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Grapevine 2/23
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March 2, 2023
What if... Vikings Had
Conquered the World?
What if? It’s a pretty open-ended ques-
tion and one friend of the Grapevine
Valur Gunnarsson is applying to eight
relevant-to-Iceland historical happen-
ings over as many issues. Expand
your mind, suspend your disbelief
and consider: what if the Vikings had
conquered the world?
Could Icelandic have become the
lingua franca? Surely, it‘s a possibility
everyone has mulled at some point,
and the answer is that it very nearly
came to pass.
After generations of raiding,
Vikings were poised by the 11th
century to establish kingdoms in other
lands. A North Atlantic Empire was
within reach and then, in 1066, just
as it was taking shape, everything
came crashing down. Not one but two
climactic battles took place in England
that year, determining the fate of the
North Atlantic World.
It was the Viking Ragnarök. But
what if things had gone differently?
Haraldur Sigurðsson has sometimes
been called “the Last Viking.” Haraldur
traversed the Viking World, from
the river Derwent in England to the
Dnipro in modern Ukraine and further
afield to the lands of Lombards and
Saracens. He is best known by his
nickname, Haraldur Harðráða, which
has been variously translated as
“Hard-Ruler” or “Hard-Council” or,
simply, “the Ruthless.” If the Viking
Age ended with him, at least it went
out in style.
Confusion Over a Crown
In 1066, things were coming to a head
in merry old England. Edward the
Confessor died childless in January,
ending his line. Nobleman Harold
Godwinson claims that Edward had
promised him the crown before he
croaked — a claim ratified by nobility.
But wait! William, Duke of Normandy,
claimed Edward had promised the
same to him.
Edward was son of King Æthelred
and Emma of Normandy. Æthelred
died in 1014 and was succeeded by
Edmund, his son by his previous
wife Ælgifu. Edmund fought and was
bested by the Vikings in 1016 and
submitted to being co-regent with
Viking leader Canute the Great, who
also married his step-mother, Emma.
Edmund died soon after, making
Canute sole king. Æthelred and
Ælgifu’s offspring were executed and
Edward went into a 25-year exile in
Normandy. That’s when he supposedly
promised his crown — should he ever
gain it — to William, Emma’s nephew.
Further adding to the confusion,
Canute’s son promised Magnus the
Good that he would inherit England.
Since Haraldur Harðráða was Magnus’
successor, he felt the claim should go
to him. Enter Tostig, Harold Godwin-
son’s little brother, who is also making
a play for the throne and eggs Haral-
dur Harðráða on to invade England.
The Last Stand of the
Vikings
The big question was who would get
to Godwinson first. It came down
to the weather. A fierce north wind
blew, quickening the pace of Haraldur
Harðráða’s ships sailing from Norway
while confining William’s boats to
port. So Haraldur Harðráða arrived
first, landing in Cleveland (no, not in
Ohio) before burning Scarborough
(no, not in Ontario). The north seemed
to be within his grasp.
Thinking the English were about
to offer their surrender, Haraldur
Harðráða set off toward Stamford
Bridge with only a few men, lightly
armed and armoured due to the
sweltering heat, while his main forces
stayed back to guard the ships.
However, Harold Godwinson
managed to force-march his troops up
from London in record time to meet
the under-equipped Vikings. Still, it
is a close-run thing, with a single axe-
wielding berserker keeping the Saxons
at bay on the battle’s titular bridge.
That would've been a good time for
Haraldur Harðráða to retreat towards
reinforcements — but the Last Viking
won’t be known for a cowardly act.
A sneaky Saxon skulks under the
bridge, stabbing the berserker from
below, allowing Godwinson’s army to
cross. Haraldur Harðráða catches an
arrow in the throat and dies. Tostig
takes over. The rest of the Viking
troops arrive, fully armoured but
exhausted from running. Tostig dies
and the battle turns into a rout, with
the Vikings eventually running back to
their ships, many drowning attempt-
ing to cross a river in battle-gear.
The Norman Wins
Haraldur Harðráða’s 16- year-old son
Olaf was among the troops allowed
to go home — he reigns under the
un-vikinglike moniker Ólafur Kyrri
(Olaf the Peaceful). Norway had lost
a generation and there would not be
more Viking raids any time soon. Or
ever.
Harold Godwinson didn’t get to
savour his victory over the Vikings for
long, though. William’s Norman army
soon landed in the south and bested
the Saxons.
What if things had gone
differently?
What if Haraldur Harðráða would
have been more cautious and managed
to assemble his troops at Stamford
Bridge?
Two scenarios could have played
out in the event of a Norwegian
victory. William’s invading Norman
army would have been met with
Norwegian Vikings, flush after their
victory in the north. At that point,
either William would have won and
history would revert to a familiar
course, or Haraldur Harðráða would
have won, thereby becoming king of
Norway and England. Could that have
created a North Sea Empire that would
have made the Vikings a power factor
in Europe for centuries to come?
A Viking Superpower
The previous Viking Superpower
headed by Canute the Great lasted 19
years. Authority lay with the king and
did not always survive him, so when
Canute died, his son by his first wife,
Harold Harefoot, took over. Hardac-
nut, Canute’s son by the aforemen-
tioned Emma, was preparing to invade
from Denmark when Harold suddenly
died, but Hardacnut still had him
exhumed, beheaded and thrown into a
marsh for good measure.
That made Hardacnut the last
Danish king of England, reigning
from 1040 to 1042 before he died of too
much drink while giving a wedding
toast.
Something similar could have been
the fate of the second North Sea
Empire had it taken shape in 1066. It
might not have outlived its founder
for long.
Haraldur Harðráða was 50 when
he died at Stamford Bridge. Had he
become king of England, his son
Ólafur Kyrri would have succeeded
him a decade or two later. Ólafur
became a peaceful king and a state
builder in Norway. If we assume he
would have retained those peaceful
characteristics, he would have been
exactly what a North Sea Empire
would need to prosper. The riches
of England combined with a wise
ruler could have been the recipe for a
powerful kingdom.
Drifting Apart
But Ólafur Kyrri would have his work
cut out for him. Nordic kings had
problems turning English taxes into
ships. So, it’s unlikely a Norse-English
fleet would rule the waves as the
British managed to do in the 18th
and 19th centuries. In addition, the
coming “Little Ice Age” would have
seen Iceland and the Atlantic Islands
of Shetlands, Orkney and the Faroes
relegated to a distant periphery.
Even the languages drifted apart.
In the Viking Age, the Norse tongue
could be spoken from Greenland to
the Volga. But by around 1300, Danish,
Norwegian and Swedish became more
and more influenced by mainland
languages, particularly German. The
three Scandinavian languages remain
mutually intelligible to this day —
even with the awful Danish accent
— but Icelandic remained something
resembling the original Norse tongue.
Perhaps a Viking Empire would have
retained the original language and
something very similar to Icelandic
would have been spoken around the
North Atlantic to this day.
FRONT
LIMITED
SERIES
Words: Valur
Gunnarsson
Image: Adobe
Stock /
Grapevine
Graphics Dept.
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