Walking over Norway high middle ages history

Early-feudal societies in European regions

Norway high middle ages history. The emergence and development of the early state in Norway align with the concluding phase of tribal society's decline and the initial steps toward a socially differentiated order. This order shares certain characteristics with pre-feudal and early-feudal societies in other European regions during the early Middle Ages. However, it should be cautiously labeled as proto-feudal, requiring qualification, particularly when studied in relation to its subsequent historical evolution. Norway never fully evolved into a straightforward feudal state, and the essential prerequisites for feudalism did not fully materialize.

During the High Middle Ages, the Norwegian state outwardly resembled a feudal monarchy, influenced by more advanced European states and the Church. However, the organic growth of feudalism as a comprehensive socio-juridical system penetrating society as a whole is challenging to assert. Unlike early European kingdoms, a notable feature of the early Norwegian state was that the majority of the peasantry retained participation in local governance and national defense. The ruling elite lacked the authority to strip the rural population, known as the bonder, of their personal freedom, preventing the formation of a distinct group detached from direct connections between the king and ordinary subjects

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In precise terms, Harald Fairhair did not achieve the complete unification of the country; instead, he merely brought certain regions under his personal rule, establishing strongholds in those areas. The vulnerability of the structure he built became apparent after his death, as conflicts among his sons escalated in the competition for their inheritance. The absence of a succession law was evident, with royal power evidently passing hereditarily within the king's family, akin to how ownership of a farmstead persisted in a bondVs family. Harald and his successors did not eradicate the local nobility.

Include laws, sagas, poetical texts

The exploitation of peasant resources in Norway was, to a significant extent, executed by the state. This resulted in the underdevelopment of feudalism, particularly evident in the dominance of public (state) functions over private ones, contrary to feudal European states where private functions prevailed.

Historical sources for investigating the early state in Norway include laws, sagas, poetical texts, and, to a lesser extent, title-deeds. However, these sources were mainly compiled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, associated with the late introduction of Christianity to Scandinavia, posing challenges for historians in conducting retrospective examinations. Contemporary Scandinavian studies tend to reject much of the evidence preceding recorded history, especially in sagas. Yet, the possibility of discerning archaic strata in juridical sources remains due to the strongly traditional nature of legal norms and customs. Additionally, archaeology, numismatics, and toponymy provide valuable information.

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The early Norwegian state's conditions are imperfectly known due to the peculiarities of historical sources. Up to the ninth century, Norway consisted of separate regions, influenced by factors such as its mountainous landscape, extensive North Sea coastline, sparse population, and dominance of farming. Relative unity existed in language and religious rites, while each region had its military leaders. The people's assemblies, or things, were responsible for local administration, legal cases, and general discussions, with strong connections to heathen religious life.

In contrast to barbarian kingdoms in Western Europe resulting from Germanic conquests of Roman provinces, the early states in Scandinavia emerged under different conditions. These political entities were ethnically homogeneous, and the Northmen had limited involvement in the Great Migrations of the fourth-sixth centuries. They were less romanized than other Germanic tribes, maintaining sporadic and superficial contacts with the outside world before the Viking expansion, which commenced around the turn of the ninth century.

The Vikings Age began

The Viking Age commenced at the turn of the ninth century, marking a period when the Northmen engaged in plundering raids, conquests of foreign lands, and the colonization of North Atlantic islands, often intertwining trade with piracy. The motives behind the extensive and diverse Scandinavian expansion remain unclear, but it is reasonable to believe that a significant portion of the rural population participated due to resource scarcity in the north. Concurrently, the breakdown of large patriarchal families into individual 'limited' families had commenced.

The initial semblance of political unity in Norway, characterized by the establishment of a monarch's power over the majority of the population, emerged as a consequence of Viking expansion or, at the very least, was closely associated with it. During a period of escalating aggression directed both abroad and against other segments of the Norwegian population, the authority of minor kings grew stronger. Harald Fairhair, a ruler from the Ynglings lineage governing Norwegian and Swedish regions, embarked on the conquest of additional parts of Norway in the latter half of the ninth century.

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Viking expansion process

Ship-burials in eastern Norway, dating back to the ninth century and associated with representatives of the Ynglings, attest to their widespread interactions with other countries and their increasing influence, likely linked to military expansion. The initiation of Norway's political unification represented a stage in the Viking expansion process, taking the form of the eastern region's established king conquering the western and northern areas of the country.

This connection between Norway's initial political unification and Viking raids is reinforced by the fact that a majority of Norwegian kings in the tenth and first half of the eleventh centuries commenced their careers as Vikings. They served as mercenaries for English, Byzantine, or Kiev rulers, or participated in expeditions conducting conquests and raids abroad, subsequently laying claim to Norway's throne upon their return.