Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.03.2019, Side 14

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14 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • March 1 2019
Gold was the glue of
Viking society, and the
longships took them to
it. The strongest and wealthiest
Viking chieftains and kings
ruled by giving generously to
those under their command.
Trade and conquest filled the
coffers of the kings, and the
Viking Age simply would
not have existed without the
longship, the best boat of the
day, taxis of terror and trade.
The Vikings lived in a
highly structured society with
a chieftain-priest at the top.
Below the chieftain, the class
of freemen included warriors,
farmers, artisans, lawyers, and
poets; these roles were fluid
and while every warrior was
also a farmer, some were also
poets and blacksmiths, lawyers
and priests. Viking society also
included slaves, the bottom of
the social ladder. The slaves,
often other people captured
during Viking raids, could be
killed in any season and for
any reason.
All of the sagas are very
clear on the fact that the
Viking society was not one
with the kind of specialization
we are accustomed to today.
Egill’s Saga depicts Egill
Skallagrímsson, the greatest
poet of the Viking Age, as
a farmer, warrior, poet and
blacksmith; he certainly never
made a living from writing
poetry, as perhaps Seamus
Heaney does today.
During the Viking Age,
from 800 to 1066, the kings
rose to ultimate power by
might and bloody battle, killing
or cowing all other chieftains.
One such chieftain, Haraldur,
met a bedazzling princess who
refused to marry him unless
he made something more of
himself. The frailty of the male
eye, the lure of love, her face
would launch a thousand ships.
To meet her challenge and gain
her as his wife, he aimed to
conquer all of Norway, and he
refused to cut, comb, or wash
his hair until he achieved this
lofty goal. He succeeded by sea
using longships with berserks
growling in the prow; only on
the whale road or sea could he
reach and defeat the populated
regions of mountainous
Norway. After ten years, he
became that country’s first king
and when he finally did wash,
cut, and comb his hair for the
wedding, people commented on
how fine his hair was, hence the
nickname: Haraldur Fairhair.
The kings or chieftains
won their place by military
might – by winning battles and
killing their own kind – and the
Vikings were eager to share
their violence with others,
turning the Christian peace
of Europe to pandemonium.
The Vikings prized a matrix
of four interconnected virtues
above all: courage, honour,
generosity, and loyalty.
Fearlessness and fatalism
led them to face death with
courageous strength. The top
god, Óðinn, euphemistically
called the High One, was an
unscrupulous philosopher-
king worshipped by the
Viking nobility, the poets, and
berserkers. As Lord of the
Slain, his animals, the wolf
and raven, ate the dead bodies
after battles. The common folk
worshipped Þór, whose name is
immortalized in the weekday
known as Thursday.
The freemen, chieftains,
and kings were also strongly
independent people, and this
appears in the very advanced
rights of women, at least for
those times. Women were
married at a young age to
men chosen by their fathers,
but the Icelandic sagas record
numerous accounts of women
playing an active role in this
process. Because the men
frequently left home to fish,
trade, and raid, the women
had to manage the farms in
their absence. Viking women
could own property, inherit
estates, and even divorce their
husbands.
The sagas are full of stories
about the human heart and the
betrothal of young women.
And while some of the Viking
fathers would have been like
Mr. Capulet, Juliet’s harsh
father in Shakespeare, some
(perhaps most Viking fathers)
loved their daughters and sons
deeply and did not deploy them
like chess pieces. In my mind,
one of the most eloquent sagas
on this theme is Laxdæla Saga.
The unique freedom given to
women appears in almost every
saga in some shape or form, and
was an important value. Today,
as you may know, the Nordic
people continue to value and
respect their daughters, sisters,
mothers, and all other women.
In fact, A Doll’s House by the
great Norwegian dramatist
Henrik Ibsen, which offers a
strong critique of the paternal
control put upon women (as
he observed in 19th century
Norwegian society), also
advocates for the independence
of women, so is very much in
the best of the Viking spirit.
I think it is no accident that
the masterpiece of Halldór
Laxness, Iceland’s Nobel
laureate, is called Independent
People. Trust me on this
one: the Vikings have this in
spades – men and women both,
children and adults. My great-
grandmother from Norway,
whose English was imperfect
as a first generation pioneer
in Canada, coined the word
“stubbery” to refer to us – she
knew it well.
Viking kings and chieftain-
priests gained the gold for
their gifts by military conquest
and increasingly by trade. The
desire to extend the net of
trade certainly explains part
of the volcanic movements of
the Vikings in this period. The
great wealth in the Christian
territories of Europe also
attracted Viking swords like a
magnet. They got to the gold
by boat.
The swan-breasted and
swan-necked longships carried
merchants and warriors to
distant shores in search of
the silver, gold, and other
goods to fuel their gift-
giving economy. The Viking
craftsmen, important artisans in
the society, built the hull first,
overlapping the planks in what
is termed the clinker-built or
lapstrake style, and the internal
cross beams were often tied to
the ribs near the keel to provide
added elasticity.
History, although some-
times written in stone, is
fragile like ice. Each historian
and each age has limitations
and biases, the imperfections
and shortfalls of our shared
humanity, and the hard facts
that furnish history are often
too many today and too few
in the past. The limits of our
historical knowledge is reflected
in philosophy and modern
literature – such as the work
of Søren Kierkegaard, William
Faulkner, and Samuel Beckett
– as well as the academic
discipline of history itself.
Modern archaeology
has greatly improved our
knowledge of the Viking Age,
but we owe a debt to the early
writings of Iceland – primarily
the sagas, the only extant
written sources on the Vikings
by a Viking people – for our
clearest window on that past.
Kevin Jon Johnson
Sakai, Japan
THE GOLDEN RULE OF VIKING SOCIETY
PHOTO: AL SEEGER / PIXABAY
A Viking with his protective helmet, Mjölnir amulet (Þór’s hammer), and sword in hand.