Voyages

Exam: Seen Texts

▶ Craigie 1▶ Craigie 3 down to “settu þeir dverg”▶ Craigie 4–5▶ Craigie 13: translation down to “hljótt mæði kveða”, content of rest▶ Craigie 14–16▶ Craigie 18: translation down to “sætt af hendi Heðins”; content of rest▶ Eiríks saga víðfǫrla: However far we get

Contacts

Figure: “Allah Ring”, Birka (CC-BY Gabriel Hildebrand)

Movements

Figure: Territories and Voyages (CC-BY-SA Bogdan Giuşcă)

Periodization of Viking Incursions in England

Figure: Danelaw (CC-BY-SAWMC user)

787–794 Sporadic accounts:Dorset, Lindisfarne,Northumbria

835–886 First wave ofattacks; Danelawestablished

899–927 Wessex capturesNorse areas

939–954 Northumbriagoverned byScandinavians

980–1016 Second wave ofattacks

1016–1042 Danes governEngland

1066 Battle of StamfordBridge

Could Some of These Have Been Contributing Factors?

Push▶ Agricultural overpopulation▶ Political exile▶ Estate overpopulation▶ Shortage of women

Pull▶ Wealth▶ (Women)▶ Social prestige

Necessary Conditions▶ Seaworthy ships▶ Favourable climate

Motivations: The Example of Haraldr hárfagr

“ When he had taken possession of regions that had newly comeinto his power, King Haraldr was very wary about landed menand powerful farmers and all those about whom he hadmisgivings that some sort of uprising was to be expected ofthem. He made them all do one or the other: join his service orleave the country; but the third option was to suffer harshtreatment or death, and some were maimed in their hands orfeet. (Egils saga ch. 4) ”

The Viking Longship

Figure: Oseberg Longship (CC-BY-SA: Flickr user)

Ohthere“ He then continued due north asfar as he could reach in the secondthree days. There the land turneddue east, or the sea penetratedthe land he did not know which— but he knew that he waitedthere for a west-north-west wind,and then sailed east along thecoast as far as he could sail infour days. There he had to waitfor a due northern wind, becausethere the land turned due south,or the sea penetrated the land hedid not know which. Then fromthere he sailed due south alongthe coast as far as he could sail infive days. (Orosius 1.1, trans. Lund,Two Voyagers, 18–19)

” ”

Figure: Scandinavia(CC-BY-SAWMC user)

The Viking Longship

Figure: Clinker-Building (public domain / WMC user)

The Viking Longship

Figure: Oseberg Longship (CC-BY-SA: Flickr user)

Climate History

Figure: Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age (CC-BY-SA: Robert A. Rohde)

Movements

Figure: Territories and Voyages (CC-BY-SA Bogdan Giuşcă)

Greenland

Figure: Eastern Settlement (CC-BY-SAWMC user)

Greenland

Figure: Western Settlement (CC-BY-SAWMC user)

Greenland

Figure: Hvalsey Church, Eastern Settlement (CC0WMC user)

North America

Figure: L’anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland (public domain / WMC user)

North America

Figure: L’anse aux Meadows, reconstruction (CC-BY Panoramio user)

Travel Literature, Cosmography, Ethnography▶ Legendary sagas: journeys to distand lands, esp. in the north and

east, commonly inhabited by giants or finnar▶ Marvels of the East▶ Itineraries, e.g. of the way to Rome or Jerusalem

Figure: Reconstructed world view (from Simek, “Elusive Elysia,” 271)

Voyages to the NewWorld

Figure: Voyages according to the sagas (CC-BY-SAWMC user)

Bibliography I

Barraclough, Eleanor Rosamund. Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyagesand the Old Norse Sagas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Kunz, Keneva, trans. The Vinland Sagas. London: Penguin, 2008.

Lund, Niels, ed. Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred: The Ventures ofOhthere andWulfstan. Translated by Christine E. Fell. York: Sessions,1984.

Simek, Rudolf. Altnordische Kosmographie: Studien und Quellen zuWeltbild undWeltbeschreibung in Norwegen und Island vom 12. biszum 14. Jahrhundert. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon derGermanischen Altertumskunde 4. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter,1990.

Bibliography IISimek, Rudolf. “Elusive Elysia; or, Which Way to Glæsisvellir?: On the

Geography of the North in Icelandic Legendary Fiction.” InSagnaskemmtum: Studies in Honour of Hermann Pálsson, edited byRudolf Simek, Jónas Kristjánsson, and Hans Bekker-Nielsen,247–275. Vienna, Köln, and Graz: Hermann Böhlaus, 1986.