The Vikings:

The religion, society, and isolation of the Norse and its impact on their relatively democratic society and their considerable degree of equality.

by

Justin Kimberlin

Viking History Take Home Test Rewrite

December 3, 2001

 

The Vikings appear to have a considerable degree of equality and a more democratic society than their Continental neighbors.  This is explainable in Viking society for a variety of reasons.  The Pagan religion was a major factor, as was the relative geographic separation from Continental Europe, the self-policing of the communities, and the family orientation of the Vikings.  A lack of a divine right of kings discouraged despotism.  Raiding gave a good way to acquire belongings without compensation.  These things were helped by the isolation of Scandinavia, geographically and religiously, before and during the Viking Age.  The Vikings were isolated from the rest of Europe, causing them not to by swayed by outside influences.

[COMMENT1]             During the Viking Age and before, Scandinavia was more or less isolated geographically from the rest of Europe.  Denmark is separated from the rest of the Germanic areas of Europe by swampland and other natural and unnatural barriers.  Norway and Sweden were only accessible by sea unless one wanted to make a long and arduous journey through the hostile Baltic lands.  These Norse lands also did not contain much to interest the Continent.  Rome had ignored this area and Continental Europe of the early middle ages followed in this.  The Norse had relatively little contact with Continental Europe until the Viking Age.  This isolation helped to continue the ancient religious and customary practices of the Vikings without outside influences.

[COMMENT2]             The Viking Age began with the advent of a more powerful and better built class of ship, the sailing ship.  The Continental Europeans, however, were land-based and did not rely much on sea travel. This enabled the Vikings to venture out into the world and take what they needed without fear of retribution.  This would serve to make the Vikings self-sufficient as they could acquire resources without giving up something in exchange.

Raiding was also a good way for the King to acquire revenue.  Viking Kings were expected to make their own revenues rather than raising taxes.  Taxes were also frowned upon.  The King wasn’t really seen as that good a leader if he could not find some way other than revenue than to get it from his followers.  This smacked of tribute and was seen as just plain insulting to the people.  They were not his subjects.  He was their leader.  To be King was a great honor, a position of glory.

[COMMENT3]             The Vikings were very traditional and had a strong belief in the ways past.  They had the resources they needed and Scandinavia and could acquire others through raiding making them very self-reliant.  Many of them lived a life of agriculture or hunting.  They often owned their own land or at least partially owned it.  They had little need for a life of servitude.  To them, that was a slave’s job.  They were very hard-working and hard work was seen as a good thing.

[COMMENT4]             The Christian Church used threat of the Devil to amass much of its power.  This came from the Church’s absorption of Manichaen beliefs of a constant battle between good and evil.  The Church held itself as the protector of the good and the destroyer of evil.  This was not possible in Norse religion because of the lack of a truly evil entity.  Perhaps this is due to a belief in the polarity and not the Manichaen duality of the divine in the pagan Norse religion.  “As in all pagan religions the idea of the deities being part of a polarity, not a duality, is an accepted part of the belief system.  Polarity means that all aspects of good, evil, and indifference are manifest in one central power.”  (McCoy 8) The Norse deities were more human-like than the Christian God.  Odin had to give up an eye for knowledge.  Loki, perhaps the closest god that the Vikings had to Satan, was not completely evil.  Loki and Odin could be both good and evil.  The stories of the Gods tended to reflect the diversity and the humanity of the Vikings themselves.  Scandinavians readily identified with these gods and called on them as needed.  The Norse pagans did not adopt the stance of having a war against evil and did not limit equality or democracy on that basis. 

The Old Norse Religion had virtually no hierarchy of worshipers and was in fact a mix of worship of the Vanir and the Aesir.  No central church existed as it did in both Western and Eastern Christianity.  Such an authority could have dictated moral and religious laws to the people of Scandinavia. The absence of such a power contributed to the equality and the democratic society of the Vikings.  The lack of a strong central religious authority made despotism less likely.

[COMMENT5]             The family unit was essential in Viking communities.  It was the basis for community and law.  The law was kept by making the entire family responsible for the actions of someone in the family.  If the situation became drastic and the family no longer wanted to accept responsibility for the member, he would be outcast.  This in effect would make him an outlaw.  He would no longer be under the protection of the law.  He could be killed with no action taken against his killer.  He also could not use the law in any way for retribution.  Many societies have used banishment, but this was not banishment by the state, but by his own family.  A Wergeld was established where the family of the victim was paid by the family of the offender.  Such actions ensured that the family would take responsibility for their own family members.  There were few repeat offenders.  With the family themselves bearing the responsibility for the actions of the family members, Viking society was left to spend less time on rules and regulations.  This freed the Vikings from such concepts as prisons and policemen.    When vouching for one’s honor in a court, the person testifying on their behalf could be sentenced to the same penalty as the defendant.  In addition slavery and death were open as options of a penalty.  These things enabled Vikings to be more self-policing and not have to rely on a police system which could have made Viking society less democratic.

In these family oriented areas, the families themselves acted in a self-policing manner.  As these responsibilities were the same, each family was more or less autonomous.  The governing bodies that these autonomous family units arrived to were generated by a consensus of the families.  The need for some protection from outsides and even a little from each other made anarchy impractical.  This led to the rise of the chieftains.  They were in charge of the village unit and largely responsible for local law.  The people however needed protection on a much grander scale and Kings were the inevitable result.  These kings were not absolute monarchs like those on the Continent however.  The people were not willing to give their king such support.  No man including the king was above the law.

[COMMENT6]             The idea of a “Divine Right of Kings” had developed on the Continent during the early middle ages.  This was the belief that the king was a divine representative of God to the people of the land.    Why should the king be subject to the law if God is not?  Kings had to have absolute authority because this was God’s will.  This encouraged Continental royalty to become despotic.  This authority was extended to the nobles also.   There was no concept of a divine right of kings in Scandinavia as the Continent had.   The concept of divine right of kings that was used by areas under the control of the Catholic Church was reversed in Norse religion.  The Viking kings were representatives of the people to their gods and had no divine status.  The higher respect and authority was afforded to Viking royalty and nobles because of deeds of the person and family and not of some special status by the Christian God.  The absence of such intrusive religious authority created an atmosphere more favorably to a democratic society in Scandinavia.

To balance against the power of the Kings and chieftains, they were subject to the law.  Every law applied to every Viking.  The kingdom was not just passed down from a king to his firstborn son as was the case with English Primogenitor.  All males in the royal family were eligible to become king.  In fact, just about anyone who showed some sign of royalty in Scandinavia could and often did make a claim on the throne.  The monarchy was largely sought after and could not be taken for granted.  If a monarch was doing a bad job, it was considered the duty of the one of the sons or other heirs to remove him.  Harold Blue tooth of Denmark lost face and “he was ousted by his son Skein Forbear around 987 and died” (Restyle 74).  King Cnut I left his legacy to his two inept sons.  They were terrible leaders and were removed.  The people of an area could actually change allegiances from one king to another.  This concept would be completely foreign to the Continental Europeans whose allegiance to a king was determined by where they lived, the power of the king’s army, and who what allegiances the ruling noblemen had.  All of these things served to check royal power and ensure a more democratic society than on the Continent.

[COMMENT7]             Perhaps one reason for the higher level of equality between men and women lies within the Viking religion itself.  The Norse Goddesses were shown equal respect as the Norse Gods. “Snorri Sturluson, writing in Iceland in the thirteenth century, says that, excluding Odin and his wife Frigg, ‘The divine gods are twelve in number ... The goddesses [who number thirteen] are not less sacred and no less powerful.’” (Crossley-Holland xxv)  The veneration showed to Freya and Frigga as Goddess were in respect shown to the women of Scandinavia.  The wife’s position was clearly defined in relation to the man’s, but they were not completely unequal as they were on the Continent.  The misogynic Church of Rome relegated women to a lower position in Continental society.  The Church had begun a crusade to destroy the God and Goddess of the Celts.  The Mother Goddess was discounted by Christianity as their God and his son Jesus were both male.  The figure of Eve from the Bible was used to show that women lead men into disaster if allowed to have freedom.   The Church believed that women could not be priests and therefore priestesses were always in league with Satan.

[COMMENT8]             Women had rights within Scandinavian society.  Much of this was possible because the religion and customs, while not being primarily matriarchal, were favorable to women.  The traditions enabling women to have rights and property had been in existence in Scandinavia since long before the Viking Age and were left in place in part because of the isolation of Scandinavia from the Continent.   A woman had the right to be represented at the Thing (the assembly).  This is a very important right because elsewhere, especially on the Continent, women did not even have the right to be represented.  Women did not, however, speak at the thing themselves but through a representative.  Women also had the right to divorce. They were allowed to have and maintain their own properties and money.  Not only could they hold property but they could even inherit property from the husband.  Women were seen as strong and independent.  Women were often seen as leaders in their families.  One shining example of a strong Viking woman is uhn the deep minded.  Uhn the deep-minded, in the Laxdaela Saga, was very powerful and she “went round all the Breidafjord Dales and took possession of as much land as she pleased” (Laxdaela 53).  She was seen as strong, heroic, a leader to her people and a founder of Iceland.  Women were especially regarded in Iceland due to it being a frontier.  In Iceland they could even hold office.  Women could also set up prenuptial agreements where they could make sure that they would not lose their property upon divorce.  Viking women also kept their own family names and often showed allegiance to their own families and not their husbands if disputes arose.  Marriage was considered to be a contract only entered into if it was mutually beneficial to both parties.  The women were given as much choice as the men of whom they were to be married to.  They were even allowed to work on and sell their own crafts. Women could not cheat on their husbands however.  This was done to ensure that the man’s heirs were truly of his blood because everything is passed down through the patriarchal line.  They could even fight alongside the men at times.

The practice of Raiding forced Viking men to be away from home for many of the non-Winter months.  This enabled their wives to take over many responsibilities at home.  The women  were the heads of their households when the husbands weren’t there.   During the harsh winter months the family would work on crafts to be sold in the market.  During the non-winter months, the husband would often go off on raids or in war bands.  At this time the women would sell the crafts on the market, his and hers, and she would personally be in charge of the household.  Viking women held the keys to the house and managed the estate while the men were gone.  These Norse women could hold status by the amount of keys that they held.  They delegated work to the slaves and managed the households.   Viking wives used concubines for work so that they would not have to do it. These slaves and concubines were acquired through raiding and warring. Women in the Continent were not much more than slaves to their husbands.

[COMMENT9]             The class system of the Vikings was also much less rigid than in Continental Europe.  Social mobility was possible in Viking society and could often be achieved by warring.  There were two types of nobles, Earls and chieftains.  These nobles were not obligated to serve the king and sometimes even chose a king from another Scandinavian country.  Below the nobles were the freemen.  The vast majority of people in Scandinavia were freemen in stark contrast to Continental Europe where the serfs were the vast majority.  All freemen had a right to speak at the public assembly and at the court.  The right to speak was in order of the status from highest to lowest, but it was nonetheless a right to speak.  Freemen also had a right to carry arms and to hold office.  All freemen had a right to the law.  Below the freemen were the freedmen (former slaves).  Below the freedmen were the slaves. Slaves could even become freemen by adoption.  Slaves could be granted their freedom as a gift.  Friends or family of slaves can purchase a slave’s freedom.  “The slave, in fact, was not left devoid of means, possessions, and free time during which he could work for himself . . . and in favorable circumstances might hope to purchase, earn, or be rewarded with his freedom.” (Jones 149).

[COMMENT10]             The Thing was very important to the democratic processes of Scandinavia.  It was the base element of the Scandinavian government.  The Thing was a general assembly.  The people of the area gathered together there to discuss governmental issues.  Every free man had a right to speak at the thing.  They all spoke in order of importance.  Women could even speak through representatives at the thing (the assembly).  The Thing was the main body of democracy in the Scandinavian lands.  The culmination of the local Things was the All-Thing or the national assembly.

[COMMENT11]             The Vikings were as democratic as a monarchial-based society could be and had even experimented with a non-monarchial system.  Some of the Norwegians had grown weary of the Norwegian king and had decided to move elsewhere.  Many left and founded a land called Iceland.  Iceland was a new territory and had no prior king.  The people of Norway adhered to their democratic foundations and went a step further than they had in Norway.  They decided not to have a king but instead to set up a republic.  Powerful leaders would be set up to run things, but there would be no single man in a centralized authority.  This was the end result of an endless array of democratic ideals that had their basis in Scandinavian society.  This new frontier was the first major breakaway from royal power in Europe.

In conclusion it can be said that the Vikings were extremely democratic despite a royal presence.  Equality was also very present in Viking society.  These changes are due to many religious and social reasons as well as their geographic isolation.  These were all in place largely because of a general isolation from the lands around them.  This isolation ended over a gradual period of time.  The influx of Christianity and the end of this isolation signaled the end of the Viking Age.  Once Iceland had fallen to the Norwegians such a democratic society was not attempted until the American Revolution.

Bibliography

                            

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. New York: Pantheon, 1980

Fitch, Ed. The Rites of Odin.  St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1990

Gordon, Irving L.  World History. New York, NY: AMSCO,1984 Revision, Second Edition

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, Second Edition

          Laxdaela Saga, translated by Magnus Magnusson. London, England: Penguin, 1969

McCoy, Edain, Witta : An Irish Pagan Tradition. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1993

Murray, Margaret A. The God of the Witches. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931

Roesdahl, Else. The Vikings, translated by Susan M. Margeson and Kirsten Williams. London, England: Penguin, 1992

Sawyer. P.H. Kings and Vikings. (London and New York: Routledge, 1987)

Thorsson, Edred. Northern Magic : Rune Mysteries and Shamanism. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1998, Second Edition