Re: Between Frisia and Flandria: The Scaldings of Walacria

On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:05:42 +0200, "Peter Alaca" <P.Alaca@xxxxxx>
wrote:


Vikings in the Low Counries

In the ninth century the shores of the North Sea
were harassed by Danish pirates.
It is understandable that medieval chroniclers
were rather more interested in their targets, yet
something can be told about the origin of these
plunderers. For if we map out the different raids
in the North Sea area in the period between 834
and 864 -the period in which most transmarine
pirate activity is recorded - then the central
position of the former Island of Walcheren in the
present Dutch province of Zealand is striking. Is
it possible that a nest of pirates could have
maintained on this island for some decades?

Luit van der Tuuk (2006)
"Danish raiders on the shore: Walcheren in the ninth century"
Nehalennia 151 (2006), 2-24.
A shortened version of the article is online
http://www.vandertuuk.demon.nl/Walcheren_Engels.html
On the same site:
¤ Profiles of Danish rulers in the Low Countries *
¤ Viking raids arranged by year
¤ Texts of written sources
¤ Relevant literature

* See also: "Nordic Names in the Low Countries"
http://www.keesn.nl/nordic/list_en.htm


A short note on the archaeology of early Walcheren.

There was an important settlement in the Older
Dunes at Domburg from the sixth to the early ninth
century. The remains of this settlement and the
associated cemetery(ies) were visible for 600 m
along the high tide line on the beach in 1866.
Remains of wooden houses and numerous graves
with coffins were recorded. Unfortunately, no
attention was paid to the dating of any of these
remains or their interrelationship. Attention was
subsequently focused mainly on washed up coins
and other, mainly metal, objects. Few of the other
artefacts found, including fragments of pottery and
stone objects, were collected.
Study of the more than a thousand coins has
shown that the settlement existed from the sixth
to the ninth century. The settlement might be the
Walichrum mentioned in the sources; the name
literally means 'wet sandy ridge'. The name
Walcheren eventually came to be applied to the
entire island.
In the early middle-ages, Zeeland was little more
than water, mudflats and saltmarshes. Only on the
dunes in the west was room for extensive settlement.
For a paleomap see http://tinyurl.com/r6ro8 , or
http://tinyurl.com/r6ro8http://static.flickr.com/56/127418998_734efd6b5b.jpg?v=0
The strategic position of Walcheren for controling
the Scheldt estuary is clear.

As an emporium, the settlement was involved in
long-distance trade between the Frisian area and
England, among others, and its status can be
compared with that of Dorestad in the central
Netherlands river area.
A renewed study of the youngest coins, Caro­ling-
ian denarii, has suggested that Walcheren had
become less important by the mid-ninth century.
Clearly, this may well have been linked to the
historically recorded Viking attack on Walcheren
in 837. The island had a seditio, or military
settlement, although no evidence of physical
defences were found under the settlement remains
on the beach. There is at any rate no link with the
fortress at Domburg. These defences lie around a
kilometre to the south-west and are almost half a
century younger.
There must also have been a significant site on
the island of Schouwen, since similar finds were
found on the beach on the other side of the
Scheldt estuary. Identification with Scaltheim
mentioned in the early medieval sources however
is nothing more than speculation.

Based on:
RM van Heeringen, P.A. Henderikx & A. Mars (eds)
"Vroeg-Middeleeuwse ringwalburgen in Zeeland"
Goes/Amersfoort 1995


This is interesting but it raises questions.

Why should Walcheren have been chosen rather than one of the islands
of the Frisian coast which have since disappeared? Is it merely
because Walcheren still survives?

Are there any grounds for thinking these people Danes or Norse? My
understanding is that there is still disagreement over whether the
differences in the languages of the Frisian region are merely
dialectal or arise from different root languages.



Eric Stevens

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