Vikings are “in”. Over 93 episodes, the series “Vikings” celebrated worldwide success. The rough Norsemen offer more opportunities for identification than other historical eras. Most importantly, there are not only Norsemen, among the Vikings women also used ax and bows as shield maidens (read: “Viking warrior women – the disowned Amazons from the north”).
That fits far better into today’s world than knight’s ham with chaste and languishing damsels. Christianity also suffered in the fantasy realm, the extermination of the indigenous cultures by fanatical monks, the bloody persecution of those of other faiths and the extermination of alleged witches can no longer be conveyed as cultural progress. But when Odin and Freya whisper through the fog, nobody feels offended.
At least in the film, the Viking life seems dangerous, but otherwise pretty ideal. There was no oppressive position of nobility and church. The peasant families were still free and not reduced to the semi-slavery of serfdom. The differences between the ruling families and their free followers were still manageable. And women who did not go to war also had a strong position in the north.
For this image of an outlaw idyll with ships instead of rocker motorcycles, some of the downsides aren’t illuminated as brightly. “Strong woman” – in northern myths, this could mean murdering one’s own children if there was a quarrel between the man’s family and the woman’s brothers. Sacrifices to the gods and plundering occur, but the misery that the northern peoples brought on the inhabitants of the regions they visited is not described in too much detail.
The darkest point of that time is the Viking slave trade. As the Middle Ages progressed, slaves always existed, but their importance is steadily declining. In the period between the fall of the empire and the High Middle Ages, however, slaves were a coveted commodity and the Vikings were leading traders. According to one estimate, the slaves are said to have made up up to 10 percent of the population of Viking Age Scandinavia (Read: “Hidden under jewelry and silver treasure – first Viking settlement discovered in Iceland”)
If you marvel at how Byzantine gold and Chinese silks made their way to Scandinavia, you should know that along with furs and military service, slaves were the best trade item. In particular, exotic-looking slaves – i.e. blond and blue-eyed – were an export good for long-distance trade. In AD 977, the Arab traveler Ibn Hawqual described the Viking slave trade, which stretched across the Mediterranean Sea from Spain to Egypt.
Slaves had an inestimable advantage: people could be captured anywhere. When raiding a fishing village, the Vikings could not expect to get treasures. Some cattle, some supplies, and a few iron objects made up the spoils. Valuable hoards of gold and precious stones were usually well protected. If you wanted to carry them with you, you had to be prepared for a fight with trained warriors. But people—young men and women and teenage children—were everywhere. The early medieval Irish chronicle “The Annals of Ulster” describes a Viking raid near Dublin in AD 821 in which “they carried off a large number of women into captivity”.
Women were particularly popular. There is clear evidence of sexual slavery. In 922, the Arab Ibn Fadlan writes about his encounter with a group of Vikings on the Volga. He witnessed the two attractive girls being sold being raped by their owners while others looked on. Slave women were an option for poorer men with no respectable family to back them up with a concubine or wife. A clear clue is the Icelandic genome. Two-thirds of Iceland’s founding female population was of Gaelic origin – they came from Ireland or Scotland. Only a third of the women came from Scandinavia. With men it was exactly the opposite. A clear indication that the Norsemen had provided themselves with slave women to start a family.
But women didn’t just have sexual value, says Ben Raffield, an archaeologist at Sweden’s Uppsala University. “In the context of slavery, women were often kidnapped because in many societies they are traditionally the ones who produce high value goods. A lot of people think that if you wanted prisoner labor you would take men, but that’s not necessarily the case. The textile work in Scandinavia, for example, is strongly associated with women.”
Archaeologically, the slaves have left few traces. A few shackles are all that’s left of them. They had no property of their own, no houses and left no traces. Slaves without special skills were treated as consumables. They were considered “cattle” or expensive pets that lived with the other animals at the darkest end of the longhouse. The Romans also ruthlessly worn out their slaves at work. But they did not despise them for their station. The Romans knew that a twist of fate could turn the most respected man into a slave. But even in Norse mythology, slaves are seen as unworthy underlings.
They were abused as long as labor could be squeezed out of them. Then they were carelessly buried. When examining skeletal remains of Viking Age slaves found in graves in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, it was found that they often showed signs of abuse or were even beheaded before death.
A natural death was by no means guaranteed. Powerful Vikings in the classical period were often accompanied to their deaths by a wife or concubine. This was considered very honorable and was not a self-evident duty. But in addition, ministering spirits were always sent on the last journey, and these slaves were not consulted. She was simply murdered.
Quellen: History; Smithsonian; Children of Ash and Elm
Also read:
Viking warriors – the disowned Amazons from the north
Hidden under jewelery and silver treasure – first Viking settlement discovered in Iceland
Male witch – because of her debts, the Catholic Church has been cashing in on the city of Trier for over 400 years
Spears, gold and the proud posture of warriors – this is how four Amazons were buried
