Brandon Bell

ID#103233800

Final Essay #3

Vikings: Pure Evil, or merely misunderstood?

His 235: Early Middle Ages

Prof. Rosenthal

In the medieval world the Vikings were the most feared, and successful raiders the time had seen. Their conquests were unparalleled to any other nomadic people of the time. One question arises, are the Vikings nearly as barbaric as the texts at the time portray them? The only people to record texts in the countries the Vikings invaded were the people of the church, who felt it was a direct threat to their Christian heritage. Therefore, the question is a fair one. If some one was destroying your land, and stealing from you, are you going to say they are misunderstood? Unjustly, you would say that they are not. Nowhere do the texts say about how private wars in the Northern lands of Scandinavia destroyed any chance of a union of people. All texts seem to forget about how the second sons of landowners were left with nothing but a sword and shield. I say the Vikings were not as bad as the Anglos portrayed them.

In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Vikings are commonly referred to as the “heathen army”. This “heathen army encamped on Thanet and made peace with the people of Kent. And they promised money for that peace. Under the cover of that peace the army stole away inland by night and ravaged all eastern Kent.” In the footnotes, it adds “for they knew that they would seize more money by secret plunder than by peace.” That is not necessary for a chronicle to have. The author added in his own comment and it may not even have been true. How can Asser know what the Viking leaders were thinking? “In the year 869, the Viking horde took shelter in the town of Nottingham in Mercia. The king of the Mercians asked the king of the West Saxons to assist him in fighting the army. When they arrived, there was no battle there. The Mercians made peace with the enemy.” Asser added to this, “Since the pagans, defended by the protection of the fortress, refused to give battle, and the Christians could not break the wall, peace was made between the Mercians and the pagans.” In all of the years fighting against the army that pillaged cities under the cover of peace, and stole from the monasteries that you worship at, how can a whole country of people make the repeated mistake of making peace with the heathen army?

In the chronicles, any battle that involved the Anglo-Saxons losing was portrayed as a slaughter. “…they attacked the enemy in York, and broke into the city; and some of them got inside, and an immense slaughter was made of the Northumbrians, some inside, some outside, and both kings were killed and the survivors made peace with the enemy.” The words, immense slaughter, are used to describe victory for the Vikings. In this situation, the Anglo-Saxons of the Northumbrian lands united to fight against the barbaric peoples in York, and they did such a crappy job that the outcome was an immense slaughter in favor of the horde. Immense slaughter conveys the idea that these enemies cannot be bargained with, and that they were the cause of the fighting in the first place. Yet, the Northumbrians were the ones who started gathering people to fight the enemy at York. The Vikings were only defending their own lives, but that would convey an image about the enemy that the authors didn’t want to do. If the Vikings looked human, then the Anglo-Saxons might have a hard time fighting against them. If you portray your enemy as a monster, then everyone able to wield a sword wants to be the guy to deliver the finishing blow.

When the Saxons won a battle the chronicle showed it as a victory, not an immense slaughter. “In this year the army came into Wessex to Reading, and three days later two Danish earls rode farther inland. Then Ealdorman Æthelwulf encountered them at Englefield, and fought against them there and had the victory, and one of them, whose name was Sidrock, was killed there. Then four days later King Ethelred and his brother Alfred led a great army to Reading and fought against the army; and a great slaughter was made on both sides and Ealdorman Æthelwulf was killed and the Danes had possession of the battle-field.” Notice how when the Saxons had the victory, and the Danes owned the great slaughter.

In 879, the Vikings drove the West Saxons out of Chippenham. It forced them to cross the sea, and whoever didn’t go was conquered. The chronicle then says, ”and the people submitted to them, except King Alfred.” In the footnotes of the chronicle, it says that Asser elaborates on the events of King Alfred. “For he has nothing to live on except what he could seize by frequent raids, either secretly or openly, from the pagans or Christians that surrendered to pagan rule.” Asser is trying to show that King Alfred refused to surrender to the heathen army, despite overwhelming odds. He is trying to give King Alfred this holy look, as if he was defending, not only his kingdom, but the kingdom of God as well.

The bashing of the Vikings appeared to stop in 879, when Alfred fought the enemy one last time that year. “…And then after one night he went from that encampment to Iley, and after another night to Edington, and there fought against the whole army and put it to flight, and pursued it as far as the fortress, and stayed a fortnight. And the enemy gave him preliminary hostages and great oaths that they would leave his kingdom, and their king should receive baptism, and they kept their promise.”

Asser, in the footnotes, says “They sought peace on these terms, that the king should receive from them distinguished hostages, as many as he wished, and should not give one to them. Never before, indeed, had they made peace with anyone on such terms.” Once the King of the invaders becomes Christian, Asser stops writing about them in a negative light. He acknowledges their leader as a king, and describes the ceremony of the baptisms that took place.

The Vikings had years of bad writings about them, but at no point was there mention of attempting to convert them to Christianity. They attacked the places that stockpiled the most wealth, which happened to be the churches, and continually moved around the lands like the people in the Northern lands of Scandinavia. If being what you were brought up to be give you a bad reputation amongst Christians, then paint me evil.

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