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Last Updated: October 23, 2001

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Special Feature -- Book Reviews

Yves Cohat's The Vikings,
Lords of the Seas
(Part 2)

By Paul Rice

The Vikings, Lords of the Seas, by Yves Cohat (Harry Abrams, April 1992). 175 page paperback edition.

[ Return to Part 1

Chapter V - Navigators and Traders

Stone age Nordic boats were 6 x 35 ft, covered with animal skins. In the Bronze Age they were made of wooden planks and covered with leather. Early ships were keeless, too narrow, and the gunwale was too low for open seas. They lacked a sail.

In the seventh century the Scandinavians invented the keel, and raised a mast and sail. On an 80 ft dragon ship, the mast rose 60-66 ft, with 330 sq ft of woolen sail, usually colored red.

A drakkar was perfectly symmetrical. The prow and stern identical, and the sail in the dead center. After going up river or beaching on shore, they did not need to turn the boat around. The ships had a very shallow draft.

They used a type of astrolabe to determine position, and as some of us have discussed before, the Sunstone to help determine the direction of the sun in overcast skies. They would have had the navigator's basic understanding of astronomy. Like many ancient mariners, they also used "the direction of the wind, the noise of the waves against the stem post, the wake of the boat, the behavior of seabirds, the movements of fish and whales, the changes of temperature, and the variation in the color of the water."

In the early Viking years, they had drakkars and knorrs. The drakkars are the all purpose dragon ships you are familiar with, built for raiding, warfare, going up rivers, exploring, and basically all tasks. Knorrs were cargo ships, smaller, and better able to handle ice. Cohat gives several pages of descriptions and sketches of boats, everything short of blueprints, in case you want to build your own.

In later years they had several different types of ships, frequently in 2 sizes.

Life on board had to be pretty simple and dull.

Imports: "Eastern spices and silk, gold from the Danube, arms from the Frankish kingdoms, jet from England, and Rhine wines", and timber. Exports: "...slaves, dried fish, honey, and furs," wool, walrus ivory. Since the king collected taxes, with the increase in trade wealth, the kings tried to seize more power from the Althing. The tradesmen, members of the Althing, formed guilds to resist the new powers of kings. Silver was the most common currency.

The Swedes invented blind barter, which must have required a lot of trust.

Common household tools were intricately engraved.

Chapter VI -- The Vikings at Home

Scandinavia was divided into three classes: slaves (traells), freedmen, and chieftains. They had kings, who wielded little power in the face of the Thing.

The life of a slave was about what you'd think, except it couldn't have been too bad since they probably slept in the same room as the owner.

Freedmen owned their own land, and "..enjoyed a place in society far superior to that of most European peasants at the time. They formed the economic and political base of Scandinavian society and had the right to carry arms and appeal to the courts." Sound familiar?

Freedwomen were not the equal of freedmen, but could still own property and slaves, and managed domestic affairs during their husbands' long absences. Freedmen were allowed several wives: a maximum of one freedwomen, who in fact might own the house, and as many concubine slaves as he could manage. [From the previous book, freedwomen had the right to initiate divorce for any cause, and to remarry.]

As Viking civilization grew, an artisan class sprang up, including smiths of all kinds, "soldiers, merchants, carpenters, and other professional people." This would have been around the ninth century, while the English, French, and German serfs were still slopping around in the mud.

"The chieftains and kings were elected by the assembly, the Thing, and were responsible for their actions to the electorate. Their power depended upon the goodwill of the people, whose decision the king had to approve.

The king's essential task was to uphold the security, prosperity, and honor of the people. He was also the religious chief. Until the creation of centralized monarchies, encouraged by Christianity, the king had no legislative power. The Althing was the sole legal authority.

All decisions touching the lives of the Vikings were made in the Assembly. This was the sole legislative and judicial body of Viking society." Things were scheduled once or twice a year. They also acted as tribunals, and the accused had specific rights. In addition, Vikings could settle their disputes through single combat, which had the power of law.

Family honor was very important, and much blood could be spilled for generations over a grievance. To be banished from the family was as bad as to be banished from the country.

"Most Vikings lived in farms or in large communal homes." Longhouses were about 40 feet long, one story, and had turf roofs. They had no windows, and the hearth was near the center of the room. Everybody slept in the main hall. Some homes had adjoining rooms connected by hallways, all covered with turf. Some homes had saunas. Food preparation was low tech. One imagines it was dark and smelly inside a longhouse, and privacy was rare.

Virtually every surface of a tool or dish was decorated.

Chapter VII -- Gods and Heroes

This is probably old news to everyone. Cohat presents the three main gods of Norse mythos as Thor, Odin, and Frey. The gods (Aesir) lived at Asgard, a mighty fortress. The ash tree Yggdrasil grew in the middle of Asgard, which supported the world. At its root are three springs, one of which feeds all the rivers in Midgard, where humans live. [Cohat doesn't mention all the other areas, nor the various gods other than a few. He doesn't go into the bridge between Asgard and Midgard, Bifrost, which is protected by Heimdall, nor Ragnarok, the final battle.]

Odin (Wodin) was the supreme god, god of knowledge and victory: a grand strategist who won more through guile than force. He was also god of musicians, runes, poets, and bards. He rode an eight legged horse named Sleipnir. His ravens Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory) followed him around. It's interesting that, in a previous chapter, Floki of Rogaland discovered Iceland by releasing two ravens, and following which way they flew. (They circled to a higher altitude until they could see land.)

Thor, son of Odin, was the god of thunder, his chariot pulled by two goats, Thanngnjost and Tanngrisnir. His hammer Mjollnir, [probably the most renowned "object" in Norse mythos, creates lightning, and] kills various enemies with one blow. His house of 440 doors is Bilskimir. Thor was the most popular god among Vikings, since he was more benevolent to the common man than Odin.

Frey was the god of fertility. It was his sister Freyja, goddess of beauty, who was queen of the Valkyries. Valkyries, of course, were beautiful virgin warrior goddesses who rode horses through the sky, picked up warriors killed in battle, and took them to Valhalla, the Norse afterlife for warriors.

He only mentions Loki -- god of mischief and a general pain in the ass -- in passing, but he appears in a later chapter.

Worshipers had the usual relationship with their gods. They sacrificed and performed rituals, and expected some type of reward in return. An Arab writer recounts witnessing a Viking offering "bread, onions, milk, meat, and nabib (a kind of beer)" to a totem pole of his god. Human sacrifice was not unheard of, particularly during the funeral of a famous person.

"No vestige has ever been found of any kind of sacred building." All Norse religious activity took place out of doors in nature, sometimes around landmarks like springs or boulders. "...numerous place names consists of a god followed by lund (wood), vin (meadow), or aker (field)." Vikings had no professional priests. The local chief or head of the family served that capacity.

Cohat uses this chapter to discuss the sagas and bards. Sagas were passed down through the oral tradition. As a result, many have been lost to the ages. They are legendary in having been great tales, and are the Vikings' most famous art form. Heroes had the qualities of high birth, valor, quickness to take offense, and love of adventure, danger, and war. Not until the next chapter does he mention the eddas, or the kenning, a complex and subtle form of poetry. Unfortunately, it didn't translate from Norse well, and has for the most part died. Bards carried both the eddas and the sagas by word of mouth, and kings hired bards to entertain them.

This ends the chapter oriented part of the book. There follows several "documents" which can be thought of as appendices. I will address them all in the next installment. In between, he provided close up color photos of the Bayeux tapestry, depicting the invasion of England by William in 1066.

Vikings -- Documents (VIII)

Here he provides a few miscellaneous pieces, all in modern English. There are Egil's Saga, The Laxdaela Saga, The Eddas, The Death of Baldr, The Saga of Frithiof. Other than the description of the Eddas, these are Scandinavian tales, all translated, some perhaps newer than others.

The Siege of Paris -- from the French point of view.

The Magic of Runes -- Runes were actually considered magical, [probably because the majority of the populace was completely illiterate.] They were sometimes carved on enormous rocks.

Funerary Ritual: The Tale of an Arab Traveller. [I had read a different translation of this exact story before, probably in the Viking book I read over the winter.] In addition to the burial in a ship (frequently on land and not always a flaming ship sailing into the waves...), the ritual burial of this high ranking Viking consisted of a long series of heavy drinking, gang bangs, sacrifices, and finally human sacrifice of one of the deceased's slave girls.

Everyday Objects -- household items.

L'Anse Aux Meadows -- the first long term European settlement in the new world.

The Ships of Roskilde -- more ship archaeology.

and then a timeline.

[ Return to Part 1 ]

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