71 pages • 2-hour read
Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age
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Key Figures
Eleanor Barraclough
Eleanor Barraclough is a historian and BBC broadcaster. She studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic at the University of Cambridge, and is a senior lecturer in environmental history at Bath Spa University.
Barraclough has studied and written extensively on Viking Age history and Old Norse-Icelandic literature, and has visited the ruined settlements in Norse Greenland she describes in this book. In 2016, she published Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas, and describes her work as “about the stories that humans tell about the world, their place in it, and their past” (“Academia.” Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough). Barraclough’s fascination with the human stories behind the archaeology, coupled with extensive knowledge of historical places, language, and artifacts, gives her valuable insight into the Viking Age.
Barraclough writes with an informal rather than an academic tone, avoiding specialist jargon to make her work accessible for general readers. Her use of slang, modern connections, and punning section titles illustrate her casual affection for the subject, while footnotes provide additional information and doses of humor. This blend of style and substance makes her work accessible to a general audience.
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson (1178-1231) was an Icelandic poet and politician of great authority and wealth, who recorded the histories, legends, and beliefs of Scandinavia. Most academic explorations of the Viking Age rely on his collections, including the myths and legends in the Prose Edda and histories in Heimskringla. Since those living in the Viking Age left no firsthand written accounts, Sturluson’s explanations are essential; Barraclough cites him at least 10 times to note how his stories compare to the archaeological record or to explain what they reveal about societal values and religious beliefs.
Nevertheless, Barraclough explains the Prose Edda “was written over two centuries after Iceland officially converted to Christianity, and we can’t be certain what Snorri put in or left out, or how he shaped the material according to his own world view” (112). Echoes of Christian dogma appear in his framing of Odin as the “All Father” and systematic framework of the gods. Sturluson’s descriptions of events often echo what researchers glean from archaeological sites, but dates are sometimes misaligned by decades or more with radiocarbon results. Barraclough examines the texts for thematic relevance, while acknowledging that their particulars may have shifted over centuries of oral storytelling.
The Viking Diaspora: Kyivan Rus, Normans, Icelanders, Greenlanders
Vikings who settled at Novgorod and Kyiv became known as the Rus, a Scandinavian dynasty that ruled over the local Slavic population from the 9th to the mid-13th centuries. They adopted the linguistic and cultural traditions of the area, but maintained close political ties to their homelands. Kyivan Rus artifacts provide a lot of information for researchers thanks to the swampy lands of Novgorod and their trade with the Byzantine and Islamic empires. Barraclough mines these for information about cultural practices and adaptations.
Normans were borne from Viking exploration south, to the Seine, Paris, and beyond. The name Norman comes from “Northmen,” and they are the descendants of the people who settled in the Frankish kingdom after the Viking Rollo was granted lands and titled Duke of Normandy. Like the Rus, Normans adopted the linguistic and cultural characteristics of the lands they settled, speaking French and leaving almost no trace of Old Norse.
Settlers in Iceland arrived from Norway around 870, and included pagans, Christians, and enslaved individuals. Later Icelanders provided a wealth of written accounts that contribute to our understanding of the Viking world, notably the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. Icelanders likely diverged in their beliefs and practices as they dealt with the harsh environment around them, as Barraclough explores in the chapter “Belief,” and the country officially converted to Christianity around 1000. Thanks to their relative isolation, the modern Icelandic language is closer to Old Norse than the languages of other modern Scandinavian countries.
Stories of Greenlandic settlement are preserved in Icelandic texts about Erik the Red; there are no surviving primary sources from Greenland. Lief Erikson, among others, voyaged farther west and touched briefly on North America. Greenlanders lived in one of the harshest climates the Norse permanently settled; because of this, their farming and living habits adapted and changed. The frigid climate makes their farmsteads and artifacts among the best-preserved in the Norse world, which Barraclough explores in the chapter “Home.”
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