6 - Group and Ethos in War and Trade

Summary

A simple stone or mound of earth,

can summon the departed forth;

whittier

The effectiveness of these shipborne groups of men, in raiding and in trading, on land and at sea, derived from a clear definition of the group, a strong ethos of loyalty that bound them together, and an ideology of appropriate behaviour for which they could be praised in the verbal memorials of skaldic poetry and runic inscriptions. The idea of the group was defined by a restricted and pointed vocabulary of fellowship and group membership, and their ethos and ideology was expressed in the praise, both direct and figurative, of individual members of the group.

The group and its vocabulary

drengr

In chapter 2 it was demonstrated that the word víkingr was not commonly used in the Viking Age, and often pejoratively when it was, so the question remains what ‘vikings’ called themselves and each other. The runic and the skaldic evidence suggest that it is most likely to have been drengr (m., pl. OWN drengir, OEN dreng(j)ar). Unlike víkingr, this noun is found in both runic and skaldic texts in both the singular and the plural. Also unlike víkingr, it has positive connotations in most of the recorded instances. This much is clear but exactly what it means, or how best to translate it, is another matter.

There is an echo of the use of this word in Viking Age speech in Hallfreðr Óttarsson's Erfidrápa on Óláfr Tryggvason, which opens with an account of that king's final battle at Svqlðr (c.1000). The poet is keen to preserve for posterity the king's defiance in words as close to his own as the strict skaldic forms permit (Hfr III,2):

Geta skal máls þess, es mæla

menn at vápna sennu

dolga fangs við drengi

dáðqflgan bqr kvóðu.

Baða hertryggðar hyggja

hnekkir sína rekka,

þess lifa þjóðar sessa

þróttar orð, á flótta.

This speech shall be mentioned, which men said the deed-strong tree of battle-tunic [mail-coat→warrior] spoke to his drengir at the flyting of weapons [battle]. The destroyer of the army's security told his men not to think of flight; the powerful words of this people's bench-mate will live.