Vikings and Hungarians

by aboutillegals

I asked these questions a few months back during Viking AMA, but got no answers. Maybe now on my cakeday I will get more lucky!

So the questions I asked there:

I have a few questions.

First, hungarians:

Looking at maps, it seems there was about a century when both vikings and hungarians did raids in western europe. Is there evidence they ever met? If yes what kind of interaction they had?

In western europe did any source make connection between the vikings and hungarians. The totally different culture, transportation, etc. was enough to distinguish, or to put it in another way: as they might have been both seen as god's revenge for being sinful (by the way were they seen this way or is it a later addition by scholars?), was a connection made between them by western europeans?

I read somewhere that a few hundred viking warriors served in Stephen I.'s court. Any of you know, whether it is true, and if yes were they bodyguards, elite soldiers or something else? How did they end up in Hungary?

The second topic is about the eastern mediterranean. Vikings reached Byzantium and Sicily. Did any group ever ventured further west/east and ended up meeting other vikings? And if yes how was the relationship between them? And in general how was the relationship between vikings from different areas meeting in far away lands? Cultural similarities were sufficient to keep an amicable relationship or to give an example, someone from Gotland seen others from the Feröes as alien as someone from Egypt?

And a long shot for the end: was there ever a viking circumnavigation of Europe? If yes, was it an "accident" or a conscious decision to do it?

Ok I am going to take a shot at this.

The most popular consensus among scholars is that there were two types of "Vikings." The first being the ones we know that raided the British Isles and the Continent as well as another group, primarily made up of the Svear (ethnically Swedes) that traded down through Eastern Europe. Many scholars will disagree with my points as any rational person could and they would have good reason to argue against my statement as we dont have a whole lot of concrete information. Many argue that the Swedes who traded in the East were in fact, not Vikings at all; but that is another story.

We dont have a whole lot of records from the time but yes, it would be very unlikely that the Vikings (Norse, Danes, Swedes) didnt meet the Hungarians as well as most other peoples of the area. Eastern Europe was appealing as contained all that the Vikings wished to trade to the Islamic Empire and Byzantine Empire; honey, furs, wood and the like. In turn the Vikings hoarded the Islamic silver traded and pieces of this same silver have been found in present day Lithuania, Sweden and the Faroe Islands. Unfortunately I cannot attest to either way describing the relationship with Hungarians and Vikings as I am not an Eastern European specialist; however from what I have studied of Viking history, they traded, settled, fought and lived alongside the peoples in areas such as present day Grobina in Latvia ( http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:537484/FULLTEXT01 ) Staraya Ladoga, now roughly present day St. Petersburg in Russia (wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staraya_Ladoga ) and the Sami of Finland/Russia. While I have no sources at present pertaining directly to the Hungarians, we do have evidence that there was an incorporation of Eastern European culture into Viking culture (gratified coins, modified burials etc. Fjodor Androschchuk in his article "Vikings in the East" does a far better job describing this, however I cant seem to find a digital version.)

As for the Vikings being sent to punish the sins of invaded; this is primarily a Western European mindset at the time. Furthermore, this mindset was not universally accepted among everyone for many cultures in Europe (such as the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians and a few other Germanic groups) were culturally and ethnically similar to the pagan Vikings. For example, while the Anglo-Saxons of present day England converted to Christianity (although the extent of this conversion can be questioned) they still knew of the old gods such as their own Woden, known to the Vikings as Odin. To some of these groups, they were a deadly nuisance. It is also a common mistake to believe those contemporary did not know of the politics and culture of the Vikings much like the Vikings did not know about those they invaded. Certainly this is Western Europe, but much of Eastern Europe was still quite pagan. In the region that would become Hungary, a Christian presence began as early as the 3rd Century but did not officially convert until much later. The relationship in the East was also much more peaceful than that of the west; they were largely traders, not the same raiders we see to the West.

Another interesting thing about Vikings is that they were largely "tribal" (if you can call it that; I mean to imply they worked in clans or small groups) oriented. They had no real sense of cultural kinship to other Vikings and did not mind signing up as mercenaries or bodyguards to the Franks, Anglo-Saxons or the Byzantines even if it meant fighting other Vikings. In fact, one of the most popular bodyguards of the time were the Varangians hired by the Byzantines who were Scandinavian in origin. Furthermore, as the story goes, Rollo the Viking was granted land by the Franks simply to stop the raiding for a time; Rollo then prevented other Viking raids in exchange for what would become Normandy. The notion of "Viking" (I use this as an adjective here) is to go out, raid and make money. For many Vikings, the most important part was the making money. They were good at fighting and found it quite profitable to be hired out as mercenaries instead of raiding villages who were becoming increasingly taxed by pillaging.

As for your last question, I assume you mean, any other "exotic" cultures bump into the Vikings along the way? Well we do have evidence of the Vikings fighting the Moors of the Iberian Peninsula with relative success at first but they were fought back. In the Sagas, the Vikings reach Vinland (believed to be present day L'ans Aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada) and contacted the natives whom they refer to as scraelings. They are said to have traded with them and then subsequently quarreled with them ending in Viking defeat. Similarly, Viking Longships were known to have attacked Islamic Galleys put were quickly destroyed by Greek Fire. There is also evidence of attacks on North Africa, Italy, Sicily and even the city of Constantinople itself by the Vikings. It should be noted however that as fighting was a part of life for the Vikings, it did not mean they wished to take any of these areas, rather they wanted to local populous to fear the Vikings and be more willing to trade. There was quite likely a circumnavigation of Vikings around Europe; however it being the SAME group of Vikings all in one go is fairly unlikely. We know Vikings reached far into Russia, down to Constantinople and North Africa to the East and other Vikings sailed down the West edge of the Iberian Peninsula, below Italy and to Constantinople that way.

Edit: Spelling