Solid resources for Norse CULTURE and HISTORY

Heh, some days you ask a question and things just pop up! I saw this on Twitter today (thanks to AW's Mayqueen). It's not comprehensive-history, rather, a small tidbit. But sometimes those are the things that can go into a story and really add to it. Anyway, here it is. Viking sailors took their cats with them.

You're quick, Elaine!

I'm written several manuscripts about/involving Vikings. My favorite website to reference for quick questions/help is The Viking Answer Lady. I also like Medievalists.net -- you can search by tags to get articles by scholars on various aspects of culture and society.

The Viking sagas are absolutely the best sources of info on day to day life we have. Those that took place during the Icelandic Commonwealth are by far the most fascinating (my opinion, anyway *smile*) but they're all interesting. My prefered translations are from the 60's by Magnus Magnusson and Herman Palson.

For your purposes they would all be useful, and I think choosing some at random is a good intro, but I have to put in a good word for Njal's Saga. I've not read this particular translation by Robert Cook, but Penguin did publish the one I like best.

Byock, Jesse L. Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power. University of California Press (1990), Edition: Reprint, Paperback.

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. (Oxford Monographs in International Law). Oxford University Press, USA (1984), Edition: Revised, Paperback.

Ross, Margaret Clunies. The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Norse-Icelandic Saga (Cambridge Introductions to Literature). Cambridge University Press, 2010.

For a second hand resource list, I will definitely add William Ian Miller's Bloodtaking and Peacemaking: Feud, Law, and Society in Saga Iceland, one of the most interesting books I've read, almost as interesting as the sagas themselves.

Just a small note (which will likely be covered in depth in the books recommended but is something that is easy to overlook when you're starting out): "Viking" covers a pretty extensive period and geography. First, the Norse culture is usually used in reference to people from all over Scandinavia which is a rather large area. Since the Vikings travelled extensively they also came into contact with many different cultures (from the Byzantines and Arabs to the Saxons and Carolingian Franks and possibly even North American tribes), and settled in very different types of milieus. So you had Danes, Swedes and Norwegian Vikings and all their colonies, like Iceland, Greenland, settlements in England, the Hebrides, Russia and Ireland during a period of 300 years. Material standards and some cultural elements may therefore have varied depending on if you are talking about Birka in the 9th century, Limerick in the 11th or Iceland in the 10th century. Obviously there were some traits that they all had in common (and which forms a sort of core of "Norse culture"), but some things may depend on where in time and place you choose to set your story.

I'd just like to add that while you're reading up on the history and culture, don't forget the on-going debates on the origins/reasons of the viking journeys -- a lot of information about life and culture in the period can be gleaned in the discussions on why some people went from trading to raiding in the first place.
The sagas are not considered reliable sources about Old Norse life in the academic circles I've encountered (nor by my old Swedish middle-grade teachers, but that's a different matter!). We don't know if these were the stories told in real homes, and they were written down long after they supposedly happened or were last told by anyone who believed in them. The stories likely varied a lot regionally. All the stories wouldn't be known by everyone. Gods were called by different names. Frigg and Freya might have been the same godess. Not every village would know/care about things like shapeshifters or "tomtar"/house gnomes but instead be freaking terrified of the lady in the woods with the black hole in her back. Most probably cared more about the weather and the neighbors, anyway.

I suppose what I want to say is, a lot of what we know is generalized from stories told as folk tales. And most of what we know, we know because Christians (especially Scandinavians) either lamented over how savage it was, or praised it as greater than it was. On a similar note, believers in the Aesir nowadays are maybe not your greatest source for historical/cultural stuf... (just saying, because you might have found their websites. They score pretty high on Google's engine). It's a revived religion, so there's a lot of... re​construction, if you will, by the members to make the pieces fit together again.

The aspect of the sagas that is pertinent would be the day to day life they show, not the fantastic elements. Njal's Saga has ghosts, premonitions and hedge magic, which can be considered the equivalent of local color. But it also shows trading, dining and entertainment, marriage and divorce, horse fights, haying and farm activities, blood prices etc. - all those activites that illuminate the day to day life.

Mythology is a different thing altogether, with different sources to recommend, if they're wanted.

The historical novels of Sigrid Undset are very good and contain a lot of potentially useful background.

caw

I've also heard that the Norse spoken during the time of the Viking incursions is more closely related to modern Icelandic than any of the other extant Norse modern languages, such as Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. The reason being that the Icelandic people were so isolated for so long that there was very little change in the language/culture compared to others, which were 'infected' with German, French, etc.

You might also try Sykes, Bryan, SAXONS, VIKINGS, AND CELTS, The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland, W. W. Norton, USA (2006), 978-0-393-33075.

greendragon said:

I've also heard that the Norse spoken during the time of the Viking incursions is more closely related to modern Icelandic than any of the other extant Norse modern languages, such as Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. The reason being that the Icelandic people were so isolated for so long that there was very little change in the language/culture compared to others, which were 'infected' with German, French, etc.

Click to expand...

Altogether, though I am no expert, I think it's a mistake to assume there was one single "Norse" language spoken in all of Scandinavia. We're talking about an area the size of the rest of Europe, and while they had a common cultural and linguistic heritage, I'd be surprised if there was not significant geographic (and temporal) variation in both word-use and pronunciation.

In that context, I would like to point out that the Icelandic sagas tend to be the sources on Norse language and culture most people go to, but it is important to remember that they were written down in Iceland (so in "Icelandic") after the end of the Viking period. So to take the language of the sagas and assume they represent vernacular for all of Scandinavia a few hundred years before is a bit of a leap.

But yes, all in all, much more like Icelandic than modern Swedish, for instance.

Old Norse bears about the same relationship to Modern Icelandic as Elizabethan English does to Modern English; that is, native speakers/readers of Icelandic can read an Old Norse text without too much effort.

Old Norse was, of course, not the only language spoken in the geographic area, but it was the dominant language in most of what we call Norway; that said, all of the Germanic languages of the era are strikingly similar in major features; Danish is the one that's most atypical. If someone were fluent in one, the others would not be that hard to pickup.

And don't forget the Russians! No, they weren't Germanic at all, but they had a lot of contact with Scandinavian seafarers.

Deb Kinnard said:

You might also try Sykes, Bryan, SAXONS, VIKINGS, AND CELTS, The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland, W. W. Norton, USA (2006), 978-0-393-33075.

Click to expand...

Excellent book. I found it very informative.

Flicka said:

Altogether, though I am no expert, I think it's a mistake to assume there was one single "Norse" language spoken in all of Scandinavia. We're talking about an area the size of the rest of Europe, and while they had a common cultural and linguistic heritage, I'd be surprised if there was not significant geographic (and temporal) variation in both word-use and pronunciation.

In that context, I would like to point out that the Icelandic sagas tend to be the sources on Norse language and culture most people go to, but it is important to remember that they were written down in Iceland (so in "Icelandic") after the end of the Viking period. So to take the language of the sagas and assume they represent vernacular for all of Scandinavia a few hundred years before is a bit of a leap.

But yes, all in all, much more like Icelandic than modern Swedish, for instance.

Click to expand...

Fair enough, and an excellent point!

Flicka, do you think medieval Icelandic people would be able to understand those of Sweden or Denmark or Norway when they spoke? Would the languages at that time be similar enough that they'd be mutually available, should these people meet? I'm told via research that the Celtic languages around 1000 A.D. had not evolved far enough for a Cornishman not to understand a Breton or an Irish person. What's your take?

AW Admin said:

And don't forget the Russians! No, they weren't Germanic at all, but they had a lot of contact with Scandinavian seafarers.

Click to expand...

Were those the Varangians? I know they had something to do with Vikings and had ties to old Russia.

greendragon said:

I've also heard that the Norse spoken during the time of the Viking incursions is more closely related to modern Icelandic than any of the other extant Norse modern languages, such as Danish, Norwegian or Swedish.

Click to expand...

Icelanders in fact are very proud of their linguistic heritage, for exactly this reason. They remain the one Nordic nation which retains the practice of using patronymic (I think that's the word) surnames.

caw

Michael Drout! I can't recommend Drout enough. He specializes in Anglo-Saxon history and literature, but he has a phenomenal lecture series on the interplay between Norse sagas and culture. He's a fantastic speaker and really excellently ties together small details with larger cultural concepts. If you're going to look into the sagas, I suggest reading/listening to him first to give yourself a framework for interpretation.