Viking Sword (28 page)

Coniston Water

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Anglo Saxon London

Northumbria circa 800 A
D

The Viking raids began, according to records left by the monks, in the 790s when Lindisfarne was pillaged.  However there were many small settlements along the east coast and most were undefended.  I have chosen a fictitious village on the Tees as the home of Garth who is enslaved and then, when he gains his freedom, becomes Dragon Heart. As buildings were all made of wood then any evidence of their existence would have rotted long ago, save for a few post holes.  The Norse began to raid well before 790.  There was a rise in the populations of Norway and Denmark and Britain was not well prepared for defence against such random attacks.

My raiders represent the Norse warriors who wanted the plunder of the soft Saxon kingdom. There is a myth that the Vikings raided in large numbers but this is not so.  It was only in the tenth and eleventh centuries that the numbers grew. They also did not have allegiances to kings.  The Norse settlements were often isolated family groups. The term Viking was not used in what we now term the Viking Age beyond the lands of Norway and Denmark.  Warriors went a-Viking which meant that they sailed for adventure or pirating. Their lives were hard. Slavery was commonplace.  The Norse for slave is thrall and I have used both terms.

The ship, ‘
Dragon Heart’
is based on the Gokstad ship which was found in 1880 in Norway.  It is 23.24 metres long and 5.25 metres wide at its widest point.  It was made entirely of oak except for the pine decking. There are 16 strakes on each side and from the base to the gunwale is 2.02 metres giving it a high freeboard. The keel is cut from a piece of oak 17.6 metres long. There are 19 ribs. The pine mast was 13 metres high.  The ship could carry 70 men although there were just sixteen oars on each side.  This meant that half the crew could rest while the other half rowed. Sea battles could be brutal.

The Vikings raided far and wide. They raided and subsequently conquered much of Western France and made serious inroads into Spain.  They even travelled up the Rhone River as well as raiding North Africa. The sailors and warriors we call Vikings were very adaptable and could, indeed, carry their long ships over hills to travel from one river to the next. The Viking ships are quite remarkable.  Replicas of the smaller ones have managed speeds of 8-10 knots. The sea going ferries, which ply the Bay of Biscay, travel at 14-16 knots. The journey the
‘Heart of the Dragon’
makes from Santander to the Isles of Scilly in a day and a half would have been possible with the oars and a favourable wind and, of course, the cooperation of the Goddess of the sea, Ran! The journey from the Rhine to Istanbul is 1188 nautical miles.  If the
‘Heart of the Dragon’
had had favourable winds and travelled nonstop she might have made the journey in 6 days! Sailing during the day only and with some adverse winds means that 18 or 20 days would be more realistic.

Nikephoros was Emperor from 802-811.  Bardanes Tourkos did revolt although he did not attempt a coup in the palace as I used in my book.  He was later defeated, blinded and sent to a monastery. Nikephoros did well until he went to war with Krum, the Khan of Bulgaria. He died in battle and Krum made a drinking vessel from his skull!

I have recently used the British Museum book and research about the Vikings.  Apparently, rather like punks and Goths, the men did wear eye makeup.  It would make them appear more frightening. There is also evidence that they filed their teeth.  The leaders of warriors built up a large retinue by paying them and giving them gifts such as the wolf arm ring. This was seen as a sort of bond between leader and warrior. There was no national identity.  They operated in small bands of free booters loyal to their leader. The idea of sword killing was to render a weapon unusable by anyone else.  On a simplistic level this could just be a bend but I have seen examples which are tightly curled like a spring.

The length of the swords in this period was not the same as in the later medieval period.  By the year 850 they were only 76 cm long and in the eighth century they were shorter still.  The first sword Dragon Heart used, Ragnar’s, was a new design and was 75 cm long. This would only have been slightly longer than a Roman gladius. At this time the sword, not the axe was the main weapon. The best swords came from Frankia, and were probably German in origin. A sword was considered a special weapon and a good one would be handed from father to son.  A warrior with a famous blade would be sought out on the battlefield. There was little mail around at the time and warriors learned to be agile to avoid being struck. A skeggox was an axe with a shorter edge on one side. The use of an aventail (a chain mail extension of a helmet) began at about this time. The highly decorated scabbard also began at this time.

The blood eagle was performed by cutting the skin of the victim by the
spine
, breaking the
ribs
so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the
lungs
out through the wounds in the victim's back.

I have used the word saga, even though it is generally only used for Icelandic stories.  It is just to make it easier for my readers.  If you are an Icelandic expert then I apologise. I have plenty of foreign words which, I know, taxes some of my readers. As I keep saying it is about the characters and the stories.

It was more dangerous to drink the water in those times and so most people, including children drank beer or ale.  The process killed the bacteria which could hurt them.  It might sound as though they were on a permanent pub crawl but in reality they were drinking the healthiest drink that was available to them. Honey was used as an antiseptic in both ancient and modern times. Yarrow was a widely used herb.  It had a variety of uses in ancient times.  It was frequently mixed with other herbs as well as being used with honey to treat wounds. Its Latin name is
Achillea millefolium
.
Achilles was reported to have carried the herb with him in battle to treat wounds. Its traditional names include arrowroot, bad man's plaything, bloodwort, carpenter's weed, death flower, devil's nettle, eerie, field hops, gearwe, hundred leaved grass, knight's milefoil, knyghten, milefolium, milfoil, millefoil, noble yarrow, nosebleed, old man's mustard, old man's pepper, sanguinary, seven year's love, snake's grass, soldier, soldier's woundwort, stanchweed, thousand seal, woundwort, yarroway, yerw. I suspect Tolkien used it in the Lord of the Rings books as Kingsfoil, another ubiquitous and often overlooked herb in Middle Earth.

The Vikings were not sentimental about their children.  A son would expect nothing from his father once he became a man. He had more chance of reward from his jarl than his father.  Leaders gave gifts to their followers. It was expected.  Therefore the more successful you were as a leader the more loyal followers you might have.

The word lake is a French/Norman word.  The Norse called lakes either waters or meres.  They sometimes used the old English term, tarn. The Irish and the Scots call them Lough/lochs. There is only one actual lake in the Lake District.  All the rest are waters, meres or tarns.

The Bangor I refer to (there were many) was called Bangor is-y-coed by the Welsh but I assumed that the Vikings would just use the first part of the place name. From the seventeenth century the place was known as Bangor of the Monks (Bangor Monachorum). Dolgellau was mined for gold by people as far back as the Romans and deposits have been discovered as late as the twenty first century.  Having found gold in a stream at Mungrisedale in the Lake District I know how exciting it is to see the golden flecks in the black sand. The siege of the fort is not in itself remarkable.  When Harlech was besieged in the middle ages two knights and fifteen men at arms held off a large army.

Anglesey was considered the bread basket of Wales even as far back as the Roman Invasion; the combination of the Gulf Stream and the soil meant that it could provide grain for many people. In the eighth to tenth centuries, grain was more valuable than gold.

When writing about the raids I have tried to recreate those early days of the Viking raider.  The Saxons had driven the native inhabitants to the extremes of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.  The Irish were always too busy fighting amongst themselves.  It must have come as a real shock to be attacked in their own settlements. By the time of King Alfred almost sixty years later they were better prepared. This was also about the time that Saxon England converted completely to Christianity.  The last place to do so was the Isle of Wight. There is no reason to believe that the Vikings would have had any sympathy for their religion and would, in fact, have taken advantage of their ceremonies and rituals not to mention their riches.

There was a warrior called Ragnar Hairy-Breeches. Although he lived a little later than my book is set I could not resist using the name of such an interesting sounding character. Most of the names such as Silkbeard, Hairy-Breeches etc are genuine Viking names. I have merely transported them all into one book. I also amended some of my names- I used Eric in the earlier books and it should have been Erik.  I have now changed the later editions of the first two books in the series.

Eardwulf was king of Northumbria twice: first from 796-806 and from 808-810.  The king who deposed him was Elfwald II. This period was a turbulent one for the kings of Northumbria and marked a decline in their fortunes until it was taken over by the Danes in 867. This was the time of power for Mercia and East Anglia.  Coenwulf ruled East Anglia and his son Cynhelm, Mercia.  Wessex had yet to rise.

Bothvar Bjarki was a famous berserker and the Klak brothers did exist.  I did not make either name up! Guthrum was also a Dane who lived in East Anglia.

Slavery was far more common in the ancient world. When the Normans finally made England their own they showed that they understood the power of words and propaganda by making the slaves into serfs.  This was a brilliant strategy as it forced their former slaves to provide their own food whilst still working for their lords and masters for nothing. Manumission was possible as Garth showed in the first book in this series.  Scanlan’s training is also a sign that not all of the slaves suffered. It was a hard and cruel time- it was ruled by the strong.

The word testify comes from Anglo-Saxon. A man would clutch his testicles and swear that the evidence he was given was the truth. If it was not then he would lose his testicles. There was more truth in the Anglo Saxon courts than there is these days!

The Vikings did use trickery when besieging their enemies and would use any means possible.  They did not have siege weapons and had to rely on guile and courage to prevail. The siege of Paris in 845 A.D. was one such example.

The Isle of Mann is reputed to have the earliest surviving Parliament, the Tynwald although there is evidence that there were others amongst the Viking colonies on Orkney and in Iceland. I have used this idea for Prince Butar’s meetings of Jarls.

The blue stone they treasure is Aquamarine or beryl.  It is found in granite. The rocks around the Mawddach are largely granite and although I have no evidence of beryl being found there, I have used the idea of a small deposit being found to tie the story together. 

There was a famous witch who lived on one of the islands of Scilly.  According to Norse legend Olaf Tryggvasson, who became King Olaf 1 of Norway, visited her.  She told him that if he converted to Christianity then he would become king of Norway.

The early ninth century saw Britain converted to Christianity and there were many monasteries which flourished. These were often mixed. These were not the huge stone edifices such as Whitby and Fountain’s Abbey; these were wooden structures. As such their remains have disappeared, along with the bones of those early Christian priests. Hexham was a major monastery in the early Saxon period. I do not know it they had warriors to protect the priests but having given them a treasure to watch over I thought that some warriors might be useful too.

I use Roman forts in all of my books.  Although we now see ruins when they were abandoned the only things which would have been damaged would have been the gates.  Anything of value would have been buried in case they wished to return.  By ‘of value’ I do not mean coins but things such as nails and weapons. Such objects have been discovered.  Many of the forts were abandoned in a hurry. Hardknott fort, for example, was built in the 120s but abandoned twenty or so years later.  When the Antonine Wall was abandoned in the 180s Hardknott was reoccupied until Roman soldiers finally withdrew from northern Britain. I think that, until the late Saxon period and early Norman period, there would have been many forts which would have looked habitable.  The Vikings and the Saxons did not build in stone.  It was only when the castle builders, the Normans, arrived that stone would be robbed from Roman forts and those defences destroyed by an invader who was in the minority. The Vikings also liked to move their homes every few years; this was, perhaps, only a few miles, but it explains how difficult it is to find the remains of early Viking settlements.

The place names are accurate and the mountain above Coniston is called the Old Man.  The river is not navigable up to Windermere but I have allowed my warriors to carry their drekar as the Vikings did in the land of the Rus when travelling to Miklagård. The ninth century saw the beginning of the reign of the Viking.  They raided Spain, the Rhone, Africa and even Constantinople. They believed they could beat anyone!

There was a King Egbert who did indeed triumph over King Coenwulf. He founded the power base upon which Alfred the Great built.  It was also at this time that the Danes came to take over East Anglia and Yorkshire. The land became, over the next 50 years, Danelaw. Its expansion was only halted by Alfred and was finally destroyed when King Harold defeated his brother and King Harald Hadrada at Stamford Bridge in 1066.  Until Alfred the Danes were used as hired swords.  They fought for gold.