Viking War Read online

  Drekar- a Dragon ship (a Viking warship)

  Duboglassio –Douglas, Isle of Man

  Dyflin- Old Norse for Dublin

  Ein-mánuðr- middle of March to the middle of April

  Fey- having second sight

  Fleot- a tidal estuary (River Fleet in London)

  Frankia- France and part of Germany

  Garth- Dragon heart

  Gaill- Irish for foreigners

  Galdramenn- wizard

  Glaesum –amber

  Gói- the end of February to the middle of March

  Grenewic – Greenwich

  Gwened- Brittany

  Haaken One Eye- Dragon Heart’s oldest friend

  Hamwic- Southampton

  Haughs- small hills in Norse (As in Tarn Hows)

  Heels- when a ship leans to one side under the pressure of the wind

  Hel - Queen of Niflheim, the Norse underworld.

  Hel Belyn- Helvellyn

  Hetaereiarch – Byzantine general

  Hibernia- Ireland

  Hoggs or Hogging- when the pressure of the wind causes the stern or the bow to droop

  Hrams-a – Ramsey, Isle of Man

  Itouna- River Eden Cumbria

  Jarl- Norse earl or lord

  Joro-goddess of the earth

  Kara- Dragon Heart’s daughter

  Knarr- a merchant ship or a coastal vessel

  Kyrtle-woven top

  Lambehitha- Lambeth

  Legacaestir- Anglo Saxon for Chester

  Lochlannach – Irish for Northerners (Vikings)

  Lundenwic –London

  Lundenburh- the fort in London

  Mammceaster- Manchester

  Manau – The Isle of Man (Saxon)

  Marcia Hispanic- Spanish Marches (the land around Barcelona)

  Mast fish- two large racks on a ship for the mast

  Melita- Malta

  Midden- a place where they dumped human waste

  Nikephoros- Emperor of Byzantium 802-811

  Njoror- God of the sea

  Nithing- A man without honour (Saxon)

  Odin - The "All Father" God of war, also associated with wisdom, poetry, and magic (The Ruler of the gods).

  On Corn Walum –Cornwall

  Olissipo- Lisbon

  Orkneyjar-Orkney

  Pillars of Hercules- Straits of Gibraltar

  Ran- Goddess of the sea

  Roof rock- slate

  Rinaz –The Rhine

  Sabrina- Latin and Celtic for the River Severn. Also the name of a female Celtic deity

  St.Cybi- Holyhead

  Scanlan- A former slave and Dragon Heart’s Steward

  Scar- a cliff

  Scillonia Insula- Scilly Isles

  Seax – short sword

  Skeggox – an axe with a shorter beard on one side of the blade

  Sheerstrake- the uppermost strake in the hull

  Sheet- a rope fastened to the lower corner of a sail

  Shroud- a rope from the masthead to the hull amidships

  Suthriganaweorc – Southwark

  Stad- Norse settlement

  Stays- ropes running from the mast-head to the bow

  Strake- the wood on the side of a drekar

  Syllingar- Scilly Isles

  Tamese –River Thames

  Tarn- small lake (Norse)

  Teobernan –Tyburn (London)

  The Norns- The three sisters who weave webs of intrigue for men

  Thing-Norse for a parliament or a debate (Tynwald)

  Thor’s day- Thursday

  Threttanessa- a drekar with 13 oars on each side.

  Thrall- slave

  Trenail- a round wooden peg used to secure strakes

  Tynwald- the Parliament on the Isle of Man

  Úlfarrberg- Helvellyn

  Úlfarrland- Cumbria

  Úlfarr- Wolf Warrior

  Úlfarrston- Ulverston

  Ullr-Norse God of Hunting

  Ulfheonar-an elite Norse warrior who wore a wolf skin over his armour

  Veturnætur- In October when winter began

  Volva- a witch or healing woman in Norse culture

  Waite- farm

  Windar’s Mere- Windermere

  Windar’s Stead- Ambleside

  Wintan-ceastre -Winchester

  Woden’s day- Wednesday

  Wulfhere-Old English for Wolf Army

  Wyrd- Fate

  Yard- a timber from which the sail is suspended

  Maps

  Brittany 9th Century

  Courtesy of Wikipedia

  Anglo-Saxon London

  Courtesy of Wikipedia

  The Danelaw in 878 AD

  Courtesy of Wikipedia

  Coniston Water

  Courtesy of Wikipedia

  Mining in Roman times- courtesy of Wikipedia

  Map courtesy of Wikipedia

  Historical note

  The Viking raids began, according to records left by the monks, in the 790s when Lindisfarne was pillaged. However there were many small settlements along the east coast and most were undefended. I have chosen a fictitious village on the Tees as the home of Garth who is enslaved and then, when he gains his freedom, becomes Dragon Heart. As buildings were all made of wood then any evidence of their existence would have rotted long ago, save for a few post holes. The Norse began to raid well before 790. There was a rise in the populations of Norway and Denmark and Britain was not well prepared for defence against such random attacks.

  My raiders represent the Norse warriors who wanted the plunder of the soft Saxon kingdom. There is a myth that the Vikings raided in large numbers but this is not so. It was only in the tenth and eleventh centuries that the numbers grew. They also did not have allegiances to kings. The Norse settlements were often isolated family groups. The term Viking was not used in what we now term the Viking age beyond the lands of Norway and Denmark. Warriors went a-Viking which meant that they sailed for adventure or pirating. Their lives were hard. Slavery was commonplace. The Norse for slave is thrall and I have used both terms. The Norse only had Winter and Summer; Autumn and Spring did not exist for them.

  The ship, ‘Heart of the Dragon’ is based on the Gokstad ship which was found in 1880 in Norway. It is 23.24 metres long and 5.25 metres wide at its widest point. It was made entirely of oak except for the pine decking. There are 16 strakes on each side and from the base to the gunwale is 2.02 metres giving it a high freeboard. The keel is cut from a piece of oak 17.6 metres long. There are 19 ribs. The pine mast was 13 metres high. The ship could carry 70 men although there were just sixteen oars on each side. This meant that half the crew could rest while the other half rowed. Sea battles could be brutal.

  The Vikings raided far and wide. They raided and subsequently conquered much of Western France and made serious inroads into Spain. They even travelled up the Rhone River as well as raiding North Africa. The sailors and warriors we call Vikings were very adaptable and could, indeed, carry their long ships over hills to travel from one river to the next. The Viking ships are quite remarkable. Replicas of the smaller ones have managed speeds of 10-15 knots. The experts estimate that even against the wind a good crew could keep up a speed of 5-5.5 knots. The sea going ferries, which ply the Bay of Biscay, travel at 14-16 knots. The journey the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ makes from Santander to the Isles of Scilly in a day and a half would have been possible with the oars and a favourable wind and, of course, the cooperation of the Goddess of the sea, Ran! The journey from the Rhine to Istanbul is 1188 nautical miles. If the ‘Heart of the Dragon’ had had favourable winds and travelled nonstop she might have made the journey in 6 days! Sailing during the day only and with some adverse winds means that 18 or 20 days would be more realistic.

  The Vikings only had two seasons, summer and winter. Winter began round about October. Veturnætur was the time of sacrifices, offerings and weddings.

  Nikephoros was Emperor from 802-811. Bardanes Tourkos did revolt although he did not attempt a co
up in the palace as I used in my book. He was later defeated, blinded and sent to a monastery. Nikephoros did well until he went to war with Krum, the Khan of Bulgaria. He died in battle and Krum made a drinking vessel from his skull!

  I have recently used the British Museum book and research about the Vikings. Apparently, rather like punks and Goths, the men did wear eye makeup. It would make them appear more frightening. There is also evidence that they filed their teeth. The leaders of warriors built up a large retinue by paying them and giving them gifts such as the wolf arm ring. This was seen as a sort of bond between leader and warrior. There was no national identity. They operated in small bands of free booters loyal to their leader. The idea of sword killing was to render a weapon unusable by anyone else. On a simplistic level this could just be a bend but I have seen examples which are tightly curled like a spring.

  The length of the swords in this period was not the same as in the later medieval period. By the year 850 they were only 76cm long and in the eighth century they were shorter still. The first sword Dragon Heart used, Ragnar’s, was probably only 60-65cm long. This would only have been slightly longer than a Roman gladius. At this time the sword, not the axe was the main weapon. The best swords came from Frankia, and were probably German in origin. A sword was considered a special weapon and a good one would be handed from father to son. A warrior with a famous blade would be sought out on the battlefield. There was little mail around at the time and warriors learned to be agile to avoid being struck. A skeggox was an axe with a shorter edge on one side. The use of an aventail (a chain mail extension of a helmet) began at about this time. The highly decorated scabbard also began at this time.

  The blood eagle was performed by cutting the skin of the victim by the spine, breaking the ribs so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out through the wounds in the victim's back.

  It was more dangerous to drink the water in those times and so most people, including children drank beer or ale. The process killed the bacteria which could hurt them. It might sound as though they were on a permanent pub crawl but in reality they were drinking the healthiest drink that was available to them. Honey was used as an antiseptic in both ancient and modern times. Yarrow was a widely used herb. It had a variety of uses in ancient times. It was frequently mixed with other herbs as well as being used with honey to treat wounds. Its Latin name is Achillea millefolium. Achilles was reported to have carried the herb with him in battle to treat wounds. Its traditional names include arrowroot, bad man's plaything, bloodwort, carpenter's weed, death flower, devil's nettle, eerie, field hops, gearwe, hundred leaved grass, knight's milefoil, knyghten, milefolium, milfoil, millefoil, noble yarrow, nosebleed, old man's mustard, old man's pepper, sanguinary, seven year's love, snake's grass, soldier, soldier's woundwort, stanchweed, thousand seal, woundwort, yarroway, yerw. I suspect Tolkien used it in the Lord of the Rings books as Kingsfoil, another ubiquitous and often overlooked herb in Middle Earth.

  The Vikings were not sentimental about their children. A son would expect nothing from his father once he became a man. He had more chance of reward from his jarl than his father. Leaders gave gifts to their followers. It was expected. Therefore the more successful you were as a leader the more loyal followers you might have.

  The word lake is a French/Norman word. The Norse called lakes either waters or meres. They sometimes used the old English term, tarn. The Irish and the Scots call them Lough/lochs. There is only one actual lake in the Lake District. All the rest are waters, meres or tarns.

  The seax which Dragon Heart captures is based on one found in Sittingbourne, Kent. I have made a poor drawing of it merely to show its unique shape. The fact that it only had one edge meant it could be thicker along the back and therefore stronger. It has much in common with the Roman Gladius.

  The Bangor I refer to (there were many) was called Bangor is-y-coed by the Welsh but I assumed that the Vikings would just use the first part of the place name. From the seventeenth century the place was known as Bangor of the Monks (Bangor Monachorum). Dolgellau was mined for gold by people as far back as the Romans and deposits have been discovered as late as the twenty first century. Having found gold in a stream at Mungrisedale in the Lake District I know how exciting it is to see the golden flecks in the black sand. The siege of the fort is not in itself remarkable. When Harlech was besieged in the middle ages two knights and fifteen men at arms held off a large army.

  Anglesey was considered the bread basket of Wales even as far back as the Roman Invasion; the combination of the Gulf Stream and the soil meant that it could provide grain for many people. In the eighth to tenth centuries, grain was more valuable than gold.

  When writing about the raids I have tried to recreate those early days of the Viking raider. The Saxons had driven the native inhabitants to the extremes of Wales, Cornwall and Scotland. The Irish were always too busy fighting amongst themselves. It must have come as a real shock to be attacked in their own settlements. By the time of King Alfred almost sixty years later they were better prepared. This was also about the time that Saxon England converted completely to Christianity. The last place to do so was the Isle of Wight. There is no reason to believe that the Vikings would have had any sympathy for their religion and would, in fact, have taken advantage of their ceremonies and rituals not to mention their riches.

  There was a warrior called Ragnar Hairy-Breeches. Although he lived a little later than my book is set I could not resist using the name of such an interesting sounding character. Most of the names such as Silkbeard, Hairy-Breeches etc are genuine Viking names. I have merely transported them all into one book. I also amended some of my names- I used Eric in the earlier books and it should have been Erik. I have now changed the later editions of the first two books in the series.

  Eardwulf was king of Northumbria twice: first from 796-806 and from 808-810. The king who deposed him was Elfwald II. This period was a turbulent one for the kings of Northumbria and marked a decline in their fortunes until it was taken over by the Danes in 867. This was the time of power for Mercia and East Anglia. Coenwulf ruled East Anglia and his son Cynhelm, Mercia. Wessex had yet to rise.

  Slavery was far more common in the ancient world. When the Normans finally made England their own they showed that they understood the power of words and propaganda by making the slaves into serfs. This was a brilliant strategy as it forced their former slaves to provide their own food whilst still working for their lords and masters for nothing. Manumission was possible as Garth showed in the first book in this series. Scanlan’s training is also a sign that not all of the slaves suffered. It was a hard and cruel time- it was ruled by the strong.

  The Vikings did use trickery when besieging their enemies and would use any means possible. They did not have siege weapons and had to rely on guile and courage to prevail. The siege of Paris in 845 A.D. was one such example.

  The Isle of Man is reputed to have the earliest surviving Parliament, the Tynwald although there is evidence that there were others amongst the Viking colonies on Orkney and in Iceland. I have used this idea for Prince Butar’s meetings of Jarls.

  The blue stone they seek is aquamarine or beryl. It is found in granite. The rocks around the Mawddach are largely granite and although I have no evidence of beryl being found there, I have used the idea of a small deposit being found to tie the story together.

  There was a famous witch who lived on one of the islands of Scilly. Famously Olaf Tryggvasson, who became King Olaf 1 of Norway, visited her. She told him that if he converted to Christianity then he would become king of Norway.

  The early ninth century saw Britain converted to Christianity and there were many monasteries which flourished. These were often mixed. These were not the huge stone edifices such as Whitby and Fountain’s Abbey; these were wooden structures. As such their remains have disappeared, along with the bones of those early Christian priests. Hexham was a major monastery in the early Saxon period. I do not know it they had
warriors to protect the priests but having given them a treasure to watch over I thought that some warriors might be useful too.

  I use Roman forts in all of my books. Although we now see ruins when they were abandoned the only things which would have been damaged at the time the books are set would have been the gates. The Saxons rarely used stone for building. Anything of value would have been buried in case they wished to return. By ‘of value’ I do not mean coins but things such as nails and weapons. Such objects have been discovered. Many of the forts were abandoned in a hurry. Hardknott fort, for example, was built in the 120s but abandoned twenty or so years later. When the Antonine Wall was abandoned in the 180s Hardknott was reoccupied until Roman soldiers finally withdrew from northern Britain. I think that, until the late Saxon period and early Norman period, there would have been many forts which would have looked habitable. The Vikings like Saxons did not build generally in stone. It was only when the castle builders, the Normans, arrived that stone would be robbed from Roman forts and those defences destroyed by an invader who was in the minority and yet conquered a much more numerous population. It was their stone castles which achieved that. The Vikings also liked to move their homes every few years; this was, perhaps, only a few miles, but it explains how difficult it is to find the remains of early Viking settlements.