They are known for their brutal raids on other peoples – but what role did violence play in the Vikings’ home societies? The results of an interdisciplinary study now show that there were clear regional differences. According to the study, interpersonal violence was significantly more common among the Vikings in Norway than among their neighbors in what is now Denmark. The researchers provide evidence that more developed social structures and hierarchies there protected against uncontrolled violence in the communities.
From 800 to 1050 AD, they repeatedly spread fear and terror through their pillaging and plundering of parts of Europe: the Vikings are seen as a symbol of war and willingness to use violence. The fact that these aspects actually played an important role for the former inhabitants of Scandinavia is also reflected in their mythology. One could therefore assume that the Vikings did not treat each other particularly carefully within their societies. As far as the level of interpersonal violence is concerned, it was previously assumed that there were hardly any differences between the Viking societies in the different parts of Scandinavia. However, the study results of the international research team led by Jan Bill from the University of Oslo contradict this assumption.
More violence in the north
The results are based on a combination of different clues. First, the researchers compared the results of examinations of the remains of former inhabitants of what is now Norway and Denmark from the Viking era. Of the 30 men and women from the Norwegian graves, they found evidence of violent death in 37 percent of cases and a comparatively high number of traces of healed injuries. These findings therefore indicate a high level of physical confrontations – violence that was not imposed by the authorities as a punishment.
The results of the examination of the 82 skeletons from the Viking Age, which were found in various places in Denmark, showed a different picture: the researchers rarely found signs of healed injuries and only six percent showed signs of a violent death. In most cases, the findings reflect the fact that these were “official” executions – for example, by beheading.
The research team also sees the significantly different number of Viking weapons found in Norway and Denmark as an indication of the different forms of interpersonal violence in the two societies. According to them, swords were placed in the graves of Vikings in the north much more often than in their southern neighbouring region. According to the researchers, this result indicates that weapons played a comparatively important role in the identity and social status of Norwegian Vikings, which underlines their comparatively strong tendency towards violence.
The Vikings of Denmark were more civilized
Further research results from the study shed light on the social aspects that this difference might have been linked to. The team collected various clues about the social structures of Viking societies in Norway and Denmark. As they explain, these are reflected in certain cultural achievements and inscriptions on rune stones. The construction of comparatively elaborate buildings in Denmark suggests that society there was more structured and more intensively organized. This was probably also associated with more pronounced hierarchies. This is evident from the inscriptions on the rune stones: the frequent use of ranks or the title “king” in Denmark indicates a more stratified society, say the researchers.
As they explain, the results now support the theory that stronger authority and steeper social hierarchies can reduce the overall level of violence in a society by placing the use of violence under official control. Such patterns have also been observed in other parts of the world, such as the Andean region of South America and areas of North America, where less centralized societies also had higher levels of violence.
Source: University of South Florida, professional article: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, doi: 10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101605