Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/375

332 now often discernible, more especially in the use of spiral and interlacing designs. English and Carolingian influences are also to be traced. The same style of ornamentation is to be found in the memorial stones, as for example in the famous Jellinge stone at the tomb of Gorm the Old in Jutland. Their houses were wooden but often richly decorated with carvings and tapestries. In the latter half of the tenth century we hear how the house of Olaf the Peacock in Iceland was decorated with scenes from the legends of gods and heroes, such as the fight of Loki and Heimdallr, Thor's fishing, and Balder's funeral. Traces of tapestry hangings are found in grave-chambers. The dead chief was often buried in his ship, and ship-graves have been found not only in Norway but also at Groix in Brittany. In Denmark grave-chambers of wood seem to take the place of ship-graves.

Of their ships we know a good deal both from the sagas and from archaeological finds. The Oseberg ship is a vessel for time of peace and coast-navigation only, but in the Gokstad ship we have an example of the ordinary war vessel. It dates from about 900, is of oak, clinker-built, with seats for 16 pairs of rowers, 78 ft. long and 16 ft. broad amidships, with the rudder at the side. The gunwale was decorated with shields painted alternately black and gold, and there was a single sail. In the course of the Viking period their size was greatly increased and in the famous dragon- and snake-boats of Olaf Tryggvason and Knut the Great we hear of 34 and even 60 pairs of oars. The trading vessels probably differed very little from those of war, just as the line of division between merchant and Viking was often a very thin one. Time and again we read how, when merchants visited a foreign land, they arranged a definite time for the conclusion of their business and agreed after that to treat each other as enemies. The most remarkable feature about the Vikings as sailors was the fearless way in which they crossed the open sea, going boldly on such stormy journeys as those to the Hebrides and Ireland, to Greenland, and even to Vinland or America. Hitherto, seamen both in peace and war had confined themselves as much as possible to coasting voyages. The sea was indeed their element, and the phrase which William of Malmesbury uses (quoting probably from an old poem) when describing the failure (after four days' trial) on the part of Guðfrið of Northumbria to settle down at the court of King Aethelstan, "he returned to piracy as a fish to the sea," is probably as true as it is picturesque.

The chief trading centres in Scandinavia itself were Skiringssalr on the Vik in Norway, Hedeby-Slesvík in Denmark, Bjørkø, Sigtuna and Lund in Sweden, besides a great market in Bohuslän on the Götaelv where the three kingdoms met. The chief articles of export were furs, horses, wool and flesh: those of import would consist chiefly in articles of luxury, whether for clothing or ornament. The slave-trade also was of the highest importance: one incident may be mentioned for the vivid light which it