viking.heritage.magazine.no.2.2005

V king HeritageV king Heritage

2/20052/2005

magazine

DESTINATIONVIKING

Hgskolan p GotlandGotland University

www.hgo.se/viking 2

Viking Heritage Magazine 2/05

Cherish those near you, never be

the first to break with a friend.

Care eats him who can no longer

open his heart to another.

From Hvmal(Words from The High One)

AAbboouutt tthhee ffrroonntt ppaaggeeThe pregnant Icelandic mare named Skuld fr Kvistum. Photo: Gunnar Britse

Drawing by Lou Harrison, tthhuunnddeerrhheeaarrttssttuuddiiooss@@yyaahhoooo..ddkk

EditorialWHAT KIND OF HORSES did the Vikings have and what did they look like?For what use did they have them and what role did they play in the Viking-age society? In the first article of this summer issue you are sure to findsome answers to these questions.

It is always fascinating, I think, for us urban people to learn more aboutthe close, interactive and also dependent relationship of man and animalsin ancient times a way of living that many people of today know nothingabout. Maybe our car is the closest we can come to what a horse couldmean to the Vikings?

Another interesting article among many others, on a totally differenttopic, is about the extent of the Viking-age Danish influence in southSweden, a contribution to a debate that has engaged scholars inScandinavia for a long time.

This issue is our last in cooperation with and as part of the EU projectDestination Viking Living History. During the projects three years, muchprogress has been made concerning the dissemination and marketing ofViking history and attractions, both at the local level of each partner aswell as at the international network level, as you have been able to notethrough several articles in this magazine. Now, the aim of creating theBaltic Sea Viking Route will also be marketed through a brand-newguidebook. Read more about it in our next issue.

Summer is here and we have listed more Viking events than ever before.We wish you all a great Viking summer!

Enjoy!

MMaarriittaa EE EEkkmmaannEditor

Email: [email protected]

GO

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IN THIS ISSUEViking Horses 3388

Ailikns wagon andOdins warriors 991133

Who were the thegns of Cnut the great? 11441177

Viking Market in Slite, Gotland 1177

DDEESSTTIINNAATTIIOONN VVIIKKIINNGGHow to make an earlylute and rebec 11881199Kings and warriorsHistory and science 22002211Dancing into the Future 22112222Tiller thriller 22332244

NNEEWW BBOOOOKKSS 2255,, 3344

Ragnark Odins World 22662277

Viking events in summer 2005 22883311

HHEERRIITTAAGGEE NNEEWWSS 33223344

Heritage News

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.hgo.se/viking

3 http://viking.hgo.se


The origin of the horsesTraditionally the domestic horse isthought to have originated on the vastplains of the Ukraine. Here lived theTarpan, one of the two wild horse breedssurviving until historic time, and in thesesurroundings the nomads developed theart of riding about 6000 years ago.

However recent genetic researchreveals a slightly different picture.Evolutionary biologists have investigated

over 600 samples from different livinghorse breeds together with fossil bones ofwild Ice-age horses preserved in thepermafrost of Alaska. Bones from Iron-age graves in Sweden have also beenanalysed.

Since mitochondrial DNA, which theoffspring inherits from the mother, isused only the matrilinear relationshipscan be traced with this method.According to the results, horses seem to

descend from many different,geographically spread, wild mares.Consequently, it can be concluded thatmares were tamed at different times andat many places around Europe and Asia.

In another study, however, the DNAfrom the male Y-chromosome of 50stallions of different breeds was analysed.The unexpected results showed nogenetic variation at all, which means thatall horses seem to be descended from one

One of the subjects the County Museumof Gotland, Sweden is focusing onduring the Viking Year 2005 is theViking horse. The appearance andcharacteristics of horses of that periodwill be described and displayed, as wellas their role in mythology and daily life.

The exhibition is located in an actualstable on the Norrbys museum farm inthe parish of Vte, south of Visby. Reallive horses, descendants of the Vikinghorses, will be kept in the surroundingpaddocks. Horse shows andpresentations of the different horsebreeds will take place all summer.

This article sums up the main contentof the exhibition.

The Norwegian Fjord mare and Viking descendant, Knuts Bocka. Notice thetraditional mane style. Photo: Sara Eliason

Viking HorsesBy Sara Eliason

Icelandic horses of today, on a beach on Fr, Gotland. Photo: Gunnar Britse

http://viking.hgo.se

http://viking.hgo.se 4


single stallion! Perhaps wild mares from different stock inEurope and Asia were tamed independently while thestallions used in breeding were imported offspring fromone or a few particularly good stallions, domesticated in asingle geographic area.

The oldest finds of domestic horses in Scandinavia arefrom Gotland. One 4700-year old bone was found in amarsh in the parish of Eke and a jawbone from the MiddleNeolithic settlement Ire in Hangvar. This jaw is the samesize as a jaw of the native Gotlandic pony, the GotlandRuss.

Otherwise, Stone-age horse finds are rare. Finds ofBronze-age horses are more common and stone carvingsfrom Sweden and Norway often portray horses, mostly asdraught horses and more seldom as riding horses.

The two-wheeled wagon drawn by a team of horsesdepicted on a stone carving in the Kivik grave in Skne isdated to 1300 BC. Opinions differ as to whether horseswere first used for riding or as draught animals.

Viking horse relationshipsIt is likely that the origin of the Viking horse breeds can befound in northwestern Europe. However trading withliving horses has probably taken place, at least since theRoman Iron Age, when large amounts of leather, meat andeven live horses were needed for the Roman army.

Since Vikings were expanding andsettling down in the British Isles as wellas in Russia and the Baltic countries,horses from the native stock must havebeen mixed with the breeds fromScandinavia, especially those that weretaken to Iceland.

The genetic research previouslymentioned confirms that at least theScandinavian and British breeds areclosely related. The British Exmoor,Highland and Connemara ponies belongto the same genotype cluster as theNorwegian Fjord and Icelandic ponies.Two Viking-age horses were also foundto have this genotype. Anotherdistinguished genotype cluster consistedexclusively of Icelandic, Shetland andFjord ponies.

Among six DNA-analysed Iron-agehorses, four separate types were found, allprobably of Western European origin.No relationship with the Tarpan wildhorse was found among these. Therelatively high number of horse typesamong such a limited number ofspecimens, indicates that horse breedingwas already well developed in the VikingAge.

Attempts to classify the Iron-agehorses using morphological analysis havealso been made earlier. Three differenthorse breeds have been distinguished bythis method: The old Nordic Bronze-age

The picture stone from Broa in Hallaon Gotland, dated 700-800 A.D., showsthe mounted warrior being welcomedto Valhalla. The Valkyrie offers the new

arrival a drinking horn. The rider iswearing knee-length baggy

riding breeches, of Easternorigin. The horse is quite

small, with a broadneck and chest and a

short back. Photo: Raymond

Hejdstrm




horse, the Ihre horse (Equus caballusnehringii) and a Tarpan-type horse. Theresults indicate that the conclusionsdrawn from morphological analysis seemuncertain.

The appearance of Viking horses The many horses found in the Vikinggraves give us several clues as to how theylooked. Measuring the skeletons hasshown that the horses were between 131and 145 cm high, i.e. the same size aslarger ponies of today.

Although pictures may have been anexpression of artistic interpretation,Viking-age art gives us some informationabout what the horses looked like.Contemporary illustrations of horsesindicate that they seem to have hadshorter backs and thicker necks thanmost modern horses. However theyconcur with the looks of the Nordic andBritish old horse breeds.

Preserved textiles, from the NorwegianOseberg ship burial and the Bayeuxtapestry for example, often show horsesof different colours and in Norseliterature the colour of horses issometimes mentioned. It seems that allthe colours of modern horse breeds werealso represented in Viking-age horses.

At the moment, evolutionarybiologists in Uppsala are doing a DNA-

analysis on several ancient horses aimedat finding out their colour, sincerelationships among horses also can betraced in this way. All white horses, forexample, have inherited their colour fromone single horse.

Their descendantsAmong the 400 horse breeds of today,there are several that can be regarded asdescendants of the Viking horses.

The Icelandic Horse is often pointed outas the true Viking horse. It descendsfrom the horses that were brought toIceland during the colonization of the

island in the 9th century. Since it wasmostly Norwegian Vikings who settledon Iceland, their horses were mainlynative Norwegian horses together withBritish ponies. This mix became theIcelandic pony of today.

In the 10th century further import ofhorses to Iceland was forbidden and,according to that law, no horses havebeen brought onto the island since then.

The main characteristics of theIcelandic Horse are their thick mane andtail, their many different colours and fivegaits. In addition to the three basic gaits:walk, trot and gallop, the Icelandic Horseis the only now-living European horse

breed that naturally has two extra gaits:tolt and flying pace.

In tolt the horse moves its legs in thesame sequence as in walking, but muchfaster. Tolt is a four-beat gait without amoment of suspension. In tolt, a horsehas always either one or two feet on theground. It is a very comfortable gait thatenables the rider to cover long distanceswithout tiring. Tolt tempi range riddenfrom working speed right up to racingspeed and a fast tolting horse can reachsimilar speeds as in gallop. Flying pace isa two-beat speedy gait used for shortdistance spurts where the lateral pairs oflegs move together and there is amoment of suspension.

There are several other modern horsebreeds outside Europe that have 5 naturalgaits. This used to be common amongmany horses in ancient Europe, whichalso can be seen in different pictures. Thelittle Birka Horse, a piece of jewelleryfound in Birka, for example, shows aViking mounted on a pacing horse.

The Norwegian Fjord Horse is one of thehorse breeds from which the Icelandicpony derives. It is native in the westernparts of Norway, where it traditionallyhas been used on farms as a draught andpack animal as well as for riding.

One of its main characteristics is the

The picture stonefrom Levide church,Gotland, is datedto 10001100 A.D.and shows a four-wheeled wagondriven by awoman. The horsehas its mane cut ina style still usedon Norwegian Fjordponies. Photo: RaymondHejdstrm

The picture stone from Irein Hellvi on Gotland, dated400-600 A.D., shows twofighting stallions above awhirling disc. The horseswear horn-like objects ontheir heads, which is seenon many other depictions ofhorses from the MigrationPeriod.Photo: Raymond Hejdstrm




dun colour, the original colour of thewild horse. The thick mane istraditionally kept cut, a prehistoric relicyou can see on many Iron-age horsepictures, for example on some of theGotlandic picture stones. Thick bushymanes would otherwise disturb thewarrior in battle.

A horse breed that is seldom mentionedas a Viking horse, probably due to itssmall size is the Gotland Russ.Nevertheless, it is the oldest of theScandinavian horse breeds and can bedetected as far back as perhaps the StoneAge.

Smaller horses were used for otherpurposes than riding, and you wouldtherefore not expect to find them inViking-age graves. Only the noble ridinghorses of the deceased warriors wereburied with their masters. However, itwas revealed that a Viking-age horse fromGotland (Broa in Halla) shared commonancestry with the Gotland Russ.

The many native horse breeds on theBritish Isles have also played animportant role in creating the Vikinghorses. The oldest is the Exmoor Pony,often mentioned as the Celtic Pony, usedby the Celts as a packhorse and a draughtanimal. It is a small (maximum 123 cm),hardy horse with a dun coat.

The Scottish Highland Pony exists intwo varieties, the mainland type and thesmaller horse on the Hebrides. It is also astrong, compact horse, ideal as a packanimal.

The art of riding and equipmentHorses served a number of purposes inNorse culture. Above all, they were usedfor riding. As warriors on horses we mayassume that the Vikings were very skilledriders.

The art of equestrians was developedby the Eastern nomads and perhapsspread to the North in the late BronzeAge (400 BC) and onwards.

The main source of the knowledgeabout the Iron-age equestrians is thegraves, where fully equipped horses haveoften been buried with their masters. Theimages of riders on picture stones,runestones, decorated helmets, jewelleryand textiles are also important sources.

SaddlesEarly riders, for example the ancientGreeks, did not use saddles at all. The

Scyths (700-300 BC) were the firstequestrians to use saddles.

The Viking riding horse was probablyequipped with a wooden saddle, a typestill used in the Iberian countries andamong Western riders. According to veryfew fragmental archaeological finds anddepicted horses as well as similar modernsaddles give us an idea of how theylooked: Two parallel boards held togetherin an L-shape with two broad bows, onefront and one back.

The saddles were often elaboratelycarved and painted and probablyupholstered in leather and cloth. InAlskog church on Gotland, a piece ofwood with carvings was found, whichproved to be a fragment of the front orback bow of a Viking-age saddle.

StirrupsIt was probably Eastern nomads, theSarmatians, who invented the metalstirrup 300 years BC. However it did notbecome common among the Vikingsuntil the 10th century.

On Gotland, stirrups are not found inthe Viking-age graves at all and thepicture stones often show riders with toespointing downwards and a body leaningbackwards, typical of riding withoutstirrups. However loose finds of stirrupshave been made even on Gotland.

Bridles and bitsThe parts of the bridles remaining in thearchaeological finds are the bits andbronze mounts the bridles weredecorated with. The bits are so-calledsnaffle bits, the same type that mostriders use today. They are made of ironand have one or two joints. Curb bits,the sharper leverage bit that was inventedfor military use are not found in theViking-age archaeological material at all.Each bit ring often has two sheets oftinplates, to which the reins and the sidestraps were riveted.

Contemporary pictures often showmounted Vikings, riding with the reinshanging loosely. The rider must havebeen using his legs and the body weightto steer, instead of the reins. In order towield weapons and a shield from thehorseback, this would be a necessity.

SpursThe spur is an old invention, used by theCelts and the Greeks before the saddleand the stirrup were invented. Duringthe early Iron Age, spurs were also usedamong the riders in Scandinavia.However they seem to fall out of fashionin the following centuries and do notshow up again until the 10th century.

On Gotland, a special type of spurs,the Charner spurs, were used. They weremade of bronze and had jointed legs. The

A snaffle bit, found in the mouth of a horse in a Viking-age grave in Ire, Hellvi onGotland. The horse, together with a dog, was buried with its master, a ten-year old boy.Each iron ring is mounted with decorated bronze cubes. Photo: County Museum of Gotland




spurs found elsewhere are made of ironand with rigid legs.

As a consequence of riding, trouserswere invented by the Eastern nomads.On two of the Gotlandic picture stones,you can see the riders wearing very puffytrousers, probably inspired by theSoutheastern cultures.

Viking art often shows mountedwarriors, but the Norseliterature indicates that horseswere used mostly to reach thebattlefield quickly, where thewarrior would fight on foot.Since the warriors often aredepicted without stirrups andthe bits found in graves are ofa mild snaffle-bit type, notsuitable for battle, this couldbe the case.

However the late Viking-age Bayeux tapestry illustratesmounted warriors in combat,but here the horses areequipped with both curb bitsand stirrups and the warriorsare wearing armour. This isthe first step towards theheavy armoured knights of theMiddle Ages.

Draught horses and womenHorses were also used asdraught animals during theViking Age. Since the fewexisting roads were quite bad,some researchers argue thatwagons were used only forceremonial purposes.

Wagon graves from the 10th

century are common insouthern Scandinavia,especially in Denmark. Thedeceased had been buried in acarriage-body, i.e. the upper part of thewagon that could be removed from thelower chassis. The absolute majority ofthese graves belonged to women from theupper classes.

The famous early 9th century Osebergship burial in Norway also contains acomplete wagon as well as sledges andtextiles illustrating wagons and horses.Two wealthy women were buriedtogether with at least ten horses. Womenare obviously associated with wagons.

Contemporary pictures very seldomshow mounted women, and when theydo, the women are riding in a ladyssaddle (side-saddle) with both legs on the

same side of the horse. However womendriving are depicted on several picturestones. Maybe the woman went to Helin a wagon drawn by horses, while theman rode to Valhalla.

Cult, myth and ritualsAccording to the rich finds of horses, themany horse illustrations and Norse

literature, where horses often arementioned, there is no doubt about theimportant role these animals had in thepagan ideal world.

The introduction of the horse intoScandinavia must have been a revolutionfor the prehistoric society. These fast,strong animals could easily transportpeople and goods long distances on land,opening up new opportunities fortrading, making contact with othercultures and, of course, the conquest ofother territories.

Objects and animals, having greatimportance in daily life and providingthe owner with power and wealth, also

often had a strong religious andmythological significance.

Symbol of fertility The strength and speed of the horsecaused it to be associated with fertilityand early on it became a symbol of thesun the source of all life. The sunmoving across the sky, drawn by horses is

depicted in Bronze-age stonecarvings and the bronze SunWagon, found in a marsh inTrundholm in Denmark, isfamous.

The association of the horsewith the sun persisted into theViking Age. In Norsemythology the sun is drawnacross the sky by horses. Thetwo steeds have even gotnames: Alsvinn the quickone, and Arvakr the vigilant.

Horse fightingOn the early 5th7th centurypicture stones from Gotland,horses are often depictedtogether with the whirlingwheel, a probable sun symbol.Several of these horses are alsostanding facing each other,ready to fight.

Such stallion fights were acommon fertility ritual in theancient Nordic culture, andalso described in the Norsemythology. Horses were veryimportant status symbols, andthe power of the horse ownercould easily be measured inthis way.

SacrificesHorses had an important role

in religious sacrificial worship during theIron Age. The horse was dedicated bothto Frey, the god of fertility and Odin, thegreatest of the gods as well as the god ofthe warriors.

Many sacrificed horses have beenfound in marshes together with weapons,horse trappings and sometimes the bonesof other animals as well as humans. InSkedemosse on land, over one hundredhorses were found, sacrificed during the1st and 2nd centuries. Since only bonesfrom the heads, legs and tails of thehorses were found, it is likely that therest of the bodies were eaten during ritualmeals.

Spurs made of bronze and with jointed legs, so called CharnerSpurs, are found exclusively on Gotland. All 1520 specimens thathave been found are dated to 9001000 A.D.Photo: Raymond Hejdstrm




The last journeyHorses were also sacrificial gifts in manyburials. The Vendel and Viking-age shipgraves often contain several horses and inmany of the smaller Viking-age graves asingle horse is buried with its master.

The pagan ideas of after-life seem tobe expressed in these funeral rituals aswell as on one type of the Gotlandicpicture stones. The content of the shipburials often confirms the motifs on thepicture stones. The scene is mostly

interpreted as the journey of the deadwarrior to Valhalla, sailing across the seawith the ship and in the final stage ridingon the horse, often full equipped withshield, sword and spear. In front of him,a Valkyrie is holding a drinking horn,welcoming him to Valhalla.

Ships and horsesThe connection between ships andhorses, as we can see on the picturestones and in many graves, is alsoobvious in the Norse mythology whereships are described as the horsescounterpart at sea seahorses.

Horse heroesAnother type of Gotlandic picture stonesseems to illustrate different scenes in astory. These scenes have been interpretedas being parts of myths in Norse sagaliterature. Even individual horses can beidentified.

The eight-legged horse on the stonefrom Tjngvide, Alskog is obviouslyOdins horse Sleipner. Sleipner was the

fastest of all horses, he ran quickly onland as well in the sky and over sea.

Another horse, famous from the Sagaliterature, is Grane, the horse of SigurdFafnesbane. It can be recognised on atleast two of the picture stones,Tngelgrda and Hammars in Lrbro,where it is carrying the treasure in thecoffer on its back. On both stones onescene illustrates the dramatic death ofSigurd; he is lying underneath his horseGrane, A couple of men with swords, themurderers, are holding the upset horse bythe reins.

The end of worshipThe importance of the horse inScandinavia did not decrease with theintroduction of Christianity, but thepagan worship of the animal was bannedof course. Even the habit of eating itsmeat was forbidden, because of thehorses important religious position. Evennowadays, most people refuse to eathorsemeat, which shows that Christianityreally succeeded in sanctifying the horse.

About the authorSara Eliason is the curator andresponsible for the biological andgeological collections at the CountyMuseum of Gotland. As apalaeontologist and owner of acouple of Norwegian Fjord ponies,she has a special interest in ancienthorses.Email:[email protected]

Further readingAlexandersson, H. 2004: Osebergsgravens hstar var de

vgvisare till ddsriket? Populr Arkeologi nr 4.Ellegren, H. 2002: It took many mares to form the domestic

horse. Trends in Genetics 18.Gjessing, G. 1943: Hesten I frhistorisk kunst og kultus.

VIKING, Norsk arkeologisk rbok.Gtherstrm, A. 2002: The values of stallions and mares in

Medieval Upper Class Svealand. JONAS 13.Jansen, T. et al. 2002: Mitochondrial DNA and the origins of

the domestic horse. PNAS 99, no 16. Lidn, K. et al. 1998: Alia vero gens ibi moratur Suehans,

quae velud Thyringi equis utuntur eximiis or the excellenthorses in Svealand. Laborativ Arkeologi 10-11.

Lindgren, G. et al. 2004: Limited number of patrilines inhorse domestication. Nature Genetics 36.

Nyln, E. 1997: Den gotlndska charnersporren enfullndad konstruktion och en studie kring sannolikafrndringar inom nordisk ridkonst under frhistorisk tid.Gotlndskt Arkiv.

Nyln, E.1983: Vendelryttaren, en lnk mellan st och vst forntid och medeltid. Tor XIX.

Staecker, J. 2002: The woman on the wagon PaganScandinavian burials in a Christian perspective. VikingHeritage Magazine 1/02.

Sten, S. & Vretemark, M. 2002: Hsten storslagenfljeslagare. Populr Arkeologi nr 3.

Stenberger, M. 1942: En ryttargrav p Ihrefltet. GotlndsktArkiv.

Sundkvist, A. 2001: Hstarnas land Aristokratiskhsthllning och ridkonst i Svealands yngre jrnlder.Institutionen fr Arkeologi och Antik historia, Uppsalauniversitet.

Vil, C. et al. 2001: Widespread Origins of Domestic HorseLineages. Science 291.

stmo, E. 1998: Hester, bter og menn. En statusrapport frabronsealderen. VIKING, Norsk arkeologisk rbok.

A wooden fragment of a Viking-age saddle was found inthe attic of the Alskog church on Gotland. The carvedornamentation has been reconstructed.Photo: Raymond HejdstrmDrawing: E. Fahlander/E. Nyln

mailto:[email protected]://viking.hgo.se



By Thorgunn Sndal

The warriorThe man runs, braces himself against thedragons head, his sword on his left sideand his mead horn held high, but it doesnot help, he is trapped for eternitybetween the Ardre coffins writhingdragons (fig. 1). The mead horn showsthat the man is a warrior, on his way tobecome or already one of Odins heroes inValhalla, where all warriors who havefallen in battle since the beginning of timeare gathered. He is hurrying to the wargames described in the Edda saga bySnorre:

Every day when they get dressed they dontheir weapons and go out on theyard to fight and cut each other down. Thatis their game and when the day draws to aclose they ride off home to Valhalla. 1

When they get home they seatthemselves at the table like close friendsand drink the mead that runs endlesslyfrom the teats of Heidruns goat. Thispractical goat stands on Valhallas roofeating the needles of the Lrad tree.2

Therefore every warrior needs to keeptrack of his own mead horn and most ofthe warriors that are pictured on picturestones either have their horn ready or aremet in Valhalla by a woman, probably aValkyrie (see below) with a horn in hand.

The meat of the boar, Srimner wasserved with the mead, day in and day out:he is boiled every day but is whole again inthe evening and there are never so manypeople in Valhalla that the pork does notsuffice.

The pictures on the coffins other threesides confirm that our warrior is on hisway to the battles in Valhalla.

On one of the gable stones(unfortunately fragmentary) a wild battle

is described (fig. 2): A man, armed with abroad axe and surrounded by two menwith helmets, is chasing another who isrunning for his life with out-stretchedarms. On the other side stone (fig. 3),dominated by two symmetrical four-legged animals, a man is lying at thebottom of the picture, a fallen warrior.3

On the other gable stone (fig. 4) thewarrior rides into Valhalla on Odinseight-legged horse, Sleipner. He is stillcarrying his sword and has a smallknapsack on his back. Above him stands afully armed warrior with his spear and

swords, looking as if he is taking astrengthening gulp from his mead horn.Next to him lies a man who has alreadyfallen and at the very top a man who hasbeen speared through the middle by his

Ailikns wagon and Odins warriorsAbout thepictures onthe Ardremonuments

Fig 5. Rodiaud Rodgairsdotter in Ardre died young leaving behind her young children.Stone erected by Simpa. Photo S. Hallgren ATA

Footnotes1. Dagvarden was the first meal and wasconsumed either early in the morning or between1112 a.m. For information about life in Valhallasee Snorres Edda.2. The importance of this peculiar name isunclear; possibly it means the one who rules overthe shadows.3. This kind of reclining male figures are found onseveral stones, e.g. Hammars and Tngelgrda inLrbro.




TThhee AArrddrree ccooffffiinn (G 114).All photos: S. Hallgren ATA

Fig 1. The front side. Theinscription begins in the bottomleft corner.

Fig 2. One of thegable stones. Thebattle is going onfull tilt.

Fig 3. A man is lying at the very bottom ofthe other side stone. Such figures are

common on picture stones and theyprobably depict a fallen warrior. The

interpretation of the male-figure with asmall person on his arm in top of the left

corner is uncertain. It might be a variant ofthe snake pits depicted on several picturestones, as both figures look like they are

being attacked by the snakes that areincorporated into the ornamentation. But

the figure has also been interpreted asKristoffer the Christ bearer.

Fig 4. The other gablestone. A warrior ridesinto Valhalla onOdins eight-leggedhorse. Above himstands a fully armedwarrior and aroundthem the customarywar games are going on.




attacker, whose powerful hands are all thatis preserved. There is a certainpeacefulness about this picture of anordinary morning on Valhalla farm.

The picture stones For several centuries the Gotlandiclandscape was characterized by the picturestones, where the ships constantly roll ontheir stone-hard waves, processions ofwarriors eternally wander towards newfights and the fallen ride on Sleipner toValhalla, where the Valkyries stand readywith their mead horns and the boarSrimner is butchered each new day.4

There are about 470 known picturestones from the beginning of 400-talet toabout 1100 AD. Their connection withthe death cult and grave rituals is clearthanks to their location on or near gravefields.

The oldest stones are often dominatedby the well-known swirly wheels, flankedby figures and rowing ships. In the 500s,the stones become smaller and the shipsare now equipped with sails. Commonmotifs are horned animals, deer or elks,and duck-like birds.

In 700s the mushroom stones appear,where characters from Germanic andNorse mythology emerge. This type ofstone was probably produced up until theend of the 11th century.

During the 9th and 10th centuries theoccasional picture stone has runicinscriptions and during the 11th centurythe use of runic inscriptions andtraditional runestone ornamentationgradually usurps the pictures, first in amid-Scandinavian style and towards theend of the century in Urnes style orUpplandic runestone style.

Many images can be interpreted withthe help of the Edda poems, Snorres Eddaor other stories from ancient Norseliterature while other motifs have baffledall attempts at interpretation.

But it is clear that narratives of Valhallaand life there were particularly popular.No one can mistake Sleipner with hiseight legs, which can be seen both on theabove-mentioned Ardre coffin and thewell-known picture stone from the sameparish despite the fact that the stone isprobably from the 10th century, or evenolder, and the coffin is from the first halfof the 12th century.

The finds from Ardre In the summer of 1900, Ardre church wasrestored. When the church floor wasremoved remains appeared of an older

church on the site, probably built at theend of the 12th century. In the ancientchurch floor lay a magnificent picturestone and a huge number of rune-carvedstone fragments adorned with charactersand ornamentation.5

When the stones had been taken upand sorted it became apparent that therewere four runic monuments associatedwith two different families. Two tinystones (75 cm high) with beautifulcarvings on both sides were erected by aman by the unique name of Simpa.

The first stone was in memory of hiswife Rodiaud who died young leavingyoung children (fig. 5) and the other inmemory of his and Rodiauds daughter(fig. 6). These brief inscriptions describe afamily tragedy. Probably Rodiaud died inchildbirth and soon thereafter their youngdaughter, whose name we not know. Atthat time it was difficult to keep a smallbaby who had lost its mother alive.

The third runic monument is alsoquite a small stone (fig. 7):

Ottar and Gairvat and Aivat theyraised this stone in honour of their fatherLiknat. Radjalv and Gairniaut made goodmonuments for a quick man. Lik(n)raivcarved the runes.The front side is decorated with twobeautiful dragons, with a male figurebetween them sitting on a stool with achest or a low table in front of him. In hisraised right hand he has a ring. Perhaps itis Odin sitting there with his gold ring,Draupner, which propagated itself intoeight new rings each as heavy as theoriginal every ninth night.6

Far down in the left corner stands aman, whose right leg is fettered by a chainthat stems from the beginning strands ofthe inscription; possibly it is the fetteredLoke who is portrayed here.

Other stone slabs form the coffin-shaped monument, whose scenes I havealready described, according to the runicinscription that it was erected in memoryof Liknats wife:

Liknat sons (had) a good monumentmade in honour of Ailikn, a good woman,(Ottars) and Gairvats and Liknvis mother.God (and the mother of God) save her andthose who made it [the memorial]. Thebiggest (?) memorial, that one can seein Garda, which was at Vives (?).

Unfortunately important parts of theinscription are missing so the connectionbetween the ending and the other text islost. Who was in Garda at Vives remainstherefore unknown.

Ailikn must have held a significant

position in the society since hermonument is much grander than herhusbands, in whose inscription neithershe nor her daughter Liknvi arementioned.

It is difficult to determine how muchtime has elapsed between the husbandand wifes deaths; probably it is questionof a decade or two. The son Aivat, who isnot mentioned on the mothersmonument, has probably died by then.

Women and ValkyriesIn general coffin-shaped stones wereprobably erected for women. The coffinform is meant to remind us of the wagonthat carried women to the realm of deathaccording to heathen beliefs. In an Eddapoem is said that the Valkyrie calledBrynhild was burnt in a wagon, dressed inprecious fabrics and that she went in thiswagon to Hel, the realm of death.

On the picture stone from Uddvide(Barshaldershed) in Grtlingbo parish afemale figure is seen riding in a wagonwith a side shaped exactly like the sideslabs of the Ardre coffin.

Wagon bodies at this time seemed tohave been designed so that they couldeasily be taken off, probably there wereseveral different bodies for differenttransport purposes, and the Ardre coffinwith its short ends reminds us of just sucha removable wagon body.7

In front of the woman in the wagon onthe Uddvide stone stands awoman/Valkyrie ready with mead horn,which shows that after death women alsocame to a place where they were receivedjust like men with a swig of mead.Perhaps it was imagined that dignifiedwomen could become Valkyries afterdeath and serve the fighting warriors atthe same time as they were given thepower to decide which warriors werepermitted the honour of falling in battle,thus qualifying to become heroes.

Footnotes4. The slaughter of Srimme is depicted on at leasttwo picture stones: Lrbro, Tngelgrda I and VI,possibly even on the picture stone from Ardre. 5. Possibly there had been an older wooden churchon the same site towards the end of the 11th orbeginning of the 12th century and the stones wereoriginally erected adjacent to it. Exact descriptionof the find and the rune inscriptions are given inGotlands runinskrifter volume 1, p.199ff., whereindications of a wooden church are reported.6. Possibly Odin is portrayed here as the wise man,sitting in the sages chair in the hall of the high(i.e. Odins hall) beside Urds well giving goodadvice to people: It is time to speak at the sageschair, beside Urds well (Havamal, verse 111).7. A wagon body could obviously be constructedso that it could be lifted down into a boat, as partof the Oseberg queens burial attribute.




Valkyrie, the word means those whochoose who will die on the battlefieldwere to be partly serving maids in Valhallaand to lay and decorate the tables and tolook after the beer vessels, and partly toride out and decide which men were tofall on the battlefield.

In certain Edda poems dignifiedwomen stand out as Valkyries even whilestill alive8 and some sources implythat heathen female priests couldbe named Valkyries or angels ofdeath while still living.

According to the monumentAilikn belonged to a dignified andrespected family and can very wellhave had some religious function,prior to her conversion, which canexplain the choice of pictures onher coffin, while, at the same time,they reflect the uncertainty aboutreligious beliefs that lingered onthe island some time into the1100s.

Simpas stones bear no explicitsymbols of Christianity while thesmall crosses that begin and endthe text on Liknats stone and theprayer in the coffins inscriptiontestify to the familys adherence toChristianity. This kind of smallcrosses dos not occur ininscriptions from 11th century andbeginning of the 12th century but,as a rule, begins inscriptions on theMedieval grave slabs and is therebyan indication that Liknats stone isyounger than the traditionalrunestones.

The language used also indicatesthat the Ardre monument isyounger than the traditionalrunestones raised at the end of 11th

and the beginning of 12th centuriesbut older than the grave slabs andbaptismal fonts attributed to thestone masters Sigraiv andMajestatis who begun their work duringthe second half of the 12th century. Thissets the time frame for the Ardremonument to the first or second quarterof the 12th century.9

The change of faithA hundred years after the dethronedNorwegian king, Olaf Haraldsson, visitedthe island and the Christianisation ofGotland was seriously initiated, theheathen faith and its myths have not yetlost their grip on the Gotlanders.

According to the Gutasagan, despitethe fact that even before Olavs visits,

Gotlandic merchants had learned aboutChristianity on their trading travels andeven brought priests to the island, theconversion in faith was no walk-overvictory for the Christians. TheGutasagans dramatic account of howGotlanders burnt down the first churchesmakes this quite clear.

The same struggle was taking place on

not be buried at home. Instead, amemorial stone was erected on the familyhill or in a public place along main roadsor at thing sites in order to announce thedeath and to keep alive the memory of thedeceased.

Christians could not be buried in theirfamilys unhallowed ground amongheathen ancestors either so they were

probably buried in specialChristian burial grounds, possiblyadjacent to the oldest woodenchurches. Even in these cases itwas natural to erect a runestone sothat the dead persons name wouldnot fall into oblivion in anunmarked grave. By inscribing across or a prayer for the soul of thedeceased on the runestone, thefamily indicated that they hadconverted to Christianity.

However the people in Svitjoddid not become totally Christianuntil towards the end of the 11th

century. According to an Icelandicsource, this came about thanks toKing Inge Stenkilsson, whobecame king about 1080. He wasa Christian and when he refusedto make a sacrifice at the thing,the Swedes thought that he wasbreaking the countrys laws. Theyexpelled him and took theheathen, Blot-Sven, as their kinginstead. After three years inVstergtland, Inge returned,killed Blot-Sven, regained powerand introduced Christianity.Probably the heathen temple atUppsala was destroyed inconnection with his return.

When the new religion becamethe norm and its new organizationand rituals were established, therunestones had had their day. Nowthe Viking Age was also over andthe need to erect monuments in

honour of men who had died far fromtheir home country had ended.

To some degree runestones were stillerected during the first decades of the 12th

century, but openings for a dexterous runecarver ought to have decreased drasticallytowards the end of the 11th century.

Fig 6. The carvings on the small stone that Simpa had madein honour of Rodiauds and his daughter is only 35centimetres high. Photo S. Hallgren ATA.

the Swedish mainland. Admittedly,runestones there provide proof thatChristianity had been widespread in theMlar valley area as early as the beginningof the 11th century. At least 60% of therunestones in this region are clearlyChristian, but the old religion did notfinally lose its grip on the Swedes until itsforemost symbol, the heathen temple atUppsala, was levelled to the groundaround 1080 AD.

Runestones were erected during theViking Age, which was also a mission era,of course. Many men died on Vikingexpeditions in remote countries and could

Footnotes8. Den poetiska Eddan, The first and secondpoems about Helge Hundingsbane.9. For the dating of the Ardre monument seeSnaedal 2002 p 93ff. Compare, however withThunmark-Nyln 1991 p.190f. Therefore thecoffin has not stood outside for more than 6 to 8decades and had time to weather noticeably. Thesevere damages are quite normal considering thematerials susceptibility and the short base sections.




Possibly that is why the Upplandicrunestone style becomes prevalent onGotland just then. Unemployed carverswere looking for a new market and foundit during the period when the Gotlanderswere completing their transition to thenew faith. That these monuments werestrongly connected to the mission era andthe oldest churches on the island isevident from the fact that of the 50-oddwell-known rune stones from that time 30have been found in or near churches.

The Ardre monuments show that thestruggle between the religions was notcompleted on Gotland until a fewdecades into the 12th century.Despite the crosses on Liknatsstone and the prayer on Ailiknscoffin, their children havedesigned the monumentsaccording to ancientGotlandic traditions10,perhaps because Liknat andAilikn, who must have beenborn at the latest about1080 AD, could have beenborn and raised in aheathen environmentand, at least partly,clung to the old faitheven though theirchildren had becomeChristian.

It seems thatheathen andChristian beliefscontinue to liveside by side allthrough the 12th

century. This isevident in thatthroughout thewhole century there areViking-age-type graves bothin cemeteries and grave fieldsand both heathen and Christianobjects are intermixed in the graves.

It was first when the building of stone

churches was begun during the latter partof the 12th century, concurrent with thegrowth of the ecclesiastic organization,that Christ finally defeated the old gods.However, their presence is still mentionedin the introduction to the Gutalagen: thisis first of our laws, that we will denyheathen beliefs and recognizeChristianity.

Gutalagen (and Gutasagan) wereprobably written down in the 1220s at

approximately the same time as SnorriSturluson wrote his Edda on Iceland,thereby saving many of the old mythsfrom oblivion. His stories show thatheathen mythology was still so alive onIceland at this time that it is easy torecognize many of the scenes and figureson Gotlandic picture stones as far back asthe 8th century with the help of Snorresdescriptions. And judging from thecontinued vivid interest in them, the oldgods have still not released their grip onthe Nordic soul, not even after almost

Fig 7. Perhaps it is Odin who is depictedhere between the dragons on Liknatsmemorial stone, with the ring, Draupner,in his hand. The fettered figure in thevery left bottom might be Loke, who wasfettered in a cave because of histreachery, and above his head the godshad placed a venomous snake, whosepoison was dripping down in a bowl thathis faithful wife Sigyn was holding. Butfrom time to time she has to empty thepoison bowl. Then the poison drips downon Loke who is twisting in pain soviolently that the whole earth is shaking.There Loke is lying, on his way toRagnark, the end of the world. Photo S.Hallgren ATA.

About the authorThorgunn Sndal is a SeniorExecutive Officer at the NationalHeritage Board in Stockholm. As alinguist and runologist she haspublished a large number of booksand papers on runes and runicinscriptions and on the culture andliterature of the Scandinavians duringthe Viking Period and Middle Ages. InVHM 4/04 she contributed with thearticle No Gute by the name ofSven.

Literature:Bttger-Niedenzu, Beata: 1982:

Darstellungen auf gotlndischenBildsteinen, vor allem des Typs C und D,und die Frage ihres Zusammenhangs mitStoffen der altnordischen Literatur (Typedthesis in Vitterhetsakademiens library).

Ellis Davidson, H. R. 1988: Nordens gudaroch myter. Stockholm

Fornaldarsgur Norurlanda, volume 1,Reykjavk 1952.

Gutar och vikingar, Historia i fickformat.Statens Historiska Museum 1983.Stockholm.

GR = Gotlands runinskrifter 1, 1962,reviewed and interpreted by S. B. F.Jansson & Elias Wessn (SRI 11)

Holmbck ke & Elias Wessn, 1943:Svenska landskapslagar. Fjrde serien.Sknelagen och Gutalagen. Stockholm.

Kumlien, Kjell, 1967: Biskop Karl avVsters och Uppsala rkestets flyttning.Stockholm.

Lindqvist, Sune, 194142: GotlandsBildsteine 12. Stockholm.

Ljungberg, Helge, 1938: Den nordiskareligionen och kristendomen. Stockholm.

Nyln, Erik & Peder Lamm, 2003:Bildstenar. 3rd ed. Visby.

Sndal, Thorgunn 2002: Medan vrldenvakar. Studier i de gotlndskaruninskrifternas sprk och kronologi.(Runrn 16) Uppsala.

Snorres Edda. Translation and introductionby Bjrn Collinder. Forum 1978.

Thunmark-Nyln, Lena, 1989: Samfund ochtro p religionsskiftets Gotland.Medeltidens fdelse Symposier pKrapperups borg 1. Lund.

_ 19901991: Vikingatid eller medeltid? Tor.Vikingen 1967. Gteborg.Wilson, David M, 1995: Vikingatidens konst.

Signums svenska konsthistoria 2. Lund.

Footnotes10. The oldest known coffin-shaped monument isdated to the 7th century.

This article was first published in Swedishby the County Museum of Gotland in theannual book Gotlndskt Arkiv 2004, thisyear called Gotland Vikingan (GotlandViking Island).




By Carl Lfving

Since the middle of the 1980sI have proposed that thepersons who are mentionedon runic inscriptions fromWestern Sweden andDenmark with the formulashara goan thegnrespectively drng weremembers of the so-calledthingalid of Cnut the great,king of England and Denmarkbetween AD 10171035.

The thingalid was Cnuts bodyguard andelite troops. I have also proposed that theScandinavian kingdoms did not emerge asterritorial units until the ecclesiasticalorganisation was completed in the middle ofthe 12th century. Since I recently observedthat there are regulations concerning Danishthegns in the laws of Cnut, I consider myargument to be even stronger. A shortdescription follows.

After two decades of fighting and severalDanegelds*, forces led by the Danish king,Swein Forkbeard, managed to conquerEngland in AD 1013. Swein died at thebeginning of the following year and his sonCnut was elected king by the naval forces.The English resistance become so strongthat Cnut had to leave England with hisnavy. King Ethelred returned to Englandand one of his moves was to outlaw allDanish kings.

However Cnut managed to organisemore forces and returned to England wherethey were victorious. Cnut was crownedking of England in AD 1017. His brotherHarald seems to have succeeded Swein asking of Denmark but Harald died in AD1019 and Cnut became king of Denmark aswell. Cnut resided mostly in England andvisited Denmark on only a few occasions, soit is unclear to what extent he exercisedpower in Denmark.

In spite of obviously very hostile English

people, at least in the beginning, Cnut tookpossession of the well-developed Englishadministrative system. In AD 1018 hedemanded a final Danegeld of 80,000pounds, corresponding to almost 40 tons ofsilver. This sum is considered to equal theentire income of England that year.

Among other things, this huge capitalwas used to settle up with most of themercenary troops who had taken part in theconquest. Cnut kept 40 ships and he alsohad at his immediate beck and call thethingalid which, at a guess, consisted of1000 warriors. They were used asbodyguards and to execute Cnuts decisions.

In the thingalid the thegns and drngsheld important positions. A thegn, or thane,has been known in England since the 7th

century as the title for members of theterritorial nobility. A kings thegn was aperson of great importance and he heldcertain special privileges. No one but the

This map isan outline ofthe runicinscriptionsof thegnsand drngsin southScandinavia.Map by CarlLfving andrevised byDan Carlsson.

Who were the thegns of Cnut the great?

* The name generally given to the payments madein England to the Viking armies at the end of the10th and beginning of 11th century. (Eds. note)




king had the right of jurisdiction over him.In their turn the thegns had followers,

undoubtedly men they knew from theirnative lands or as brothers-in-arms. Drngsare known from late Anglo-Saxon sourcesand those in runic inscriptions areinterpreted as being young unmarriedwarriors, perhaps corresponding to thehousecarles in England.

The thingalid was crucial at thebeginning of Cnuts rule because of thehostility of the local people. The conquestresulted in decades of long and brutalfighting and the English people enduredunspeakable suffering. According to theIcelandic historian Snorre Sturlasson, whowrote his famous Heimskringla in thebeginning of the 13th century, Cnut had ahard time getting people to accept him.

Everything would indicate that Cnut wasobliged to resort to mainly Scandinavianwarriors who came from regions with formerDanish connections and perhaps warriorsfrom the Dane law, an area in north-easternEngland, in order to get trustworthytroopers. According to an agreementbetween the English king, Alfred the Great,and the Danish chieftain Guthrum in ca AD880, Danish people were allowed to settlethere. However their loyalty to Danish kingsmore than 100 years later may havechanged.

Among the officials who remained inservice with Cnut was the archbishop ofYork, Wulfstan, who had a determininginfluence on legislation. Perhaps heconsidered that he could reduce the miseryof the English people in this way.

As early as the beginning of the 1020s,law codes were issued in the name of Cnut.They contain both church and secularregulations. The church lawsare almost identical with thelaws of earlier kings but thesecular regulations (Cnut II)contain some important newfeatures. They begin byexplicitly prohibiting heathenpractices (taken fromWhitelock):

5. And we earnestly forbidevery heathen practice.5.1. And it is heathen practiceif one worship idols, namely ifone worships heathen gods andthe sun and the moon, fire or

flood, wells or stones or any kind of foresttrees, or practises witchcraft or involvingdeath in any way, either by sacrifice ordivination, or takes any part in any suchdelusions.

This is a description far from theScandinavian heathen Pantheon who isdescribed by Snorre Sturlasson but remindsus of what the Byzantine commanderProcopius writes after AD 500 in hisaccount about the manner and customs inScandinavia.

Apparently Wulfstan found it necessaryto set down these regulations because of thespiritual state of the warriors in the thingalidand other units belonging to Cnut. Similarminute regulations cannot be seen in earliercodes even though England had beenChristianised for 300 years. The Danishking Harald Bluetooth, grandfather of Cnut,boasts in the famous runic inscription atJelling in Jutland ca AD 970, that he wonall Denmark and Norway and made theDanes Christian (DR 42).

A bishops see had been founded in Skarain the nowadays Swedish province ofVstergtland in AD 1015, in addition tothe four already established in Denmarkfrom AD 948. There were ambitions ofestablishing a common Christianorganisation with its centre inHamburg/Bremen in Denmark andVstergtland in the beginning of the 11th

century.

The extent of the new faith among thepopulation in Vstergtland is not known.According to personal communication withClaes Theliander, the pre-Christiancemeteries had ceased to be used during the

10th century anyhowWe may assume that Wulfstan organised thebaptism of all the members of Cnutsretinue. Those who returned toVstergtland, perhaps the thegnsaccompanied by English missionaries, founda German bishop in Skara. We know that the English had a stronginfluence on the early Christianisation ofVstergtland. Hara goan thegns ordrngs were in control of four out of fivemain roads through Vstergtland. We alsoknow that the German and English churchescompeted there and that the Germansfinally organised the church until thenational archbishop sees were established inthe middle of the 12th century.

In Cnuts law there are also regulationsabout heriot which originally entitled alord to seize equipment or money of adeceased vassal so that his descendants couldsucceed as fiefs on the landed property(taken from Whitelock):

71. and heriots are to be determined asbefits the rank:71a. an earls as belongs thereto, namelyeight horses, four saddled and fourunsaddled, and four helmets and four coatsof mail and eight spears and as many shieldsand four swords and 200 mancuses of gold;71.1. and next, the kings thegns, who areclosest to him: four horses, two saddled andtwo unsaddled, and two swords and fourspears and as many shields, and a helmetand coat of mail and 50 mancuses of gold;71.2. and of the lesser thegns: a horse andits trappings, and his weapons or hishealsfang in Wessex; and two pounds inMercia and two pounds in East Anglia.

Main roads and areascontrolled by hara goanthegn and drng(crosshatched) and one areawith early churches (grey).




71.3. and the heriot of the kings thegnamong the Danes, who has right ofjurisdiction; four pounds.71.4. and if he has a closer relation with theking: two horses, one saddled and oneunsaddled, and a sword and two spears andtwo shields and 50 mancuses of gold.71.5. and he who is of lower position: twopounds.

From these regulations it appears that aKings thegn ranked next to an earl and thatthere were Danish thegns close to the king.Since there are no regulations about seizingequipment from ordinary Danish thegns wemay perhaps conclude that they had notbeen granted any land by the king inEngland.

Of the existing documents issued byCnut in England, several are attested bypersons with Scandinavian names. Thedocuments are mostly written in Latin andthe title of the attest ant is minister whichcorresponds to thegn. The title thegn is alsoto be found on runic inscriptions inDenmark and Sweden.

In three distinct areas in parts of Jutland,southeastern Scania and centralVstergtland in Sweden the epithet haragoan thegn respectively drng occurs. Theformula appears occasionally in adjacentareas. Those hara goan inscriptions maybe dated typologically to the first half of the11th century.

According to the typology, which hasbeen worked out by Professor Anne-SofieGrslund, they are classified as Rak(unornamented), B-e-v (i. e. the head isseen from a birds-eye-view) and Pr 1 (i.e.the head of the rune animal seen in profile).According to personal information fromProfessor Grslund the unornamented stylemay have still been used in the 1020s, andthe Pr 1 and B-e-v flourished from the1010s for a generation. The runicinscriptions are similar both regarding tocontent and style.

There are even two stones with identicalinscriptions, one in Jutland and one in s,Vstergtland (DR 127, Vg 112) raised overthe same person. The titles occur in theMlar region but never with the epithethara goan. Instead Thegn is used as aproper name and the title is used inconnection with the epithet trottar.

The connection between the inscriptionsand the English king is in the epithet haragoan. Goan has nothing to do withgoodness but indicates some sort ofrelation. Most scholars agree in that thegood apposition only refers to the kingsgood men, his hetwarth mn, hisdependants and his vassals. Good thegns arementioned in English charters. Hara ismeant to highlight the relationship with the

king and may be translated as utmost. As usual in prehistoric conditions you

may find other connections with thosewords in runic inscriptions. However thecombination hara goan thegnrespectively drng is never found outsidethe regions mentioned above.

My interpretation is that warriors fromJutland, southeastern Scania and centralVstergtland applied for membership inCnuts forces and managed to join thethingalid with Cnut as their lord. Theyreceived no grants of land but kept theirnative landed property and theirdescendants boasted about their belongingto the thingalid on their memorial stones.This suggestion is contrary to a traditionalbelief that there was a King in Uppsala whoruled Vstergtland. There are furtherindications that show that Cnut hadinfluence even in the Mlar region.

Cnuts forces had won the battle of Helgein AD 1026 against an alliance led by theSwedish king Anund Jacob, the Norwegianking Olav Digre and Cnuts brother-in-law,Ulf from Denmark. Many scholars nowconsider the battle to have been fought in theHelge in Uppland close to Uppsala. In aletter AD 1027 Cnut declared that he wasking of all England, and of Denmark, and ofthe Norwegians, and of part of the Swedes.There are also several runic inscriptions bothin the Mlar region and in other parts inScandinavia that commemorate warriors whohave been in England and shared the gelds,even Cnuts geld.

Even now there is a runic inscription justwest of Sigtuna mentioning a man namedGere who in the West sat in thingalid.This implies that Gere had joined theretinue of Cnut, which had defeated theUppsala king Anund, and that thedescendants of Gere boasted about this onhis memorial stone some 20 km fromUppsala.

The most important discussion aboutthegns and drngs is the one made by thescholars, Sven Aakjaer and K.M Nielsen, afew decades ago. After examiningScandinavian, English and North Europeansources, the former concluded that theScandinavian thegns and drngs becomefollowers of the king and were members ofhis hird. Nielsen did not agree because ofthe fact that the titles were not known fromthe hird of the Danish king.

However the extract of Cnuts law aboveis evidence of the occurrence of thegns, andeven Danish thegns, in the retinue of theEnglish/Danish king, Cnut the Great.

I am quite convinced that if theinscriptions were found only in the realm ofthe medieval Denmark, nobody would havedenied their connection with the Danishking Cnut. It is the inscriptions from theSwedish province Vstergtland of todaythat pose problems.

Among scholars of early medievalScandinavian history, quite a number todayagree with me about the Danish connectionin Vstergtland during the Viking Age andearly Middle Ages. A king of Uppsala hadno means of ruling distant Western Swedenin those times.

Summing up, I stress the following: Thegn is a honorary title in England

during Anglo-Saxon time In Cnuts law of AD 1022 there are

detailed prohibitions of heathenpractices and Danish thegns arementioned among his closest retinue.

Those thegns as well as their followersmust have been baptised but theirChristian temper may be questionable.

Some twenty documents from Cnutare attested by persons withScandinavian names of which somewere thegns.

Statements of Cnuts thingalid arefound in chronicles and on a runicinscription from Uppland.

This inscription is from the church in s parish, Vstergtland (Vg 112). After a wood-engraving.




Runic inscriptions from the firstdecades of the 11th century, with thedistinct formula hara goan thegnrespectively drng exist only in threeareas: in Jutland, south-eastern Scaniaand central Vstergtland.

The inscriptions commemorated thethegns and drngs of King Cnut whooriginated in those areas.

Several other inscriptions from Swedennowadays and occasionally fromNorway commemorate participants inthe conquest of England.

In the Viking Age there were no means ofcompelling warriors to take part in offensivewarfare. Instead warriors from all overScandinavia applied to serve the chieftainsand kings who offered the best conditionsfor glory and booty. In the decades after theyear AD 1000 it was undoubtedly thechieftains of Danish extraction who couldoffer the best conditions when theyconquered England while, at that time,being the most powerful in Scandinavia.

Certainly there were no states inScandinavia at this time. Kings had nonation- wide realms only followers buttheir loyalties shifted. Only when thediocesan organisation, with the archbishopssee in Uppsala, was completed in AD 1164was it possible to try to govern the area ofmedieval Sweden. In Denmark and Norwaythis occurred some decades earlier. This is anexample of heterarchy, which I havediscussed, in my previous work.

Further reading: English Historical Documents I. c. 500-1042,

ed D. Whitelock, London 1979Grslund, A.-S. 1994. Rune stones - On

ornamentation and chronology. In:Ambrosiani, B. & Clarke, H. (eds)

Developments around the Baltic and theNorth

Sea in the Viking Age. Birka studies [3] TheTwelfth Viking Congress. Stockholm. pp.117-130.

Williams, Ann. 1999. Kingship andGovernment in Pre Conquest England, c.500-1066. London 1999

perfect authentic backdrop to the event. These festivities were complemented

on Saturday by an open house at thearchaeological site of Spillings and theViking farm under construction on thewestern outskirts of Slite, near Bogevikenbay, which was quite probably an activeViking harbour in olden times, as well asthe official opening of the Spilling hoardexhibition at the County HistoricalMuseum in Visby on Sunday.

Text and photos: Luella Godman

About the author Carl Lfving is a PhD and a lawyer. Hisdissertation Gothia som dansk/engelsktskattland. Ett exempel p heterarkiomkring r 1000. (Gothia asDanish/English tributary land. Anexample of heterarchy around the year1000 AD) was presented in 2001 and asummary was published in VHM 2001/4. E-mail: [email protected]

Viking Market in Slite,GotlandThe weekend of May 14-15 markedanother milestone in the Gotland VikingIsland celebrations with a Viking marketin Slite to celebrate the annual send-off ofthe Viking fleet. The students, parentsand teachers at Slite elementary schoolhad worked all winter planning andpreparing for the market day.

The market was held on the shore ofVgume bay, a good hike from Slitecentre, but offering plenty of room forthe crowd of about 2000 who attended.We were able to browse among the stallsoffering the traders wares; everythingfrom Viking toys made by school childrenand exquisite jewellery, knives and feltedwoollen articles, to fresh bread and lambroasted on a spit.

The sight of the four Viking shipsmoored along the beach and theexcitement of the Icelandic pony race,with riders in period costume, provided a

The Viking market in Slite.

mailto:[email protected]://viking.hgo.se


By Michel Bach, Ukranenland

In March 2003 an instrument-making workshop wasorganized and carried out bythe musicians at theUkranenland prehistoricvillage in Germany.

The idea of having a workshop had beengrowing for a long time and Ukranenlandoffered an opportunity to make it happen.Five musicians from different countries,for instance Poland and Chile, took part.They play mainly medieval music but hadno experience in constructinginstruments.

The workshop lasted for five days andalmost the whole time we worked out ofdoors in the museum. The visitors andpeople from the daily newspaper thoughtit incredible that instruments could bemade that way. The weather wasnt thebest with wind and rain, but everybodywas inspired enough to finish hisinstrument.

The tree trunks used, of birch - andpoplar, werent very dry. The trees had

been cut down about 5 month previousand were spit up only 2 months earlier.Thats why it was easier to work with thewood but we had to be careful so it didntbreak during the process. We had thisproblem especially with two instruments,but it wasnt very difficult to repair themwith glue.

Unfortunately we only had a very smallnumber of special tools for the task, butthanks to good organisation and plenty ofpatience we were able to avoid problems.

Some days we worked for 10 hours andeverybody was very tired by evening, butwe had a lot of fun. The last day entailedthe greatest effort and everybody wasdying to hear the first sounds of theirinstrument, but there were still a lot ofsmall time-consuming tasks before wecould tune the strings.

We were all proud to be able to finishour instruments. The man from Chileeven made two instruments, and heworked very quickly. They are not masterinstruments, of course, but they do looklike original early instruments. We aresure that this wont be the lastconstruction course and are nowcollecting ideas for the next one.

DestinationVikingDestination Viking is a concept forpresenting the Vikings and the VikingAge. It includes museums, visitorcentres, prehistoric villages, re-enactment groups etc., and isworking with research, presentationand the development of a trans-national tourist destination.

Destination Viking includes anumber of separate projects, currentlythe Destination Viking Living History(former Baltic Stories), funded by theInterreg IIIB Baltic Sea Regionprogramme and the DestinationViking Sagalands project, funded bythe Interreg IIIB Northern Peripheryprogramme. An application forInterreg IIIB North Sea Region fundingfor a Destination Viking Waterlinksproject was submitted in March.

The Destination Viking projects areco-publishers of Viking HeritageMagazine, and Viking Heritage is apartner of Destination Viking.

Project consultant for DestinationViking projects:

Mr Geir Sr-Reime, Senior AdvisoryOfficer, Rogaland County Council ggssrr@@rrffkk..rrooggaallaanndd--ff..kkoommmmuunnee..nnoo

Project manager Destination VikingLiving History:

Mr Bjrn Jakobsen, Director,Fotevikens Museum bbmmjj@@ffootteevviikkeenn..ssee

Project manager Destination VikingSagalands:

Mr Rgnvaldur Gudmundsson,Director, Tourism Research &Consulting rrooggnnvv@@hhii..iiss

Co-ordinator of Destination Viking +Viking Heritage partnership:

Mr Dan Carlsson,Associate Professor,Gotland University ddaann..ccaarrllssssoonn@@hhggoo..ssee

These projects are co-financed by the EU Interreg IIIBBaltic Sea Region programme and Northen Periheryprogramme and NORA.

Viking Heritage Magazine 2/05 D E S T I N AT I O NVIKING

Still a lot of work needs to be done before the rebec is playable and looks like a musicinstrument. Photo Ukranenland.

How to make anearly lute and rebec

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://viking.hgo.se


Viking-age music instrumentsMost of the musical instruments from theViking Age found in pictures and asexcavation artefacts are bone flutes. Wedont know that much about stringinstruments. The Norwegian musician,Karl-Johan Gundersen from the Vikingmuseum of Karmy, made a very fine lyre,modelled on the one portrayed on thestave church portal of Hylestad*. Itsounds great!

Some pear-formed instruments like therebec (an early fiddle) and the quinterna(a small lute) are also known. The earliestrepresentation of the rebec can be seen onthe stave church portal. The lute wasfound as an origin 12th century artefactduring excavations in Elblag near Gdnsk(Poland). Several pictures illustratingancient times show similar instruments.

How to make a fiddle and a lute Both instruments are made the same way.There is a wide choice of wood: maple or

cherry are possible as well as poplar orbirch. The last two require less effort.

A piece of tree trunk approximate 60cm will be carved and the inside must beflat. There we make a pencil drawing totrace the rough outline of the instrument.Now we can hack out the outline with anaxe until it looks like a club.

Now it is time to make the resonancespace inside the club. We can use awooden hammer and a chisel, or, for thefirst big steps, a special axe (called tjxlorin Swedish), which is quicker. Before youtry to make an instrument this way, Iadvise carving at least one or, even better,several wooden bowls.

After you have more experience youwill not be so likely to destroy the body at

the last moment. The top will be made inpine, 35 mm thick. Dont forget to makethe sound holes before gluing it onto thebody....

Im sure the music played duringViking Age sounded richer using theseinstruments and not just bone flutes anddrums.

Anyone who wants exact info aboutmaking the rebec can find it by visitingthe following website: www.crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/rebec.html

Contact: Email: [email protected]

Viking Heritage Magazine 2/05DESTINATIONVIKING

An image on a portalfrom the stave churchof Hylestad served as amodel for this round-lyre, made by Karl-Johan Gundersen inNorway. Unfortunatelythis instrument wasstolen in Oslo earlierthis spring. Photo KJ Gundersen.

Here we can see the outline of a rebec take form. Photo Ukranenland. The quinterna is under progress. Photo Ukranenland.

* The stave church portal of Hylestad was locatedin a valley called Setesdalen in Norway.Unfortunately the church was demolished but theportal with the carvings is preserved and exhibitedin the Historical Museum in Oslo. (Eds. note)

http://www.crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/rebec.htmlmailto:[email protected]://viking.hgo.se



The Nordvegen Visitors Centre.

From the exhibition.

Queen Sonja of Norway opened the Nordvegen Visitors Centre in Avalsdsnes.

The Centre seen from above.

The Nordvegen Visitorcentre at Avaldsnes,Norway, was officiallyopened by Queen Sonja,Friday the 29th of April.

Kings and warriorsHistory and science



A fantastic and exciting area said the Queen,and she continued: The history of Norwaystarts at Karmsound, and Nordvegen is a goodbase for future research and excavations.

The Nordvegen Visitor centre is situated notfar from the medieval church at Avaldsnes,but it is hidden in the ground to prevent itfrom disturbing the church and the historiclandscape. The entrance is made to symbolizeMimes brnn or The well of knowledge inNorse mythology and you will go down intothe well to seek that knowledge in theexhibitions below.

The centre tells the story of Avaldsnes, theoldest Royal seat of Norway. Harald Fairhair,the king who unified Norway around 870,will be our guide through history. He willallow us to meet the chieftains, princes andkings who ruled at Avaldsnes from theBronze Age to the Middle Ages. Some ofthese rulers we know from burial mounds,others we know from the Norse sagas andskaldic poems.

The exhibitions focus on communication,international contact and cultural influencesfrom abroad. The archaeological materialfrom Avaldsnes shows that contact withforeign people and countries has been a mainfeature for this area through the ages, andthat the centre of power at Avaldsnes sufferedalternate periods of prosperity and declinedue to conditions in Europe.

Text: Karl Johan Gundersenand Marit Synnve VeaPhotos: rjan Iversen

Text: Geir Sr-ReimePhotos: Bjrn M Jakobsen

The final meeting ofDestination Viking LivingHistory ended with a cheerfulViking dance symbolic ofthe will of the partners tocarry the network into thefuture. Destination Viking andits partners will survive andtake on new and excitingtasks in the future!

Destination Viking Living History isalmost history the final ordinary partnermeeting was held on Gotland, the VikingIsland 2005, on April 20-24.

Hopefully, this is not the end of theBaltic Viking network, and plans for acontinuation of Destination Viking arealready in place and will be discussed inmore detail at a November meeting atGunnes Grd, north of Stockholm.

The final meeting naturally had a

strong focus on summing up the activitiescarried out throughout the project period.Partners agree that the project hasmanaged to address and develop anumber of important issues concerningdissemination and marketing of Vikinghistory and attractions around the BalticSea.

The project had as its main objective toestablish a Viking Route around the BalticSea. The partners participating in theproject represent destinations along thisroute. All partners have gone through aquality assessment and developmentprocess to improve the quality of theircontribution to the route.

The prime focus has been on livingpresentations of history and archaeologyby re-enactors in direct interaction withtheir visitors. Much attention hastherefore been paid to didactics and to thequality of the environment surroundingthe presentations: reconstructions ofbuildings, replicas of clothing, artefacts,jewellery, weapons etc., and the skills andconduct of the re-enactors.


In front of a reconstructed Iron-age house in the prehistoric village of Stavgard.

The final partner meeting of theDestination Viking Living History Project

DANCING INTOTHE FUTURE



For this purpose, quality assessmentmanuals have been developed, and allpartners have done a self-evaluation oftheir quality status.

The Baltic Sea Viking Route will bemarketed through a brand new book soonto be published. It will also be availableon the project website:www.destinationviking.com.

The Viking route on GotlandGotland is well known for its medievalheritage, and the wonderful dinner hostedby Gotland Municipality was done inmedieval style in a cellar at the backyardof the old Bishops residence in Visby.Now, Gotland wants to focus more on itsViking heritage.

The choice of venue for the finalpartner meeting of the project was notcoincidental. On the contrary, this yearGotland is promoting itself as GotlandViking Island 2005. A strong focus hasbeen placed on Viking-age remains andViking-age history on Gotland this year. Anumber of very instructive andinformative leaflets and brochures havebeen produced to ease access to thenumerous Viking attractions and eventson Gotland.

We had the opportunity of testing asmall but important part of the Vikingroute on Gotland. We visited the Viking Village at Tofta, a site where the

presentation of history is coupled withpractical hands-on experiences ofhandicrafts and skills, accompanied byexciting Viking food, of course.

Tofta is situated just south of Visby.Further south, we stopped at Paviken.Here, a number of Viking-age tradingports have been uncovered, and it alsoseems that a larger city was beingconstructed there when the Danesinvaded and took over Gotland in AD1288. The city wall surrounding theprojected city is still visible, as are thefoundations of the defence towers. Thesmall church at Paviken is really only thechancel of a huge church that was beingplanned. Ruins of an older church are alsovisible close to the present church.

We continued on to Frjel, wherearchaeological investigations of a large andimportant Viking-age trading place havebeen going on for several years.

From Frjel, we headed eastwards tothe prehistoric village of Stavgard. Here anumber of buildings have beenreconstructed to offer schoolchildrenhands-on knowledge of history, crafts andother skills.

Not far from Stavgard, we visited thecommunity of Nr, where the localinhabitants have decided to launch a newhistorical play based on the snake womanmotif found on several Gotlandic picturestones. They have built a large outdoortheatre with all facilities needed for aprofessional play. The play will be a co-production the professional theatre ofGotland, a local theatre group and thelocal history and folklore association. AViking market will also be held near thetheatre site.

In the middle of the island, thedeserted farm of Fjle has undergone athorough excavation. At the farm there areruins of Iron-age houses, but even Viking-age and Medieval houses. The completecultural landscape of the farm is very wellpreserved, and replicas have been made ofthe medieval houses. The area alsoincludes a pre-Christian cemetery.

The study tour was rounded off withdinner at the small village of Herrvik. Ourpartners from Ukranenland, this time awhole small band of Viking musicians,entertained both us and all the otherguests at the cosy inn, and most guestsjoined in a cheerful dance to end theevening.

This dance into the bright Nordicnight could also be symbolic of what wewant to achieve in the future: a more orless eternal Destination Viking network.Hang on fellows!


Alma from the Middle Ages is welcomingJrgen from the Viking Age to theMedieval dinner hosted by the GotlandMunicipality, by inviting him to wash hishands. The dinner took place atKapitelhusgrden (The Chapter Housecourtyard) which is a living medievalcourtyard in the centre of Visby.

The meetings host Dan Carlsson relatingthe prehistory of Vstergarn and Paviken.

http://www.destinationviking.comhttp://viking.hgo.se


By Jrgen Johansson

Steering a Viking ship replicacan be very demanding,requiring you to be constantlyalert for backing winds and toparry walls of wavesthreatening to end yourvoyage. But when a gentlebreeze plays in your hair, andthe sun burns your cheek,then your thoughts start towander away over glitteringwaves on a blue sea. Youbegin to understand aspectsof Viking-age seafaring, andget an insight into lifeonboard. What comes to mindat the tiller?

On which side the wind blowsIt is generally accepted that Viking shipshad their steering-oar mounted on thestarboard (right) side, hence the name.Later developments in shipbuilding

replaced the steering-oar with a rudder,and this rudder was placed on thesternpost, where it has been ever since,albeit with a few exceptions.

A rudder placed on the sternpostoperates equally well irrespective of whichside the wind blows. A steering-oar placedon one side of the ship will, however,operate differently when sailing into thewind, depending upon which side thewind is blowing from.

Let us look for a moment at a Vikingships ability to steer when sailing into thewind. I will elaborate on this based on 11seasons of practical experience of sailing alarger Viking ship replica, the Vidfamne.Vidfamne is an interpretation of theskekrr ship, a knarr (a Viking-age

ocean-going merchant ship). The reconstruction is based on

observations by kerlund 1947 and Leiro1977. Vidfamne behaves differentlydepending upon which tack she sails - inother words: from which side the windblows.

This behaviour is important to learnand remember when sailing such replicas.The phenomenon described below applieswhen sailing into the wind, or when thewind comes straight from the side. Whensailing before the wind, there is negligiblelist and therefore no problems.

Starboard tackWhen sailing with the wind fromstarboard, the ship will list to port (left). This causes the steering-oar to be levelled,lifted higher up in the water. It willtherefore be less efficient due to the lesswater pressure on the blade at a shallowerdepth.

Furthermore, the steering-oar will beworking in turbulent water from the longkeel, due to the ships leeward drifting.Finally, when turning to port, thesteering-oar works to some extent againstitself: the water jet from the steering-oarhits the far aft part of the keel.

In certain circumstances these factorscooperate and can cause the ship to bevery difficult to steer. In fact, the crewshould always be aware that the ship,sailing on the starboard tack, mightsimply refuse to alter course. This is verylikely to occur when sailing on thestarboard tack at some speed.

Bungy-jumping is peanuts compared tothe thrill of feeling your 17-ton shiprushing at 11 knots directly towards solidrock 100 meters ahead. There is only onething to do: reduce speed immediately byletting the wind out of the sail (let thesheet go and back the sail).

When the wind pressure eases, the shipwill slow down and right itself, and thesteering-oar will again take charge.

Port tackWhen tacking with the wind from port,the ship will list to starboard. The steeringoar will therefore be lowered and godeeper into the water, thereby becomingmore efficient.

There will be no turbulent water dueto leeward drifting. The rudder goesdeeper than the keel so there will be onlyvery little water jet hitting the aft part ofthe keel when turning to port.

Not all of those sailing Viking shipreplicas may have observed the abovedifficulties. The levelling effect on thesteering-oar depends on the width of theship where the steering-oar is placed. Thewider the ship at this point, the greaterthe levelling.

The skekrr ship was a cargo ship,being proportionally wider towards theends, than the longships. Smaller ships arenarrower, and should not be running atfull sail anyway in a rising wind.

Thus, we see that a larger Viking shipreplica sailing with the wind from thestarboard side can under certain


Tiller thriller When two sailing shipmeet on collision coursesand they have the wind infrom different sides, theship with the wind fromport (A) shall give way tothe other ship (B).

VikingViking Forum

A B



circumstances be expected to manoeuvrepoorly. The same ship, when sailing withthe wind in from port, has excellentmanoeuvrability. This fact must have beenvery clear to the Vikings as well.

Navigation rulesTodays international navigation rulesstate, amongst others, that when twosailing ships meet on collision courses,with the wind from different sides, thenthe ship with the wind from the port sideshall give way for the other ship. Theother ship, the one with the wind fromthe starboard side shall retain its course.This is an old navigation rule known byall sailors all over the globe.

One might wonder why it was oncedecided that the ship with the wind fromport was chosen to give way in order toavoid collision. Why not the other ship,the one with the wind from starboard?

Is it farfetched to suggest that theVikings, when sailing with the wind infrom the port side, gave way to a meetingship with the wind from starboard side?And if so, would it be unrealistic thatsuch a habit spread among the BritishIsles, and became a rule, a law?

The British Commonwealth grew, theBritish Navy and merchant fleet came todominate the world, and Englishmaritime law began to influence locallaws. Is it possible that such a localnavigation rule thereby becameinternationally accepted?

I know that the above is only athrilling theory. But there are two facts init that cannot be denied: the large Vikingship manoeuvred better when sailing withthe wind in from port side, and -incidentally - todays navigation rules statethat the sailing ship with the wind infrom the port side, shall give way to theother.

Does anyone out there know thehistory of laws, and can elaborate on this?

The steering-oarFrom a nautical point of view, a steering-oar mounted on the side is inferior to arudder mounted on the sternpost. Thenwhy did the steering-oar survive as long asit did?

No doubt the Viking shipbuilderscould have made iron hinges for asternpost rudder if they wanted to.Instead they chose the steering-oar,hanging on a tiny shaft. Why?

The steering-oar was mounted more orless vertically, extending deeper into thewater than the ship itself. However the

steering-oar could be loosened, andperiodically mounted diagonally. Therebythe steering-oar will come higher up inthe water, allowing passage in extremelyshallow water.

Practical tests have shown that it ispossible to sail in this way. Voersaassteering-oar has two different holes for thetiller. These holes are made with differentangles, possibly to allow sailing in veryshallow water. The steering-oar can alsobe loosened and will then be hanginghorizontally on the ship, out of the water.This is done just before landing on abeach, or when rowing in shallow waters.

A Viking ship can, with herlightweight, flexible and relatively stronghull, thanks to the steering-oar easily loador unload cargoes on a riverbank, or sailonto a sandy beach at high tide.

As the tide goes out, the ship will reston the bottom, loading or unloading hercargoes. At next high tide, the ship canleave again. Furthermore, a ship with hersteering-oar hanging horizontally (orremoved, for that matter) can be rope-towed far inland in very narrow rivers,load or unload, and then be towedBACKWARDS back to open waterwithout having to be turned around.

This has been tested practically.Remember that the steering-oar alwaysgoes with a nicely rounded-up keel andstern, allowing the ship to be towed

backwards without getting stuck on herdeepest part.

Judging Viking-age shippingToday, when we judge Viking-ageshipping, we believe that cargoes havebeen transhipped from smaller coastalboats to ocean-going ships. If this is at alltrue, then how was the ownership of thecargo regulated?

Imagine the benefits of sailing, andtowing the ocean going ship as far up ariver as she can be safely afloat, load orunload, and then towing her backwardsuntil she can be turned around for sailing.

To conclude: to my mind, the reasonsfor choosing the steering-oar before therudder, were the ability to access shallowand narrow waters, and the handiness ofthe ship when NOT sailing. This abilityreduces, or excludes, the need for piersand quays, i.e. what we call portsnowadays.

About the authorJrgen Johansson is one of thefounders of Sllskapet VikingatidaSkepp, who have built the Viking-shipreplicas, Vidfamne (the skekrr ship)and Starkodder (Fotevik 1). He is alsoone of the captains on these ships.Professionally, Jrgen is the sitemanager of Ale Vikingagrd.


The ships list will cause the side-rudder go operate at different depths (note arrows)with different efficiency. Ship A has the wind at port, ship B has the wind at starboard.



SagaA novel ofMedieval IcelandThe Saga of the People of Eyri, on which the novelSaga is based, was first recorded around 1270 AD, byan unknown author. Like the other sagas, this novelmixes facts with elements of fantasy, such as the ghostsand elves that were a part of the early settlers paganlife.

Saga is a rich historical novel about the first Icelandicse