Vikings galore

Vikings are a fundamental part of the Nordic identity

Coasts, piers and vikings

In 793 Vikings raided Lindisfarne on the eastern coast of Northumbria. This is generally believed to signify the beginning of the Viking age. Naturally it all started much earlier when the Anglos and the Saxons sailed to the south of England robbing and pillaging en route. We must of course presume that this was the state of affairs for a very long time. Pirating in the Baltic and in the North Sea was big business up until the end of the Middle Ages. However, in the history of the Vikings the pillage of Lindisfarne looms large as does the establishment of the Danelaw in York, the Norman duchy in Normandy and the Norman kingdom on Sicily. From 800 – 1050 the Vikings were all over the place.

Foes and Friends
The point is, that it seemingly still does, even though the Scandinavians are prone to think that their Viking heritage is history from far away and with no present importance. Experience tells us, however, that history is always written from the point of view of the victorious. For that reason we all need enemies to beat. Thus the Danish conception of the Germans is not coloured by the fact that it is a great and rambling multitude of Länder, but rather that it is a Prussian enterprise governed out of Berlin. It might be a federation, but we still think of it as an empire turned (periodically) lame.

For the same reasons the English are prone to think of us as Vikings. From Alfred on, the story of England was the formation of a central government located in London and ruling the British Isles. In this popular perspective the Vikings (and later the Scots) were and still is designated the role of the perennial troublemakers.

Three Scandinavian associations
This is revealed when we consider what the English associate Scandinavia with, when considering the Nordic countries as a tourist destination. Emphatically three things stand out and with equal weight: The coastlines, the piers and the Viking heritage. Scandinavia is blue inhabited by sailors and fishermen, in short Vikings.