Eesti
0
Vikings from Estonia
The Oeselians (or Osilians) were a historical Finnic people inhabiting the island of Saaremaa (Latin: Oesel or Osilia) in Estonia. They are first thought to be mentioned as early as the 2nd century BC in Ptolemy's Geography III.
The Oeselians along with Curonians were known in the Old Norse Icelandic Sagas and in Heimskringla as Víkingr frá Esthland (in English, Estonian Vikings)
Their sailing vessels were called pirate ships by Henry of Livonia in his Latin chronicles from the beginning of the 13th century
On the eve of Northern Crusades, the Oeselians were summarized in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle thus: "The Oeselians, neighbors to the Kurs (Curonians), are surrounded by the sea and never fear strong armies as their strength is in their ships. In summers when they can travel across the sea they oppress the surrounding lands by raiding both Christians and pagans."
Battles and raids
Saxo Grammaticus describes the Curonians and Estonians as participating in the Battle of Brĺvalla on the side of the Swedes against the Danes, who were aided by the Livonians and the Wends of Pomerania. It is notable that Baltic tribes — i.e., the Latvians and Lithuanians — are not mentioned by Saxo as participating in the fight. Snorri Sturluson relates in his Ynglinga saga how the Swedish king Ingvar (7th century), the son of Östen and a great warrior, who was forced to patrol the shores of his kingdom fighting Estonian pirates. The saga speaks of his invasion of Estonia where he fell in a battle against the men of Estland who had come down with a great army. After the battle, King Ingvar was buried close to the seashore in Estonia and the Swedes returned home.
According to Heimskringla sagas, in the year 967 the Norwegian Queen Astrid escaped with her son Olaf Tryggvason from her homeland to Novgorod, where her brother Sigurd held an honoured position at the court of Prince Vladimir. On their journey, Oeselian Vikings raided the ship, killing some of the crew and taking others into slavery. Six years later, when Sigurd Eirikson traveled to Estonia to collect taxes on behalf of Valdemar, he spotted Olaf in a market on Saaremaa and paid for his freedom.
"As they sailed out into the Baltic, they were captured by
vikings of Eistland, who made booty both of the people and goods,
killing some, and dividing others as slaves." Heimskringla
A battle between Oeselian and Icelandic Vikings off Saaremaa is described in Njál's saga as occurring in 972 AD.
11th century gravestone
About 1008, Olaf the Holy, later king of Norway, landed on Saaremaa. The Osilians, taken by surprise, had at first agreed to pay the demands made by Olaf, but then gathered an army during the negotiations and attacked the Norwegians. Olaf nevertheless won the battle.
Around the year 1030, a Swedish Viking chief called Freygeirr may have been killed in a battle on Saaremaa.
According to the Novgorod Chronicle, Varyag Ulf (Uleb) from Novgorod was crushed by Estonians in a sea battle close to the town of Lindanise in 1032.
From the 12th century, chroniclers' descriptions of Estonian, Osilians and Curonian raids along the coasts of Sweden and Denmark become more frequent.
Drawing of a shipfind from Salme, Saaremaa
The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia describes a fleet of sixteen ships and five hundred Osilians ravaging the area that is now southern Sweden, then belonging to Denmark. In the XIVth book of Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus describes a battle on Öland in 1170 in which the Danish king Valdemar I mobilised his entire fleet to curb the incursions of Couronian and Estonian pirates.
11th century Estonian sword
Perhaps the most renowned raid by Estonian pirates occurred in 1187, with the attack on the Swedish town of Sigtuna by Finnic raiders from Couronia and Estonia. Among the casualties of this raid was the Swedish archbishop Johannes. The city remained occupied for some time, contributing to the decline as a center of commerce in the 13th century in favor of Uppsala, Visby, Kalmar and Stockholm.
The Livonian Chronicle describes the Estonians as using two kinds of ships, the piratica and the liburna. The former was a warship, the latter mainly a merchant ship. A piratica could carry approximately 30 men and had a high prow shaped like a dragon or a snakehead as well as a quadrangular sail.
Viking-age treasures from Estonia mostly contain silver coins and bars. Compared to its close neighbors, Saaremaa has the richest finds of Viking treasures after Gotland in Sweden. This strongly suggests that Estonia was an important transit country during the Viking era.
Religion and mythology
The superior god of Oeselians as described by Henry of Livonia was called Tharapita. According to the legend in the chronicle Tharapita was born on a forested mountain in Virumaa (Latin: Vironia), mainland Estonia from where he flew to Ösel , Saaremaa. The name Taarapita has been interpreted as "Thor, help!" (Taara a(v)ita in Estonian) and associated with the Scandinavian god Thor. The story of Tharapita's or Taara's flight from Vironia to Saaremaa has been associated with a major meteor disaster estimated to have happened in 660 ± 85 B.C. that formed Kaali crater in Saaremaa.
Archeology
Estonia constitutes one of the richest territories in the Baltic for hoards from the 11th and the 12th centuries. The earliest coin hoards found in Estonia are Arabic Dirhams from the 8th century. The largest Viking-Age hoards found in Estonia have been at Maidla and Kose. Out of the 1500 coins published in catalogues, 1000 are Anglo-Saxon.
Dirhams
Decline
With the rise of centralized authority along with a bolstering of coastal defense in the areas exposed to Vikings, Viking raids became more risky and less profitable. With the growing presence of Christianity and the rise of kings and a quasi-feudal system in Scandinavia, these raids ceased entirely. By the 11th century, the Scandinavians are frequently chronicled as overpowering the Vikings from the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, which would eventually lead to German, Danish and Swedish participation in the Northern crusades and the Scandinavian conquest of Estonia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeselians
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Karl
Bookmarks