In the $XVI$-first half of the $XVII$ century, two directions were observed:
- peasant, imbued with originality and ancient traditions of pre-feudal times (quickly disappeared in Denmark);
- noble-burgher, based on the influence of foreign states.
Remark 1
The values of the peasant tradition that have survived to this day are wooden architecture and woodcarving. Folk songs, fairy tales and sagas form the basis of oral folk art. The main guardian of the national language in Iceland and Finland was the peasantry, in Norway it was the only one of the estates that continued to speak the language of their nationality.
The culture of the nobility and the burghers was very different from the peasant culture. These social groups were clearly associated with the royal courts of European states and their cities. Immigrants from abroad constantly replenished the composition of the most important feudal estates. Thus, Dutch speech prevailed on the streets of Gothenburg, and German speech often sounded on the streets of Bergen. That is why Italian painters and French urban planners, Dutch scientists and German theologians left noticeable traces in the spiritual development of the peoples of the Scandinavian countries in the $XVI-XVII$ centuries.
Development of culture in Denmark and Sweden
The cultural development of Denmark in the $XVI-XVII$ centuries was ahead of other Scandinavian countries. Danish scientists, anatomist Caspar Bartholin the Elder and astronomer Tycho Brahe, gained European fame. Bartholin the Elder described the work of the olfactory nerve. Tycho Brahe deduced the laws of planetary motion. The architecture of Denmark reflected the heyday of the noble monarchy. The splendor of the palaces and castles erected under Christian IV went down in history as the Danish Renaissance.
Literary works in the national language have not received world recognition, but they form an important part of Scandinavian culture. The Bible was translated into national languages, which contributed to the formation of national languages. In Denmark and Sweden in the $17th century religious verses of Protestantism spread, poetry with humanistic ideas appeared. This stimulates the study of native history and language. Historian Anders Wedel compiled a collection of more than 100 Danish ballads, translated the history of Saxo the Grammar into Danish, which aroused interest in reading and studying native history.
The Swedish writer Olaus Petri wrote the Swedish Chronicle, in which he described the history of the country. The writers of that time are characterized by an exaggeration of the role of Sweden, which is a consequence of the former "great power" of the country.
Scandinavian poetry remained largely courtly. It was built according to classical forms. By the middle of the $17th century, Swedish secular lyrics and historical drama appeared. The "golden age" of the nobility was expressed in the construction of the baroque rear. The artists and composers of Sweden were at the royal court, and, accordingly, were either foreigners or were under strong foreign influence. The French rationalist Descartes lived for a long time at the court of Queen Christina and was her constant interlocutor (Christina was considered the most educated woman of that time).
norwegian culture
The decline of Norway affected the development of Norwegian culture. For example: in Denmark and Sweden, universities were opened in the $XV$ century, in Norway - only in the $XIX$ century. The painting of the Norwegian people remained ecclesiastical. Architects could use only wood for the construction of buildings. Norwegian humanists published historical and literary works. The first Norwegian scholars wrote in Latin, such as the historian Claussen and his Description of Norway. The first poets also composed in Latin. Therefore, we can say that a truly Norwegian national culture has not yet developed. The Finnish-Icelanders did not have a national culture.
Remark 2
The outgrowth of medieval peoples and the formation of bourgeois nations took place only in Denmark and Sweden. The rest of the Scandinavian peoples were not politically independent and lagged behind in their development.
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Viking culture - the heart of ancient Scandinavia
Viking traditions are a special layer of world cultural heritage, because in this case we are talking about an entire era (which, by the way, is called the Viking Age). Scandinavian traditions include an extensive list of cultural, in particular, ritual actions and phenomena that have come down to us by no means in a folklore and mythological shell. Rich archaeological material and surviving historical documents (first of all, the works of medieval chroniclers) are the scientific basis for modern knowledge about Scandinavian culture.
Usually, the culture of the Vikings means the life and traditions of the peoples who lived not only on the territory of the Scandinavian Peninsula (mainly Norway and Sweden), but also in nearby regions, such as Denmark and the island state of Iceland. Of course, the German-Scandinavian culture also includes the beliefs, life and traditional way of life of the peoples of Northern Europe, in particular, the territory of modern Germany and, to a lesser extent, Great Britain. On the other hand, it is obvious that the culture of Scandinavia in the Early Middle Ages had a large-scale impact on the culture of the entire European and even partially Asian region (this is primarily trade and cultural ties between the Vikings and representatives of Ancient Russia).
But in this regard, a logical question arises - what exactly do we mean when we talk about the culture of the Vikings or Scandinavian traditions? After all, these are not only powerful gods and unshakable heroes, epic myths about the formation and death of the Universe. The traditions of the Vikings are proud drakkars, cutting through the leaden expanse of the northern seas. The Viking tradition is a long journey to heavenly Vinland hundreds of years before Columbus and Vespucci. Viking traditions are spectacular "long houses", cruel rites like the famous "bloody eagle" and legendary warriors - berserkers and ulvhendars. These are erili - stone carvers, and skalds - poets, clutching a sword in one hand, and the art of versification in the other. This is the whole depth of the Scandinavian culture, in many ways still not understood by us.
Viking Age: who built Europe?
Traditionally, the Viking Age is called the period of the Early Middle Ages, corresponding to the following chronological framework - the VIII-XI century AD. The Viking Age in Northern Europe immediately follows the so-called "Germanic Iron Age" (IV-VIII centuries). The legendary period of the rule of the northern warriors precedes the attack of the Scandinavian warriors on the English city of Dorset in 789. In the future, the Vikings regularly raided England, Ireland, and France. In 860, the Scandinavians, as part of the Rus army, come to Constantinople. Ten years later, Norwegian navigators discover Iceland, and five years later, Greenland.
During the Viking Age, Scandinavian warriors, explorers and pioneers repeatedly besieged European cities, ruled individual regions and even entire countries. They traded and traveled abundantly, and therefore the Viking Age in Europe is rightly considered a special historical phenomenon that left a deep mark on the cultural and historical heritage of all European states. The end of the Viking Age in Europe (and throughout the world) is considered the legendary Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) and the death of the last Scandinavian king, King of Norway, Harald III the Severe.
That is, in fact, the Viking Age is a three-hundred-year primacy of Scandinavian culture over medieval European peoples. As a result, many ruling dynasties of the Late Middle Ages trace their ancestry precisely from the Vikings, fearless foreign invaders (that's what they were called in the southern regions). Therefore, it is not surprising that the life, religion and culture of the Vikings are so interesting to us today, because it was these desperate warriors who largely created the world that we know today from school history books. The world we see around us. A world that many of us would like to see...
A separate block is the theme of the paganism of the Vikings. This is also an integral part of the Scandinavian culture, but other sections of the RUNARIUM information portal are devoted to this issue. In the "Culture" section, Viking paganism as such is not reflected, except perhaps in rituals and those materials where consideration of specific elements of the Viking tradition is impossible outside the cultural and religious context. Basically, we will talk about Viking ships, their weapons, military culture, life and, of course, about famous (and not so) people whose deeds the Scandinavian skalds have glorified for centuries.
The medieval culture of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Germany has common roots associated with the arrival of the nomadic Huns from the depths of Asia to Northern Europe. They mingled with the tribes living there and, under the influence of a passionate impulse, transformed the ethnic map of this region. By the will of historical fate, Iceland became the custodian of Scandinavian culture, where, for various reasons, mainly Norwegians moved. The culture of Scandinavia is of particular interest to us, on the one hand, because we are also northerners and live in similar geographical conditions, and on the other, because the Varangians-Rus, among whom there were many Scandinavians, having united with the Slavs, laid the foundation for an ancient state in the territory our Fatherland.
Time from the end of the VIII century. until the first half of the 11th century. called the Viking Age. The word "Viking" comes from the Norwegian "vik" - bay, bay, coastal settlement and denoted sea robbers, pirates of the northern seas (synonymous - Varangian). The Scandinavians built small single-masted ships - dragons, which were given figurative names "Long Serpent", "Sea Bird", "Wind Eater". These boats were usually 18 - 20 m long and 3 - 4 m wide, the noses were decorated with dragon heads. Dozens and even hundreds of ships were often equipped for the campaign. The warriors were well armed: a long sword, a battle ax, a pike, an iron helmet, chain mail and a shield. Norwegians and Danes went on campaigns to the West, Swedes - to the East. In the 11th century, campaigns practically ceased, the Scandinavians began to develop the conquered territory 1 .
According to legend, he discovered a new country and named it Iceland ("ice country") Floki Vilgerdarson. And the first settlers were Ingolf Arnarson and his cousin Hjorleif, both from western Norway. They went on a Viking campaign and quarreled with the sons of Jarl Atli, two of them they killed. Therefore, fearing revenge, the brothers decided to leave their native places. First, they went to explore and, making sure that it was possible to live there and the place was not occupied, they returned to thoroughly prepare. Hjorleif made a trip to Ireland, where he took slaves and a lot of property. Having sailed to Iceland, they threw sacred pillars with the image of the gods into the water, intending to settle where the pillars would be washed ashore by waves. They landed separately and settled near each other. The following year, the slaves killed Hjorleif and tried to escape. Ingolf caught up with them and killed them. This was in 878.
Following Ingolf, other Norwegians began to arrive, settling on patches of land suitable for cultivation. The bulk of the hrappa community was made up of bond peasants. The most influential and wealthy peasants were called hevdings. From their midst, the bondsi chose a godi priest, who performed sacrificial rites in the temple, led the general meeting-ting, held in spring and autumn.
In 930, at the end of the era of the settlement of the country, it was decided to hold an All-Icelandic Althingi on the lava field, called the Field of Tinga. Not all the bonds came to the Althing, but only representatives - one from every nine, headed by the godi. The Althingi met for the adoption of laws, trial and the election of an elder law speaker, who received powers for three years. But it was not a king or leader, his duty was only the knowledge of the laws and their announcement from the Rock of the Law during the Althing, he had no power outside the general meeting.
The peculiarity of this state was the lack of executive power and the combination of legislative and judicial. Therefore, at the time of adoption of the laws, they provided for the mechanism for their implementation and the procedure for implementation. The very implementation and control over the execution of the law was undertaken by the interested parties.
The Christianization of Iceland took place in 1000. Christians appeared earlier, but by this year there were about half of them and there was a danger of a split in society into two parts. And then the godi Thorgeir, who at that time was a law-speaker, delivered his famous speech from the Rock of the Law, in which, using historical examples, he showed the danger of a split in society and religious hatred and proposed officially accepting Christianity, as is done in most European countries, but at the same time not persecuting those who will continue to perform the ancient rites. In other words, religious tolerance was proclaimed as a law. A unique example for that time!
The era of "democracy" lasted until the 13th century, when the influence and authority of the rich hevdings increased, who began to fight for power, for the title jarl(viceroy of the king of Norway). They could contain large squads of hired soldiers. The first half of the century is called the era of the Sturlungs named after the founder of the clan - Sturla from Khvamm and his sons Tord, Sighvat and Snorri. Snorri Sturluson is not only the most active political figure who was elected law speaker, but also a well-known author who wrote (or, more precisely, compiled) the collection of sagas The Steep of the Earth and The Younger Edda. At this time, most of the sagas were written that told about the deeds of the Norwegian and Icelandic Vikings, as well as the epic tales of the Elder Edda, outlining Scandinavian mythology, were recorded. This “black age”, accompanied by epidemics, famine, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and the transition of Iceland under the rule of the Norwegian king, ended.
When in the 16th century Iceland, together with Norway, became a Danish possession, the Icelanders were deprived of the right to bear arms. Once, a storm brought Algerian pirates to Iceland, who discovered a country where you can safely and with impunity rob, without fear of any resistance or retribution. Only in the XX century. Iceland gained autonomy, and then independence.
Thousands of years ago, the territory of Scandinavia was the main center of glaciation in Europe; The thickness of the glacier in these places reached three kilometers. However, if 17,000 years ago the population of these regions was only about 1,000 people, then already 11,000 years ago, immediately after the end of the ice age, their number increased tenfold. Scientists attribute the oldest population of Northern Europe to the Atlanto-Baltic subrace. Their settlements are found in different parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Great Britain and mainland Europe. These are Maglemose in Denmark and Erteböll in the south of Scandinavia, Komsa and Fosna on the Atlantic coast of Norway, Sandaria in southwestern Sweden, Star Carr in Yorkshire (England) on the shore of an ancient lake - all these are coastal and riverine cultures, whose age is 11000-9000 years.
In the most ancient Scandinavian settlements, as a rule, there were up to 20 houses, in which about 100 people lived. Strong trapezoidal post-type houses had an area of 5.5 to 30 square meters, the floors of the houses were plastered with lime. Their inhabitants were mainly engaged in fishing, collecting shellfish and hunting, used flint axes, bone products, knew the bow and arrows, used one-tree boats, and tamed dogs. People made bone, horn and amber products with artistic images, as well as drawings made on soapstone. In the villages there were special sacrificial places and sanctuaries. The most ancient Deities were the Goddess of the Earth and fertility, floating in a boat, and the Goddess of Water - a naked maiden, holding a vessel with sacred water in front of her with both hands. The ancient Scandinavians called the Supreme invisible Creator of all things the All-Father, and Father Hu and Mother Keridven were considered the supreme Deities of our Universe.
About 7000 years ago, the first Aryan settlers from the Southern Urals began to arrive in Scandinavia. Then residential areas begin to appear in Northern Europe with the center in the form of a large settlement, surrounded by several small ones. The population of such areas reached already from 400 to 2000 people (for example - Wessex in England). People hunted seals, kept pigs, grew cereals, used grinding and polishing of their tools (knives, sickles), used drills, made dishes and other ceramic products from baked clay. More than a thousand items of ceramics and jewelry were found in Scandinavia on the shores of the Littorina Sea. Near the settlements there were long burial mounds - the burial places of leaders and other people of high rank. For each of them, colossal mounds of large stones or megalithic tombs of stone slabs were built. Often, tombs and various household items were decorated with runes - a kind of hieroglyphs-symbols that had a religious or mystical meaning.
The one-eyed God Odin (or Wotan) was considered the Father and Teacher of the ancient Scandinavians. According to the legends, once from the fog that arose in the primordial Chaos, the ice giant Ymir turned out. From Ymir came a kind of mighty and cruel giants. The sons of one of them - Buri, whose names were Odin, Vili and Ve, rebelled against Ymir and after a long and cruel struggle killed him. From the body of Ymir, they created the Earth in the form of a flat circle in the ocean of Ymir's blood. They called the land Mitgard and populated it with people made of trees. And for themselves, high above the Earth, the Gods built the heavenly city of Asgard, the road to which served as a rainbow. 12 Deities lived in Divine Asgard: the sons of Odin - Thor (Thunder) and Balder (Spring), the mother of Thor - Yord (Earth), the mother of Baldr - Frigg (Wisdom), as well as the ancient Aryan God Tivas (Dyaus) or Tyr (War) , Hod (Fate), Loki (Fire), Freya (the leader of the heavenly warrior maidens "Valkyries"), etc. One of the inhabitants of Asgard contained the root of Evil. It was Loki. He persuaded Hyod, the blind God of Fate, to kill Odin's beloved son, Baldr. With the death of Baldr, light and joy disappeared from the life of the Gods. The shocked Gods gathered in council to discover the secret of reviving this Spirit of youth and life.
The keepers of knowledge on the territory of Northern Europe were the priests "druids" (in Sanskrit "dru" - "forest", in Gallic "druidh" - "sage, magician", in Irish "drui" - "people of oak trees"). The chief druids were in Britain, Ireland, Gaul and Scandinavia. According to the established order, the Druids had the right to give names to cities and localities and speak at meetings before their rulers. The sacred tree for the Druids was an oak, sacred symbols - a snake and a cross made of oak branches, a sacred Deity - the Madonna, the Immaculate Mother with a baby in her arms. The Druids lived in complete abstinence and asceticism, living in secluded caves or huts and crude houses of stone, where they spent their time in prayer and meditation, leaving only to perform religious rituals. Druids were always dressed in white clothes - a symbol of purity and innocence and proximity to the Sun; Druid heads were adorned with tiaras in the form of a circle of sun rays. The high druids wore a brooch on the front of their belt, in the center of which was a large white stone - a magnifying glass, with which they lit the fire on the altar. The deity of the Sun, the worship of which came to Scandinavia in ancient times from Atlantis close to Britain, was depicted as a golden disk surrounded by a halo, in a chariot drawn by a horse; its symbol was a spoked wheel or a cross in a circle.
Druids taught ordinary people morality, and dedicated people - the highest esoteric teachings. They said that the soul is immortal and believed in its resurrection. The Druids believed in three worlds and in the transmigration of the human soul from one body to another for punishment and reward. On Earth, Good and Evil are so intertwined and balanced that a person has the freedom to choose between them every moment. The Druids argued that all people should eventually be saved, but for this many of them must return to Earth repeatedly until they overcome all the elements of Evil in themselves. Hell is the punishment for sins and the purgatory of the soul. Initiations took place on the days of the equinoxes and solstices in special temples that had the shape of a circle or an egg, from which, according to myths, the whole Universe once originated. There were also temples in the form of a snake and a cross. Druid sanctuaries have been found throughout almost the entire territory of Northern Europe. France alone has over a hundred megalithic stone circles and over 6,000 other ancient structures. All of them were erected in the interval of 5000-2500 BC. The largest megalithic complex in Northern Europe is located in Carnac, in Western France. It stretches for 8 kilometers in length and includes boulders up to 7 meters high. In England, the largest stone structure is Aveburyhenge in Wiltshire. The megalith has an outer circle with a diameter of 427 meters and two inner circles with a diameter of about 100 meters, and the boulders included in it weigh from 60 to 90 tons!
The most famous of the ancient sanctuaries is Stonehenge in the southwest of England. "Stonehenge" literally translated from English means "hanging stone". This structure is a huge stone ring surrounded by two shafts, more than 100 meters in diameter, separated by a moat. The outer shaft is 2.5 meters wide and 0.8 meters high, the inner shaft is 6 meters wide and 1.8 meters high. From the northeast there is an entrance - an alley 12 meters wide and 25 meters long, leading to the heart of Stonehenge. The direction of the alley indicates the point on the horizon where the Sun rises on the day of the summer solstice. The central part of Stonehenge is a circle with a diameter of 31 meters, along which there are 30 stone blocks weighing 25 tons; the height of the blocks is 5.5 meters, the depth to which they are dug is 1 meter, and in total over 80 stone blocks weighing up to 35 tons were used in the construction. The construction of Stonehenge was started in 2800 BC. and ended in 1600 BC. Megalith served at the same time as a place of religious rites, an astronomical observatory and a kind of calendar, as it fixes the points of sunrise and sunset on the horizon on the days of the equinoxes and solstices. In the location of the stones, data on all lunar and solar eclipses of the past, present and future are encrypted in an ingenious way.
The ancient Celts called Stonehenge the "Work of Emrys", since its creator was considered the soothsayer Emrys, whom the Scandinavians knew under the name of Myrddin, and the British - as Merlin, who later became the chief adviser of the legendary King Arthur (? - 516 AD). According to the legends, initially, under his supervision, as many as three similar megalithic temples were erected, located at a distance of several tens of kilometers from each other. Emrys himself dwelt in the gigantic Glass Palace he built on the Isle of Enlly off the Irish coast, which later sank into the ocean. Due to the special design of the Palace, whose shape resembled a triangular pyramid, the passage of time inside it was greatly slowed down, and the soothsayer could remain young for thousands of years. If the ships sailing past Enlly Island came too close to it, they fell under the influence of the invisible forces of the Glass Palace, and those of the people who spent only three days on the island, returning to their homeland, found that in fact, as many as 30 years had already passed. scandinavia culture megalithic stonehenge
Emrys and other initiates of antiquity knew that any magic circle, from a small ring on a finger to a giant Stonehenge, can serve as a receiver and generator of the energy forces of the Earth. The same Stonehenge was erected by Emrys with the help of a magic ring that affected the movement of stone blocks. The researchers suggest that on one of the faces of each monolith, the builders cut out several concentric rings of a certain diameter, width and depth and redistributed the mass of the monolith over the volume in such a way that its centers of mass and inertia turned out to be displaced relative to each other. Then Emrys affected the megalith with his ring, spell or touch of the wand, creating vibrations of a certain frequency in it. The stable oscillatory resonance that arose in the system of concentric rings generated inertial forces that compensated for the gravity of the stone block. Thanks to this, the multi-ton block became practically weightless and easily moved through the air to the place necessary for the builders.
Vikings ( dates vikinger, Swedish vikingar, Norwegian vikingene)- Early medieval Scandinavian sailors, in the VIII-XI centuries, made sea voyages from Vinland to Biarmia and from the Caspian Sea to North Africa. For the most part, these were free peasants who lived on the territory of modern Sweden, Denmark and Norway, who were pushed outside their native countries by overpopulation and a thirst for easy money. According to religion, the overwhelming majority are pagans.
Swedish Vikings and Vikings from the Baltic coast, as a rule, traveled to the east and appeared in ancient Russian and Byzantine sources under the name Varangians. The Norwegian and Danish Vikings moved mostly to the west and are known from Latin sources under the name Normans ( lat. Normanni). A look at the Vikings from within their society is provided by the Scandinavian sagas, but this source should be approached with caution due to the often late date of their compilation and recording.
As a rule, in the Scandinavian chronicles the term "Viking" in its current sense was not used, and rather characterized a social phenomenon, when landless bonds (ordinary community members) were forced to seek a better life outside their homeland.
Ethnic heterogeneity
Not only the Scandinavian peoples of the Baltic took part in the Viking movement. The Baltic Slavs (Vends) also took part in separate raids, in particular, the Vagrs and Ruyans became famous for their pirate raids on Scandinavia and Denmark. This information has also been preserved in the sagas (see "The Saga of Magnus the Blind and Harald Gilli"). In the "Saga of Hakon the Good" it is written
“Then King Hakon sailed east along the banks of the Skani and ravaged the country, took ransoms and taxes and killed the Vikings, wherever he found them, both Danes and Wends.”
Society and culture
The Vikings lived in large family groups. Children, fathers and grandfathers lived together. When the eldest son took over the farm, he simultaneously became the head of the family and responsible for its well-being.
Settlements
The peasant dwellings of the Scandinavians of the 9th-11th centuries were simple one-room houses built either from tightly fitted vertical bars, or more often from wicker vines coated with clay. Wealthy people usually lived in a large rectangular house, which housed numerous relatives. In heavily forested Scandinavia, such houses were built of wood, often in combination with clay, while in Iceland and Greenland, in conditions of a shortage of wood, local stone was widely used. Walls 90 cm thick or more were folded there. The roofs were usually covered with peat. The central living room of the house was low and dark, with a long hearth in the middle. They cooked food, ate and slept there. Sometimes inside the house, along the walls, pillars were installed in a row to support the roof, and the side rooms fenced off in this way were used as bedrooms.
On the territory of the Scandinavian countries, urban settlements of the Viking Age are relatively small, yielding in size to such peripheral centers as Dorestadt and Staraya Ladoga. Archaeologists managed to establish the presence of trade and craft centers in Norway (Kaupang in Vestfold), Denmark (Lindholm near Aalborg) and Sweden (Birka on Lake Mälaren).
Many urban settlements were located in the depths of the fjords in such a way that it was possible to notice the approach of enemy ships from afar and prepare for an attack. A classic example of this kind is perhaps the largest Viking city, Hedeby in Jutland.
Judging by the abundant finds of treasures of Arab coins and the abundance of memorial stones, the island of Gotland served as a kind of center for interethnic communication of the Vikings, where active trade was carried out. On the border with the Polabian Slavs, there were mixed German-Slavic trading centers: Rerik and the semi-legendary Vineta and Jomsborg. The purpose of the Danish circular fortifications remains unclear. Perhaps they were erected by order of Sven Forkbeard to gather troops before going to London in 1013.
Cloth
Peasant clothing of the Scandinavians of the 9th-11th centuries consisted of a long woolen shirt, short baggy trousers, stockings and a rectangular cape. Vikings from the upper classes wore long pants, socks and capes in bright colors. Woolen mittens and hats were in use, as well as fur hats and even felt hats.
Women from high society usually wore long clothes, consisting of a bodice and a skirt. Thin chains hung from buckles on clothes, to which scissors and a case for needles, a knife, keys and other small items were attached. Married women put their hair in a bun and wore conical white linen caps. Unmarried girls had their hair tied up with a ribbon. The Vikings wore metal jewelry to indicate their position. Belt buckles, brooches and pendants were very popular. Screw bracelets made of silver and gold were usually given to a warrior for conducting a successful raid or for winning a battle.
In popular culture, Vikings are often depicted with horned helmets. In fact, archaeologists cannot say exactly what shape the Viking helmets were. The concept of horned helmets is associated with drawings found in burials (for example, the Oseberg ship). Now scientists are inclined to believe that if helmets with horns were used, then only for ritual purposes, and not in battle.
Weapon
The most common type of weapon is a spear about 150 cm long. Such a spear could both stab and chop. Scandinavian axes were distinguished by a wide, symmetrically diverging blade. The Scandinavian sword was a long, double-edged blade with a small guard. Only the upper third of the blade was sharpened, the lower two thirds were weakly or not sharpened at all.
ships
The Vikings were skilled shipbuilders who created the most advanced ships of their era. Since it was customary in Scandinavian society to bury warriors along with their boats, archaeologists have a good idea about the characteristics of Viking ships. Specialized museums have been opened in Oslo, Roskilde and some other cities. Among the most famous are the Gokstad and Oseberg ships. Both were discovered over a hundred years ago and are now on display at the Drakkar Museum in Oslo. From the sagas it is known that ships went into battle under a banner with the image of a black raven.
The Viking fleet consisted mainly of warships called Drakkars and merchant ships of the Knorr. Warships and merchant ships allowed men to visit overseas countries, and settlers and explorers crossed the sea in search of new lands and riches. Numerous rivers, lakes and other waterways in Scandinavia gave the Vikings an easy and convenient way to travel. In Eastern Europe, in the conditions of numerous portages, single-deck boats were common, which were designed to enter shallow rivers and dock on gently sloping banks, which allowed the Vikings to move very quickly and take their enemies by surprise.
State and law
The most significant decisions in Scandinavian society were made by a meeting of all free men - ting (in ancient Russia it corresponded to veche). In small public structures, the ting evolved into a representative body of the modern type: this is the Icelandic althing, which first met in 930, and the Manx tinvald, which is several decades younger than it. A king from among the Ynglings, Sköldungs or other prominent families was primarily perceived as a military leader, leader of the squad. He could have a land allotment or lead a wandering lifestyle on a ship (sekonung). On the territory of modern Scandinavian states, dozens of minor kings simultaneously ruled.
The Vikings were led by the institution of blood feud. If one of the Vikings killed another, then the events developed depending on the "composition of the crime" and on the social status of the victim. It could have ended in a truce, or it could have resulted in the payment of monetary compensation (wergeld). But if it came to blood feud, it was revenge of one kind to another. It was not considered murder to cause death in a duel, which was called a holmgang. Warriors furious in battle (berserkers) could enrich themselves by challenging less experienced warriors to a duel and causing them death or injury. This forced the Scandinavian states at the end of the Viking Age to impose restrictions on holding holmgangs.
Religion and literature
Like the ancient Germans of an earlier period, the Vikings before the adoption of Christianity professed the traditional Germano-Scandinavian religion (now known as Asatru) with regular sacrifices - blots. The writing was runic (see Scandinavian runes).
"Viking Funeral" by Frank Dixie
The funeral rite was inextricably linked to the idea of the ship of the dead. The body of the deceased warrior was cremated, sometimes together with the boat, or ashes were placed in the boat, after which a barrow was poured over it. The launching of the burial boat into the water is mentioned only by later skalds, such as Snorri Sturluson.
By the first half of the 9th century, a completely original skaldic tradition had already developed in the Scandinavian countries. In Iceland, it remained extremely stable for about two hundred years after the introduction of writing, decomposing extremely slowly under the influence of European written literatures.
