The Vikings - Who Were They?

The Vikings were from Scandinavia (Norway, Denamrk and Sweeden). The Viking Age is the period from

The Vikings

793 to 1066 in European history. It is the period of history when they explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids and conquest and also settled in Norse Greenland and Newfoundland, and present-day Faroe Islands, Iceland, Normandy,Scotland, Ireland, Russia and Anatolia.

In the final decade of the 8th century, Norse raiders attacked a series of monasteries located in Britain starting in 793 with an attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Norththumberland, and the following year they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey. In 795 they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey on Scotland's west coast.

The Norseman attacked and murdered the monks at the monasteries they attacked and  burnt precious books and stole religious treasures. Local people were terrified and news spread of these fierce invaders from across the sea. Following this, there were many other violent aids all over the east coast of Britain.

In 865 AD, the Danish Vikings formed a Great Army to invaded England ). There were many fierce battles over several years. King Alfred of Wessex fought the Vikings in a great battle but could not defeat them.

Finally, the Vikings conquered and took over all of the northern and eastern parts of England seizing much of the land for their own families and started their own farms. The area ruled by the Vikings was called The Danelaw.

During the same time that Danish Vikings attacked northern England, while Norwegian Vikings sailed to north western Scotland, and conquered land for their farms both around the coast and islands. They also sailed and settled as far as in the Isle of Man and some parts of Wales. Soon they joined together to invade countries such as Germany, France and Spain.

Eventually, some Vikings decided to stay in the area they had conquered and over time, the settled Vikings began to trade, marry and became part of the population of that country.

The early Norse settlers in Anglo-Saxon England were very different in appearance; wearing Scandinavian styles of jewelry, and wearing their own peculiar styles of clothing. There Norse men had a hair style that was shaved at the back and left shaggy on the front, whilst in contrast to this the latter typically wore their hair long.

Family was Important to the Vikings

They settled in a few places in England, the most important settlement being York. Dublin in Ireland is also a Viking city.

The communities in which they lived were tight, there was family in the sense of blood but also family in the sense of community. They stuck together and looked out for each other or else they wouldn't survive.

Like the Celts before them they worshiped many gods believing that their Gods lived in a place called Asgard or Vahalla. The Vikings believed that when men died in battle they went to Valhalla, where there they would sit and feast with the gods.

They believed each god was responsible for, or had the power over, a different thing such as battles, travel or love. The most important gods were Odin (the Allfather of the gods, Thor (God of Thunder) and Freya (goddess of love, sexuality, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr/sorcery, war, and death).


Later, after settling in England, the Vikings changed their religion to Christianity.

Important Figures

Recently I have started watching Vikings on History which is based on true people and events. The main characters were real people who made an impact on the world and I would like to share that with you.

Ragnar Lodbrok

Ragnar was a Danish Viking warlord and a renowned hero of Norse history who lived in 9th century. He was the son of the son of Danish King Sigurd Ring.

According to stories he fought against a serpent that breathed poison. He did this while “hairy breeches” which in Old Norse was  “Lothbrok”.

Ragnar was the father of many renowned sons, including Ivar the Boneless, Björn Ironside, Halfdan Ragnarsson, Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye, and Ubba by two different women; to the shield maiden Lagertha, and to Princess Aslaug, the daughter of Sigurd and Brynhild.
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He was a Danish king whose campaigns included a battle with the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne. Ragnar with and his sons raided France and England ruthlessly.

Ragnar Lothbrok became famous as a warlord and made his fortune by raiding the lands and kingdoms in the west. He allegedly attacked people when they were in the church.

He was a witty leader and ran the well-organized and disciplined forces of France with his furious army sometimes using blitzkrieg tactics to surprise the enemy.  He captured Paris and made King Charles pay 7000 pounds as ransom on one occasion.

There are two versions of the how Ragnar died. The first one suggests that he died of a deadly disease similar to diarrhea right after he ravaged Paris, while the second  is a more believable one since it is told in the same way in most of the historical accounts, particularly, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and its far more fascinating.

On his way home after he was forced out of  Paris, Ragnar’s ship washed ashore on the coast of the Kingdom of Northumbria where King Aella captured and threw him into a pit of snakes, leaving him to a painful and gruesome death.

Legend has it that, right before he died, Ragnar sang a Norse hymn and warned King Aella that his sons would come for vengeance. The Great Heathen Army (the Great Viking Army, a combined army of Vikings from Denmark and Sweden) led by Ragnar Lothbrok’s sons invaded England and killed King Aella in 866.

Ragnar’s legacy continued and his descendants made an impact on the structure of the region even long after he was dead. Around two centuries after Ragnar’s passing, some of the Vikings, who descended from his sons, settled in the west coast of France turning this area into “the land of Northmen”, which is known as Normandy.

Lagertha 

Lagertha was a Viking shieldmaiden and was the first wife of Ragnar Lodbrok.

Shield-maidens were women who chose to fight as warriors alongside the men in the pagan Scandinavia. They took part in warfare, and they played vital strategic roles in the battlefield, where the shield-maidens were either part of the front-lines in their shield-wall formation, or were the ones who helped close the gaps in their defence by picking up the shields of the fallen and holding them up themselves.

Lagertha's career as a warrior began when Freyr, king of Sweden, invaded Norway and killed the Norwegian king Siward. Freyr put the women of the dead king's family into a brothel for public humiliation. Hearing of this, Ragnar Lodbrok came with an army to avenge his grandfather Siward.

Many of the women Freyr had ordered to be abused dressed themselves in men's clothing and fought on Ragnar's side. Chief among them, and key to Ragnar's victory, was Lagertha.

Ladgerda, a skilled Amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders. All-marveled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying down her back betrayed that she was a woman.
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Impressed with her courage, Ragnar courted her from afar. Lagertha feigned interest and Ragnar arrived to seek her hand, bidding his companions wait in the Gauller Valley. He was set upon by a bear and a great hound which Lagertha had guarding her home, but killed the bear with his spear and choked the hound to death, thus he won the hand of Lagertha in marriage. Ragnar had a son with her, Fridleif, as well as two daughters.

After returning to Denmark, Ragnar divorced Lagertha in order to marry Þóra Borgarhjortr, daughter of King Herrauðr of Sweden. He won the hand of his new love after numerous adventures, but upon returning to Denmark was again faced with a civil war. Ragnar sent to Norway for support, and Lagertha, who still loved him, came to his aid with 120 ships. When at the height of the battle, Ragnar's son Siward was wounded, Lagertha saved the day for Ragnar with a counterattack.

Ladgerda, who had a matchless spirit though a delicate frame, covered by her splendid bravery the inclination of the soldiers to waver. For she made a sally about, and flew round to the rear of the enemy, taking them unawares, and thus turned the panic of her friends into the camp of the enemy.

Upon returning to Norway, she quarreled with her new husband, and slew him with a spearhead she concealed in her gown. Saxo concludes that she then "usurped the whole of his name and sovereignty; for this most presumptuous dame thought it pleasanter to rule without her husband than to share the throne with him".

Rollo 

Rollo was a 7th Century was a Norse Viking who was baptised Robert. He was founder and first ruler of Normandy. His descendants were the Dukes of Normandy, and following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, kings of England through his great-great-great grandson William the Conqueror.

In 885, Rollo was one of the lesser leaders of the Viking fleet which besieged Paris under Sigfred. Legend has it that an emissary was sent by the king to find the chieftain and negotiate terms. When he asked for this information, the Vikings replied that they were all chieftains in their own right and in 886, when Sigfred retreated in return for tribute, Rollo stayed behind and was eventually bought off and sent to harry Burgundy.

Later, he returned to the Seine with his followers (known as Danes, or Norsemen). He invaded the area known as Normandy. In 911 the Vikings under Rollo again launched an attack on Paris before laying siege to Chartres. The Bishop of Chartres, Joseaume, made an appeal for help which was answered by Robert, Marquis of Neustria, Richard, Duke of Burgundy and Manasses, Count of Dijon. On 20th July 911, at the Battle of Chartres, Frankish forces defeated Rollo despite the absence of many French barons and also the absence of the French King Charles the Simple.

Rollo had two spouses; Poppa, daughter of Count Berenger who was captured during a raid at Bayeux and Gisela of France (d. 919), the daughter of Charles III of France. With Poppa, he had a son and two daughters; William Longsword, Gerloc, and Kadlin.

Around 927, Rollo passed the fief in Normandy to his son and may have lived for a few years after that, but certainly died before 933. Even though Rollo had converted to Christianity, some of his prior religious roots surfaced at the end.

I must make it clear that even though he Rollo and Ragnar are brothers in the Vikings they weren't actual brothers in real life as the lived 200 years apart..

Anglo Saxons - Who Are They?

The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic tribes from northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. When they originally came to the Island’s shores to invade in the 4th century the Romans and when they began to leave at the beginning of the 5th century they had not trained the British to defend themselves, so the next time the Saxons returned to invade they succeeded.

King Ecbert of Wessex

They sailed across the North Sea in their long ships, which had one sail and many oars. They made a series of attacks on different parts of the country over a period of years and under a number of leaders.

The Jutes or 'the Kentings' settled in Kent to the south-east. The Angles settled in East Anglia. The Saxons settled in the Kingdoms of Essex (East Saxons), Sussex (South Saxons), Middlesex (Middle Saxons), and Wessex (West Saxons) which each had its own royal family. The five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and Anglia.

Why did they want to settle in Britain? That question has been asked by many historians in the past but they believe that the Saxon warriors were invited to come to help keep out invaders from Scotland and Ireland. Another reason for coming may have been because their land often flooded and it was difficult to grow crops, so they were looking for new places to settle down and farm.

The Saxons were Pagans when they invaded and settled but, as time passed, they gradually converted to Christianity. Many of the customs we have in today come from pagan festivals.

Saxon gods like the celtic ones were responsible for a certain thing or people; Eostre was the Goddess of Birth while Hel was the Goddess of Death.

A Christian Saxon Monk

Why did they convert from Pagans to Christianity? The Pope in Rome sent a missionary, a monk called Augustine, to England to persuade them to become Christians. Augustine landed in the south and converted King Ethelbert of Kent, and then his people.

The Pope made Augustine a Bishop and Ethelbert allowed him to build a church in Canterbury. Christianity then spread to other parts of Britain and the pope gave orders that pagan temples should be converted into Christian ones and that pagan celebrations should also be made into Christian ones. Churches, usually built of wood, were built in Saxon villages all over Britain.

Soon Vikings discovered the West and began to pillage and plunder towns over Britain. Wessex was the only one of these kingdoms to survive the Vikings. Eric Bloodaxe, the Viking ruler of York, was killed by the Wessex army in 954 and England was united under one king - Edred.

The Romans - Who Where They?

The Romans were a civilization from Rome, Italy.

The Roman Empire

The Roman Empire extended from the Channel coast to the Caucasus, from the northern Rhineland to the Sahara. In 43 AD Britain became part of that empire, spanning at its height in 160, the southern three-quarters of the island of Great Britain.

Britain was an afterthought not about riches as Rome's rulers were already the richest men in history. It wasn’t about military security as the Channel was as effective a defence from barbarians. What could be better than a glorious military victory in Britain?

There was one problem with the Romans settling: the Britons and they were not happy about foreigners stealing their land and livelihood. Tribes rebelled up against the Romans. Boudicca of the Iceni (East Anglia) began the upraising, burning Colchester, London and St Albans and killing many Romans.

After the Romans invaded southern Britain, they had to defend it so they built roads, so that soldiers could march quickly to deal with trouble. They also built three very large army forts, and lots of smaller camps, for soldiers to live in.

Scotland was not part of Roman Britain, although in A.D. 84, the Romans fought  the Picts who lived in Scotland and won. In 122 A.D.  the Emperor Hadrian ordered his soldiers to build a wall between Roman Britain and Scotland which ran from Wallsend in the east to Bowness in the west. The Romans added another wall further north 18 years later called the Antonine Wall.

Like their predecessors, the Celts, the Romans had a strong sense of religion and faith. The druids were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). However, under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship their gods freely, and they often conflated with the Roman gods.

Caister Roman Fort

It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain but it was thought to be around 200 AD, "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ".

I live near a village called Caister in Norfolk that has the ruins of Roman fort in good condition. The fort acted as a defense against invader from across the sea, a home for soldiers and their families and a way to travel into the county.

The Romans maintained unity and order in Britain that it had never had before. But they also brought us fruits, good quality roads, democracy, politics, literature, the baths and a good way to live. Future generations wanted to follow in their example from the Normans to the Victorians.

Celts & Britons - Who Were They?

Where the Celts Settled in Europe

The Celts were a group of people from Northern and Central Europe that occupied lands stretching from the British Isles to Gallatia. They had many dealings with other cultures that bordered their lands occupied. There was a unifying language spoken by the Celts, old Celtic, which is still spoken in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. 

The word 'Celts' comes from the Greek word 'keltoi' meaning 'barbarians'. They were the most powerful group of people living in Europe during the Iron Age. 

They lived in extended family groups called tribes, each with its own chieftain/king or queen and laws. Women sometimes played important political roles in society as much as the men did.

The people living in Britain during the Iron Age are often called Iron Age Celts, but they were known just as the 'Britons' at the time.

The Celts arrived in two waves:  the Goidelic-speaking Celts between 2000 BC and 1200 BC and the Brythonic-speaking sometime in the period 500 BC to 400 BC. (Modern Welsh and Cornish are descended from Brythonic; modern Scottish and Irish Gaelic from the Goidelic). There was also a smaller wave of settlement of Belgic Celts in Southern England during the first century BC - possibly fleeing from the Roman invasions.

These settlers were farmers and would spend a lot of their day looking after crops; wheat for bread, barley, rye and oats. They kept cattle and sheep to provide: manure, wool or hide (leather) and food.

Dogs were probably used to help hunt animals such as wild boar. They also ate berries, nuts and fish too.

Apart from being farmers they also were fearsome warriors. They carried oval-shaped shields made from wood, sharp spears with a wooden handle and iron tip, and long swords with an iron blade when fighting in battle. 

Also they used lime to shape their hair into spikes and tattooed their skin with patterns using a blue dye called woad (to scare their enemies and to help treat wounds). Some even went into battle unprotected by helmets or armour, often fighting naked.

A Roundhouse

Britons at this time lived in roundhouses made from materials from nature, which had  just one big room for the whole family to eat, live and sleep in. The walls were made from wattle (woven wood) and daub (straw and mud) which dried hard to keep the inside well insulated and warm.

Inside you would have found: a loom for weaving cloth, a hearth or fire in the middle that would be lit all the time for: heat, light, cooking and smoking food, a dome-shaped oven for baking bread, a quern stone for grinding corn, beds with hay mattresses and woollen blankets, and baskets for storing food or belongings.

The Celts also built over 4000 hill forts on the top of large hills. These had high embankments (mounds of soil) and deep ditches (holes) around a group of roundhouses to look impressive and to defend them from raiders.

Their clothes were made from wool and dyed with natural vegetable dyes (from plants and berries) in: blue, yellow or red. Bracae (trousers) were worn under a tunic, held at the waist with a belt and over this would have been a cloak with a striped or checked pattern, fastened by a brooch. A torc (gold neck ring) would be worn by important people like chieftains and warriors.

A Celtic Burial

There was over 400 Gods and Goddesses, including: Succelos (the sky god) with a hammer that caused lightning and Nodens, who made clouds and rain. Religion was closely linked to the natural world and so they believed their Gods and Goddesses lived in places like: lakes, rivers, cliffs and bushes. The four main festivals of the Celtic year were based around the farming year: Imbolc - 1st February, Beltane (the beginning of the warm season) - 1st May, Lughnasa (the time for harvesting crops) - 1st August and Samhain - 1st November

The Celts' priests were called druids and hey sacrificed: food, precious objects and even people to their Gods and Goddesses to keep them happy and ensure they smiled upon everyone.

The Celts also believed that the human soul had an afterlife so when a person died they were buried with useful objects for the journey there (like a: helmet, sword and shield).

How did our ancestors live? How did they affect the way we live now?

The history of the British Isles is made up of different cultures, religions, stories, tongues and people. Our rich and varied past is made up of a range of cultures and civilisations from Ancient Rome in the Mediterranean Sea to Scandinavia in the north.

Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans have all invaded and settled here. It is their stories and legacy that formed the British Isles.

In this blog I will go through who these invaders and settlers were and where they came from and find out their impact on our home.

Celtic Historic Figures

My family is from Ireland, so I have Celtic blood in me (maybe a little Norse/Viking as well). Here is my top 3 Celtic people.

Boudica

We all have heard her name before. For my 10th birthday I went to Norwich Castle and rode on a pretend chariot chasing Romans away before sitting down to hear the tale of a brave woman.

Keira Knightly as a Briton Woman

Women were allowed to have power, own land, and even divorce their husbands. Celtic women could also climb up the social ladder, either by inheriting status, or by achieving it. Landowners were expected to fight if their chief went to war, and if the landowner happened to be a woman, then she was expected to fight as well. In fact, women warriors could teach young girls and boys how to fight.

Boudica was of royal descent, she "possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women", that she was tall with red hair hanging below her waist and wore a large golden necklace, a many-coloured tunic, and a thick cloak fastened by a brooch.

Her husband Prasutagus was the king of the Iceni, the people who inhabited what is now Norfolk. They initially were not part of the territory under direct Roman control, having voluntarily allied themselves to Rome following the conquest of AD 43. They were proud of their independence, and had revolted in AD 47 when the then governor Publius Ostorius Scapula threatened to disarm them. Prasutagus had lived a long life of conspicuous wealth and, hoping to preserve his line, made the Roman emperor co-heir to his kingdom, along with his wife and two daughters; Heanua and Lannosea.

Prasutagus lived well on borrowed Roman money, and on his death his subjects had become liable for the debt.

Boudica

The story goes that Boudica was flogged by the Romans and, sickeningly (and against Roman law) her two young daughters were raped by Roman soldiers. It was part arrogance, part greed, executed in the usually brutish Roman fashion. The rapes and flogging deliberately designed by the Romans as a vicious, sacrilegious insult to her and the Iceni tribe and their gods.

Client kingdoms were going out of fashion; direct rule was now more to the Romans' taste.

With the loans that Prastagus has forced upon his people during his lifetime, Nero and demanded to have paid back with interest. On the emperor Nero's orders, the imperial procurator Decianus Catus seized all of Prasutagus's estate and declared that any resistance would be treated as an act of rebellion and punishably by death.

When Boudica took the matter to a higher Roman authority, she was publicly stripped and flogged and her daughters raped (again) by Catus Decianus’ thugs. Roman law forbade sex/rape with Boudicca as it was forbade to have sex with a widow, this didn’t apply to enemies or slaves, but at this time she was neither. Whipping was designed to humiliate and metal pieces and leather knots were added to the whip to increase pain.

It was time for revenge, Boudicca, as ruler of the Iceni, led a retaliatory revolt against the Romans enlisting the support of the neighboring tribe of Trinovantes and others, she headed towards the town the Romans called Camulodunum (Colchester), the new administrative capital of the Roman imperial province.

After Boudicca's forces resoundingly defeated the Roman troops and burnt it down they headed towards Londinium (London) which was a relatively new settlement, founded after the conquest that had grown into a thriving commercial centre with a population of travellers, traders, and Roman officials.

Londinium was abandoned and the Celts burnt it down, slaughtering anyone who had not left.  Verulamium (St Albans) was next to be destroyed. In the three settlements destroyed, between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed. Tacitus says that the Britons had no interest in taking or selling prisoners, only in slaughter by gibbet, fire, or cross.

Statue of Boudica in London

While Boudica's army continued their assault in Verulamium, the Romans regrouped. Of more then ten thousand men. They took a stand at an unidentified location in the West Midlands along the Roman road Watling Street.The Celtic forces were said to have numbered 230,000
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Boudica exhorted her troops from her chariot with her daughters beside her; she gave a short speech in which she presented herself not as an aristocrat avenging her lost wealth, but as an ordinary person, avenging her lost freedom, her battered body, and the abused chastity of her daughters. She said their cause was just, and the Gods were on their side. She was resolved to win or die; if the men wanted to live in slavery, that was their choice. Eighty thousands Celts died compared to four hundred Romans.

Boudica poisoned herself when she was captured; favouring death over slavery.

Chiomara

Chiomara's Story

Chiomara was a another famous Celtic Queen and the wife of Ortagion of the Tolistoboii, one of three Galatian tribes during theGalatian War with Rome, of 189 BC. She was described as "a woman of exceptional beauty".

She was captured by the Romans and raped by a centurion but when he learnt of her status, he demanded (and received) a ransom. Her people came to the appointed place with the ransom, but while the centurion was counting the gold, Chiomara indicated to them - with a nod or by speaking to them in their own language, that they were to cut off his head.

Chiomara carried the head home wrapped in the folds of her dress, and threw it at her husband’s feet, saying it was right that only one man alive should have been intimate with her.

King Arthur

I know what you are all thinking “King Arthur? He wasn’t real”. Probably he wasn’t, but he was a great Briton.

He was a legendary British is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries who led the defence of Britain against Saxon after the Romans left.

It is very confusing and hard to find out extra information without knowing if he was real or imagined. We all know of the stories about the lady of the lake, Excalibur, Lancelot and Guinevere, Merlin, Morgan le Fay, Avalon etc but isn’t the stories what made the ledged of King Arthur great?