Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981 - 67

Part ofa stonecist dating to the tenth to
eleventhcenturiesfound in Andre,Sweden. Length,82.5centimeters.
Viking activities in the west are also
the subject of the sixth episode, Bitter is
the Wind, although here the attention
shifts from England to examine the impact of Viking settlers on the Isle of Man
and Ireland. The traditional view that
the golden age of Irish culture was destroyed by the Vikings is challenged by
scenes of the Dublin excavations, which
show that the interaction between Celt
and Scandinavian was often extremely
fruitful. This episode also contains
another of the excellent demonstrations
of Viking technology: John Anstee is
shown creating a sword blade by forging
together many iron rods.
From the British Isles, the Vikings
ventured further west to establish colonies in the Faeroe Islands, Iceland,
Greenland and, at least for a short time,
North America. These voyages are the
subject of the seventh and eighth episodes, An Island Called Thüle and The
Ultimate Outpost. Magnusson dwells
lovingly on Iceland as the home of the
sagas and northern Europe's first republic founded "in an era of burgeoning
monarchies." The account of the Viking
settlements in Greenland and North
America is heavily dependent on the
sagas, but the excavations at Eirik the
Red's farmstead at Brattahlid in Greenland, and at L'Anse aux Meadows in
Newfoundland are amply discussed.
Unfortunately, Magnusson describes
the environment of Vinland as told in
the sagas while walking about on Gardner's Island, New York, making it all to
easy to assume that he is identifying
that place with Vinland. Various misconceptions about Viking activities in
America are firmly and tactfully dealt
with, and Magnusson points out that
the real Viking invasion of America
took place in the nineteenth century.
The final two episodes, Empire of the
Northern Seas and Here King Harold is
Killed , are almost entirely historical in
content and deal with the events of the
eleventh century. By that time, the Viking raids were no longer isolated acts of
violence by shiploads of men out for personal gain. Instead they were carefully
considered acts of warfare perpetrated
by monarchs for political and economic
control of specific regions. The ninth
episode discusses the foundation of the
Norse earldom in the Orkney Islands,
and the welding of Denmark, Norway

and England into a North Sea Empire
by King Cnut the Great of Denmark.
Cnut's empire did not survive his death,
but the politics of the three nations were
bound tightly together until the end of
the Viking period. This is traditionally
believed to have occurred in A.D. 1066
when King Harold Godwinson of England defeated King Harald Hardrada
of Norway at the battle of Stamford
Bridge; Harold was in turn defeated by
William of Normandy at the battle of
Hastings, vividly illustrated in the final
episode by scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry. Although the events at Hastings
did mark the end of Scandinavian dominance in North Sea politics, purists may
take exception to Magnusson's closing
statement to the effect that the Viking
period ended at about 6 p.m. on October
14, 1066.
As can be seen from this summary, a
considerably portion of this series covers Viking activities abroad, particularly in the British Isles, rather than
events in Scandinavia. To a certain extent, this bias reflects the fact that there
were no Scandinavian historical sources
available until the end of the Viking
period and that the Viking period is primarily an overseas phenomenon. Within Scandinavia there is an unbroken
cultural sequence from the fourth century after Christ until the advent of
Christianity in the eleventh century. It
seems a shame, however, to put quite so j
Tenth to eleventhcenturyelk
antler mountin the shapeofa
maleheadfromSigtuna,Sweden. Length,22 centimeters.

much effort into dramatizing well-documented historical events, when recent
archaeological research has done so
much to enhance our knowledge of the
Viking economy and technology. The
sequences demonstrating Viking tools
and artifacts are superb. Film is the
ideal medium in which to record activities such as shipbuilding and ironworking. Watching a smith patiently forming a šword blade or a ship breasting the
waves evokes the spirit of the Vikings in
a way that cannot be paralleled in any
static medium. These sequences, more
than any others, enable the series to
capture the romance of the Vikings
while at the same time conveying a
great deal of fascinating information.

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1981