Osprey - Warrior 003 - Viking Hersir 793 - 1066 AD(OCR).pdf - Osprey - Warrior - mawizen

OSPREY

MILITARY

VIKING HERSIR

793-1066AD

WEAPONS • ARMOUR • TACTICS

MARK HARRISON

GERRY EMBLETON

First published in Great Britain in 1993 by

Osprev Publishing, Elms Court,

Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP,

United Kingdom.

Email: osprey@osprey-publishing.co.uk

Publishers' Note

Readers may wish to study this title in conjunction

with the following Osprey publications:

MAA 85 Saxon, Viking and Norman Armies

MAA 171 Saladm and the Saracens

MAA 89 Byzantine Armies 886-1118

Elite 3 The Vikings

Campaign 13 Hastings 1066

Reprinted 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999

purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as

permitted under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act,

1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical,

mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright

owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the Publishers.

Artist's note:

Readers may care to note that the original paintings

from which the colour plates in this book were

prepared are available for private sale. All

reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained by the

Publishers. All enquiries should be addressed to:

Scorpio Gallery

PO Box 475

Hailsham

E. Sussex BN27 2SL

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no

correspondence upon this matter.

ISBN 1 85532 318 4

Filmset in Great Britain

Printed through World Print Ltd, I long Kong

FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL HOOKS PUBLISHED BY

OSPREY MILITARY, AUTOMOTIVE AND AVIATION

PLEASE WRITE TO:

The Marketing Manager, Osprev Direct USA,

PO Box 130, Sterling Heights, MI 48311-0130, USA.

Email: info@OspreyDirectUSA.com

The Marketing Manager, Osprey Direct UK,

PO Box 140, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 4ZA,

United Kingdom.

Email: info@OspreyDirect.co.uk

VISIT OSPREY'S WEBSITE AT:

http://www.osprey-publishing.co.uk

VIKING HERSIR

HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND

West Norse dialects. This picture is further compli-

cated by an early emergence of centralised monarchy

in Denmark. Signs of state formation above the level

of clan and tribe can be seen in The Frankish Royal

Annals. When Godfred of Denmark submitted to

Charlemagne it was, in the mind of the chronicler, on

behalf of a unified Danish kingdom. The power of the

early Danish monarchy is plain to see in the refur-

bishment of the Danevirke, a massive, pre-Viking

line of fortifications separating Jutland from main-

land Europe. Only a regime of some wealth and

power could have initiated such extensive work.

The Frankish Royal Annals further note that

To classical authors of the Mediterranean, the world

was balanced perfection. The hot, dry, bright and

civilised south found its opposite in the cold, wet,

dark and barbaric north. The first inkling the

Romans had that the two were not in perfect harmony

was when the Cimbri and Teutones moved into

southern Gaul in around ioo BC. The Romans

understood these tribes to have originated in the

Danish peninsula, but the nerve centre of threat to

the Empire was located further north. The destruc-

tive Ostrogoths and Visigoths are described by

Jordanes as economic refugees from the overcrowded

Baltic island of Gotland.

This Scandinavian dimension to the barbarian

menace survived the collapse of the Roman Empire.

The Frankish successor state, the main inheritor of

Roman traditions, found the far northerners increas-

ingly threatening as time passed. The expedition of

Hygelac the Geat to the Rhineland, recorded by

Gregory of Tours and in the anonymous Beowulf,

appears to be an isolated incident. As the Carolin-

gians gained control over central and northern

Germany, and thus came into contact with the

southern borders of Danish settlement, the Vikings

enter into the historical record with what appears to

be a sudden and catastrophic impact.

When describing Scandinavia on the eve of the

Viking Age it is difficult to avoid spuriously dividing

it into three nations; Danish, Norwegian and Swe-

dish. This division is largely a product of medieval

history. The major difference between the various

Viking homelands was the linguistic one of East and

Norway before the rise of

Harald Harfargi. The

names of the more

important minor

kingdoms are shown in

upper case. Kaupang was

the only town of any size at

this period, but was

subject to seasonal

population changes.

Godfred's kingdom included the area of Vestfold.

Although the writer placed this overseas province in

Britain it was in fact part of Norway. The Danish

foothold in Vestfold can be seen as the beginning of

Danish domination of Norway. It also led directly to

the early emergence of a Norwegian monarchy under

King Harald in the 9th century.

navian or English king, similar for example, to a

Huscarl at the time of the battle of Hastings.

The earliest violent appearance of Norwegians on

the coast of Britain is recorded in The Anglo-Saxon

Chronicle for the year 789. Whether or not one views

the murder of King Beorhtric's reeve (agent of the

king) as an act of raiding, the chronicler confidently

asserts 'Those were the first ships of Danish men

which came to the land of the English'. In reality they

appear to have been Norwegians from the district of

Hjordaland.

The fact that earliest sources are written from the

perspective of the Anglo Saxon Church may well

have distorted our knowledge of the earliest phases of

Viking raiding in England. We know that Offa was

preparing the defences of Kent against pagan seamen

as early as 792 and although our source is not specific

we may suspect that these were Scandinavian pirates.

The terms pagans, pirates and seamen had become

synonymous with the Vikings by the end of the

period. The apparent concentration of early raids on

the monasteries of Lindisfarne (793) and Iona (795)

probably conceals a picture of more widespread

depredations. Continental raids show no such bias

against the religious. The raiders off the Loire in 799,

Early raids

When Norwegian Vikings first raided the European

coast in the 8th century AD, their leaders were not

kings, princes or jarls, but a middle rank of warrior

known as the hersir. At this time the hersir was

typically an independent landowner or local chief-

tain. His equipment was usually superior to that of

his followers. By the end of the 10th century, the

independence of the hersir was gone, and he was now

typically a regional servant of the Norwegian king.

The hersir s equipment and status was now compar-

able to that of an immediate retainer of the Scandi-

Raiding and settlement

routes of the Vikings.

Iceland, England and

France were all colonised

to various degrees and

plundering was common

in most areas shown on

this map.

for example, are not noted as seeking out monastic

communities. The Danish assault in 810 on the

Carolingian province of Frisia and the subsequent

attack in 820 may have been directed against import-

ant trading centres. Certainly by the mid 830s

settlements of economic importance became the main

targets of Viking attentions.

The emphasis in Old English records on the

ecclesiastical bias of Nordic raids is one aspect of the

cultural divide between Scandinavians and Christian

Europeans in the 8th century. Even in Denmark,

the most advanced of the three Scandinavian 'na-

tions', the relationship of basic units of society to the

elite class was very different to that in north-western

Europe. The absence of a unified church or even a

common religion weakened the possibility of a single

national monarchy appearing.

The lack of a central authority meant that the use

of violence by the individual, tribe or clan was

institutionalised and accepted as inevitable. The

increasingly powerful monarchies of the various

English kingdoms were able to prevent violence by

legislation which carried the sanction of the church.

This intimate relationship of church and state limited

aggression in a way Viking culture could not.

Consequently when circumstance allowed Scandi-

navian intrusions into broadly peaceful continental

Europe, the unlimited use of violence (a feature of

everyday life in the Nordic lands) found lucrative

outlets.

CHRONOLOGY

789 Killing of King Beorhtric's reeve by Vikings.

792 Offa prepares defences of Kent against 'pagan

seamen'.

793 Raid on Lindisfarne.

795 Raid on Iona.

799 Viking raiders off the mouth of the Loire.

810 Danish assault on Frisia.

830-850 Raids on the French coast and southern

England.

835 Vikings land in West Country, defeated by

Egbert, king of West Saxons,

c. 850 Birth of Harald Harfargi.

The decoration of this

sword (Petersen type L)

shows clear Saxon

influence. Similar items

are the river finds from

Gilling (Yorkshire) and

Fiskerton (Lincolnshire).

(By courtesy of the Board

of Trustees, British

Museum)

851 First time a Viking army winters in England - at

Thanet.

865 First English Danegeld paid by inhabitants of

Kent.

866 Fall of York to Vikings.

c. 870 Harald Harfargi sole king of Norway.

c . 872 Battle of Hafrsfjord.

Osprey - Warrior 003 - Viking Hersir 793 - 1066 AD(OCR).pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: