Northmen (Vikings)
The Scandinavians who, in the ninth and tenth centuries, first
ravaged the coasts of Western Europe and its islands and then
turned from raiding into settlers. This article will be confined
to the history of their exodus.
Tacitus refers to the "Suiones" (Germ., xliv, xlv) living beyond
the Baltic as rich in arms and ships and men. But, except for the
chance appearance of a small Viking fleet in the Meuse early in
the sixth century, nothing more is heard of the Scandinavians
until the end of the eighth century, when the forerunners of the
exodus appeared as raiders off the English and Scotch coasts. In
their broad outlines the political divisions of Scandinavia were
much as they are at the present day, except that the Swedes were
confined to a narrower territory. The Finns occupied the northern
part of modern Sweden, and the Danes the southern extremity and
the eastern shores of the Cattegat, while the Norwegians stretched
down the coast of the Skager-Rack, cutting off the Swedes from the
western sea. The inhabitants of these kingdoms bore a general
resemblance to the Teutonic peoples, with whom they were connected
in race and language. In their social condition and religion they
were not unlike the Angles and Saxons of the sixth century. Though
we cannot account satisfactorily for the exodus, we may say that
it was due generally to the increase of the population, to the
breaking down of the old tribal system, and the efforts of the
kings, especially Harold Fairhair, to consolidate their power, and
finally to the love of adventure and the discovery that the lands
and cities of Western Christendom lay at their mercy.
The Northmen invaded the West in three main streams:
� the most southerly started from South Norway and Denmark and,
passing along the German coast, visited both sides of the Channel,
rounded the Breton promontory, and reached the mouths of the Loire
and the Garonne. It had an offshoot to the west of England and
Ireland and in some cases it was prolonged to the coasts of Spain
and Portugal (where Northmen came into contact with Saracen) and
even into the Mediterranean and to Italy.
� The midmost stream crossed from the same region directly to the
east and north of England, while
� the northern stream flowed from Norway westward to the Orkneys
and other islands, and, dividing there, moved on towards Iceland
or southwards to Ireland and the Irish Sea.
The work of destruction which the first stream of Northmen wrought
on the continent is told in words of despair in what is left of
the Frankish Chronicles, for the pagan and greedy invaders seem to
have singled out the monasteries for attack and must have
destroyed most of the records of their own devastation. A Danish
fleet appeared off Frisia in 810, and ten years later another
reached the mouth of the Loire, but the systematic and persevering
assault did not begin until about 835. From that date till the
early years of the following century the Viking ships were almost
annual visitors to the coasts and river valleys of Germany and
Gaul. About 850 they began to establish island strongholds near
the mouths of the rivers, where they could winter and store their
booty, and to which they could retire on the rare occasions when
the Frankish or English kings were able to check their raids. Such
were Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt, Sheppey at that of the
Thames, Oissel in the lower Seine, and Noirmoutier near the Loire.
For over seventy years Gaul seemed to lie almost at the mercy of
the Danes. Their ravages spread backwards from the coasts and
river valleys; they penetrated even to Auvergne. There was little
resistance whether from king or count. Robert the Strong did,
indeed, succeed in defending Paris and so laid the foundations of
what was afterward the House of Capet, but he was killed in 866.
In the end the success of the Danes brought this period of
destruction to a close; the raiders turned into colonists, and in
911 Charles the Simple, by granting Normandy to Rollo, was able to
establish a barrier against further invasion. Meanwhile, England
had been assailed not only from the Channel and the southwest, but
also by Viking ships crossing the North Sea. The Danes for a time
had been even more successful than in Gaul, for Northern and
Eastern districts fell together into their hands and the fate of
Wessex seemed to have been decided by a succession of Danish
victories in 871. Alfred, however, succeeded in recovering the
upper hand, the country was partitioned between Dane and West
Saxon, and for a time further raids were stopped by the formation
of a fleet and the defeat of Hastings in 893.
To Ireland, too, the Northmen came from two directions, from south
and north. It was one of the first countries of the West to
suffer, for at the beginning of the ninth century it was the
weakest. The Vikings arrived even before 800, and as early as 807
their ships visited the west coast. They were, however, defeated
near Killarney in 812 and the full fury of the attack did not fall
on the country until 820. Twenty years later there appear to have
been three Norse "kingdoms" in Ireland, those of Dublin,
Waterford, and Limerick, with an overking, but the Irish won a
series of victories, while war broke out between the Danes coming
by the Channel and the Norwegians descending from the north. For
the next century and a half the Danish wars continued. Neither
party gained a distinct advantage and both the face of the country
and the national character suffered. Finally in 1014, on Good
Friday, at Clontarf, on the shores of Dublin Bay, the Danes
suffered a great defeat from Brian Boru. Henceforth they ceased to
be an aggressive force in Ireland, though they kept their position
in a number of the coast towns.
During the earlier attacks on Ireland the Scotch Islands and
especially the Orkneys had become a permanent centre of Norse
power and the home of those who had been driven out by Harold
Fairhair. They even returned to help the king's enemies; to such
an extent that about 855 Harold followed up victory in Norway by
taking possession of the Orkneys. The result was that the
independent spirits amongst the Vikings pushed on to the Faroes
and Iceland, which had been already explored, and established
there one of the most remarkable homes of Norse civilization.
About a hundred years later the Icelanders founded a colony on the
strip of coast between the glaciers and the sea, which, to attract
settlers, they called Greenland, and soon after occurred the
temporary settlement in Vinland on the mainland of North America.
But the prows of the Viking ships were not always turned towards
the West. They also followed the Norwegian coast past the North
Cape and established trade relations with "Biarmaland" on the
shores of the White Sea. The Baltic, however, provided an easier
route to the east and in the ninth and tenth centuries it was a
Swedish Lake. By the middle of the ninth century a half-mythical
Ruric reigned over a Norse or "Varangian" Kingdom at Novgorod and,
in 880, one of his successors, Oleg, moved his capital to Kiev,
and ruled from the Baltic to the Black Sea. He imposed on
Constantinople itself in 907 the humiliation which had befallen so
many of the cities of the West, and "Micklegarth" had to pay
Danegeld to the Norse sovereign of a Russian army. The Varangian
ships are even said to have sailed down the Volga and across the
remote waters of the Caspian. There is, however, a second stage of
Norse enterprise as remarkable, though for different reasons, as
the first. The Norman conquests of Southern Italy and of England
and in part the Crusades, in which the Normans took so large a
share, prove what the astonishing vitality of the Northmen could
do when they had received Christianity and Frankish civilization
from the people they had plundered.
It is impossible to account for the irresistible activity of the
Northmen. It is a mystery of what might be called "racial
personality". Their forces were rarely numerous, their ships small
and open, suited to the protected waters of their own coasts, most
unsuitable for ocean navigation, and there was no guiding power at
home. Their success was due to the indomitable courage of each
unit, to a tradition of discipline which made their compact
"armies" superior in fighting qualities and activity to the mixed
and ill organized forces which Frankish and English kings usually
brought against them. Often they are said to have won a battle by
a pretended flight, a dangerous manoeuvre except with well-
disciplined troops. Until Alfred collected a fleet for the
protection of his coast they had the undisputed command of the
sea. They were fortunate in the time of their attack. Their
serious attacks did not begin till the empire of Charlemagne was
weakened from within, and the Teutonic principle of division among
heirs was overcoming the Roman principle of unity. When the period
of reconstitution began, the spirit of discipline, which had given
the Northmen success in war, made them one of the great organizing
forces of the early Middle Ages. Everywhere these "Romans of the
Middle Ages" appear as organizers. They took the various material
provided for them in Gaul, England, Russia, Southern Italy, and
breathed into it life and activity. But races which assimilate are
not enduring, and by the end of the twelfth century the Northmen
had finished their work in Europe and been absorbed into the
population which they had conquered and governed.
F.F. URQUHART
Transcribed by Fr. Richard R. Losch
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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