island of Gothland
24:01
Speaker 1: in Sweden, while an important market was held periodically at
24:05
Speaker 1: Bohuslaun on the Gotail, at a place where the boundaries
24:10
Speaker 1: of the three northern kingdoms met. A characteristic incident which
24:15
Speaker 1: happened at this market illustrates the international character of the
24:19
Speaker 1: trade done there. On a certain occasion, a wealthy merchant
24:23
Speaker 1: named Giley Bracket the name is Celtic and a Bracket
24:26
Speaker 1: surnamed the Russian because of his many journeys to that country,
24:31
Speaker 1: set up his booth in the market and received a
24:33
Speaker 1: visit from the icelander Hosgolder, who was anxious to buy
24:37
Speaker 1: a female slave. Giles drew back a curtain dividing off
24:41
Speaker 1: the inner part of the tent and showed Hosgolder twelve
24:45
Speaker 1: female slaves. Hostgolder bought one, and she proved to be
24:49
Speaker 1: an Irish king's daughter who had been made captive by
24:53
Speaker 1: Viking raiders. The chief exports were furs, horses, wool, and fish,
25:00
Speaker 1: while the imports consisted chiefly in articles of luxury, whether
25:04
Speaker 1: for clothing or ornament. There was an extensive trade with
25:08
Speaker 1: the Orient in all such luxuries, and the Vikings seemed
25:12
Speaker 1: eagerly to have accumulated wealth of this kind. When Limerick
25:16
Speaker 1: was recaptured by the Irish in nine sixty eight, they
25:19
Speaker 1: carried off from the Vikings their jewels and their best property,
25:24
Speaker 1: and their saddles, beautiful and foreign bracket, probably of Spanish workmanship,
25:29
Speaker 1: and of bracket, their gold and their silver, their beautifully
25:33
Speaker 1: woven cloth of all colors and all kinds, their satins
25:37
Speaker 1: and silken cloths pleasing and variegated, both scarlet and green,
25:43
Speaker 1: and all sorts of cloth. In like manner, they captured
25:46
Speaker 1: two their soft, youthful, bright matchless girls, their blooming silk
25:52
Speaker 1: clad young women, and their active, large and well formed boys.
25:57
Speaker 1: Such captives weather made by Irish from the Norsemen or
26:00
Speaker 1: Norsemen from Irish, would certainly be sold as slaves, for
26:05
Speaker 1: one of the chief branches of trade in those days
26:08
Speaker 1: was the sale as slaves of those made prisoner in war.
26:13
Speaker 1: The expansion of Scandinavian trade took place side by side
26:17
Speaker 1: with rather than as a result of Viking activity in war.
26:22
Speaker 1: There is evidence of the presence of traders in the
26:25
Speaker 1: Low Countries early in the ninth century, and already in
26:28
Speaker 1: the days of Saint Anscar. We hear of a Swedish
26:31
Speaker 1: widow of Bjorko who left money for her daughter to
26:35
Speaker 1: distribute among the poor of Dursted. Jomsburg was established to
26:40
Speaker 1: protect and increase Scandinavian trade at Julen, and there were
26:44
Speaker 1: other similar trading centers on the southern and eastern shores
26:48
Speaker 1: of the Baltic The Viking might busy himself either with
26:52
Speaker 1: trade or war, but whatever his occupation, living as he
26:56
Speaker 1: did in insular or peninsular lands, goods ships and good
27:00
Speaker 1: seamanship were essential to his livelihood. Seamen now often abandoned
27:06
Speaker 1: that timid hugging of the coast, sailing only by daytime
27:10
Speaker 1: and in fair weather, which characterized the old Phoenician traders,
27:14
Speaker 1: and boldly sailed across the uncharted main with no help
27:18
Speaker 1: save that of the sun and stars by which to
27:21
Speaker 1: steer their course. It was this boldness of spirit alone
27:25
Speaker 1: which enabled them to reach the lonely pharaohs the distant
27:29
Speaker 1: Shetlands and Orkneys, and the yet more remote Iceland. Irish
27:34
Speaker 1: monks and anchorites had shown similar fearlessness, but their bravery
27:39
Speaker 1: was often that of the fanatic and the mystic, rather
27:42
Speaker 1: than the enterprise of the seaman. Boldness of seamanship led
27:47
Speaker 1: to boldness in exploration from Iceland. The Viking sail to Greenland,
27:52
Speaker 1: and by the year one thousand had discovered Finland the
27:55
Speaker 1: northeast part of North America. Attar rounded the North Cape
28:00
Speaker 1: and sailed the White Sea in the ninth century, while
28:04
Speaker 1: Herald Hardrada in the eleventh century made a voyage of
28:07
Speaker 1: polar exploration. Of their ships, we know a good deal
28:11
Speaker 1: both from the sagas and from the remains of actual
28:15
Speaker 1: ships preserved to us. The custom of ship burial i e.
28:19
Speaker 1: Burial in a ship over which a grave chamber covered
28:22
Speaker 1: with a how or mound was erected was a common
28:26
Speaker 1: in the Viking Age, and several such ships have been discovered.
28:30
Speaker 1: The two most famous are those of Goakstad and Osberg,
28:34
Speaker 1: both found on the shores of Christiana Fjord. The Gagstad
28:39
Speaker 1: vessel is of oak clinker, built with seats for sixteen
28:43
Speaker 1: pairs of rowers, and is twenty eight feet long and
28:46
Speaker 1: sixteen feet broad amidships. It dates from about nine hundred
28:52
Speaker 1: and in form and workmanship is not surpassed by modern
28:55
Speaker 1: vessels of a similar kind. There is a mast for
28:59
Speaker 1: a single sail, and the rudder, as always in those days,
29:04
Speaker 1: is on the starboard side. The gunwell was decorated with
29:08
Speaker 1: a series of shields painted alternately black and gold. The
29:12
Speaker 1: appearance of the vessel, when fully equipped, can perhaps best
29:15
Speaker 1: be judged from the pictures of Viking ships to be
29:18
Speaker 1: seen in the Bayeux tapestry. There we may note the
29:22
Speaker 1: parti colored sail with its variegated stripes, and the rich
29:27
Speaker 1: carvings of the stem and stern. These magnificent sails were
29:32
Speaker 1: a source of much pride to their possessors, and the
29:35
Speaker 1: story is told of Sigurd Jerusalem Ferer, that on his
29:39
Speaker 1: way home from Jerusalem to Constantinople, he lay for half
29:42
Speaker 1: a month off Cape Malea, waiting for a side wind,
29:46
Speaker 1: so that his sails might be set lengthwise along the ship,
29:50
Speaker 1: and so be better seen by those standing on shore
29:53
Speaker 1: as he sailed up to Constantinople. The stem often ended
29:57
Speaker 1: in a dragon's head done over with gold whilst the
30:02
Speaker 1: stern was frequently shaped like a dragon's tail, so that
30:05
Speaker 1: the vessel itself was often called a dragon. The Osberg
30:10
Speaker 1: ship is of a different type. The gunwell is lower
30:13
Speaker 1: and the whole vessel is flatter and broader. It is
30:17
Speaker 1: used as the grave chamber of a woman, and the
30:20
Speaker 1: whole appearance of the vessel, including its richly carved stem,
30:24
Speaker 1: indicates that it was used in calm waters for peaceful purposes.
30:30
Speaker 1: The story of the escape of Herrek of Thiota through
30:33
Speaker 1: Copenhagen Sound after the Battle of Hellegeyaw in one thousand
30:37
Speaker 1: eighteen illustrates the difference between a trading ship and a
30:41
Speaker 1: ship of war. Herrek struck sail and mast, took down
30:45
Speaker 1: the vane, stretched a great tent cloth over the ship's sides,
30:50
Speaker 1: and left only a few rowers fore and aft. The
30:53
Speaker 1: rest of the crew were bidden live flat so that
30:56
Speaker 1: they might not be seen, with the result that the
30:59
Speaker 1: Danes mistook carrickx war Gelly for a trading vessel laden
31:03
Speaker 1: with herrings or salt, and let it pass unchallenged. In
31:08
Speaker 1: the last years of the Viking period, ships increased greatly
31:11
Speaker 1: both in size and number. Bowl of Trigson's vessel, the
31:15
Speaker 1: Long Serpent, in which he fought his last fight as folder,
31:19
Speaker 1: had thirty benches of oars, while Canute the Great had
31:23
Speaker 1: won with sixty pairs of oars. This same king went
31:27
Speaker 1: with a fleet of some fourteen hundred vessels to the
31:30
Speaker 1: conquest of Norway. In battle, the weapons of defense were helmet,
31:36
Speaker 1: corselet and shield. The shields were of wood with a
31:40
Speaker 1: heavy iron boss in the center. The corselets were made
31:44
Speaker 1: of iron rings, leather, or thick cloth. The weapons of
31:48
Speaker 1: a fence were mainly sword, spear, and battle axe. The
31:53
Speaker 1: sword was of the two edged type and usually had
31:56
Speaker 1: a shallow depression along the middle of the blade, nor
32:00
Speaker 1: as the blood channel. Above the blade terminated in a
32:04
Speaker 1: narrow tang, bounded at either end by the hilts. Round
32:08
Speaker 1: the tang and between the hilts was the handle of wood, horn,
32:13
Speaker 1: or some similar material, often covered with leather or occasionally
32:18
Speaker 1: with metal. Above the upper hilt was a knob, which
32:22
Speaker 1: gave the sword the necessary balance for a good steady blow. Generally,
32:26
Speaker 1: the knob and the hilts were inlaid with silver, bronze,
32:30
Speaker 1: or copper work. The battle axe, the most characteristic of
32:34
Speaker 1: Viking weapons was of the heavy, broad bladed type. Next
32:39
Speaker 1: to warfare and trade, the chief occupation of the Viking
32:43
Speaker 1: was farming, while his chief amusement was the chase. At home.
32:47
Speaker 1: The Viking leader lived the life of an active country gentleman.
32:51
Speaker 1: His favorite sport was hawking, and one of the legendary
32:55
Speaker 1: lives of Saint Edmund tells how Ragnar Lothbroke himself was
32:59
Speaker 1: driven by stress of storm to land on the East
33:02
Speaker 1: Anglian coast, receiving a hospitable welcome from the king, but
33:07
Speaker 1: ultimately meeting death at the hands of the king's huntsmen,
33:11
Speaker 1: who was jealous of his prowess as a fowler. Of
33:15
Speaker 1: the social organization of the Vikings, it is impossible to
33:18
Speaker 1: form a very definite or precise picture. We have in
33:22
Speaker 1: the laws of the Jomsborg settlement the rule of life
33:26
Speaker 1: of a warrior community, but it would be a mistake
33:29
Speaker 1: to imagine that these laws prevailed in all settlements alike.
33:34
Speaker 1: The general structure of their society was aristocratic rather than democratic,
33:39
Speaker 1: but within the aristocracy, which was primarily a military one,
33:43
Speaker 1: the principle of equality prevailed. When asked who was their lord,
33:48
Speaker 1: Rollo's men answered, we have no lord, we are all equals.
33:53
Speaker 1: But while they admitted no lord, the Vikings were essentially practical.
33:58
Speaker 1: They realized the importance of organized leadership, and we have
34:02
Speaker 1: a succession of able leaders mentioned in the annals of
34:05
Speaker 1: the time, to some of whom the title king was given.
34:10
Speaker 1: These kings, however, are too numerous, and too many of
34:14
Speaker 1: them are mentioned together, for it to be possible to
34:17
Speaker 1: give the term king in this connection anything like its
34:21
Speaker 1: usual connotation. It would seem rather to have been used
34:25
Speaker 1: for any prince of the royal house. And it was
34:28
Speaker 1: only when the Vikings had formed fixed settlements and come
34:32
Speaker 1: definitely under Western influence that we hear of kings in
34:36
Speaker 1: the ordinary territorial sense, kings of Northumbria, Dublin, Man and
34:42
Speaker 1: the Isles or East Anglia. We hear also of yarls
34:47
Speaker 1: or earls, either as Viking leaders or as definite territorial rulers,
34:52
Speaker 1: as for example, the Orkney Earls, and more than one
34:56
Speaker 1: earl who is mentioned as ruling in Dublin. But these
34:59
Speaker 1: earls usually held their lands under the authority of a king.
35:04
Speaker 1: By the side of king's and earls, mention is made
35:07
Speaker 1: both in the Danelog and also in the Western Islands
35:10
Speaker 1: of law men, it is difficult exactly to define their
35:14
Speaker 1: position and function. Originally these men were simply experts in
35:19
Speaker 1: the law who expounded it in the popular thing or assembly,
35:24
Speaker 1: and were the spokesmen of the people as against the
35:27
Speaker 1: king and the court. But sometimes they assumed judicial functions, acting,
35:32
Speaker 1: for example in Sweden as assessors to the king who
35:36
Speaker 1: was supreme judge. In their home life we find the
35:41
Speaker 1: same strange mixture of civilization and barbarism which marks them elsewhere.
35:47
Speaker 1: Their houses were built of timber covered with clay. There
35:51
Speaker 1: was no proper hearth, and the smoke from the fire
35:54
Speaker 1: made its way out as best it could through the
35:56
Speaker 1: turf covered roof. The chief furniture of the room insisted
36:00
Speaker 1: in beds, benches, long tables and chests, and in the
36:04
Speaker 1: houses of the ridge, these would, at the close of
36:07
Speaker 1: the period, often be carved with stories from the old
36:11
Speaker 1: heroic or mythologic legends, while the walls might be covered
36:15
Speaker 1: with tapestry. Prominent in the chieftain's hall stood the carved
36:19
Speaker 1: pillars which supported his high seat and were considered sacred.
36:24
Speaker 1: When some of the settlers first sale to Iceland, they
36:27
Speaker 1: threw overboard their high seat pillars which they had brought
36:30
Speaker 1: with them and chose as the site of their new abode.
36:34
Speaker 1: The place where these pillars were cast ashore. In clothing
36:38
Speaker 1: and adornment, there can be no question that our Viking
36:41
Speaker 1: forefathers had attained a high standard of luxury. Any visitor
36:45
Speaker 1: to the great national museums at Copenhagen, Stockholm or Christiania
36:51
Speaker 1: must be impressed by the wealth of personal ornaments displayed
36:54
Speaker 1: before him, magnificent brooches of silver and bronze, arm rings
36:59
Speaker 1: and neck rings of gold and silver, large beads of silver, glass, rock, crystal, amber,
37:06
Speaker 1: and cornelian. At one time, it was commonly assumed that
37:10
Speaker 1: these ornaments, often displaying the highest artistic skill, were simply
37:15
Speaker 1: plunder taken by the Vikings from nations more cultured and
37:19
Speaker 1: artistic than themselves, but patient investigation had shown that the
37:24
Speaker 1: majority of them were wrought in Scandinavia itself. The most
37:30
Speaker 1: characteristic of Viking ornaments is undoubtedly the brooch. It was
37:34
Speaker 1: usually oval in shape, and the concave surface was covered
37:38
Speaker 1: with the framework of knobs and connecting bands which divided
37:43
Speaker 1: it into a series of fields. Bracket. To use the
37:46
Speaker 1: Heraldic term and a bracket, which could themselves be decorated
37:50
Speaker 1: with the characteristic ornamentation of the period. The commonest form
37:55
Speaker 1: of oval brooch was that with nine knobs on a
37:58
Speaker 1: single plate, but in the later examples the plate is
38:02
Speaker 1: often doubled. The brooches themselves were of bronze, the knobs
38:07
Speaker 1: usually of silver, with silver wire along the edge of
38:10
Speaker 1: the brooch. These knobs have now often disappeared and the
38:14
Speaker 1: bronze has become dull with verdigris, so that it is
38:18
Speaker 1: difficult to form an idea of their original magnificence. The
38:23
Speaker 1: oval brooches were used to fasten the outer mantle and
38:27
Speaker 1: were usually worn in pairs, either on the breast or
38:31
Speaker 1: on the shoulders, and examples of them having found from
38:35
Speaker 1: Russia in the east to Ireland on the west. Other
38:39
Speaker 1: types of brooch are also found straight, armed, trilo bed
38:44
Speaker 1: and round. Such brooches were often worn in the middle
38:48
Speaker 1: of the bosom, a little below the oval ones. Other
38:53
Speaker 1: ornaments besides brooches are common arm rings, neck rings, pendants.
38:59
Speaker 1: One of them the most interesting of the pendants is
39:02
Speaker 1: a ring with a series of small silver Thor's hammers,
39:05
Speaker 1: which was probably used as a charm against ill luck.
39:09
Speaker 1: All these ornaments alike are in silver rather than gold,
39:14
Speaker 1: and it has been said that if the post Roman
39:17
Speaker 1: period of Scandinavian archaeology be called the Age of Gold,
39:22
Speaker 1: the Viking period should be named the Age of silver.
39:27
Speaker 1: The style of ornamentation used in these articles of personal adornment,
39:31
Speaker 1: as well as in objects of more general use such
39:35
Speaker 1: as horse trappings, is that commonly known to German archaeologists
39:40
Speaker 1: as tier ornamentique i e. Animal or zoomorphic ornamentation. This
39:47
Speaker 1: last translation may sound pedantic, but it is the most
39:50
Speaker 1: accurate description of the style, for we have no attempt
39:54
Speaker 1: to represent the full form of any animal that ever
39:57
Speaker 1: had actual existence. Rather, we find the various limbs of animals, heads, legs, tails,
40:05
Speaker 1: woven into one another in fantastic design. In order to
40:09
Speaker 1: cover a certain surface area which requires decoration. The animals
40:14
Speaker 1: are ornaments and treated as such. They are stretched and curved,
40:19
Speaker 1: lengthened and shortened, refashioned and remodeled, just as the space
40:24
Speaker 1: which they must fill requires. This style was once called
40:28
Speaker 1: the dragon style, but the term is misleading, as there
40:32
Speaker 1: is no example belonging to the Viking period proper of
40:36
Speaker 1: any attempt to represent a dragon i e. Some fantastic
40:40
Speaker 1: animal with wings. Such creatures belong to a later period.
40:44
Speaker 1: The zoomorphic style did not have its origin during the
40:48
Speaker 1: Viking period. It is based on that of a preceding
40:51
Speaker 1: period in the culture of North German peoples, but it
40:54
Speaker 1: received certain characteristic developments at this time, more especially under
41:00
Speaker 1: the influence of Irish and Frankish art. Irish art had
41:04
Speaker 1: begun to influence that of Scandinavia even before the Viking
41:07
Speaker 1: period began, and the development of intercourse between North and
41:12
Speaker 1: West greatly strengthened that influence. To Frankish influence were due
41:17
Speaker 1: not only certain developments of tear ornamentic but also the
41:21
Speaker 1: use of figures from the plant world for decorative purposes.
41:26
Speaker 1: One of the finest brooches preserved to us from this
41:29
Speaker 1: period is of Frankish workmanship, a magnificent trilobed brooch of
41:34
Speaker 1: gold with the caanthis leaf ornamentation. This leaf work was
41:39
Speaker 1: often imitated by Scandinavian craftsmen, but the imitation is usually
41:44
Speaker 1: rude and unconvincing. Traces are also to be found of
41:48
Speaker 1: Oriental and more especially of Arabic influence in certain forms
41:52
Speaker 1: of silver ornamentation, but finds of articles of actual Eastern
41:57
Speaker 1: manufacture are more common than lines of articles of Scandinavian
42:01
Speaker 1: origin showing Eastern influences in their workmanship. Buried treasure from
42:07
Speaker 1: the Viking period is very common. It was a popular belief,
42:11
Speaker 1: sanctioned by the express statement of Odin, that a man
42:14
Speaker 1: would enjoy in Valhalla whatsoever he had himself buried in
42:17
Speaker 1: the earth. Another common motive in the burial of treasure was,
42:21
Speaker 1: doubtless the desire to find a place of security against
42:25
Speaker 1: robbery and plunder. Treasure thus secreted would often be lost
42:30
Speaker 1: sight of at the owner's death. To the burial customs
42:34
Speaker 1: of the Viking period also we owe much of our
42:36
Speaker 1: knowledge of their weapons, clothing, ornaments, and even of their
42:41
Speaker 1: domestic utensils. The dead were, as a rule cremated, at
42:45
Speaker 1: least during the early part of the Viking period. The body,
42:49
Speaker 1: burned or unburned, was either buried in a mound of
42:52
Speaker 1: earth forming a how, or was laid under the surface
42:56
Speaker 1: of the ground, and the grave marked by stones arranged
42:59
Speaker 1: in a circle, square, triangle, or oval, sometimes even imitating
43:05
Speaker 1: the outlines of a ship. The hows were often of
43:08
Speaker 1: huge size. The largest of the three kings hows at
43:13
Speaker 1: old Uppsala is thirty feet high and two hundred feet broad.
43:18
Speaker 1: A large how was very necessary in the well known
43:21
Speaker 1: ship burial, when the dead man bracket or woman and
43:25
Speaker 1: a bracket was placed in a grave chamber on board
43:28
Speaker 1: his ship, and the ship was drawn on land and
43:31
Speaker 1: buried within a how. Men and women alike were buried
43:35
Speaker 1: in full dress, and the men usually have all their
43:39
Speaker 1: weapons with them. In the latter case, weapons tend to
43:43
Speaker 1: take the place of articles of domestic use, such as
43:46
Speaker 1: are found in the graves of an earlier period, and
43:49
Speaker 1: that change points to a new conception of the future life.
43:54
Speaker 1: It is now a life in which warriors feast with
43:56
Speaker 1: odin in valhalla on benches that are covered with corselets.
44:01
Speaker 1: A careful examination of Norwegian graves has proved fairly definitely
44:06
Speaker 1: the existence of the custom of sati during the Viking period,
44:11
Speaker 1: and the evidence of the Arab historian Iben Fadlan seems
44:16
Speaker 1: to show that the same custom prevailed among the rus Horses, dogs, hawks,
44:22
Speaker 1: and other animals were often buried with their masters, and
44:26
Speaker 1: the remains of such, burned or unburned, have frequently been found.
44:32
Speaker 1: The varying customs attending burial are happily illustrated in the
44:36
Speaker 1: two accounts preserved to us of the burial of King
44:39
Speaker 1: Harold Hildettan, who died circa seven fifty. The accounts were
44:44
Speaker 1: written down long after the actual event, but they probably
44:48
Speaker 1: give us a good picture of familiar incidence in burial
44:51
Speaker 1: ceremonies of the Viking period. One account, bracket in a
44:56
Speaker 1: late Saga and a Brachet, tells how, on the moral
45:00
Speaker 1: of the great fight at Bravalla, King Ring caused search
45:04
Speaker 1: to be made for the body of his kinsman Harold.
45:07
Speaker 1: When the body was found, it was washed and placed
45:10
Speaker 1: in the chariot which Harold used in the fight. A
45:14
Speaker 1: large mound was raised, and the chariot was drawn into
45:17
Speaker 1: the mound by Harold's own horse. The horse was now killed,
45:21
Speaker 1: and Ring give his own saddle to Harold, telling him
45:24
Speaker 1: that he might ride or drive to Valhalla, just as
45:28
Speaker 1: it pleased him best. A great memorial feast was held,
45:32
Speaker 1: and Ring bade his warriors and nobles throw into the
45:35
Speaker 1: mound large rings of gold and silver and good weapons,
45:39
Speaker 1: before it was finally closed. The other account, bracket in
45:44
Speaker 1: Saxo and of Brachet tells how Ring harnessed his own
45:47
Speaker 1: horse to Harald's chariot and bade him drive quickly to
45:50
Speaker 1: Valhalla as the best in battle, and when he came
45:54
Speaker 1: to Odin to prepare goodly quarters for friend and foe alike.
45:59
Speaker 1: The pyre was then enkindled, and by Ring's command, the
46:02
Speaker 1: Danes placed Harold's ship upon it. When the fire destroyed
46:05
Speaker 1: the body, the king commanded his followers to walk around
46:09
Speaker 1: the pyre and chant a lament, making rich offerings of weapons,
46:13
Speaker 1: gold and treasure, so that the fire might mount the
46:17
Speaker 1: higher in honor of the great King. So the body
46:20
Speaker 1: was burned, the ashes were collected, laid in an urn,
46:24
Speaker 1: and sent a laire there to be buried with the
46:27
Speaker 1: horse and the weapons in royal fashion. There are many
46:32
Speaker 1: curious coincidences of detail between these accounts and that given
46:37
Speaker 1: by Iban Fadlan of the burial of a russ warrior,
46:41
Speaker 1: and every detail of them has at one time or
46:44
Speaker 1: another been confirmed by archaeological evidence. The dead were commemorated
46:51
Speaker 1: by the How itself, but bautausteenar i e Memorial stones
46:57
Speaker 1: were also erected, either on the How or more commonly
47:01
Speaker 1: elsewhere In course of time, these monuments came to be
47:05
Speaker 1: inscribed with ruins. Usually the inscription is of the most
47:11
Speaker 1: formal type, giving the name of the dead person, the
47:14
Speaker 1: name of the man who raised the memorial, and sometimes
47:18
Speaker 1: also that of the man who carved the ruins. Occasionally
47:22
Speaker 1: there is some more human touch, as in the wording
47:25
Speaker 1: of the Dirna ruins, and in the latter part of
47:28
Speaker 1: the Viking period, we often find pictures and even scenes
47:32
Speaker 1: inscribed on the stones. This is true of the Dirna stone.
47:38
Speaker 1: The Yelling stone has a figure of Christ on it,
47:42
Speaker 1: while there is a famous row inscription in Sweden representing
47:46
Speaker 1: scenes from the Sigurd story Bracket Reagan smithy, hammer, tongs
47:52
Speaker 1: and bellows, Sigurd piercing Fafner with his sword, the birds
47:57
Speaker 1: whose speech Sigard understood, and of bracket encircled by a serpent,
48:03
Speaker 1: bracket Fafner and a bracket bearing a long Runic inscription.
48:08
Speaker 1: The Runic alphabet itself was the invention of an earlier age.
48:13
Speaker 1: It is based chiefly on the Old Roman alphabet, with
48:17
Speaker 1: such modifications of form and symbol as were necessitated by
48:21
Speaker 1: the different sounds in the Teutonic tongues and by the
48:25
Speaker 1: use of such unyielding materials as wood and stone. Straight
48:30
Speaker 1: lines were preferred to curved ones and sloping to horizontal.
48:35
Speaker 1: During the Viking period it was simplified and Runic inscriptions
48:40
Speaker 1: are found from the valley of the Dnieper on the
48:42
Speaker 1: east to Man in the west, and from Iceland on
48:46
Speaker 1: the north to the Piraeus in the south. End of
48:51
Speaker 1: Chapter eight