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Terror from the sea

In 789, three Viking ships arrived on the Wessex shore. The local reeve had been sent to greet them but he was killed on the spot. This event was recorded in a short entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But worse was to come. Four years later, Lindisfarne, one of Britain's most sacred sites, was sacked. Word of the Viking threat spread throughout Europe.

The first Viking raids were hit-and-run affairs. There was no co-ordination and no long-term plan behind them. Raids were not even a new hazard in a society well-used to warfare on any scale from local skirmishes to great battles. The Vikings' sin was to attack and pillage the holy monasteries, the sacred places of the Christian world. And the leaders of that world were quick to condemn them. One of those leaders whose words have come down to us was Alcuin of York.

Lindisfarne sacked

Alcuin was a scholar and monk living in Germany, who heard the news of a devastating Viking raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria on 8 June, 793. He wrote long letters to the Northumbrian king and to the Bishop of Lindisfarne, commiserating with their plight and blaming it on the sinful lives of their people.

The raid of 793 was the first recorded Viking raid on Britain. Alcuin's words express the horror of his Christian world at the ferocity of pagan raiders, whose attack was sudden, unexpected and devastating. Lindisfarne (Holy Island) lies just off the coast of Northumberland and its monastery was revered for its link with St Cuthbert more than a century earlier. It was unthinkable that such a holy place should suffer attack from foreign heathens, that its monks should be slaughtered and its treasures taken. Yet this was to happen again and again to other monasteries throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Alcuin's letters are just one piece of historical evidence for Viking attacks. Other raids were recorded in the annals kept in monasteries at Iona and in Ireland: 'devastation of all the islands of Britain' reads an entry for 794 in the Annals of Ulster. Columba's famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona was pillaged the following year, and again in 802, in 806 and in 825. Nowhere was safe from the Vikings.

Who were the Vikings?

The Ardagh Chalice - jewel of Celtic culture  © We tend to think of the Vikings as a single phenomenal race of Scandinavian warriors, but the reality is more complex. Raids on the British Isles and the coasts of France and Spain were the work of Vikings from Norway and Denmark (Swedish Vikings set out across the Baltic Sea into Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia). The word Viking means one who lurks in a 'vik' or bay, in effect, a pirate.

The word 'Viking' has come to describe a whole new age in Europe between about 800 and 1150. This is despite the fact that Vikings were not just pirates and warriors but also traders and colonists. But at the start of the Viking Age in the last decade of the eighth century, loot and adventure were the main goals of the Norwegians who raided in Scotland and Ireland and of the Danes who attacked England. Gold and silver treasures accumulated by the great monasteries could be converted into personal wealth, and thus power, and captives could be sold as slaves. What better way for the young sons of good families to earn their way and see the world?

The monks who recorded Viking activities could not know the origins of their tormentors, but discoveries of precious metalwork from Britain in Norway and Denmark are clues to their homelands. Decorative mounts from church plate such as the Ardagh Chalice could be removed and made into brooches, the rest of the chalice could also be melted down and the silver re-used. Such pieces have been found in pagan graves of around 800 in Scandinavia. The Ardagh Chalice escaped this fate, but many other beautiful examples of what has been called 'the work of angels' were looted and taken home by Vikings. One exquisite reliquary box, made in the eighth century to hold a saint's relic, became a Norwegian lady's jewellery casket in the tenth century, when an inscription in runes was carved on its base: 'Ranvaik owns this casket'.

Ships and navigation

The sleek Viking Gokstad ship  © Successful raiding and adventures overseas required good fast ships, and that is exactly what the development of boat technology had provided by the eighth century. The use of a sturdy keel meant that a mast could be properly supported and that boats could be sailed as well as rowed. Long sea voyages were possible even if navigation was still a matter of watching the movement of the sun and of observing landmarks and seabirds.

We know what their ships looked like because many Vikings were buried with their worldly goods, and sometimes this included their boat. The Gokstad ship, from a burial south of Oslo, is the sort of warship to which the Viking raiders aspired - an elegant 23 metres of curving oak planks that would skim the waves. Tree-ring dating has shown that this particular ship was built towards the end of the ninth century, but its efficient design was developed earlier - fast, flexible and, with its shallow draught, easy to beach. Few warlords could afford to send such a magnificent vessel to the grave, and no Viking boat of the size of Gokstad has been found in Britain. Smaller rowing boats could be spared for funerary use, and the most recent discovery of a boat-burial at Scar in Orkney contained a vessel some 7 metres long. But the existence of large warships in British waters can be inferred from the historical evidence - Vikings preferred not to spend the night at sea if they could avoid it and would rather camp in tents on shore.

A fair wind for raiding

The distinctive prow of a Viking ship  © Alongside the efforts of boat builders was a gradual improvement in climate and overall weather patterns. This led to calmer seas and fewer storms in summer. There are many clues that point to this change in climate. If you slice a tree trunk horizontally, you can see the rings that represent annual growth: thick rings in good years and thin rings in bad years. If you dig down into a peat bog, you will find that there are horizontal layers, caused by variations in climate: in dry summers the surface of the bog will dry out and compact, whereas high rainfall will encourage the peat to grow. Plants can also provide evidence. They have different needs in terms of temperature and moisture, and the presence or absence of the pollen of certain plants on an archaeological site can indicate what the climate was like when people were living there. A cool and wet climate, for instance, will encourage the growth of ferns.

So we know that the summers were getting warmer but that was not the whole story. For Norwegians intent on reaching Scotland and the honeyed seaway to Ireland, the wind was on their side too. The prevailing winds helpfully blew westwards into their sails in springtime to take them to the Scottish islands, and eastwards in the autumn to bring them home.

The need for land

Remains of Viking buildings  © Raids and loot were not the whole story. Land to farm was also a desirable commodity, especially for the families along the western seaboard of Norway, where fertile land was in short supply. Younger sons, political exiles, mercenary warriors and traders all had the option of becoming colonists in the lands now familiar from the tales of returning raiders. Once based in the northern and western islands of Scotland, they could farm and trade and still turn their hand to raiding whenever convenient. And we know from the 12th-century Icelandic Sagas that this is exactly what they did. Svein Asleifarson lived on the island of Gairsay in Orkney in the 12th century, and his lifestyle was recorded in one of these sagas.

The pattern of Danish colonisation in England was more organised, as had been Danish raids after about 850. In that year a Viking army had spent the winter encamped on the Isle of Thanet at the mouth of the River Thames, and protection money had been extorted from the English. Large forces of warriors, winter camps and payments in silver or food became the norm, even deep inland - a Viking camp of 873 has been excavated at Repton in Derbyshire. In 876 a Viking leader shared out the farmlands of Northumbria among his warriors. The Danish colonisation of England had begun.

Find out more

Books

Chronicles of the Vikings: records, memorials and myths by RI Page (British Museum Press, 1995)

Cultural Atlas of the Viking World by James Graham-Campbell, Colleen Batey, Helen Clarke, RI Page and Neil S Price (Andromeda, 1994)

Viking Scotland by Anna Ritchie (Batsford, 1993)

Viking Age England by Julian D Richards (Batsford, 1991)

The Viking Dig: The Excavations at York by Richard Hall (Bodley Head, 1984)

Scar: A Viking Boat Burial on Sanday, Orkney by Olwyn Owen and Magnar Dalland (Tuckwell Press/East Linton, 1999)

The Age of Charlemagne by Donald Bullough (Paul Elek, 1965)

Orkneyinga Saga translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards (Hogarth Press, 1978)

A History of the English Language by NF Blake (Macmillan, 1996). An accessible and modern discussion of the growth of English.

The Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names by E Eckwall (Oxford University Press, 1960). Still the most useful book on place names.

The Origins and Development of the English Language by Thomas Pyles and John Algeo (Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1993). A comprehensive guide to the evolution of English, well organised into sections.

The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England edited by Michael Lapidge, John Blair, Simon Keynes and DG Scragg (Blackwell, 1999). A thorough guide by leading scholars into all aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture, including entries on the Vikings, Old Norse, place-names, and numerous individuals, texts and places.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Viking edited by P Sawyer (Oxford University Press, 1997). A colourful, full discussion of the activities of the Vikings.

Places to visit

The most obvious place to visit to learn more about the Vikings is the in York. York itself was the seat of Viking kings, and the Centre recreates the sights, sounds and smells of the 10th-century city.

Other cities with excellent museums that include finds from Viking settlements are Leicester (Jewry Wall Museum) and Nottingham (Castle Museum). Most cities also have dedicated museums, including Lincoln, Derby, Peterborough and Norwich. In these, information about the history of the regions and archaeological discoveries bring the Viking and early medieval periods to life.

, Edinburgh. Viking artefacts from across Scotland and a reconstructed grave from the Westness cemetery, Orkney.

Heritage Trails. Most cities now offer heritage trails, available from Tourist Information centres, which allow you to retrace the footsteps of medieval ancestors, and investigate the surviving architecture from earlier centuries.

Or visit the islands themselves - Brough of Birsay, Orkney. On this spectacular tidal island are the remains of Viking houses and a 12th-century church.

Jarlshof, Shetland. A stunning site that spans five and a half millennia, including four centuries of a Viking farmstead.

Libraries and local history. Local libraries will provide a wealth of interesting material for the medieval period and the Viking settlements. Look especially for local history books and pamplets, which will provide a guide to places of interest in your locality. Local history and archaeology groups often have public lectures on aspects of early England. These should be advertised in your local library or look up special interest groups in the telephone directory.

Sign-spotting. Travelling around the old Danelaw counties investigating place names is a fun and rewarding activity. You can also do this with a map from your armchair! Try to find as many places as possible with Old English origins (ending in -tun, -burh, -feld, for example), and with Scandinavian origins (-by, -thorpe, -toft, -thwaite) to work out where the Viking settlers chose to make their homes, how close they were to their English neighbours, and the kinds of activities in which they might have engaged.

Living history. There are numerous re-enactment groups who stage annual events where villages and battles are recreated. These are advertised by English Heritage, local newspapers and Tourist Information centres. , a living history group, puts on a whole range of activities.

To see how the Anglo-Saxons lived and worked, visit in Suffolk. St Edmund himself, martyred by the Vikings in the 9th century, was interred at the abbey of nearby Bury St Edmunds.

, Northumberland is a wonderful site recreating many aspects of early Anglo-Saxon England. The nearby church of Jarrow was where Bede himself lived and worked, and it still retains the original foundation stone for all to see.

In 991, the East Anglian Anglo-Saxons, led by Earl Byrthnorth, were totally defeated by the Vikings at the Battle of Maldon. The site of this battle, commemorated in the famous Old English poem, The Battle of Maldon, can still be visited today, near the River Pante in Essex.

Additional links

. Images and descriptions of finds from the great ship burials at Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune, as well as finds from the chieftain grave at Borre in Norway.

. The Anglo-Saxon England Ring contains some interesting material on King Canute.

. The National Association of Re-enactment Societies offers the chance to watch or take part in re-created moments from the past.

. A living history club recreating English life 1000 years ago.

. An ever-changing mix of Viking related material.

. Interesting material on the development of English.

. A humorous look at the development of language.

About the author

Dr Anna Ritchie is an archaeologist and a Viking specialist. She has excavated numerous sites, notably Buckquoy, in Orkney. She is author of Viking Scotland, as well as many other books on Scottish archaeology.