The Vikings left us some of the most vivid stories in medieval literature, and almost none of them were written by Vikings. Norse society ran on memory and speech; it did not write its history while making it. So what we know comes from three kinds of witnesses: the people the Vikings raided and traded with, including Christian chroniclers and Muslim travelers like Ibn Fadlan; the Icelanders who wrote down sagas and poems generations later; and the objects the Vikings left in the ground.
Christian Sources
The Christian sources available include the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Frankish and Irish Annals, the letters of Alcuin, and Wulfstan’s “Sermon of the Wolf.” The latter two interpreted the Viking raids as God’s punishment of the Anglo-Saxons. Because these were written by Christians and the Vikings were attacking monasteries for their wealth, the Vikings were painted in a negative light and their atrocities amplified. Christian monarchs, who participated in similar activities, were not condemned religiously.
The Icelandic Sagas
These stories, written after the academically accepted fall of Viking relevance, were often used to support a king or noble by connecting him and his family with events of the past. At one time, historians accepted these tales as fact, except when they were clearly using mythology. The pendulum swung the other way, and historians decided that the sagas were worthless as historical documents. Currently, historians recognize that the sagas have more than just literary value; they just have to be used carefully when looking for historical value.
Skaldic Verses
Many of the skaldic poems that survive are quoted inside the sagas and credited to known poets (skalds). They were composed, orally, at or near the time of the events they describe, and passed down by memory for two or three centuries before anyone wrote them on vellum. Their fiendishly strict form helps their credibility: with fixed syllable counts, internal rhyme and alliteration, a verse is hard to alter without breaking it.
Still, skaldic verses may have been created at a later date and attributed to the original skalds. These verses also contain highly poetic language that can make them difficult to understand. Finally, the strict structure also meant that skalds were more concerned with verses that worked. The accuracy of the historic event presented in the verse was somewhat less important.
Other Sources
The Vikings did write, briefly, in runes. They carved them into memorial stones, but also onto wood, bone and metal, which is why their messages tend to be short: names, memorials, ownership marks. (The tradition outlived the Vikings. Hundreds of carved sticks from medieval Bergen, a century or more later, carry everything from business notes to jokes and love messages.) Coins help too. Viking-Age coins were not stamped with a year, but a coin of a known king or mint tells archaeologists that a grave or hoard can be no older than that coin.
Every post on this blog leans on these sources, and we try to tell you which ones. When you see us write ‘according to the sagas,’ now you know why that little phrase matters.
Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/evidence_01.shtml
