The Vikings - Legal System - Survival of the Fittest.

viking house, Fyrkat/photo gb

Denmark 
Denmark was in the Viking period divided in about two hundred districts, the socalled "herreds", which each had a ting (thing). The thing was the counsil of free swordsmen coming together to manage the law, to issue rulings, and to discuss matters of a more common character..

The law was a complex of customs, something which was remembered from generation to generation. Therefore the thing-assembly was often a case of old men - with support from the old rhyme-formulas (stavrim)  - to remember and claim the law..

The punish provisions towards acts of violence or murder - among free men - were built  upon mandeboden (man's fine) and its various degrees: full mandebod for a killing or cutting off the nose; half mandebod for an eye, quart  mandebod for an ear etc. The warrant was made by the thing-men themselves,  and the law was no doubt not rarely bent to the power, since the enforcement  of the court decision had no special protection. If a member of a strong family during the eternal feuds among the families had insulted or violated a man from a weaker family and had been sentenced a mandebod on the thing, then the weaker part  had to recover the mandebod (the man's fine) himself, which might be difficult or even impossible.This was a shortage of the legal system.
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law document Sweden wikipedia

The word herred is interpreted as hærfølge = (army escort ). Maybe this points back to a military system where each district (herred)  was obliged to make men or ships available during war. Or else the really big decisions - like election of a king, war and peace or alike - or a court decision of a special complicated or questionable case - were assigned to the big landsting, which in Jutland was held in Viborg, at Zealand in Ringsted and in Skåne (Scania) in Lund. Such difficult cases could be decided by holmgang (duel) following special rules or by  jernbyrd  (ordeal by fire) where they in reality pushed the case respectively to the right of the stronger or the judgment of the gods.

Theft was a dangerous thing to be engaged in, the punishment was simply hanging  which was not  from moral principles, but contrarily with a base in the very realistic view that the thief was a poor man (that was why he stole) and a poor man had only one thing to lose: his life.

Germanic assembly, wikipedia

Like in all other human societies the society of the Vikings was also built on relations and Community. The worst punishment was social exclusion : he who denied to bend to the decision of the herreds-ting and therefore had his case brought to the landsting exposed himself to exclusion The landsting had the power to declare outlaw inside its area. In the length to live his life in isolation, without legal rights, being hunted, excluded from the circle of his fellowmen:  this was impossible, the only ways out were exile or death. But for the man who respected the Viking society's unwritten customs and the rooted view of the law  from the time immemorial, this man could live a flourishing life in prosperity, if he was versatile and had "god  lykke". (good fortune.)

Viking house, Fyrkat, photo gb

A magnate from the grade of the earls had enough to organize, he might lead his own Viking expedition in the summertime, either alone or together with other chiefs and come back for winter with a good prey. He might also be a merchant and lead his own trade business and he had to take care of his own farming. Finally he had to take care of secular and clerical public offices : to judge at the thing and to see to that he - as the gode (Gothi)  of his hov (court) took into account the demand of the gods when it came to cultivating the land and taking care of the law.

Uffe hin Spage, Lorenz Frölich, wikipedia

A means to decide disputes between persons  - or through them between families -  was the holmgang (the duel) The oldest description in a written law fragment from Sweden is about a holmgang-  and it reflects in a realistic way both the sensitive honour which was so vulnerable:  to insult with words and the brutality of the law of the strongest man. The fragment says: " if you say insulting words like: You are not equal to men or: You are not a real man " -  then the two men will have to meet where three roads cross. If he who said the word comes,  and if he who was told the word does not come,  then he'll have to stay as he was named, and then he is not able to give oath or to be a witness - neither in a man's or in a woman's case. If he comes who was told the word , but not he who said the word, then he'll cry three times: "Nidding"  and make a mark in the field. And  he who said the word will then be an inferior man since he dare not stand by what he said.

Now they'll both meet fully armed: if he falls who said the word: a word-crime is the worst - the tongue is the first killer:  he lies on the ground upon his deeds.



Sweden
A similar picture of the legal system in the Viking period is seen in Sweden. Here is also a family society, a life built upon the land-properties of the family and the inner solidarity,  with orally handed-down laws and rules of law, which were put into power by warrants at the thing-assembly of the herred (Swedish: de hundradets). Here is undoubtedly also a system of a common war oganization. And here is also a limited royal power. In the Ansgar- biography is said about Birka, that it was a usual custom to let common cases decide by the agreement of the people rather than on the king's demand. Two concepts were in front of life of the Nordic Viking: den gode lykke = the good fortune - the prosperity of the fortunate man - and æren (the honour) which had to be protected and must not be breached.

Norway

Hakon the Good, P.N.Arboe, wikipedia.

The same schedule is found in Norway as to the secular building of society. The indivual bygder (settlements) had their local thing-assemblies, and the large districts had their own more comprehensive things, where chiefs and old experienced men were judges and interpretors of the law. In Norway is also the family society with the single man, the private person, who seeks his right supported by his family via mandebod for a revenge-killing.
Like in Denmark and Sweden the problem is the same in Norway. Direct primary sources to a knowledge about the legal system of the Viking period are missing,  it is only possible to refer to the medieval laws, the * Frostatingloven  and the *Gulatingloven  (both laws are Norwegian laws, which acccording to the sagas were ordained by Hakon the Good for respectively Trøndelagen and Vestlandet). Like in Denmark there is reason to believe that there was a military system too in Norway ( a leding) where each district  was obliged to deliver ships and warriors to a common defense. And like in Denmark and Sweden it is also the same for Norway:  that the royal power was limited by the thing-assemblies and  folkets vilje ( will of the people). Anyway the king's power must not be too much reduced, for the king had his team of housecarls , his hird, which from an original private organization grew up to a half public factor  - a very active means of power which became the core of a larger army 



Iceland.

A Gothi /priest) Lund, wikipedia.

Iceland had no king. The legal system was established after west-Norwegian design and after the rules in the later Gulatinglov. This thing-constitution became common to the whole island from year 930. The common thing was held each summer( named altinget), with the lovsigemand (the man who  recited the law rules) and with the heathen priests (the Gothis) as the real rulers. The island was later divided into four quarters each with 3 (one with 4) herredsting. Since the magnates were goder (Gothis) it must be said about the Icelandic free state that it was a regular chief-union without a king. An oligarchy in a classical saying.

Source: Johannes Brøndsted: Vikingerne;. Vikingen hjemme, Samfund.  Ggyldendal 1960

The Vikings - The Ring Castles in Denmark

1) Trelleborg

Trelleborg house, photo: grethe bachmann 2004

A special class of monuments from the Viking Age are four ring castles or military camps in Denmark  The earliest found is Trelleborg at Sjælland (Zealand). It lies in the western part of Sjælland ab. 4 km west of the town Slagelse, between this and Storebælt, where two rivers meet - and from here they are running as one river out into the sea north of the town Korsør. The Viking ring castles are colloquially known as "Trelleborge". The ring castle Trelleborg at Sjælland was placed upon the land between two rivers in the late Viking period, the excavations showed that it probably was built upon an ancient blót-place, which was seen from several sacrifice pits and from some house-rests. After comprehensive fill- and levelling work the castle was built, according to a thoroughly worked-out  project, which by skilled engineers were laid out in the field with extraordinary mathematical precision. The ring castle consisted of two components: a main castle and a front castle.

map from wikipedia

The main castle is a circular place, surrounded by a strong and still existing ring bank, which towards the land side (south and east) is further strengthened by a curved broad and deep moat. This ring bank had four gates, one to each corner of the world, and these gates were interconnected  two and two (crosslike) with wooden streets crossing in the center of the place and dividing it in four equal sized sections. In each section were 4 equal size houses, arranged in blocks, a total of 16 houses. With their curved long walls and their straight cut ends these houses looked like ships with cut bows. Each house was divided in 3 rooms, one smaller in each end and a large mid-room, 18 meter long. The planks of the houses have disappeared, but have left marks in the earth in several places, which show the plan and the contour of the buildings.

A few lesser houses were noticed, partly guard houses at two gates, partly chief houses in the middle of two blocks, and finally a ship-shaped house in smaller dimensions north of the northeastern block. It seems furthermore that inside, along the ring bank, was a ring street. The ring bank had palisades on both sides and was in several places strengthened with an inside timber reinforcement. The 4 gates, which behind the palisades had strong stone packings, were covered by a timber loft and worked as tunnels. Outside they could be closed by a couple of gate wings (iron rings and big keys were found by the entrances). Outside, towards the landside, the ring bank was dressed with a mantle of stiff clay, held together by wooden sticks and branches. Towards the meadows, to the northwest and southwest, the bank rested upon a foot of stone and post work and was higher up covered by vertical palisades.

Trelleborg, the castle site, wikipedia

The second component of the castle was a reinforcement belt towards the landside = a front castle. This belt, which was curved to the south like the curve of the main castle, but square to the north, was fortificated with a low bank and a flat moat. Upon the curved section was built in a radial construction: total 13 elliptic longhouses in the same shape as the 16 block houses of the main castle, but of a little smaller size. Upon the square section of the belt were near the castle (outside its eastern gate)  two similar houses placed parallelly; and further to the east was the castle's burial site with ab. 150 graves, probably  following the ancient sacrifice place, which before Trelleborg's building belonged to the sacrifice place out on the isthmus. The  entrance to main castle and front castle were both from the south.

Trelleborg, photo H. Stiesdal 1948/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960  

An impressive  plan like Trelleborg was made by engineers. The used unit of measure is an approximated Roman foot (Roman normal foot: 29,57 cm - the calculated medium size of the Trelleborg foot is 29.33 cm ), which is shown in all the main measures of the castle. The block houses are 100 feet long, the front castle houses 90 feet, the ring bank is 60 feet broad, the small houses in the middle of the two blocks are 30 x 15 feet. Radius from the center to the inner edge of the ring bank is 234 feet, the distance between the two moats is also 234 feet, while the distance from the center to the nearest gables of the front castle houses has the double measure = 468 feet. In the construction the center was chosen first, from where the circular curves were marked which limit the banks and moats; the same center is also the cutting point of the two mutually perpendicular main axis, which divide the main castle area in four equal large sections, which continue through the four gates. All over the constructors have used extremely care and precision.The whole building plan inside the ring is constructed in squares.

 Example of house at Fyrkat/ photo grethe bachmann

Example of house at Fyrkat: photo: grethe bachmann 2010


Trelleborg has a splendid location in the large meadows with its back to the higher mainland. The holes in the underground from the houses are marked in the grass by cement -  the ring banks and the moats are partly rebuilt, and the visitors will get a stunning impression of how a Viking garrison looked in the Viking period. The National Museum has constructed a modelhouse in full size, it's like one of the front castle houses. It was  placed upon the site in a short distance from the castle. The modelhouse is built in wand construction with walls of broad vertical planks. The roof is constructed above cross beams where stand vertical short posts, it has a length-curved ridge and is thatched with wood chippings. Outside along the longwalls run a low gallery with its own roof; its purpose might have been to guard the longwall against rain and snow. A house had usually door in both gables and in both cross walls, and there were two side-doors in the long mid-room, one placed in each longside and always counterposed diagonally. The gable rooms had sometimes digged cellars ( maybe storerooms for food or waste pits or even dungeons). In the large mid-room was a plank or clay floor and a fireplace in the middle, and at the sides were probably broad sitting- and lying benches. In the roof probably an air hole (a lyre). The Trelleborg house is like this description. It is not certain and can never be if this house is exactly like it  really was. The construction has been critizised and there have been suggestions about other Trelleborg houses. The Fyrkat houses can tell us more ( see the coming article about Fyrkat). The Trelleborg house was renovated in the 1980s.

Trelleborg, common burial, photo 1948 NN/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.  


The burial site of Trelleborg tells us as expected that the main part of the buried were young or younger men (20-40 years); but there were also several women, a few children and some old people. The gifts in the graves were relatively few. Nothing indicates Christianity, unburnt burials with the body placed east-west were known in Denmark before Christianity arrived and marked the burial customs. Three graves were common graves, the largest with ten burials. The grave gifts included only few weapons ( most remarkable was an unusually  broad-edged, but also narrow-bladed silverplated war axe ) - there were several tools, like blacksmith tools and agricultural tools (scythe blades and a ploughshare). And furthermore jewelry, claypots and things for spinning and weaving. These things give Trelleborg a safe dating: namely to the last part of the 10th century and the first half of the 11th  (ab. 975-1050). The life of the castle was not long, but obviously it did exist, when Sven Tveskæg conquered England and when Cnut the Great fought the Three King Battle at Helgeaa.

 Trelleborg, silverchain with Thor-hammer, Danish/ Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne, Gyldendal 1960.


It is also obvious that Trelleborg was a military camp and a naval base. The location is classic with an easy access to the sea and however with protection and shelter from assault and floods. Ship could supposedly be trailed up the river stream to the castle, and each ship-shaped blockhouse housed a ship's crew. The contents of the graves (as for agricultural tools) indicate that the people of the castle had to provide supplies so they did not have to rob the farmers from the neighbourhood.

Trelleborg gives witness about a strong organizing power. This can only be a king, who was able to build such great plans. There are no supporting points, which indicate that a hostile power was stuck in Denmark. The archeaological finds do not tell about this -  and not history either. But history tells another story: that this period was marked by a Danish display of power. Trelleborg had room for 1200 men. It is not known when the Trelleborg camp went out of use. There are no traces after a finishing fire.

Text/translated: grethe bachmann 
Source Johannes Brøndsted, Vikingerne,Gyldendal 1960. 
 Next:  Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken. 

Information from Slagelse Municipality 2013:
Trelleborg is a fantastic piece of cultural heritage from the Viking period and the best and best preserved of the three circular castles Fyrkat, Trelleborg and Aggersborg. Together with among fx the Jelling monuments and Dannevirke the ring castles tell us about a very exiting and crucial time in Danish an European history.
The location Trelleborg was never forgotten, the main part of the earth banks were directly visible right up to the beginning of the excavation - and the circular inner bank is seen clearly upon maps from the 1600s and onward, but the character of the installations was first known as a Viking fortification when the National Museum started the excavations in 1934 under the leadership of archaeolog Poul Nørlund.  The excavation was provoked by a local motorcycle club who had rented the area in 1933 for the purpose of converting it into a motocross track.   
(Source:  Slagelse Kommunes hjemmeside. )




Other Informations (Source: wikipedia):

Trelleborg was the first discovery of a circular castle in Denmark.
 
The Trelleborg area is about 6 ha = 12 football fields. F

The excavation, the registration of findings and the reconstruction of building works were published in 1948 in a scientific paper written by Poul Nørlund. 

In 1979 it was succeeded to do a dendrochronological dating of wooden pieces from Trelleborg, and it was detected that the trees were felled in June or July 980.

For the building of Trelleborg was felled half of the oak woods which existed at Sjælland.


Already in Poul Nørlund's paper the building master was identified as either Harald Blåtand or Sven Tveskæg, mostly all scholars,who have commented this question, agree that it must be the same person, who was the building master of these castles. One of the essential arguments is the precise geometry in the main line of the plan and the common characteristics in the craftmanship. Another argument is the great  similarities in the design of the plans. The dendrochronological datings from Trelleborg points at Harald Blåtand as the building master and because of the dating the historians now mostly agree to point at Harald.

There are no written sources which mention the ring castles in a direct way. The known Scriptures close to the events are the chronicle by bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, written 1013-18, and an unnamed monk of St. Omer's tribute to Cnut the Great's widow, written about 1040. Here is a possible reference to the Trelleborgs, since it is told that Sven Tveskæg fortified his kingdom with castles, which had to be a protection against the enemies who had invaded and occupied the country.

Adam of Bremen's work from ab. 1070, descriptio insularum Aquilonis, illustrated a number of factors related to the Danish Viking period , but there has not been identified any mention of the ring castles. The Danish chronicles from the Middle Ages (Aggesen and Saxo) have no direct references either. It is remarkable that the ring castles are not mentioned, and it seems that the writers did not know the existence of the castles - and this is an indirect evidence of the short lifetime of these castles.


Latest info: 

Wooden shield from Trelleborg, exhibition Moesgård Museum Århus

In September 2008 archaeologists from Sydvestsjællands Museum and from Moesgård Museum (Århus) found a wooden shield during an excavation at Trelleborg. It is the first time a wooden shield was found in Denmark. The shield is about 80 cm diameter with a characteristic hole in the middle for the shield boss. The shield is dated to the Viking period and to the castle's usage period in the end of the 900s.

Anders Dorset, one of the leading archaeologist at the excavations, also considers that the examination shows evidence of that Trelleborg had a clear maritime significance.

The Vikings - they were also Farmers.........

Fyrkat, Viking longhouse

Around 1075 told Adam of Bremen (German medieval chronicler) about people in the North. He says about the Danes that they collect much gold in pirate expeditions, and their Vikings pay taxes to the Danish king in order to be allowed to rob the Barbarians in the Norwegian sea, but they often misuse this permission and rob their own countrymen. "And as soon one has caught his neighbour, he sells him without mercy as a slave to either a friend or a foreigner."

If a Viking was accussed of lese-majesty or something illegal, he would rather be decapitated than whipped. He knew no other punishment than axe or slavery, and when he had to accept his conviction with a happy face -tears, complaint or other signs of remorse were hated and despised. It was not allowed to cry for his sins or for his dear departed.

But the Viking was not just a brutal warrior, he was also a family man, a farmer, a craftsman, a jeweller - even a clergyman.

Thanks to archaeology it is known that the population of the Nordic countries in the 1000th century had lived in their countries for more than 10.000 years - a long space of time , and probably only in one occassion - just after 2000 B.C. - they had some innovation from a large immigration from south and southeast. The history of the North starts with sources ab. 800, while the archaeology goes thousands of years back - so it is possible to correct master Adam of Bremen, when he said that farming was unknown in Norway. This was not true. The Norwegian knew about farming, but it is true that the main occupation in the northernest sections was dominated by cattle-breeding, hunting and fishing.


corn shoots in spring

There were no borders between the countries, except the Dannevirke bank in Schleswig - the sea and the wilderness made the borders. In the late Viking period a border was marked, when Denmark got Skåne, Halland and Blekinge in Sweden.

In Denmark, Norway and Sweden lived in the Viking period a population with a more than thousands of years experience. The occupations were partly the ancient: hunting and fishing, partly the younger: farming and cattle breeding - and finally the trade. In the southern part of Scandinavia were all five often the base of the existence.

The most important tool in farming was the plough, and the Vikings knew several types, both the two old types of the "ard", and a more effective plough with iron-strengthening or completely made in iron. The fields were partly flat, broad fields, partly high-backed and narrow.


Hjerl Hede open air museum, village

Adam of Bremen continues to talk about the fertility of the three Nordic countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden. Norway was quite impossible, as for Denmark the earth of Jutland was barren, but the southern islands were fertile, and Sjælland (Zealand) was famous for its vigour. Sweden was extremely fertile. He says about Jutland: " except from places with water streams everything looks like a wilderness, salty land and extensive desert. Jutland is worse than many other places, poor crops, pirates at sea, it is hardly cultivated in any place or suitable for human living. But where the fjords are they have big cities".

It is not known exactly, which parts of the Nordic countries were cultivated in the Viking period, but from some knowledge about farming in Iron Age in the North before the Vikings and in the Middle Ages shortly after, it is possible to point out the areas and tracts, which the Viking farmer chiefly was ploughing. This differs from Adam of Bremen's Latin documents.


Viking pit-house, Sebbersund

To the Scandinavians, like to many other people in the world, the farming was sacred and closely connected to fertility-belief and rites. One thousand years after the Viking period up till present there are still strange ceremonies among Swedish farmers, connected to the first spring-ploughing, ancient rites, coloured by magic wishes about fertility and growth. So the Viking period is framed by sanctification in centuries before and after - farming was probably also sacred among the Vikings.

Other farming tools were sickle for harvesting corn, scythe for harvesting hay, a leaf knife for cutting tree's leaves and twigs for cattle-fodder, spade and pickaxe for working and cleaning the field. These tools are known from grave finds in Norway and Sweden. From the examined settlements were found rests of preserved corn - or imprints of corn in the clay. Danish examinations brings - compared to finds in Dk from Roman period - impressions that the rye reached a greater importance in the Viking period, while the barley and the oats' share of the yield was almost unchanged. The barley was the usual barley from Nordic prehistoric time: the six-rowed nodding barley.


Sletterhage, cattle


Lille Vildmose Reserve, auerochsen


Strands, Mols, Icelandic Pony

The cattle-breeding was just as important as the farming in southern Scandinavia, and far more important in the northern Scandinavia. In the northernest sections were simply no farming.

The Viking farmer's livestock was horse, oxen, sheep , goat and pig, plus dog and cat.

Oxen were used as draught animals in front of plough and harrow, sledge and cart; the cows delivered milk, and both oxen and cows finally gave meat and skin. Like the horses the cattle was smaller than today. It is estimated that cows in Haithabu only weighed 200 kilo and gave 500 liter milk a year, while their present descendants weigh 600 kilo and give ten times as much milk. An excavation of the village Vorbasse shows that the number of livestock on the farms was amazingly big. If all 7 farms in the village had equal number cattle, there would be at least 150 heads of cattle in the village in the early Viking period and three times as much in the 1000s. Even in the early period it must have been more than needed, which means that there must have been an export trade with cattle, increasing perceptibly up till the end of the period.


Skyum Bjerge, Thy, sheep


Dollerup Brook, goats

Other domestic animals are not possible to number, but caused by bone-finds from similar settlements there must also have been pigs in Vorbasse village. In most places were sheep. They were small, the bones found in a village west of Ålborg had a shoulder height of 57-69 cm. In many places were the sheep full-grown, probably kept for wool, while others were slaughtered while young for meat.

Goats, chicken and geese are known, as well as cats and various dogs. While most of the domestic animals were smaller than those we know today, some dogs were very large, looking like the present Grand Danois. The Vikings probably used dogs for both guarding and hunting, but game was seemingly not an important culinary part of the household. The fishing in the sea and in the lakes was important, in some places it is obvious that they have eaten large amounts of mussels. Berry and fruit made a healthy supplement to the food, like apples, plums, blackcurrant, wild strawberry and hazelnuts and gathering of spice herbs.

The fifth occupation of the Vikings was the trade and the two most important trade lines were - when they were trading with southern Europe - furs and slaves. Both trade lines are mentioned in literary sources. There is much evidence of slavery. In archbishop Rimbert's biography is told, how the holy man during a visit to Haithabu gives away his horse in order to redeem a miserable slave woman. Adam of Bremen talked much about the slave trade - and Arabian tales about the rus-people (Sweden) leaves no doubt that slaves were an important, and maybe the most important commodity. The late Laxdølasaga talks directly and straightforward about the slave trade. The slaves were probably mostly women. And the question is from where they came? Possibly from the domestic slaves. And as for the rus-people the sources say that the slaves were recruited by making inroads and plundering the surrounding Slavic tribes.


Hjerl hede, The oldest farm in Denmark

There was a sign of wealth among people in the Viking period. Everywhere in the country were large well-built houses, and the farmers had in general a large livestock. These signs were underlined by the occurrence of foreign import articles in almost all the excavated villages. The articles were probably paid with silver achieved from abroad, but most of the articles must have been paid with the profit from the export of surplus products, most of all cattle.

Many Danes were probably healthier and stronger, better nourished and better materially off in this period than their descendants in the 1800s. The height of males varied from 163 up till 184 cm, with an average of 172,6 cm, which is more than 4 cm higher than was measured at the sessions in Schleswig-Holstein in 1876-80. Men in the Viking period lived as long as in Iron Age with an average age of ab. 39, while women's average age rose to above 41. (This drastic change was caused by early deaths of young women during Iron Age. )


Hjerl Hede, reconstruction of church from 1000-1100s

The forests were used with care, the inhabitants in the village Vorbasse and many other villages were dependent on, what they produced themselves, but they were also able to get imported articles to their craftsmen etc. from other parts of Scandinavia and from Germany. Although many people might have been narrow-minded, and although the majority never travelled long, the societies were not at all isolated. Contacts and influences came from abroad together with trade, diplomacy, Christian mission and even with Viking expeditions abroad. Both ideas and things were imported. New ways to fabricate clothes, new styles in decoration, a new religion and new words in the language. The society was moving on.......

Source:
Johannes Brøndsted, "Vikingerne", Gyldendal 1960;
Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarkshistorie, bd. 3,
"Da Danmark blev Danmark", 700-1050,Peter Sawyer, 1988.


Hjerl Hede, the church inside.

photo 2002/2006/2007/2008/2009: grethe bachmann