As viking activity manifested itself along the shores and riverbanks of northern and western Europe, its participants are known to have actively taken advantage of complex maritime networks of travel, communication, and exchange. Despite a prevailing focus on the violent aspects of this activity, it is increasingly acknowledged that the long-term viability and success of this overseas presence would have relied on a dynamic range of economic enterprise – ranging from the production and distribution of goods and resources to the establishment of marketplaces to accommodate these exchanges.
By bringing together evidence from across the ninth and early tenth-century Frankish realm, this seminar will explore how overseas viking groups not only actively profited from extant economic systems, but simultaneously sought to subvert such ‘official’ infrastructures by establishing their own parallel, clandestine networks of trade, tribute, and political power.
In turn, it will demonstrate how Frankish authorities, in their inability to counteract and control these maritime communities, moved from strategies of prohibition and persecution to those of tacit recognition and sponsorship, thereby integrating these viking communities into their own socioeconomic sphere of influence.