Forget the old story about vikings carousing the seas looting and pillaging.
In the centuries before the vikings began to expand across the Atlantic, there were 'early medieval emporia' in place around the Irish coast that appear to have been the main contact points for traders bringing goods into Ireland (and Scotland). Whether this was because of a perceieved taboo over dealing with foreigners (a way to both keep out disease and protect your own position by ensuring only you get to meet them).
A probable example was found on Dunnyneill Island, County Down and another example is a site like Dalkey Island.
Finds include exotic objects like pottery imported from the area of the former Roman Empire like E-ware and glass.
From the eighth century AD onwards, houses and objects typical of Norway and other parts of Scandinavia begin to appear in the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland and down into the Irish Sea area, at sites like
Underhoull in Shetland and Hamar also on Shetland.
Excavations south of Dublin at Cherrywood found objects that suggest Norse settlement near Loughlinstown which actually means 'the town of the Lochlainn' - Lochlainn is a word used by the Irish to refer to the Norse. Some of the structural remains suggested that, in an early phase, a longhouse had been built on the site.The large enclosure in which the site was built was much earlier in date and had been used for burials in the 6th-7th century AD. It was then abandoned but apparently re-used in the 9th century AD when the first of several phases of structures were built. The longhouse (see the various structures shown on this plan) is dated by its position within the sequence of occupation at the site.
The earliest identified phase was the enclosed cemetery in the sixth/seventh century AD. Structure 4 dated to 680-890 AD and Pit (F535) was dated to the late ninth century AD or slightly later, based on a fragment of a whale bone plaque which was present. Structure 1, the possible longhouse, dated to before 1020-1190 AD. A kiln, dated by burnt oats to 1020-1190 AD was followed by two further structures, Structures 2 and 3, probably dating to before 1020-1230.
Many of the finds do not necessarily imply anything about the occupant's identities as they would be typically found on an Irish or Norse site of the same date. The whale bone plaque is typical of finds associated with Norse woman, such as this one from Orkney. A fragment of a similar object was recovered from the Norse graves found in Kilmainham near Dublin city centre.
One of the structures at Cherrywood was similar to buildings erected by the Norse in the urban centres of Ireland around the same date. The finds, though, are equally typical of contemporary rural Irish sites.
For more about Cherrywood click here .
A similar structure was found at Llanbedrgoch, Anglesey in Wales showing that, in this period, the Norse maintained contact with the scattered Norse communities around the Irish Sea and beyond.
Another find from Cherrywood, a silver ingot, while unprovenanced, represents one of the reasons why the Norse are important in Ireland’s links to the outside world – the silver trade - one of the possible reasons that the Scandinavians continued to spread around Europe re-establishing trade routes from the Mediterranean up into Northern Europe. Eventually they also began to explore the seas to the west.
The Vinland Sagas
Two short Icelandic Sagas discuss the settlement of Greenland the first voyages to the New World:
Saga of the Greenlanders (Grænlendinga saga
).Eirik the Red’s Saga (Eiríks saga rauða
)Both sagas refer to events 970-1030 A.D., and both were composed much later, 1220-1280 A.D.
The sagas were written independently and record oral history – unlike Njal’s Saga, there was little if any literary reworking, reshaping or editing.
(Njal
’s Saga dates from the 13th century and describes the progress of a series of blood feuds. Its author is believed to have lived in southeast Iceland and the events occur between 960 and 1020).Both sagas contain many of the same details, though the elements are recast into a different sequence or placed into a different context.
Fanciful and legendary elements in the sagas caused them to be rejected by historians until Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine located the remains of Viking settlements at L'Anse aux Meadows
in Newfoundland in 1960.Artifacts from excavations there proved that Norsemen had reached Canada c. 1000 A.D.
Both sagas deal with other events as well, especially with the settlement of Greenland and with the conflict between the Heathen and Christian religions.
The settlement on Vinland was short-lived, lasting only a few years. Conflicts with the natives (Skraelings) probably hastened its demise.
The settlements on Greenland lasted from 985 to 1350 (Western Settlement) and to c. 1480 (Eastern Settlement). The cause of abandonment is unclear and has been discussed by various authors including Jared Diamond in Collapse
.The Greenland settlement was not entirely self-sufficient. Marginal land was used for raising sheep during the medieval warm climate which meant that cold snaps and periodic shift in temperature threatened the available grazing and size of flocks.They had also become Christianised (this is Hvalsey church) and some of their cultural practices, defined by their religious observance and Christian morals, were expensive and difficult to maintain in such an environment.
The real attraction of Greenland was the hunting, especially for arctic specialities walrus (ivory), polar bear, gyrfalcons etc., which were prized luxury items on the continent.
Some trade took place with the natives, although the Greenlanders were never able to establish the same relationship they had with the Sami, for example.
Helge Ingstad (1899-2001) unearthed the ruins of an ancient Norse village near L’Anse aux Meadows on the north coast of Newfoundland, conclusively proving that the Vikings has established a settlement in North America 1000 years previously.
A.D. 990, Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, exploring to the west, finds and names several new areas:
Slabrock Land-Baffin Island
Forest Land-Labrador and Newfoundland
Wineland-Northern Maine/New Brunswick.
Came into contact with "wild groups" of people.
His brother, Thorvald, was killed by natives and buried near the Bay of Fundy.
At L’Anse Aux Meadows, around 1000 AD, 8 sod wall houses were occupied by the Norse.
There are many theories as to the fate of the Greenland and American Vikings.
