Viking Age - Denmark, Connections abroad.

fortification, Trelleborg, Zealand

By people in the Frankish kingdom and on the British Isles the Danes were first of all considered Vikings. Danish attackers, conquerors and colonists played an important role in the remake of western Europe, but they also had a strong influence in their own country.

Some Viking chiefs, who had won riches, power and glory came home to Denmark and tried to usurp royal power. King Horik and most of his family were killed in such a power feud in 854. The old branch of the royal family gained footfold , but other homecoming Viking chiefs - some from the east -  were more lucky in their fight about the throne. The fortification moats in Aarhus might have been built during that period.
            
   

                 
       

The diplomatic connections between the Danish kings and the Frank and German rulers brought foreign influences to Denmark. King Harald was baptized in Mainz in 826, and he was not the only Dane, who experienced and was impressed by the court ceremoniel of the Franks. Maybe this infected the life in the Danish royal castle in the 800s, but as for the 900s the big Jelling stone and the cross-marked coins show that Harald Bluetooth fully understood the value of demonstrating his royal dignity. The Jelling church was probably bigger than many other Danish buildings, and its basic plan was inspired by the German churches.



The Franks and the Germans did not only affect their Danish neighbours - they also wanted to have power over them, but they did not succeed.  The Danes could retriet from Jutland to security on the Danish Isles and gather new strenght while the peninsula Jutland was attacked -  and the Saxon hertug Bruno and his army had to learn this in 880......the only Danish king who in the 800s had to acknowledge the supremacy of the Franks was Harald Klak,  and he was deposed and driven into exile .

The feud between the various throne pretenders weakened seriously the power of the Danish kings,  and in 934 the Danes could not resist an attack in southern Norway from the German army. The Danish supremacy broke down and Harald Fairhair was able to expand his Norwegian power while local rulers in the districts east of Storebælt (Danernes Mark) enjoyed a great independency.

Fyrkat , Jutland, photo:GB

Later the German king Henrik 1 forced the Danes to pay taxes, and two generations later the Germans ruled in Sønderjylland (South Jutland) for a short number of years (974-983). Nothing indicates that Harald Bluetooth ever acknowledged German rulers as his overlords - but after 983 and in the following century the Germans were too busy feuding their Slavic neighbours to care about Denmark. Undoubtly it was the German occupation of Sønderjylland which made  Harald build the complicated system of fortifications and roads which gave a clear expression of his power and talent of organisation. In order to build the fortifications Trelleborg , Nonnebakken; Fyrkat and Aggersborg and the great bridges - which were all built at the same time - the king had to exploit his right to recruit labor and demand other necessary services from the Danish population . Most probably these heavy burdens made him unpopular among the Danes and led to the rebellion  which drove him into exile and death. 

Runic inscriptions mention two earlier rulers at Funen, Roulv and Alle. The Glavendrupstone was raised in the memory of Alle by his widow Ragnhild and his sons. Ragnhild had the Danish rune-

master to carve the inscription upon the runestone in Tryggevælde at Zealand

Glavendrupstone

for the memory of her second husband, Gunulv, about whom it was said that "few are born better than he". It is not known which stone was raised first, but these men must have been contemporary to king Harald, and they might even have been local chiefs, who by acknowledging Harald as their king, took part in making it possible for him to announce that he had "won himself all Denmark. "

Harald's kingdom was exposed for disturbances from Viking fleets. As the leader of the expeditions to the west Sweyn Forkbeard saw to that his men were awarded like other men of the Viking chiefs. Torkel's fleet represented the biggest threat however. He was now in the service of the English king, but it was Sweyn who in 1013 seized the English throne and thereby got access to the rich sources in England.

The riches of Englands made Cnut the Great able to realise the Danish demand on the supremacy of a large part of Scandinavia, much more than his predecessors had ever been able to. Still before Cnut drove the Norse king Olav into exile he demanded to be king of the Norwegians -  and at the same time he declared he was king of a part of the Swedes. It is not known what he actually meant -  he might have thought of the West Goths, whose access to the sea went through Danish territory,  but it was more probable that he considered himself as the overlord of the Swedes who had been warriors in his army. As king of England Cnut advised one of the most advanced and effective Governments of Europe -  and it did not last long before this English influence was evident in Denmark. The attempts to establish a well-functioning coin was finally successfull and much was done to promote the development of cities which became metropols for the royal power. In some cities were established bishoprics -  and the bishops were fetched from England or at least educated there. Cnut's great kingdom sank into the gravel after his death but the changes he had started were continued by his successors and long after the separation of Denmark and England the English influence was noticed in the Danish church.

Merchants, wandering craftsmen, Christian missionaires, diplomats and the Vikings themselves were all  the cause  of influences from abroad in Denmark. The Danes connected more and more to the outside world during the Viking period than ever before and the consequences began to show in the beginning of the 1000s - cities were founded, bishoprics and a royal coinage were established. It is clear via archaeology that all parts of society were affected by the contact to the outside world.  In each archaeologically examined village from the Viking period are rests of mill stones from the Rhine district and soapstone-vessels and  grindstones from the northern Scandinavia. In Jutland are found western European ceramics - and Slavic clay ware or Danish copies are found in the eastern part of Denmark . More perishable goods like clothes and wine were probably also widespread. The imported goods were spread all over Denmark - but they were not for free. Wealthy Danes who lived in the 1000s were capable of paying their shopping  with coins and other silver -  but the import was through the whole period generally paid with Danish export products or with services and catering to the foreign merchants who visited the Danish harbours on their tour between the Baltics and Western Europe. Cattle was one of the most important export products

Highland cattle, foto:GB

. An early phase of this traffic is proved by the archaeological find of a large heap of cow dung which had accumulated in the town of Ribe. This indicates that cattle was gathered here,  probably in order to transport them by sea.

Ansgar

village and church, Hjerl hede, foto:GB

Except from Willibrord's visit in the beginning of the 700s the Christian mission began in 823 among the Danes when archbishop Ebbo baptized a great number of Danes. Ebbo's, Ansgar's and the preaching of their successors might have convinced many that the Christian God was a mighty God, but it was not until king Harald's conversion 150 years later that Christianity became the only legal religion. The Christian message was being preached by missionary bishops. In the beginning of the 1000s were established bishpoprics, and in the middle of the same century were churches built all over Denmark. In most regions of Denmark church services and new rituals were provided in a foreign  language by men who rarely had any education. Gradually the church seized several areas of daily life, also the marriage  - and eventually the top officials of the Danish church were incorporated in the elite of the Holy Church. Several rituals, like cremation and eating horsemeat were quickly submitted, while other rituals like some fertility rituals lived on in a Christian disguise.

During the reign of Sven Estridsen the church began receiving estates as gift or inheritance, which had great consequences gradually, when large areas were added to the church. The Christian doctrine brought a still more perceptible change, namely the abolition of the old custom to expose infants. The restriction in this form of child restraint reulted in an increase of population -  and new settlements occurred.

Hedeby trading center

Archaeological finds show that the Danes in the Viking period were relatively wealthy. The farmers in the wellknown settlement Vorbasse did generally not own their land, but they had much cattle, and their descendants in the 1000s had even more. The houses in Vorbasse were large and spacious. Houses of the Trelleborg-type which were built in the 1000s were larger and free inside .Another change was that the stables were now in separate buildings in an appropriate distance from the houses.

Trelleborg, house, foto:GB

Excavations in other places also indicate that the Danish farmers were really well in the Viking period - also the landlords who received various benefits from the farmers. The king was the greatest landlord - and when Harald Bluetooth won all Denmark he must have expanded the royal estate enormously. His son and grandson increased also the royal riches when they conquered England. The Crown Land also grew when farms were given to the king as a fine for manslaughter. Several farms which Cnut the Holy in 1085 gave to the cathedral in Lund were acquired by him or his predecessors in this way.

Detail, Ravning bridge, foto:GB

The realm of gravity up till Harald's rule was in Jutland - usually the king was able to keep the peace which gave the Danes and the visiting merchants a reasonable security both in Jutland and on the Isles. In the 800s and maybe before some Danish kings extended their power to the island east of Storebælt and up into the southern part of Norway. In these districts the king was probably the overlord of the local potentates while they in Jutland were directly regents. A supremacy like this had to be maintained by force or with the threat of the use of force and the power of a king depended on the fidelity and skill of his warriors (his lid).

Northern Empire, 1000s, wikipedia

The procedures of the government were also in the 1000s primitive and severe - as Cnut the Great did show, when he commanded his regent in England , Thorkel, to defure evildoers who else could not be prosecuted. Harald Bluetooth's rulership in the eastern part of Denmark probably had the same reprisals like Godfred had 150 years before, but Harald showed that he was able to mobilize many good forces at Zealand and Funen and in Jutland so he could build his big fortifications and roads and bridges. It might be Harald who initiated the conversion of the townships into administration units which made it easier to collect taxes and other benefits. .

Sweyn, wikipedia

Twice in the 900s it was clear how vulnerable Jutland was to German attacks, and Harald Bluetooth might have seen that the countries east of Storebælt provided the highest security against the threat from these mighty neighbours. It was not until the rule of Sweyn Forkbeard that the gravity of the kingdom moved east to the districts around Øresund. King Sweyn founded the towns Roskilde and Lund. The Danish king now wanted to be overlord of the whole country -   and "landefreden" ( the peace of the country) spread along the coasts of Øresund. Piracy was still a nuisance, but inspite of Adam of Bremen's assertion that both Storebælt and Øreasund were harrassed by pirates, the traffic through Øresund was probably not suffering from great hindrances, when the travelling merchants were on their way to the Baltic Sea.  They had been proned to follow the coast of Jutland in order to get the protection which the Danish king provided. Now they were guaranteed the same security if they chose the direct way through Øresund, which now became the gateway to the Baltic Sea  and the key to the power of the North.


The Danish royal power originated in its time in Jutland, and in the first centuries of the kingdom Jutland was kernelandet (the core country). When the scalds still celebrated Cnut the Great as Jótlands jøfurr (Jyllands høvding) it was a memory about that time. But by supplying their Jutland power with a firm grip of the regime of the Danish Isles and Scania - the large area, which until then were considered the outer districts of the kingdom ( danernes mark), the last great Viking kings, Harald, Sweyn and Cnut had created a strong and viable unit in Denmark with a future.

The big Jelling stone , photo:GB

Source: "Da Danmark blev Danmark" (700-1050) by Peter Sawyer, Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie bd 3.  

photo: Grethe Bachmann
and photocopies:: wikipedia.