Danes (tribe)
The Danes were a
Origins
The origin of the Danes remains undetermined, but several ancient historical documents and texts refer to them and archaeology has revealed and continues to reveal insights into their culture, cultural beliefs, beliefs organization and way of life.
The Danes first appear in written history in the 6th century with references in Jordanes' Getica (551 AD), by Procopius, and by Gregory of Tours. In his description of Scandza, Jordanes says that the Dani were of the same stock as the Suetidi ("Swedes") and expelled the Heruli and took their lands.
The Old English poems Widsith and Beowulf, as well as works by later Scandinavian writers (notably by Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200)), provide some of the original written references to the Danes. According to the 12th-century author Sven Aggesen, the mythical King Dan gave his name to the Danes.
Culture
Language
The Danes spoke Proto-Norse which gradually evolved into the Old Norse language by the beginning of the Viking Age. They spoke dǫnsk tunga (Danish tongue), which the Danes shared with the people in Norway and Sweden and later in Iceland and the Faroe Islands.[1]
Like previous and contemporary people of Scandinavia, the Danes used
Religion
As previous and contemporary peoples of Scandinavia (the Vikings), the tribal Danes were practitioners of the
Some sources, such as the Beowulf, point to a very early
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Silver coins from Ribe (c. 710–20). Odin and Christian cross symbols (left) and Norse pagan fantastic animal (right).
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Odin from Lejre, (c. 900).
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Thor's hammerand the Christian cross (10th century).
Iron Age
In the Nordic Iron Age, the Danes were based in present-day Zealand and Scania (and neighbouring parts of present-day Sweden). Until around the 6th century, Jutland was the homeland of two other Germanic tribes: the Jutes in what is now North Jutland, and the Angles in South Jutland (especially the Anglia peninsula).
The . Centuries later, Saxo lists for the first time the Danes entire lineage of semi-mythical kings, starting from King Dan. As Saxo's texts are the first written accounts of Denmark's history, and hence the Danes, his sources are largely surviving legends, folk lore and word of mouth.
The royal seat and capital of the Danes was located on
Some time around the middle of the
Viking Age
Beginning in the 8th century, the Danes initiated the construction of trading towns across their realm, including Hedeby, Ribe, Aarhus and Viborg and expanded existing settlements such as Odense and Aalborg. Hedeby quickly grew to become the largest settlement in Scandinavia and remained so until its eventual destruction in the later half of the 11th century.
From around 800 AD, the Danes began a long era of well-organised raids across the coasts and rivers of Europe. Some of the raids were followed by a gradual succession of Danish settlers and during this epoch, large areas outside Scandinavia were settled by the Danes, including the Danelaw in England and countryside and newly established towns in Ireland, the Netherlands and northern France. In the early 11th century, King
During the 10th century the royal seat of the Danes was moved from Lejre to Jelling in central Jutland, marking the foundation and consolidation of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Danelaw
In the
Ireland
The Danes first arrived in Ireland in 795 AD, at Rathlin Island, initiating subsequent raids and fortified trade settlements, so called longphorts. During the Viking Age, they established many coastal towns including Dublin (Dyflin), Cork, Waterford (Veðrafjǫrðr) and Limerick (Hlymrekr) and Danish settlers followed. There were many small skirmishes and larger battles with the native Irish clans in the following two centuries, with the Danes sometimes siding with allied clans. In 1014 AD, at the Battle of Clontarf, the Vikings were eventually defeated and the remaining Danish settlers gradually assimilated with the Irish population.[6]
Frisia
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The first Vikings appeared in
The Danes were probably involved in Frisia much earlier as Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594 AD) mentions a Danish king Chlochilaichus who was killed there while invading Frankish territory in the early 6th century.[8]
France
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The first known Viking raid in what now constitutes France, commenced in 799, when an attack was fought off on the coast of Aquitaine. Several other smaller skirmishes with aggressive Vikings from primarily Danish territory have been recorded, including the first raid on the Seine in 820, but it was not until the year 834 before Viking activity in France took off on a grand scale. In that year, Danes established a lasting base on Noirmoutier island, a central spot for the European salt trade at the time, and poured into the Loire Valley on larger raid expeditions. Many large scale raids followed all across the coasts and in-land rivers of Western Europe in subsequent decades.[9]
In the beginning of the 900's, Vikings had established an encampment and base in the lower parts of the Seine river around Rouen. In an effort to stop or reduce the relentless raids, Charles the Simple made a treaty in Saint-Clair-sur-Epte with the Viking chieftain of Rollo in 911, granting Rollo and his Danish men authority over the area now known as Normandy. This prompted Scandinavian settlers to establish themselves here and in the course of the next couple of centuries, the Norman culture emerged in Normandy.[10][note 2][11]
Historical texts
Important historical documents that tell about the tribal Danes include:
- Widsith
- Beowulf. This poem describes an event in Lejre around the year 500 AD and was probably originally written shortly after.
- Saxo Grammaticus: "Gesta Danorum" (Deeds of The Danes) written in the 12th century.
See also
- Danes, the present inhabitants of Denmark.
- Getae
- Dacians
- Normans
- Norsemen
- Rus' people
- Varangians
- Vikings
- Danegeld
- List of ancient Germanic peoples
Notes
- ^ The Vikings in Dorset might perhaps have originated from Norway and the exact time of the event is unclear, it took place between 786-793 AD. See "The Vikings in History".
- ^ Rollo was most likely from Norway himself and the new settlers in Normandy were not Danes exclusively. See "A History of the Vikings".
References
- ^ Anderson, Carl Edlund. "The Danish Tongue and Scandinavian Identity" (PDF). p. 1. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
Icelandic writers (who provide the bulk of our surviving documentation) commonly employed the term dǫnsk tunga (literally 'Danish tongue') to identify the language not just of those who were ruled by the Dana konungr, but of all Germanic-speaking Scandinavians.
- ^ a b Described in "Hvad troede de på?"
- ^ In northern Germany, the North Sea Empire included the area we now know as Schleswig-Holstein and the island of Rügen.
- ^ F. Donald Logan: The Vikings in History, p.22-24, Taylor & Francis (2005).
- ^ Flores Historiarum: Rogeri de Wendover, Chronica sive flores historiarum, pp. 298–9. ed. H. Coxe, Rolls Series, 84 (4 vols, 1841–42)
- ^ "The Vikings in Ireland: 800AD–1169". DoCharra.com. 17 December 2008. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
- ^ See "Viking Trade and Settlement in Continental Western Europ" - Frisia in Carolingian Times (Egge Knol), p. 43ff
- ^ Peter Hunter Blair (1990). The World of Bede (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 28ff.
- ^ F. Donald Logan (2005). "Chapter 5 (The Danes in the South)". The Vikings in History. Routledge. pp. 97–120.
- ^ T. D. Kendrick (2004). A History of the Vikings. Dover Publications. p. 221.
- ^ See "Viking Trade and Settlement in Continental Western Europe".
Sources and further reading
- Niels Hybel, ed. (2003). Danmark i Europa (750-1300) (in Danish). Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen.
- Mads Lidegaard (2004): "Hvad troede de på? – religiøse tanker i oldtid og vikingetid" [What did they believe in? – religious thoughts in ancient times and the Viking Age], Gyldendal, (1915–2006) was a prolific writer, teacher and theologian from Denmark.
- Iben Skibsted Klæsøe, ed. (2010). Viking Trade and Settlement in Continental Western Europe. Museum Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen.