The Vikings and England
1241
Snorri Sturlson was involved in plans to stage a coup against the King of Norway. The mutiny was unsuccessful. The King sent the warriors to find and kill Snori.
Snorri was politicians and skald – poem. Over the course of his long life, Snorri collected and systematized an enormous amount of knowledge about the events of former times.
His collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings Heimskringla.
Snorri died by the sword of men send to kill him.
A regime facing ruin
In the year 975 a comet into view above Anglo-Saxon England. For the monks that was a bad sign.
King Edgar, who would be remembered as Edgar the Peaceful, died in the summer of 975. He was replaced by Edward, but only for three years. The next in line was Aethelred.
In 979 Vikings returned after several decades.
When Vikings first came, people called them Danes. Then, there was no united Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It only happened when only Wessex remained. Under Alfred the Great, Aethelred’s great great-grandfather.
There was probably more silver in England than in any other country in Western Europe.
This new attacks were usually from the Vikings that lived in the islands around England – Irish, Scottish, but in 991 the big fleet came directly from Scandinavia. They won (Battle of Maldon) and they get tribute to leave the country. So began that which had been termed England’s second Viking Age.
A Viking king known as Gorm the Old died in Northern Jutland. His soon was Harald Bluetooth, the man who today is regarded as the founder of the Danish kingdom. He accepted Christianity. He fought with great armies against the aggressive German Emperor Otto I.
Harold Bluetooth was killed in 987 and his son Sweyn Forkbeard took over. He set his sights west, cross the North Sea.
In 991 the central commander in the ever-returning Danish fleet was Olaf Tryggvason. The Anglo-Saxon called him Anlaf.
Power struggle between Olaf and Sweyn on the other side of the sea, gave Anglo-Saxon some breading space. But in 997 the big army was back, led by Sweyn or his men.
In 1002 Aethelred’s wife died and he married sister of Duke of Normandy, Emma.
Eadric Streona was appointed Ealdorman of Mercia. He would alter marry one of Aethelred’s young daughter.
Sweyn army was again back in England and Aethelred agreed to pay his army unprecedented sum of 36.000 pounds of silver in tribute.
The Warrior’s Good Life
The Danes were back in England with even bigger army in 1009. The leader of the army was a man known as Thorkell. Olafr Haraldson, Olaf, son of Harald, was also part of the army. Olaf the Fat, or the Big, or the Stout.
Norse men were present in many countries around the world. In Homgardr (Novgord) and Kaenugardr (Kiev), Miklagardr (Constantinopel).
In the 700s, 800s, 900s, Norse seamen had established settlements on the Shetland Island, Orkney Islands, Faroe Islands and Ireland. From Iceland, they discovered Greenland in the 980s.
Vik was to become Oslo. And Olaf Tryggvason was the first king to incorporate Vik into a Norwegian kingdom. He clashed Sweyn in the year 999 and 1000. At place called Svolder the Oresund region he encountered Sweyn’s fleet. He was defeated and killed.
The Valkyries were the pre-Christian Vikings’ war demons, and depictions of them continued to live on long into the Christian age. They were Herja – devastator, Prima – fight, Bqgn – silence, Randgridr – shield-scraper, Rita- disorder, Hrist – shaker, Hjqrprimul – sword-sound, Goll – battle, Hjalmphrimul – helmet-clatter, Tangnidr – teeth-grinder.
Olaf was with his fleet in Denmark. On their way to England in 1009, due to the storm they stopped at Kinnlimasida. That was in today’s Netherlands. Than it was Lotharingia. They also stopped at Tiel, reach merchant town. They raid it. Than they joined the expedition to England.
Danes arrived first at Canterbury. It was regarded the cradle of Christianity.
Fire and Smoke
After Canterbury submitted in August 1009, the procession of men and weapons marched back to Sandwich and boarded the waiting ships.
They wanted to raid London.
London was called Londinimum by Romans, Lundewick by Anglo-Saxon and Lunduna by Norsemen.
There was a strong bridge across the Thames guarding the entrance to it. It was around 250 meters long.
Early in 1010, Thorkell abandoned his attempt to conquer London.
Aethelred now entrusted his army to Ulfcytel. With his army the went into battle with Thorkell on 5th May 1010 at the place called Ringmere. It was catastrophe to Anglo-Saxon.
Soon Thorkell and his army marched south. They devasted the land in the 18 months they were in England.
On 8th September 1011 Canterbury was again under siege and it fell on 29th September 1011.
At the start of Easter in April of the year 1012, Eadric Streona came to London to lead Aethelred’s witan. Peace finally came to England and Anglo-Saxon paid it with a great tribute to Thorkell the Tall.
Midgard
Aethelred had saved his kingdom, but it was a painfully costly peace.
Thorkell entered into Aethelred’s service. He had 45 warships and 1000 soldiers.
Olaf Haraldson instead went to Normandy together with King from Hebrides Lacman because Duke of Normandy was looking for soldiers to help him fight. Richard II, Duke of Normandy. He was great-grandson of Roso, Rodo or Rollo.
Richard’s greatest rival in the Frankish kingdom was Odo II, Count of Blois Chartes, Chateaudun, Beauvais and Tours.
The Frankish princes commanded organized cavalry. That is also the reason why Vikings rather attack Anglo-Saxons, since they fought on foot.
Before the summer of 1012 was over, Olaf led his fleet westwards from Rouen.
Vikings used to take slaves in their raids. The biggest market for slaves in Western Europe was in Dublin.
From Aquitaine Olaf continued south on a journey that became increasingly exotic. Thes ships sailed into the Bay of Biscay shaving past the Basque kingdom of Navarre. They continued along the rugged coast of the Northern Spanish country of Castile and the kingdom of Leon. Further south was al-Andalus, the Muslim kingdom.
The al-Andalus center was Cordoba and it was managed by the Umayyad dynasty. Al-Andalus was also a brutal slave society. But the lack of slaves caused increased raids against north. Between 981 and 1002 there were no fewer than fifty-seven military expeditions called jihads.
The man who initiated the military raids was Almanzor. His son was al-Malik. When al-Malik in 1008 died, and al-Andalus descended into a deep crisis.
This was the situation in the south when Olaf’s fleet made its way down the coast of Galicia.
Ships and sea voyagers were central to the Norse warrior class’s culture and self image.
Olaf was far from the first – or last – Viking to sail to the caliphate of Cordoba. In 844 the men from Vestfold in Norway sailed here. The last great Viking that has left its mark on Iberian sources attacked the Christian kingdom of Leon in 968, a Norse king by the name of Gundered.
Olaf travelled past Lisbon, Silva, Huelva down to Cadiz. He reached Cadiz in 1012.
In 1031 the caliphate of Cordoba finally ceased to exist.
Hviti Kristik
Sweyn had two sons with his Slavic queen Gunnhild. One was Harald and second was Cnut. Harald would stay in Denmark, Cnut would go with Sweyn to England.
Sweyn and Cnut were greated in England by local leaders in the north under the leadership of the Ealdorman of Northumbria, Uhtred of Bamburgh.
Sweyn held a wedding for his son and a young Northern English woman by the name Aelfgifu of Northampton.
Sweyn went all the way to London and lay siege to the city. Than he called it off to go further south. When he came back, Thorkell and Aethelred gave up on defending the city. They sailed to Normandy.
The last remaining representative of the old regime in England was now Archbishop Wulfstan of York.
In 1014 Sweyn died before everybody could pledge their loyalty to him. But they did swear oaths of allegiance to Cnut Sweynsson. He was fifteen years old.
In Normandy Olaf met Aethelred. And he joined his service.
For man like Olaf, there is reason to believe that the White Christ was primarily a god of war.
Aethelred begin his planning for reconquering of his kingdom already in the start of 1013. He sent his youngest son Edward to meet the members of his old council.
In 1014 Aethelred was back in England, Cnut army was not ready for it, and he also left his Anglo-Saxon allies to defend themselves. Cnut sailed from the island.
Once in Denmark Cnut and his brother Harald went to Poland to get support in their father’s old network. One man was really important Jarl of Lade in Trondelag, the Danish king vassal in Norway.
To Norway
In Norway in the far north the Halogaland chieftains sailed north into the Barents Sea. They traded with Bjarmians and the Sami (Finns) as hunting specialists.
In the 800s, a north Norwegian chieftain dynasty known as the Jarls of Halogaland dominated the norther end of the North Way. The family’s first certain historical chief was a jarl named Hakon Grjotgardsson. His center of power was an old farm and gathering place of Haldir – Lade – which was situated on a peninsula where the mouth of the River Nidelva led into the Trondheim Fjord. His son Sigurd inherited the title and position of power.
In the south-western Norway new center of power grow under Harald Fairhair. Harald’s son was Eric Bloodaxe. He killed all his brothers. All but one, who replaced him Hakon Adalsteinfostre. Later Hakon and Sigurd Hakonsson the son of the first Jarl of Lade were killed by Eric Bloodaxe’s sons. Sigurd’s son Hakon became the third Jarl of Lade. Harald Sigurdsson allied himself with the Danish King Harald Bluetooth.
Harald Bluetooth appointed himself as Kling of the Norhtmen and Hakon as his vassal.
Hakon broke with the Danish king around 985 and he defeated the King in the Battle of Hjorungavagr. Next years he ruled the Norway. Than came Olaf Tryggvason. He moved the center of power from Lade to Nidaros, further south along the River Nidelva.
Sweyn on the other hand supported the son of Hakon Sigurdsson, Eric Hakonsson. He married his daughter Gyda. After the Battle of Svolder when Olaf was defeated Eric ruled in Norway for fifteen long years.
In England two powerful man from the north Sigeferth and Morcar (who pledged the allegiance to Sweyn and Cnut) were murdered by Aethelred and Eadric.
Now Edmund, Aethelred’s son, was gathering support in the north. The north was rebelling and Cnut heard about it. So he led his army together with Eric Hakonsson to the south. In between those two armies was Eadric’s army. He eventually pledged allegiance to Cnut.
Thorkell and Olaf also left Aethelred. Who was very ill at that time.
During one action Olaf defeated Hakon Ericsson – the son of Jarl of Lade and he captured and released him after he renounced his right to his dominion in Norway. Sweyn Hakonsson was Eric’s brother and he defended the Trondheim Fjord against Olaf.
Broad Ancestral Lands
Olaf made what appears to have been an unsuccessful attempt to conquer and take control of Nidaros, before sailing to his home region of Vik, arriving there perhaps late in the autumn of 1015.
Haralds half-siblings were Gunnhild, Ingrid, Guttorm, Halvdan and Harald.
During the winter Olaf forged a number of strong alliances in Vik and the surrounding areas.
Sigvar Tordarson was a gifted poet, and it is him we have to thank for much of our knowledge about Olaf’s life and career.
In England Cnut lead one army, Eadric another and Eric Hakonsson the third. Edmund Ironside now come back to London and reconciled with his father Aethelred. But this didn’t last long. Edmund now went north and joined forces with Uhtred of Northumbria.
Uhtred died from the hand of Cnut. New lord of Northumbria was appointed by Cnut, Eric Hakonsson. He still used the jarl title and later that became earl.
Olaf in Vik and Sweyn in Trondelag each build up their army. In the spring both armies sailed towards eachother. Olaf’s was bigger. On 20th March 2016 they met in the sea east of Agder. Olaf defeated his enemies in the Battle of Nesjar. Sweyn Hakonssson survived the battle and he fled to Sweden.
Two Kingdoms
Aethelred died on 23rd April 1016.
Cnut started the biggest siege of London so far. Eric Hakonsson also joined him. In the next months Edmund faced both of them with his army on several locations.
Both Edmund and Cnut realized that no swift victory was within reach for any of them. They agreed that territory north of London would belong to Cnut, south of it to Edmund. But on 30th November 1016 Edmund died. Cnut was crowned king in 1017.
In Norway Olaf was taking over the territories.
Sarpsborg became a central location in Olaf’s new kingdom. The princess of medieval Europe lived nomadic lives. And so did Olaf.
Olaf’s Christianization of Norway was an integrated and natural part of the exertion of his power. The kings in Sweden, King Mieszko in Poland, King Stephen of Hungary and King Boleslaw of Bohemia all Christianized their respective kingdoms at around the same time.
The Great
Cnut consolidate his power in England. Four Aethelred’s sons were still a threat to him. Edmund Ironside also had two sons.
Cnut and Emma were married in July 1017.
Now Cnut also make sure that Eadric was not a threat to him anymore, he killed him.
Cnut’s time as king, brought stability to England and he started collecting taxes as never seen before.
In Denmark Harald, Cnut’s brother died and in 1020 Cnut sailed to Denmark to be crowned king there.
Cnut also saw Norway as part of his kingdom. Olaf asked Swedish kings for help to fight for his rights.
We could now see the first glimpses of the Scandinavian lands of Norway, Sweden and Denmark that were ruled by kings that changed sides quickly.
Olaf got another sun Magnus with his mistress.
Olaf power in Norway was not strong. One of the strong mans was Erling Skjalgsson.
Cnut also had his share of fights with strong man in England. Thorkell was one of the men. He was murdered. Eric Hakonsson also disappeared from the source after 1023.
Silver Coins for the King’s Head
Olaf knew that he could not match the strength of Cnut’s army and Cnut demanded that Olaf pledged loyalty to him. But Cnut was busy with some internal activities and Olaf and Anund Jacob launched some attacks in Denmark. But than at one time Cnut’s ship trapped Olaf’s army in Baltic and Anund Jacob went out of the war.
Olaf eventually find a way back to Norway but it costed him almost the entire army. That happened in 1027.
In one of the battles Olaf killed Erling but his sons wanted to revenge him.
Cnut decided to travel to Norway. His supporter was Hakon Ericsson. Olaf run away to Sweden again.
In 1029 Hakon Ericsson died. Cnut appointed his son Sweyn as Norwegian king. Kalv Arnesson was his protector.
Olaf returned back to Norway. On 29th July 1030 he fought near a farm known as Stiklestad. He lost.
Cnut died on 12th November 1035. Cnut’s kingdoms were split between his descendants and strong men in this territories.
