Northmen: The Viking Saga AD 793-1241 (35 page)

According to the traditions recorded in
Landnámabók
,
Íslendingabók
, and the later Icelandic family sagas, the settlers of Iceland and the Faeroes were exiles fleeing the tyrannical rule that King Harald Fairhair (d
c.
930) is supposed to have imposed on Norway after he defeated his rivals at the battle of Hafrsfjord. This is unlikely to be true. The date of Harald’s victory is not known but it is unlikely to have taken place before 885 and was perhaps as late as 900. By this time the Faeroes had been long settled and the settlement of Iceland was already in full swing. Iceland was not fully settled until around 930, so Harald’s rule could have played a part in sustaining emigration but certainly cannot have been the initial cause. However, the Icelandic traditions probably do contain a deeper truth. The leaders of the settlement of Iceland were all members of the
hersir
class, local chieftains who made up the lower ranks of the aristocracy: there were no jarls or kings among the settlers. The
hersir
were the main losers in the growth of centralised authority in Scandinavia during the eighth and ninth centuries, as it steadily undermined their local autonomy and began to turn them into agents of the crown. For men of this class, the opportunity to emigrate to a land that was beyond the reach of kings must have been an attractive one. Those settlers who came from the Hebrides may have found Iceland attractive also because it was unpopulated, and so would be able to hold their land in greater security than in the isles, where they were always exposed to attack by the Gaels.

The land-taking

Most of the leading settlers, or
lándnámsmenn
(‘land-takers’), arrived in their own ships. These were not longships but sturdy merchant ships called
knarrs
. With shorter, broader and deeper hulls than longships, knarrs relied on sails alone, carrying only a couple of pairs of oars for manoeuvring in harbour. At the time of the settlements, knarrs probably had a cargo capacity of 25 –30 tons; later in the Viking Age knarrs were being built that could carry up to 50 tons of cargo. Sea trials with modern replicas have proved that knarrs were very seaworthy ships.
Saga
Siglar
, a replica of a 50-foot long knarr, known as
Skuldelev
1, found in Roskilde Fjord in Denmark, circumnavigated the world in 1984 –6 (though it later sank off the Spanish coast in 1992). The voyage to Iceland could take two to three weeks, often with stop-overs in Orkney, Shetland and the Faeroe Islands. The voyage cannot have been a comfortable experience. Knarrs were basically just large open boats without cabins to give crew and passengers shelter in bad weather. Tents were stretched over ships’ decks to provide shelter in harbour but it is unlikely that this could be done at sea because the tent would catch the wind and drive the ship off course. People probably had to huddle under sealskin or greased leather cloaks in the hold, along with the livestock, to keep warm. Nor was there any possibility of enjoying any hot food on the high seas. Shipwreck was a real possibility. In one bad year, of the thirty-five ships sailing to Iceland all but eight were wrecked.

In the early years of the settlement the
lándnámsmenn
found plenty of land to go around and they needed no formal legal institutions for establishing ownership. Possession was all. The
lándnámsmenn
claimed as much land as they thought they needed to support themselves and their free and servile dependents. One of the most prominent
lándnámsmenn
was a woman, Aud the Deep-Minded, the daughter of the famous Hebridean Viking Ketil Flatnose and widow of King Olaf the White of Dublin. After her husband’s death, Aud left Dublin and settled with her son Thorstein in Caithness in northern Scotland. After Thorstein was killed fighting the Scots, Aud took over leadership of his dependents and made the decision to emigrate to Iceland. While Viking Age Norse society was male dominated, it was not unusual for a woman to exercise authority, even though she had no formal role in public life. Norse society was hierarchical and, while an aristocratic woman might be inferior to an aristocratic man, she was always superior to everyone of lower social rank, whether they were men or women. Free-born Norse women of all social ranks enjoyed higher legal status than they did in Christian Europe. Women had the right to inherit property and a woman retained her property rights after marriage – her property did not become her husband’s as it did in Christian countries. Women also had the right to divorce their husbands if a marriage was unsuccessful. Once Christianity had become established in Scandinavia, women’s rights were gradually undermined as laws were bought into line with those prevailing in the rest of Europe.

Gender roles were clear-cut. Men ploughed, hunted, fished, traded and fought. Physically demanding crafts like blacksmithing and carpentry were also male preserves. Women’s lives were mainly confined to the home or family farm: they baked, brewed, spun thread, wove cloth, made clothes, milked the cows, churned butter, nursed the sick and looked after the children and, in wealthier households, managed the servants and slaves. Women wore the keys to the house and family strongbox on their belts as a symbol of their domestic authority. When their husbands were absent on business or campaign, women held full authority over the family estate and if they were widowed they took the place of their husbands unless they remarried. As the widow of a king, Aud’s authority over her followers and dependents would have been unquestioned. However, there was one male role she could not fulfil – she could not offer leadership in war, and it was undoubtedly this that lay at the root of her decision to emigrate.

Aud claimed several hundred square miles of land around Breiðarfjörður, settling where her high-seat pillars came ashore at Hvamm. The
Laxdæla
Saga
describes how Aud divided out the land between her followers:

‘The same spring that Aud set up household at Hvamm, Koll [one of her Norwegian followers] married her grand-daughter Thorgerd. Aud gave, at her own cost, the bridal-feast, and let Thorgerd have for her dowry all Laxárdalur (‘salmon-river valley’); and Koll set up a household there on the south side of the Laxá river.

‘After that Aud gave to more men parts of her land-take. To Hord she gave all Hörðudalur as far as Skraumuhlaups River. He lived at Hörðubolstaðr, and was a man of the greatest mark, and blessed with noble offspring... Aud spoke to her men and said: “Now you shall be rewarded for all your work, for now I do not lack means with which to pay each one of you for your toil and good-will. You all know that I have given the Irishman named Erp, son of Jarl Meldun, his freedom, for far away was it from my wish that so high-born a man should bear the name of slave.” Afterwards Aud gave him the lands of Sauðafell, between Tunguá River and Midá River... To Sökkolf Aud gave Sökkólfdalur, where he lived to old age. Hundi was the name of one of her freedmen. He was of Scottish kin. To him she gave Hundadalur. The fourth of Aud’s slaves was called Vifil and to him she gave Vifilsdalur.’ (trans. Magnus Maguusson and Herman Pálsson).

Aud was not unusual in freeing her slaves. Iceland’s cool climate is unsuitable for intensive agriculture and the land was most economically used as pasture with widely dispersed farmsteads. Slaves could not be closely supervised under these circumstances so it made more sense to free them and make them rent-paying tenants instead. Slavery soon died out as a result. Except in the south-west, which became the most densely populated part of Iceland, most of the settlements were close to the sea: the interior was, as it still is, uninhabited.

The Icelandic economy depended mainly on animal husbandry, primarily cattle and sheep but with some pigs. Cattle needed to be kept indoors during the long winters and needed good fodder if they were to continue to provide milk. For this reason the hay crop was of crucial importance. Horses were bred both for transport and meat. Barley was grown on a small scale in sheltered areas near the south coast but grain and flour were mostly imported luxuries. This provided a diet rich in meat and dairy products but with little bread or fresh vegetables. Fishing, hunting of seals, seabirds and waterfowl, gathering seabirds’ eggs, berries and shellfish, and scavenging beached whales provided a significant supplement to the Icelanders’ diet. Despite the unbalanced diet, studies of the skeletal remains of early Icelanders show that the population was well-nourished and healthy. Timber was the main building material in Scandinavia, but it was in short supply in Iceland. The settlers adapted, building the walls of their longhouses out of blocks of turf laid on stone foundations, so that wood was only needed for the roofs (which were covered with turf). The turf gave excellent insulation against wind and cold.

Founding the Althing

As Iceland began to fill up with settlers it became increasingly lawless, as disputes easily escalated into protracted blood feuds. Local leadership was assumed by the
go
ð
ar
, a small group of wealthy chieftains who could offer advocacy and protection to smaller landowners in return for their political and military support.
Go
ð
ar
literally means ‘priest’, and the word is used as such in Scandinavia, but in Iceland it was a wholly secular hereditary office. However, it was not a closed class and men could rise into it or fall out of it according to their fortunes. Without the support of a
go
ð
i
it was all but impossible for an ordinary freeman to hold on to his land, but this did not mean that the
go
ð
ar
could take the loyalty of their followers for granted. As freemen they could, and did, transfer their allegiance to another
go
ð
i
if their opinions were not taken into account or their interests were neglected. A consequence of this was that Icelandic chieftaincies were political rather than territorial units, as a
go
ð
i
’s followers could be scattered over a wide area.

The most important governmental institution of Viking Age Scandinavia after monarchy was the thing, an assembly of freemen at which local disputes and criminal offences were judged and at which new laws were made. Vikings took this institution with them when they emigrated and thing place-names are common in the areas of Britain where they settled, for example Tynwald (Isle of Man), Thingwall (Wirral), Dingwall (Ross and Cromarty), and Tingwall (one each in Orkney and Shetland). In Iceland the
go
ð
ar
set up district things to settle local disputes within a few years of the initial settlement. However, by the early tenth century the
go
ð
ar
recognised that there was a need for a higher authority to deal with wider disputes that the district things could not resolve. Appealing to the king of Norway was a possibility, but that would have limited Iceland’s independence, so around 930 the
go
ð
ar
set up an all-Iceland assembly, the Althing (
Alþingi
). An issue that had to be addressed before the Althing could meet was that Iceland had no national law. The settlers came from many different places and had brought with them their own local laws and customs, creating endless problems when trying to resolve disputes. In preparation for the setting-up of the Althing, a man called Ulfljot was sent to Norway for three years to adapt the Gulathing laws of western Norway to Icelandic conditions.

The law codes of Viking Age Scandinavia were not based on general principles but on specified penalties for specified offences. The bulk of law concerned the payment of
mannbœtr
(compensation) for injuries and killings. Penalties were usually financial, requiring compensation to be paid, for example in the case of injuries, so much for the loss of a hand, so much for the loss of an arm, and so on. The scale of compensation depended on the severity of the injuries and on the status of the victim. This last principle was not adopted by the Icelanders, all freemen were treated as being of equal worth. In the case of slaves, it was their owners who were compensated if they were killed or injured. Theft was usually punished by hanging as it was assumed that thieves would be too poor to pay compensation for their crime. The most serious penalty, outlawry, was reserved for those who refused to accept judgment or pay compensation. Outlawry literally placed the offender outside the protection of the law and meant that he could be killed with impunity by anyone. In Iceland, an outlaw could pay ransom for his life (usually a heavy silver ring), in which case his outlawry was limited to three years exile, and the outlaw continued to enjoy legal protection in specified places for up to three years while he arranged passage out of the country. If he failed to leave after three years, he was then sentenced to full outlawry, which was for life and involved total rejection from society. It was illegal to help a full outlaw in any way, including giving him food or shelter, and he was not safe even abroad. It was hard on his family too. He lost all his property and his children were declared illegitimate and lost their inheritance rights. The Icelandic laws allowed a full outlaw to redeem himself by killing another outlaw. This was a calculated measure to sow mistrust among outlaws and discourage them from forming bands. Scandinavian laws allowed cases affecting the honour of the disputants to be settled out of court by judicial duels. In Iceland, this was known as
hólmgangr
(‘island-going’), because the duels were usually held on islands in rivers. It was a right that was easily abused by good warriors.

Thingvellir

While Ulfljot was learning about Norwegian law, his half-brother Grímur Geitskör was sent to survey Iceland to find a suitable site to hold the Althing. The site he chose was Bláskógar, afterwards known as Thingvellir (‘thing plain’), a dramatic place of ravines and waterfalls in the valley of the Öxará River in south-west Iceland. Thingvellir is a remarkable place in a country that is not short of remarkable places and it would be nice to think that Grímur was motivated by aesthetic considerations. However, the reasons for his choice were altogether more prosaic: the owner of the land had recently been outlawed for murder so the site could be taken over without paying anyone compensation. Being in the heart of the most densely part of Iceland also meant that most Icelanders would not have to travel too far to attend the Althing. Thingvellir is a lava plain lying almost right over the rift where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are being forced apart. As the lava plain was stretched by the movement of the tectonic plates, its surface cracked forming chasms and ravines and it was in the shelter of one of these, on the western edge of the plain, that the Althing was held. The Althing met annually for two weeks during June, when travelling was easiest and there was almost twenty-four hour daylight. Meetings were always held in the open air. People attending the Althing lived in temporary booths, the turf foundations of some of which can still be seen, or in tents. Until a church was built there in the eleventh century, there were no permanent structures on the site. The main business of the Althing was conducted from two different locations, the Lögberg (‘Law Rock’), a natural platform for making speeches, and Neðri-Vellir, a level place on the west bank of the Öxará, where the
Lögretta
(‘Law Council’) met.