Northern wights
DAVID KNOWLES
The Viking Achievement P. G. Foote and D. M. Wilson (Sidgwick and Jackson 65s) This book, unlike some of its predecessors in the series 'Great Civilisations', is a scholarly and factual account erring, if at all, on the side of austerity. Its authors are both scholars of repute in the fields of archaeology and linguistics, and they have provided here for the first time a rounded view of the Scan- dinavian culture in the age of the expansion of the Northmen. Almost the only fault that can be found is with the title. The Vikings, both etymologically and historically, were the Norsemen on the move into other people's lands, as seen from the receiving end. They were the pirates and robbers in their long ships who beat against the peri- phery of western Christendom between 800 and 1070. Consequently, the reader might have expected an account of their wars and conquests all round the British Isles and the coasts of north-western France—con- quests which in the case of the Normans set off a second explosion in every direction. Instead, the Vikings have tacitly become the
Scandinavians at home for the greater part of the book, and it is their life and culture in what are now Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland that are analysed and discussed in detail.
For this a full and satisfying picture is drawn of a culture that is almost a civilisa- tion, and of a people living peaceably on their farms inland, or leading an amphibious existence in the fjords and islands, with a small holding between sea and mountains and a fishing boat on the shore. All the objects and structures of this people are described by an expert archaeologist. In one
field at least the Vikings reached a summit
of perfection: the construction and naviga- tion of their ships. The Oseberg ship is one of the aesthetic wonders of the world, and the beauty of such vessels is matched per- fectly by their seaworthiness. We are given a full and fascinating description of every, detail of the construction of the hull and its fittings. The Gokstad ship, we are told, with an overall length of 23.3 metres and a dead- weight without her crew of seventy and their equipment of nine tons, drew, when fully loaded. only 95 cm of water. With these craft the Vikings could go far up a river before disembarking. Yet these ships and their sisters made regular trips to Iceland and Greenland, and an exact replica crossed the Atlantic successfully in 1893.
The Scandinavian excellence in shipbuild- ing was matched by their skill in carving and metalwork. Here again their work reaches perfection. The prows of the royal ships, their helmets, even their saddles could be set against the finished work of any civilisation. One of the authors suggests that the grace of the carving on the portal of the stave-church of Urnes is 'almost slick', but no one who has seen it. if only in a good reproduction, can ever forget it.
The section on poetry is of necessity somewhat linguistic, and those whose Norse is not up to 0 level must take the literary beauty on trust. for, as the writer of this part says, the magic of the poetry scarcely comes through in a translation. It is perhaps a pity that the title of Viking (which is anyhow vague in its reference) could not have been stretched a little to include the early Icelandic: sagas, which hold a place in world literature equal to that of the Scandinavian carving.
I am no anthropologist, and perhaps commit an unforgivable solecism by com- paring the Viking civilisation with that of the Homeric poems, but there is the same mixture of farming, fishing and peace with shipbuilding and war. Achilles' shield matches the Viking helmet, and the lays that must have preceded the Iliad may well have resembled Eddaic verse: in both cul- tures there are slaves and outcrops of bar- barity. We can see why the Anglo-Saxons regarded the Vikings as the scourge of God. yet when once settled on a Lincolnshire farm the pirates became hayseeds and good Christians in a generation.
In short, this is a fascinating book, authoritative and readable. Though the authors keep well away from romanticism, they take a friendly and sympathetic view of their Scandinavians. One or two vivid phrases remain in the memory: 'Their par- ties were alcoholic in the extreme . . . and must have had a frightful hangover', and: 'Tactics generally were simple and elemen- tal, consisting largely of bashing hell out of the opposing side' with battleaxes. Such touches of nature soften the image of the austere archaeologist.
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