The “Viking Age” started at the end of the 8th century when Vikings started raiding neighboring countries, especially Britain.
Of course, the people who would become the Vikings were already living in Scandinavia by 790 CE, but they became pirates, or “Vikings,” when they started raiding.
Much of the evidence we have for Viking culture and Norse beliefs comes from after the Viking Age (which officially ended in 1066), from Christian Scandinavia, and before the Viking Age, a period known as the Vendel Period.
When was the Vendel Period?
The Vendel Period is usually dated to between 540-790 CE, after the Migration Period (300-600 CE), which saw widespread migration across Europe, including of Germanic people into Scandinavia, and before the Viking Age.
It is called “Vendel” after a rich boat inhumation cemetery found at Vedel Parish in Uppland, Sweden.
At this time, we see “Proto-Viking” culture, in which the main principles of Norse religion seem to have been established, Elder Futhark runes were replaced with the Younger Futhark Runes of the Viking Age, and a warrior class was emerging that enabled a move towards raiding as a viable economic prospect.
Vendel Period Art
Some of the most interesting examples of Norse art come from the Vendel Period, and common themes can be seen between Vendel and Viking Age art.
Intricate animal motifs, geometric patterns, and interlace designs characterize Vendel Period art.
These designs adorned elaborate helmets, shields, and jewelry owned by the elite and often found in burial mounds.
The Vendel burial mound contained a fine helmet similar to the Sutton Hoo helmet found in England, which seems to have been influenced by Norse culture.
More famous than any helmet from the Vendel Period, however, are the Torslunda Plates, found at Oland in Sweden.
These are molds that were used to imprint designs on various objects, such as helmets, and reveal some interesting scenes.
These include warriors carrying spears – a common weapon in Viking Age art and associated with the Norse god Odin – dancing men with helmed headdresses, men wearing wolfskin cloaks, men holding axes and roped animals, and men standing between bears.
It has been suggested that several of these scenes could be associated with the rituals conducted for berserker warriors to commune with the spirit of the bear and other powerful animals before going into battle.
Vendel Votive Gold
Another example of Vendel Period art is gold Bracteates, around 1,000 of which have been found across Scandinavia.
These look like gold coins but are thinner and only decorated on one side.
They were worn as jewelry, as indicated by loops at the top.
They may also sometimes have been used as votive offerings to the gods.
Themes of warrior culture and mythology appear on Bracteates.
For example, there often seem to be Viking warriors riding horses, and also Odin, as identified by the presence of ravens and sears, both of which were associated with Odin by the Viking Age.
That birds and spears were already associated with Odin in the Vendel Period has been proven by a Bracteate found in 2020 that shows these motifs with a short runic inscription reading “Odin.”
We also see a man with his hand in the mouth of a wolf, a reference to the story of Tyr and Fenrir in Norse mythology.
Short runic inscriptions and symbols such as swastikas are also common.
Researchers still do not know what swastikas represented in the Viking world, but they were probably associated with the sun, chariot wheels, or shields.
Guldglubber is also a phenomenon of the Vendel Period.
These are small gold leaf objects, usually measuring around two centimeters, also depicting what seem to be scenes from mythology.
There is an image of sacred marriage, probably between two gods, human figures who are also probably gods, and wraiths, who may represent ancestors.
Unlike other precious objects that are usually found in burials or hoards, these are usually found in deposit groups, usually in the foundations of buildings.
This suggests that they were votive offerings used to sanctify or protect important spaces when they were constructed.
Bog Burials
In addition to boat burials, common in the Viking Age, appearing during the Vendel Period, there were also a number of bog burials.
It is generally agreed that the Norse thought that placing something in a bog could transfer it to the gods and that the placement of bodies in bogs was for ritual purposes.
But more interesting than the deposit of bodies in bogs in the Vendel Period was the deposit of ships in bogs.
In Norway, more than 40 ships have been found placed in bogs. The best preserved are from Kvalsund.
They are a pair, a ship and a smaller boat, dating to the 7th or 8th century, so the height of the Vendel Period.
They were clearly offerings because they were carefully placed.
A bed of white moss turf, made from pure moss, heather, twigs, and woodchips, was placed under the boats.
A similar substance covered the boats. There is also evidence of stones placed around the burial, probably as stepping stones for those doing the work.
As well as tools such as oars, interred with the boats were an arrow, a bowl, and a speaking trumpet.
Considering the location of these 40+ boat bog burials along the Norwegian coast, it is difficult not to see these as offerings to the gods, no doubt to ensure good winds and safe journeys.
Runic Evidence for the Vendel Period
While many later written sources, mostly composed in the 13th century, report to refer to things that happened in the Vendel Period, we have almost no written sources from this period by the people of Scandinavia themselves.
We know that the locals were using the Elder Futhark runic script, which would be replaced by Younger Futhark by the Viking Age, but very few inscriptions survive.
Long inscriptions are rare, what mostly survives is short inscriptions on objects such as jewelry, bracteates, and weapons, often found in ritual contexts such as deposited in bogs.
The words that most frequently appear include ALU LATHU and LAUKAZ, which may have had magical significance.
ALU seems to have no meaning, and it has been suggested that it was a combination used for protection.
There are also examples of the Tiwaz rune inscribed repeatedly, which seems to be a magical combination for protection.
LAUKAS seems to be linked with leeks, which was considered an important magical plant among the Vikings.
Many Scandinavian Runestones, inscribed with images and sometimes short runic inscriptions, also date from this period.
They show the transition to Younger Futhark runes starting in the 6th century.
The longest Elder Futhark inscription dates from right at the end of the Vendel Period, at the start of the 8th century, and is on the Eggja Stone, found in Vestland, Norway.
The inscription explains that the stone was prepared according to tradition, an animal blood sacrifice made, and the blood sprinkled on the stone.
There is a call for a god of warriors who guides the dead into the afterlife – Odin – to come and escort the deceased for whom the stone was raised into the afterlife.
Other important runestones include the Klyver Stone, which contains the full Elder Futhark alphabet and seems to have been placed to prevent the dead from rising as draugr.
The Möjbro Runestone includes an image of a mounted warrior. The Stentoften Runestone contains a curse.
Written Sources for the Vendel Period
A Goth scholar called Jordanes from much further east in Europe mentions elite mounted warriors present in the area at the time as he comments on the quality of their horses.
This aligns with the evidence from Bracteates, many of which show warriors on horses.
The Old English poem Beowulf also reports to describe life and events in Scandinavia during this period, in the 6th century.
This is a highly fantastical tale populated by heroes and monsters, so not everything can be taken at face value.
In addition, while the poem is probably based on oral tradition that may have begun as early as the 6th century, the evidence suggests that the poem was only written down in the 10th century, and was probably “modernized” to include 10th-century Christian views of what those “barbaric pagan times” were like.
Nevertheless, there is good evidence that Beowulf was set in a historical world with some characters (excluding Beowulf himself) being referenced in other sources.
It also seems likely that aspects of the world painted by the poem have a basis in fact.
This has been discussed extensively by historian Tom Shippey.
One example he gives is evidence that when Viking tribes conquered one another, they would destroy the mead benches in the defeated group’s longhouse to undermine their center of administration and power.
Vendel to Viking
What happened that saw Scandinavia move from the Vendel to the Viking Age ?
It is important to note that this did not happen immediately in 790 CE.
While this is around the time of the first raids on Britain, there is evidence that the Vikings were already raiding the Baltics a century or so earlier, and they also traveled to the east to settle areas in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
But the Vendel Period did see the rise of a warrior elite, which was a prerequisite for the age of raiding.
The structure of Viking society was different from neighboring Christian kingdoms that focused on a king and a small elite class who owned most of the country’s land.
This land was worked by peasants and serfs living a subsistence lifestyle.
The Vikings were organized into relatively small communities led by a local chief. Within the community, there would be scores of relatively wealthy landowners who had prosperous farms worked by family members, paid hands, and slaves.
Raised above subsistence, many Viking landowners had the wealth to invest in ships and weapons and the time to spend several months a year away from home as part of relatively egalitarian raiding parties.
A story from the Frankish Annales has a band of Danish Vikings arriving in Frankish lands.
When the Frankish emissary asks to see the Viking leader, the Vikings respond that they are all leaders.
This social structure, combined with improved ship technology in the 7th and 8th centuries, allowed the Norse people to look beyond their borders and adopt the raiding, Viking, lifestyle.
