Meeting the Vikings

The real Viking was part of the European culture for a lengthy period about a millennium ago. What we term the Viking period was actually part of the early Medieval epoch, extending from roughly AD 700’s till around 1100, some 4-500 years.

The Vikings were Norsemen, probably in the narrowest sense people hailing from Viken or the Oslo Fjord as we know it today. But they soon became the term defining Norsemen in general, those who had Scandinavia as their home lands. Originally the Norsemen, Vikings, were part of the migratory wave during the early part of our Christian Age, on the move in north-westerly direction from Eastern Europe, also termed as Goths and related tribes. Part of a move in quest of new home territories that started about 10 000 years ago as the last Ice Age started to withdraw, uncovering new, promising land territories in what was to become Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In Norway sub-tribes named Egds, Rygs, Hords, Trenders and Haaloygs settled the various parts, mainly along the coast. Those who settled around Viken, the Oslo Fjord, also became known as Vikings, naming the fierce Norsemen in quest for new territories, venturing into the British isles and the islands of the North Atlantic , Iceland, and Greenland and even Vinland which they tried to hang on for a few centuries after AD 1000. But they were too few to be able to stay in control, and after a while the Vikings withdrew to home territories or were assimilated into neighboring countries. Their home base became known as Noevegr or Norway, the road towards the North, the coastline from Viken to Bjarmeland or Northern Russia. Along the rocky coastline they found their livelihood from fish and sea-based game, and not far away the mountain regions offered game in abundance, such as reindeer etc. As the glaciers gradually withdrew, the valleys were also settled and farms were tilled in areas closer to the meat-supplies of the mountain regions.

In the course of the ensuing millennia the population kept swelling. Land became more scarce and new generations and younger sons had to look for new ways of making their livelihood. They became traders or merchants, and their vehicles became their swift ships which became known as Viking ships. For a long while those ships were not sturdy enough to be used for overseas trade. They had to stick to the coastlines around the North and Baltic Seas. But as they were capable of building stronger ships, they were able to navigate far afield, all over the European coasts and inland rivers, in particular the British Isles and further in northwesterly directions where new lands where up for a grab. They traded where treaties where arrived at. Where not so, they would raid, rob and steal as they saw fit and had a fair chance for success. But they were known to stick to agreements arrived into, and soon they where hired by foreign kings and rulers as mercenary soldiers in their power plays. Those chieftains who were successful, amassed fortunes in gold and silver which they in turn used to enhance their positions back home in becoming local kings, later on regional kings. Those who did not return home, would settle abroad, in the British Isles and in France etc. Etc, and soon became assimilated into local societies. As the Vikings became visible all over Europe, myths about them would proliferate and they were feared and respected, but they were actually most similar to the average European of their epoch, but aided by swift ships.

Back home the Vikings had their small settlements, their Chieftain Estates, their local strongholds along the coast with their ships and boats as swift means of transport both locally and far afield.

In order to gain a better idea of how the Vikings lived and operated around home base, a young Norwegian female and would be author who some 50 years ago resided in USA and studied at Yale and Colombia Universities, decided to study and to write about the way of life and lives of people of the Viking age. Her name is Vera Henriksen and she married a Norwegian young shipping executive, and they lived in the USA for some 15 years until the family moved back to Norway and resettled there. She succeeded remarkably well, even became highly decorated and went on to publish some 50 books over the following 50 years until she as an octogenarian put down her pen and PC, resting her Pegasus to be fed by oats gathered from a long life as an author together with her husband Olav Henriksen of 60 years. As a team we have cooperated all along and and are pleased to cooperate also in the effort to visualize Viking ways in sober presentations wherever fitting. We feel that the Viking Valley project at Gudvangen fills the bill for such a purpose. We feel that the better we all know about our past, the better we shall be able to carry out our task also in the future.

In our opinion the Viking Age, as recreated in Gudvangen, central to Viking expansion some 1000 years ago, may, with proper support and sponsorship, become a valuable initiative in the effort to better understanding through visualization in situ, how the Viking used to live at home. The initiative is most ambitious and will need, in addition to creative reconstruction, a well structured type of management with skills acquired during post-Viking capability over long periods.

Norway is proud of its past performance during the era of a Greater Norway. Now, the time has come to broaden our knowledge in general in a determination of looking also for future success. Gudvangen may once more be able to put in focus such values.

Lom, March 24th 2008
Olav G. Henriksen