Les Mondes Normands (VIIP-XHe s.)

39

Peter SAWYER*

The effects of Viking activity on Scandinavian society

SUMMARY

Viking activity in western Europe had a profound effect on Scandinavia, causing political and religious as well as economic changes. In the first place, Viking raids provided opportunities for political exiles to win fame, fortune, and a following, and some of these exiles were tempted to return home in the hope of winning power for themselves.

Many leaders of Vikings armies in western Europe were members of the Danish royal family ; at least one, Harald Klakk, was an exiled Danish king and so too, possibly, was the Sigred who attacked Paris in 885 ; that is at least implied by Abbo's description of him as king only in name, amplified by the gloss " for he lacked a kingdom " (waquet, 1942 : 16). Others were the sons or brothers of kings. Before the ninth century such exiles must normally have retreated to other parts of Scandinavia or to neighbouring Slav or Saxon territory. There are several ninth-century instances, including the exile among the Swedes of the sons of Godfred after the assassination of their father in 810 (arF: 813)1. A more revealing example is the exile of the ninth-century Swedish king Anound among the Danes. According to Rimbert (va c. 19) Anound had eleven ships of his own and recruited 21 Danish ships for an attack on Birka. This is not only a remarkable example of a Viking raid within Scandinavia, led by an exiled Swedish ruler, it is also significant because Anound is said to have been prepared to leave Birka in peace on payment of £ 100 of silver, the same sum as was paid by the Frisians as tribute to Godfred's fleet in 810 (arf : 8io). At about the same time as Anound's attack on Birka, other Vikings extorted no less than £ 7000 of gold and silver as the price for leaving Paris in peace (ab : 845). One result of this was naturally that many Scandinavian warriors were drawn to Frankia, another was that the cost of maintaining status and power in Scandinavia rose. Some of the Danish exiles who returned to claim power were unsuccessful, but in 850 king Horik was forced to share his kingship with two nephews (ab : 850) and in 854 another nephew, Gudorm, who had been expelled and lived as a pirate, returned and fought a battle against Horic in which both he and the king were killed (af: 854).

Later developments are obscure, but it appears that by the end of the ninth century the dynasty that had ruled the Danes for a century and more had lost power. Two centuries later Adam of Bremen (i. 48, 52) reported the tradition then current in the Danish royal court that after the collapse of the old dynasty power was seized in succession by Olaf from Sweden and by Hardegon (probably meaning Hardeknut), son of Sven from Nortmannia, which could mean Normandy but was more probably Norway. Hardeknut and his son Gorm founded the dynasty that still ruled Denmark in Adam's time. There were probably other unrecorded contenders, some of whom may have been returning exiles, as Olaf and Hardeknut apparently were.

At the beginning of the ninth century the heart of the Danish kingdom was in Jutland but Danish kings had hegemony over a large part of western Scandinavia. By the end of the century that hegemony had collapsed (sawyer p., 1988 : c. 3). This provided an opportunity for one Norwegian king, Harald Finehair, to extend his power in Norway sufficiently to be remembered, with some exaggeration, as the first king of a united Norway. In the second half of the tenth century the Danish empire was recreated by Harald Gormsson who boasted on the great runic monument at Jelling that he had " won all Denmark for himself and Norway ".

Harald, his son Sven and his grandson Knut were, like their ninth-century predecessors, in danger of being challenged by returning Vikings. Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson, who opposed Danish overlordship in Norway, are good examples. A more direct threat to the Danish kingdom was posed by Thorkell who had a very successful career as a Viking leader in England, first as raider and then as an ally of the English king Ethelred (Campbell, 1949 : 73-6). Sven reacted by himself leading raids on England and eventually conquering it. He did not live long to enjoy his triumph but his son Knut reconquered England and was able to use its wealth greatly to enlarge his authority in Scandinavia. Knut's North Sea empire was not a stable structure. It began to collapse even before his death, and with the death of his son Hardeknut in 1042 the link between Denmark and England was broken, although for several decades both Danish and Norwegian kings continued to covet England's wealth as a means of sustaining their power.