In the Wake of the Vikings

By Ole Crumlin-Pedersen ex Centre Leader, Dr. Phil. honoris causa and Tinna Damgaard-Sørensen, Historian and Museum Director, The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde 2006

 

WHY will the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde send a longship to Ireland next year? Why spend time and resources on the reconstruction of the largest ship in the Skuldelev find, using the building methods of the Vikings? To catch media attention? To lure money out of funds and foundations and companies in order to realise a boyhood dream? Or are there valid re-search and dissemination reasons for embarking on the audacious sail north of Scotland?

 

In fact, there is as deeper meaning behind what is currently going on in the museum harbour in Roskilde. It is one of many expressions of a research and dissemination effort that for a number of years now has ensured Denmark a place amongst the leaders in the international research into the interaction between man and the sea in pre-historic times and in the Middle Ages – within a discipline now termed Marine Archaeology.

The excavation near Skuldelev

The systematic Maritime Archaeology research of Danish waters and coasts began in 1962 when The National Museum excavated the remains of the five ships that had been sunk as a blockade near Skuldelev in Roskilde Fiord during the 11th century. When, in 1969, the ships were given their own museum in Roskilde, the time was ripe to investigate other submarine finds as primary sources of knowledge about society in ancient times. There were challenges and material enough, for Danish waters were always dangerous to sail in, with their hidden shoals and reefs that took their share of the many ships which sailed through our straits, be-tween our islands or more locally, transporting fishermen, traders or pirates.

 

Over the centuries, thousands of wrecks have accrued, many of which lie preserved in the mud or sand on the seabed until they may appear because of erosion or dredging. In fact, be-cause of sanding up and because of the absence of shipworms in the Baltic Sea and in the Danish fiords, Denmark offers some of the most favourable conditions in Europe for preser-vation of the wrecks of ships grounded along the coasts or shipwrecked in the open sea. Therefore, we also have an obligation to preserve and to research into this cultural heritage, holding as it does both national and international perspectives. The Skuldelev ships clearly demonstrate these potentials.

To Ireland

This is where the longship’s upcoming journey to Ireland comes into the picture. Researchers from the National Museum and the Viking Ship Museum have joined forces in laying a puzzle that will give us important knowledge about the ship’s history. Using the most recent dating methods, we have been able to determine the felling time as well as the location of growth for the tree trunks used to build the ship: the wood comes from Dublin in Ireland, and the year of felling, 1042, can be deducted from one larger piece of timber that has been preserved right out to the edge of its bark. Some may wonder how a Viking ship came to be built in Ireland, but it was Nordic settlers who founded the Irish cities during the Viking Age and whose de-scendants populated them for centuries as craftsmen, traders and warriors.


One may also wonder how an Irish/Nordic longship found its way to Denmark in the late 1060ies and ended up on the seabed in Roskilde Fiord a decennium later. But here, too, there is a plausible explanation which takes into account the dramatic events following the invasion of England in 1066. William the Conqueror and his Norman troops on that occasion defeated the English King Harold Godwinson whose adult sons had to flee to Dublin. Two of those sons later appeared at the court of the Danish King Svend Estridsson. If the two princes were on board the Skuldelev 2 longship, then their mission might well have been precisely to co-ordinate the pincer movement attack against William’s troops that did in fact take place in 1069 – with a western thrust from Dublin and an eastern thrust from Denmark, the latter with a fleet of 240 ships sent by Svend Estridsson.

High technology

When the reconstructed ship – Havhingsten (The Sea Stallion) of Glendalough – weighs an-chor in Roskilde in July 2007 bound for Dublin, it will so to speak return to its original home port. This will be the culmination of many years of research. It has been a challenge to recon-struct this highly specialised vessel which represents the absolute high technology of the Vi-king Age, designed as it is for speed and for transportation of many men, in waters full of cur-rents as well as across the open sea.



In the process, we were confronted with a number of questions concerning not only the ship itself, but also the materials science of the Viking Age, its understanding of shape and form, and its forms of organisation. As an example, the Museum’s boat builders had to trudge through the Danish forests in order to find and select materials for the ship from more than 300 oak trees of good quality. That was difficult. When one considers that the forest also sup-plied the materials for such items as wood tar, ropes made from lime tree bast, and fuel for the blacksmith’s manufacture of the ship’s more than 7,000 iron nails, rivets and spikes, one has to acknowledge that the drain on forest resources has been enormous. And one must ask one-self how the Viking Age forest looked, how it was looked after, and how the utilisation of its products was regulated.



The passage to Dublin is planned to go across the North Sea, north of Scotland and down through the Irish Sea. Its purpose is to validate and prove the ship’s seaworthiness, speed and manoeuvrability in realistic conditions and in the waters for which the original ship was built. The outcome, to a large extent, will depend on the 65 volunteer crew, with members from many countries. They need to be able to handle the ship and to function on board an open ves-sel, with very little space and with no privacy. They will gain the experience  of meeting some of the same challenges and conditions that their predecessors on the original viking longships were faced with, which will force each individual to find and use those human qualities that have sustained and carried sailors across the oceans at all times.


At the end of the journey, i.e. when the ship returns to Roskilde in 2008, we hope to have be-come all the wiser about the longships of the Viking Age and about the organisation and lo-gistics which were needed in order to equip, man and sail these fabled vessels.



In the same way that we can analyse the Irish Longship as a primary source that gives us new knowledge of the times when it was built and used, the other four Skuldelev ships can give us new and important cognition. They come from Nordic regions from which we have practi-cally no written sources. Therefore, the ships’ own testimony becomes particularly important, and they have already cast new light over the history of the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages – a time when all forms of navigation played a vital part in the organisation of society, in the development of cities, in trade and in strife. It has taken us a research effort spanning several decades to get this far, in a constant interaction with other researchers and knowledge from other finds.



THE SKULDELEV SHIPS are probably the best known find from Denmark. But they are far from being the only important find. Since the 1960ies, several ships from the Viking Age and up to more recent times have been investigated so that today, Denmark possesses one of the largest and most diverse collections of archaeological vessels in Europe. Most of these finds have been preserved at their finding location, are undergoing preservation, or are in storage. Nevertheless, analyses made so far clearly demonstrate the richness of the material and its importance for Danish as well as European History. In many cases, written sources can put a name to the destinies hit by shipwrecking. It is therefore fortunate that during the years 1993-2003, Denmark’s Fund for Basic Research granted considerable means towards the estab-lishment and running costs of The Research Centre for Maritime Archaeology under the Na-tional Museum, geographically located in Roskilde, in a symbiotic co-operation with The Vi-king Ship Museum. During that decennium, we were really able to pursue and combine disci-plines within Maritime Archaeology: The ship as a symbol, The ship as a mirror of technologi-cal development during the period, Navigation and settlement, Military organisation etc. Older finds, such as Hjortespring and Ladby, were re-assessed and new excavations made at Nydam and elsewhere. The visual arts of the Bronze Age and the Stone Age settlements found on the seabed were reconsidered, and we gave high priority to the development of new methods of preservation of the finds, either on location or after raising them. Employing an international staff, this period gave Denmark a “leading light” position within this field of re-search. Such was the focus on Denmark that our expertise came into high demand in other countries such as Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Spain, and Italy. However, when the Centre period expired in 2003, our source material was far from ex-hausted.

The expert knowledge is in great demand

Since 2003, The National Museum has concentrated most of its efforts on continuing its re-search into preservation methods. The Viking Ship Museum has managed to retain other members of the Centre staff, as well as to arrange a number of international research seminars in later years. Over and above that, The Viking Ship Museum has continued its experimental research into the ships and the craftsmanship of the past, to culminate in the sail to Dublin with the Irish longship.



In parallel, a few other Danish museums do work within Maritime Archaeology, and The Southern Danish University recently started a Masters Education in Maritime Archaeology. Nonetheless, it is a fact that the economic basis for the maritime archaeological research has been considerably weakened. Primarily, the work is now dependent on grants from private foundations and institutions. To say it mildly, on these terms it is difficult to retain the exper-tise within this small and specialised scientific environment.



Denmark is well placed to again take a leading position within maritime archaeology and to give our essential contribution towards the understanding of Danish and European history through investigation of the well-preserved marine archaeological finds. The potential for a Danish lighthouse position in research therefore exists. Given the means, we are eager to live up to those expectations.



The above is an unofficial and private translation of a feature article that appeared in the “Ideas” part of the Danish weekly journal “Weekendavisen” on 22. September 2006. The translation was done by  Ib Grønvaldt of Copenhagen. (ib.gronvaldt(at)inet.uni2.dk).