Legacy of the Vikings, by Gråulf

History has not been kind to the Vikings, and most historians discount them as barbarian terrorists, who brought paganism and ignorance with them. That is what happens when your enemies get to write the history. The motives of the Vikings are presumed to have been greed, and their lust for plunders and murder. They are accused of having all the moral attributes of a pack of wolves. And yet, they brought a new concept of society with them that emphasized individual liberty and rights, the basic principles of what would eventually become English Law.

By the ninth century the Viking raids developed into organized invasions. Christianity was by no means firmly established in all of England by then, and the pagan Vikings found both encouragement and help there. The Danes focused their conquests there, and had conquered a great part of England by 886, when the English king, Alfred the Great, made a pact with Gurhrum, leader of the Danes, recognizing their rule over their conquest, the Danelaw.

The Vikings became settlers because conditions were changing at home, where petty chieftains were converting to Christianity for political reasons. They then proceeded to preach the gospel to their neighbors with fire and sword. By the reign of Valdemar the Great there were no more independent chieftains in Denmark. Harold the Fairhaired did the same in Norway, and got his name because he made a vow not to cut his hair until he had killed, or driven out every pagan in Norway. The Northmen had a tradition of democracy leading back a thousand years, to the beginning of the Iron Age. At that time the emerging Celtic Empire flourished and cut the trade routes from Scandinavia into Southern Europe. The success of the Celts was due to their discovery of Iron. The Northmen adapted this new metal for their own use, as it was readily available throughout the North in the form of bog-iron, and was vastly superior to bronze for tools and weapons. This change was the beginning of the end for the upper class in the north. Their power and wealth had been based on having control of the trade of copper and tin, essential in the manufacturing of bronze. A shift in ocean currents at this time caused the climate to become much colder and wetter, and it became harder to survive in the north. Consequently the hungry and impoverished upper class had to become farmers to survive, and the distinction between classes began to blur. By the Viking Age a tradition of equality permeated Nordic society. Chieftains were called kings, but were chosen by their people at the annual Alting, a representative body of all free men, were laws were made and acted upon. Kings were chosen for their ability and strength in battle and were followed only so long as they proved themselves worthy. The ancient Danish saga Beowulf, recorded and preserved by English monks, speaks of this ideal. It talks of a King who "Heaped troubles on his unhappy people's heads." He had become so swelled with his own wealth and power that "He deserved to suffer and die."

The Viking settlers of Danelaw were not inclined to repeat the conditions that had forced them to leave their homeland in search of freedom. They brought their traditions of individual rights and privileges with them, and even strengthened and reinforced these traditions in their new homeland. Consequently there was never a king of Danelaw. Danish law and custom dovetailed neatly into almost forgotten Anglo-Saxon traditions because they were the same people removed by four hundred years. Their language and culture was similar, although continental notions of feudalism had influenced the English to some extent. Also, the Danes brought prosperity. They were accomplished traders and merchants as well as warrior farmers. They opened England to Continental trade, especially with the Baltic, as well as founding the first English fortified towns and cities along their borders.

The Danes became deeply embedded in their adopted country, where their intense love of the land they had won by the sword is reflected to this day in English property and land laws. In England a free man could go from one lord to another and transfer his land with him. The essence of continental feudalism, on the other hand, was that the land remained under the lord, whatever the man might do. As time passed the Viking settlers forgot the sea, and thought only off the land. They also gradually became Christians, though their distrust of the church was so deeply embedded in their culture that the English church never again regained the power it had before the coming of the Danes.

Danish law and custom became the practice of all England between 1017 and 1042 when England was part of the Danish empire. Under king Canute the government of England was individual to the background and philosophy of the people. Canute ruled according to the laws of the land, and he made it known that these were to be administered in austere detachment from his executive authority. He made a point of submitting himself to the laws whereby he ruled, and even in his military capacity submitted himself to the regulations of his household troops. It is clear that this notion of the king being subject to the law survived the Norman conquest of England, and that it predates the Magna Carta. When the line of Canute died out in 1042, with the death of Harthacanute the English, Anglo-Saxons and Danes together, turned back to the line of Alfred, and chose Edward, later called the Confessor, as their king. That set in motion events leading to the invasion of England by the Norman's in 1066.

The feudal system, which the Norman’s brought to England, was in direct contrast to the ideals of liberty that the Danes in England expressed. There was no feudal system in England until after the Norman Conquest, and when William the Conqueror took the throne of England he had to moderate his notion of kingship to what his new subjects would accept. In England the king was expected to stand between the barons and the people, protecting the common man. The English people gave William the power to control his barons, and with the barons unified under a strong king, William was powerful enough to keep peace in the land.

The Norman kings were careful to respect the laws already in effect. They left the English system of county courts in place, but put men loyal to them in the positions of Judge and Sheriff. Henry II, in an attempt to increase his power, created a new system of courts, which were responsible to him and based on the Danish concept of the King's Peace. However, even these courts were careful to respect existing laws. In order to entice people into his courts, Henry introduced they Jury. This guaranteed the adherence to the ancient laws as the members of the Juries were committed to these laws. In this way the "law flowed from the people," as it had in Denmark. The concept of the Jury was unlike anything previously seen on the mainland and Henry II is often given credit for this new and important development. However, the Laws of Ethelred, which were recorded in 997, describe the jury system, saying "a gemot be held in every wapentake, and the twelve senior thegns go out, and the reeve with them, and swear on the relic that they will accuse no innocent man, nor accuse no guilty man." It is clear that this was a custom in the Danish section of England because of the use of the word "wapentake," the Danish word for hundred. The twelve jurors are also proof that the Jury is a Danish custom. Unlike the Roman, who organized their numbers in tens, the Danes had a duodecimal system that counted by twelve's.

The Vikings made the Baltic their own, and laid the foundation for the kingdom of Russia; they were held in high regard by the Byzantine emperors whose Veringian guard was made up entirely of Vikings; they thumbed their nose at Charlemagne in the Mediterranean; they laid siege to Paris, and settled a large part of France that became known as Normandy; they conquered England and made it a Danish Kingdom; they founded Dublin and colonized much of Ireland; they settled the Hebrides and the Orkneys; they discovered Iceland and Greenland and established the worlds first representative democracies that were enlightened enough to abolished slavery a thousand years ago; they discovered America, and established several temporary colonies there; they developed a ship so advanced that they became the first people to navigate the Atlantic. A discriminating reader must recognize that there was more to the Vikings than was reported by their enemies. There were never enough of them to hold what they conquered, but their customs and beliefs endured, and became their legacy. They were not barbarians, and their greatest contribution to humanity is their ideals of individual liberty and rights that became the principle of English Law, and the foundation of our legal system and governments.

Gråulf.