Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 9

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and kaupang in norway. some again appear to have exercised a degree of
overlordship over local rulers in western and northern norway,9 some-
times through dynastic alliances.10
the frankish kingdom or Carolingian empire, for its part, can be
thought of as having three concentric layers. Its core or heartlands formed
an area bounded by the Rhine and the seine for the most part. encircling
them were the regna of more or less subject peoples. outside these again
lay the marches, inhabited by peoples over whom control was looser or at
times non-existent. these marches included an area by the eider bordering
with denmark.11
the franks first took the measure of danish power in a sustained
fashion about the year 800, in the course of conquering and converting
the saxons.12 Legates of the franks showed their respect for their danish
counterparts by meeting with them in a much more intensive fashion
than they did with the representatives of other peoples.13 the first re-
corded scandinavian incursion on the mainland of Western europe, in
810, revealed the essential vulnerability of the Carolingian heartlands,
thanks to ready access through frisia.14 the franks recognised the futil-
ity of initiating outright counter-attacks against the danes.15 even under
Charlemagne, negotiation recommended itself as the more productive
strategy.16 Charlemagne’s successor, Louis the Pious, sponsored the evan-
9 niels Lund, ‘the danish empire and the end of the Viking Age’, in The Oxford Illustrated
History of the Vikings, ed. Peter sawyer (oxford: oxford university Press, 1997), 156.
10 Per sveaas Andersen, Samlingen av Norge og kristningen av landet 800–1130 (Bergen: uni-
versitetsforlaget, 1997), 92–6.
11 thomas f.X. noble, ‘Louis the Pious and the frontiers of the frankish Realm’, in
Charlemagne’s Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–840), ed. Peter
Godman and Roger Collins (oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), 335.
12 Peter foote and david Wilson, The Viking Achievement: The Society and Culture of Early
Medieval Scandinavia (London: sidgwick & jackson, 1980), 1; janet L. nelson, ‘the
frankish empire’, in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings, 20. for a brief evaluation
of the frankish primary sources to be used in the ensuing paragraphs, see Maund, ‘“A
turmoil of Warring Princes”’, 30–2.
13 Rosamund Mckitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (Cambridge:
Cambridge university Press, 2008), 129.
14 nelson, ‘the frankish empire’, 23–4.
15 timothy Reuter, ‘the end of Carolingian Military expansion’, in Charlemagne’s Heir,
404–5.
16 f.L. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy, trans. janet sondheimer, studies
in Carolingian History (London: Longman: 1971), 171; noble, ‘Louis the Pious’, 339–42.
sCHoLARs And skALds