HISTORY

HERALDRY

Early Heraldry

Eagle

Dragon

Lion

THE KINGDOM

Royal Arms

National Arms

ARMED FORCES

History

From the last decades of the 8th century Norwegians started expanding across the seas to the British Isles and later Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Age also saw the unification of the country. Christianization took place during the 11th century and Nidaros became an archdiocese. The population expanded quickly until 1349 (Oslo:3000, Bergen:7,000, Trondheim:4.000) when it was halved by the Black Death and successive plagues. Bergen became the main trading port, controlled by the Hanseatic League. Norway entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden in 1397.

After Sweden left the union in 1523, Norway became the junior partner in Denmark–Norway. The Reformation was introduced in 1537 and absolute monarchy imposed in 1661. In 1814 Norway was ceded by Denmark to Sweden and a constitution was passed. Norway declared its independence but was then occupied by Sweden, although the Parliament was allowed to continue to exist. Industrialization started in the 1840s and from the 1860s large-scale emigration to North America took place. In 1884 the king appointed Johan Sverdrup as prime minister, thus establishing parliamentarism. The union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905.

Heraldry

The Viking Age

The Viking Age was a period of Scandinavian expansion through trade, colonization and raids. The first raid was against Lindisfarne in 793 and is considered the beginning of the Viking Age. This could take place because of the development of the longship, suitable for travel across the sea, and advanced navigation techniques.

The expeditions and raids took place by bands organized in the so-called leiðangr system. This was a system organising a coastal fleet with the aim of defence, coerced trade, plunderings and aggressive wars. Normally, the fleet levy was on expeditions for two or three summer months. All free men, i.e. the peasants, were obliged to take part in or contribute to the leiðangr. All of the leiðangr was called to arms when invading forces threatened the land. In the expeditions only a fraction of the ships were taking part, but as the expeditions often were profitable many magnates and chieftains tried to join with their people as often as possible.

A Viking Fleet

Inscription on wood showing about thirty ships of which two ships with dragon figureheads and four with jacks.

Bergen National Maritime Museum.

The lands were divided into districts, ship's crews, "skipreiða" (Old Norse), "skipæn" (Danish) or "roslag" (Swedish). The farmers of the district had to build and equip a rowed sailing ship. The size of the ships was defined as a standardized number of oars, initially forty oars, later the standardized size of 24 was increased. In Norway, there were 279 such districts in 1277, in Denmark two-three times as many. The head of a district was called "styrimaðr" or "styræsmand", steersman, and he functioned as captain of the ship. The smallest unit was the crew of peasants who had to arm and provide for one oarsman ("hafnæ" in Danish, "manngerð" in Old Norse).

According to the Law of Uppland, the hundreds of Uppland provided as many as four ships each, those of Västmanland two ships and those of Roslagen one ship.

The older laws regulating the leiðangr (the Norwegian "Older Law of the Gulating" dates to the 11th or 12th century) require every man to, as a minimum, arm himself with an axe or a sword in addition to spear and shield, and for every rowbench (typically of two men) to have a bow and 24 arrows. Later 12th-13th century changes to this law code list more extensive equipment for the more affluent freemen, with helmet, mail hauberk, shield, spear and sword being what the well-to-do farmer or burgher must bring to war.

In 12th-13th century sources detailing the 11th century, jarls are mentioned as the chieftain of the leiðangr, in the 12th century the bishop could also be head of the fleet levy, although typically nobles lead levies in the 12th to 14th centuries.

When it comes to heraldry, the Viking raids may have contributed to a heraldic system in Norway more or less copied from the Saxons of  England. Norse heraldry, that is to say the heraldry developed in the Viking and Norse world, was in vigour on the coasts of the North-sea, then functioning as a norse internal sea, in particular of England, Frisia, Denmark and Norway. The  culture of war was a culture of maritime warfare fought by what we may call now marines, soldiers of the sea having important tasks on the shore. The system of badges of rank was borrowed from the roman system more or less described by the roman chronicler Vegetius.

According to Flavius Vegetius in his Epitoma Rei Militaris the eagle was the emblem of the roman legions and the dragon the standard of the cohortes: “Dracones etiam per singulas cohortes a draconariis feruntur ad proelium” (Every cohors has its own standard in battle, a dragon, brone by the draconarius) (Vegetius XIII).

The hierarchy of the standards was (lib. III, cap. 5)  ”muta signa sunt aquilæ, dracones, vexilla, flammulæ, tufæ, pinnæ” (eagles, dragons, banners, pennons, tufts and points). Apparently the eagle-dragon system was also adopted on the british islands which belonged to the Roman Empire from 55 BC until 410 AD.  In 293 AD Diocletian made the roman part of the island the diocese of Britannia, divided in four provinces: Britannia prima, (Corinium/Cirencester)  Maxima Caesariensis, (Lindum/LIncoln)  B. secunda (Eboracum/York)  and Flavia Caesariensis (Londi nium /London)

As Britannia, Roman Britain, was a consular province, its governors needed to be appointed consul by Rome before they could govern it. While this rank could be obtained either as a suffect or ordinares, a number of governors were consul ordinares, and also appear in the List of Early Imperial Roman Consuls. Later governors could be of the lower, equestrian rank.

The consulares or præsides resided in Londinium (London). The emblem of rank of a consul was an eagle.

In early britannic heraldry after the Romans had left the isles, the classical emblems of rank occur now and then but it is not possible to construct an uninterrupted series spanning the middle ages. The eagle was adopted by some rulers who could pretend to be the most important rulers of Britannia for a while and were residing in London or were in its possession. The dragon apparently was maintained in Wales and Wessex and the lion in Northumbria and later in all of Britanny.

In this period we are informed that the Vegetius-system was also used by the Saxons in Germany as the chronicle Widukind writes in the 10th century that they had a „signum … sacrum, leonis atque draconis et desuper aquilæ volantis insignitum effigie” hadden.  [1]

We may also conclude that the eagle-dragon-lion system was introduced and revived by the Saxons when colonizing Brittanny.

The Eagle

The adoption of the eagle and the dragon in the Britannic middle ages would imply that the successors of the consulares could bring about 5000 soldiers in the field and the rulers of the smaller kingdoms about 500 to 1000. [2]).

Even when the preserved eagles from Roman Britain are not abundant, some remains of them, for example the Silchester Eagle and some eagle-brooches, prove that this emblem of rank was known in Roman Britain. Nevertheless, more impressive evidences are some centuries younger.

Silchester Eagle

(Museum of Reading, UK)

The most striking and well-known example of the use of an eagle is the eagle in north german style of the shield of Sutton Hoo. This has been found in a ship used for the burial of a king of East/Anglia in the middel of the 7th century, probably Rædwald (†625). [3] The burial in a ship makes his relation with the sea visible. The eagle can be explained by the fact that Raedwald is on the list of Bretwaldas, kings of Brittannia as given by the english historian Bede. [4]

Sutton Hoo eagle

Last reconstruction

Soon the syle of the eagle was changed. This can be seen on the gold ring of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex:

Gold ring of  Æthelwulf, King of Wessex (839-’58)

Such a roman styled eagle is also on coins of the Norse king Anlaf Guthfridsson who had settled in Eburacum (York), the former legionary fortress of Brittanny. Not long after an eagle is on a coin of king Æthelred II from the House of Wessex. In  957-959 Wessex had conquered Northumbria and Mercia and in this way York was a part of the possessions of the House of Wessex in the time of Æthelred II.

In Sweden 6th-9th century heraldic eagles are known from helmets found in burial mounts in Vendel and Valsgärd. The helmet from Vendel, itself an eagle-helmet, shows a warrior on horseback with an eagle-crested helmet and between two flying eagles (symbolizing two legions = 10,000 soldiers ca. and the command of a 7th-10th century byzantine strategus [5]).

Warrior on horseback and two eagles on the Vendel helmet.

On the right a warrior with a battle-axe

After christianization (and in the 19th century) such eagles were thought to have been the two ravens of Odin called Hugin and Munin which, of course, was an attempt to ridiculize pagan beliefs, also reducing Odin to a strategus. [6]

On another part his fighting unit (or royal guard) is depicted, also wearing eagle-crested helmets:

Maybe the eagle was introduced in Norway at an early stage of the Viking age and was also displayed by the early kings whose names are transmitted by the norse sagas. No examples of eagles are however preserved in Norway from this early age. Of importance in this context is the eagle on the Alstad Stone.

The oldest inscription on this stone shows an eagle in the ancient north-german style, resembling the eagle of Sutton Hoo.

Eagle on the Alstad Stone.

As the newer iscriptions are dated in the 11th century, the ancient eagle may be somewhat older and may be ascribed to Olaf I (960ca-1000) who had strong relations with the Roman King Otto III and tried to introduce (in vain) Christianity in Norway. He was succeded by two earls who cannot have been qualified to bear an eagle.

Heraldic stone, Oslo Cathedral

A second testimony of an eagle which could refer to Olaf I is a stone on Oslo Cathedral depicting a man supported by a lion and an eagle. This is a norse version of a royal achievement as preserved of King Otto III depicting him in full official dress and supporterd by two eagles.

King Otto III supported by two eagles [8]

We may have more firm foothold in the time of Olaf II Haraldsson (the Saint). The newer inscriptions on the Altstad Stone are alsmost certain from his reign as they depict five riders on horseback below an eagle in the common european style of the time. About the eagle there cannot be any doubt that a royal badge is meant.

The five riders correspond with the five princes of Upland who helped Olaf gaining his throne in 1015. Heimskringla relates this period as follows:

At that time there were many kings in the Uplands who had districts to rule over, and the most of them were descended from Harald Harfager.  In Hedemark two brothers ruled -- Hrorek and Ring; in Gudbrandsdal, Gudrod; and there was also a king in Raumarike; and one had Hadaland and Thoten; and in Valders also there was a king.  With these district-kings Sigurd had a meeting up in Hadaland, and Olaf Haraldson also met with them.  To these district-kings whom Sigurd had assembled he set forth his stepson Olaf's purpose, and asked their aid, both of men and in counsel and consent; and represented to them how necessary it was to cast off the yoke which the Danes and Swedes had laid upon them.  He said that there was now a man before them who could head such an enterprise; and he recounted the many brave actions which Olaf had achieved upon his war-expeditions. [9]

The Eagle of Olaf Haraldsson

In the next verses only one of the rulers refuses help but the five others of Hedemark, Gudbrandsdal, Raumarike, Hadaland & Thoten and Valders consent. The fact that the stone orignates from Toten also is an indication that a monument for the king and his supporters was erected.

There are other proofs that the badge of rank of Olaf Tryggvason was an eagle.

These are the eagles on pennies struck by Olaf II.The first of these show a Paschal Lamb on the obverse and an eagle of the shape of the eagle of Alstad on the reverse:

Penny of Olaf II. [10]

This penny is a fair copy of the similar penny struck by king Æthelred of England to which Olaf had rendered valuable services aginst his enemy Canute the Dane in 1014.

Agnus Dei penny of King Æthelred of England

Nevertheless there is another penny of Olaf showing an eagle of different design:

Penny of Olaf the Saint

Showing his bust and an eagle upright [11]

Brass jack from Heggen (Sogn og Fjordane)

1st half 11th century. Showing an eagle in Ringerike style. On top is a lion passant.

Complicated feathers-and-wings motifs were also used in 12th century norse woodcarving but the eagle motif was omitted.

Bracteat from the time of Håkon IV Håkonsson

After these eagles it takes long before we met another one in connection with a norse king. Even then, its use was an exception and a last example occurred on a 13th century royal seal to disappear completely afterwards.

A bracteate showing an eagle was struck during the reign of Håkon IV Håkonsson (1217-’63), probably after he had been crowned king in 1247.

An eagle was also used by his sons. It is, apparently only its sinister half, on the shield of his son and co-regent Håkon the Younger (†1257).

It is also on the seal of his son, co-regent (1257-) and sucessor Magnus Håkonsson (*1238)), strongly resembling the seal of King Edward I of England (1272-1307). [12] In this instance it is on top of a lily-scepter, the eagle symbolizing the dignity of a roman consul, the fleur de lys armed authority.

Equestrian Seal of Haakon the Younger

 Arms: (demi) eagle. L.: X REX : HACO : PRECLARVS : PROBVS : AR[m]IS : PEC[tore : gnarvs]. Date: Bjorgvin 06.10,1250. [13] 

Seal of Majesty of Magnus Haakonssøn Lagabøter (1263-’80)

The king on his throne with lily-sceptre crested with an eagle. L.: [Sigillvm Magni Haconis.. Dei Gracia] REGIS [nor]WAGIE. Date: Tunsberg, 18.07.1278. [14]

The Dragon

In the norwegian context the dragon occurred in the first place as a figurehead of the famous Viking ships. Not every ship had such a figurehead and, as we know, some ships had an eagle’s head or a lion’s head for figurehead. A Viking fleet is depicted on a piece of wood which shows about 45 ships of which two have a dragon’s head for figurehead.

Viking Fleet,

Carving on wood. National Maritime Museum, Bergen.

Three of them have jacks in the shape of the brass jacks found in Heggen with their fringes consisting of balls pending from the rim of them.

In military terms the picture is of a fleet of between 1080 and 1800 oars commanded by two commanders (or vice admirals). This has to be compared with the size of the naval command of a byzantine turmarch which diminished between about 750 and 950 AD from 2000 to 800 men. Such a command was divided between two drungaries, each commanding between 1000 and 400 men in the late 10th century. At the same time the command of a hecatontarch (of the level of a centurion) augmented from 40 to 100 men. [15] This last number is the number of the four  crews ("skipreiða") of each of the hundreds of Upland who provided four ships (of 24 oarsmen - manngerð) each. These hundreds for that reason can readily be compared with the byzantine hecatontarchs. It is not suggested here that the Viking navy was organized alon byzantine principles but nevertheless it must be pointed at the fact that relations between the Vikings and Byzantium were quite intensive up to the point that Emperor Basil II employed a guard of Varangians after 988.

As the fleet has two commanders a dragon’s head has to be the badge of rank of a commander of the level of a drungary for which no term in old norse is available.

Accepting the theory that a dragon’s head represented a command of about 1000 in the ninth century the dragon’s heads found in Gokstad and Oseberg can be ascribed to a Viking vice-admiral comparable with a Byzantine drungary. This idea matches the fact that the two burials seem to have been of high-ranking naval commanders commanding in that case about 25 to 40 skipreiða.[16]

Dragon head  from the Oseberg tent poles

Dragon heads from the Gokstad tent poles

From the time of the Oseberg- and Gokstad ships is a drawing of a Viking ship with a figurehead strongly resembling the dragon-heads of the tent-poles:

Viking ship

From a 9-10th century Anglo-Saxon manuscript from Northumbria now in the British Library.

Even if the figurehead an almost exact copy of the norse dragon heads the rest of the ship seems to be a little bit freely interpreted. However, the artist was wel aware that there was a construction (a stave-church!) on the deck which could house the commander.

A description of a ship with a dragon figurehead is from Snorri Sturlusson (writing in the beginning of the 13th century) who describes the ship of a free man called Raud, attacked by Olav Tryggvason (r. 995-1000). His ship is called ‘of a great chief’:

85 THORER HJORTS DEATH

There was a bonde, by name Raud the Strong, who dwelt in Godey in Salten fjord.  Raud was a very rich man, who had many house servants; and likewise was a powerful man, who had many Fins in his service when he wanted them.  Raud was a great idolater, and very skillful in witchcraft, and was a great friend of Thorer Hjort, before spoken of.  Both were great chiefs.  Now when they heard that King Olaf was coming with a great force from the south to Halogaland, they gathered together an army, ordered out ships, and they too had a great force on foot.  Raud had a large ship with a gilded head formed like a dragon, which ship had thirty rowing benches, and even for that kind of ship was very large. ….

Later Olaf captured the ship of Raud:

87. OF RAUD'S BEING TORTURED.

Now when they came to Raud's house his great ship, the dragon, was afloat close to the land. King Olaf went up to the house immediately with his people; made an attack on the loft in which Raud was sleeping, and broke it open.

[…..]

Then the king took the dragonship which Raud had owned, and steered it himself; for it was a much larger and handsomer vessel than the Crane (the ship of Olav Trygavson).  In front it had a dragon's head, and aft a crook, which turned up, and ended with the figure of the dragon's tail.  The carved work on each side of the stem and stern was gilded.  This ship the king called the Serpent. When the sails were hoisted they represented, as it were, the dragon's wings; and the ship was the handsomest in all Norway.

And ordered a lager ship of the same shape:

95. BUILDING OF THE SHIP LONG SERPENT.

The winter after, King Olaf came from Halogaland (A.D. 1000), he had a great vessel built at Hladhamrar, which was larger than any ship in the country, and of which the beam-knees are still to be seen. The length of keel that rested upon the grass was seventy-four ells.

[…..]

The ship was a dragon, built after the one the king had captured in Halogaland; but this ship was far larger, and more carefully put together in all her parts. The king called this ship Serpent the Long, and the other Serpent the Short. The long Serpent had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and the arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships. This ship was the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway.[17]

At the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th century dragons were drawn in the so-called Ringerike style characterized by complicated plaited patterns. An example of such a dragon is on the socalled Söderala brass jack from Sweden:

Brass jack from Söderala

Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm

Another example from outside Norway is on an axe in socalled Mammen style and this axe, consequently, should have belonged to a commander of 1000.

Still other dragons are on the Bayeux Tapestry of the end of the 11th century where they are on the bows of ships, on the shields of his envoys and on standards.

The dragon survived in Christian times in Norway, It was sculptured on some parts of the famous stave churches for example in Hopperstad and Gol. The ones preserved however are not always free from doubt. Also, it seems, its meaning of a badge of rank was lost at the beginning of the 13th century. It was replaced by its meaning  of a symbol of the Old Testament and, later, of paganism in general.

Dragon from Hopperstad Stave Church (after 1150)

Dragon. 15th century (?)

Museum of  Natural History and Archaeology, Trondheim

While the eagle best fits the high kings of Norway, the dragon best fits the petty kings of which there were many in ancient Norway. These rulers might be called petty kings, herser, subkings, kings or jarls depending on the source but in fact their best title would be just viking.  Indeed, viking ships are closely associated with longships with dragon-heads for figurehead.  As these vikings disappeared in the course of history, the dragons they bore as a badge of rank disappeared with them.

The Lion

Besides eagles and dragons also lions have been preserved from ancient Norway. The most beautiful pieces have been found in the famous 9th century Oseberg burial mount. Here a sledge with lion head posts and lion head posts of uncertain function were unearthed.

Oseberg lion head post, 9th century

Viking ship Museum, Oslo.

Lion head post on the sledge

Matching the Oseberg lion head post called ‘of the master of the baroque’

For more than a century these lion heads remain the only testimonies of the use of a lion badge. A brass jack showing a lion in Mammen- or Ringerike style dating from about 1000 has been preserved as a wind vane on the church of Heggen.

Brass Jack from Heggen Church, Buskerud. 1000-1050

Lion, the upper rim crested with another lion

Univ. Museum of Cultural Heritage, Oslo. Inv. Nr C 23602

And another lion dating from about the same period is on the so-called Vangsteinen, today still standing near Vang church (Vang, Oppland).

The Vang stone, beginning 11th century

Lion passant and plaited motif below. The text on the stone in runic script reads: kosa : sunir : ristu : s(t)in : þinsi : af(t)ir : kunar : bruþur:sun (The sons of Gasa erected this stone to the memory of Gunnar, her brother’s son [18])

In the middle of the 12th century lions were used as guardians of the entrances of some newly built stave churches:

Lions and lion heads guarding the entrance of the stave church of Ǻl (Hallingdal, Buskerud) ca. 1150

Univ. Museum of Cultural Heritage, Oslo. Inv.nr. C 10590

Lions guarding the entrance of Lom stave church, after 1160.

From the same period a chair has been preserved showing a square cross charged with a medallion on which is a picture of a standing man supported by two animals.

Chair from Tyldal Church, Østerdalen, Hedmark. 1150-1200

Univ. Museum of Cultural Heritage, Oslo. Inv.nr. C 9906 [19]

Because of the cross being a square cross, the chair has to be destined for an administrative official, the square cross being the symbol of christian administrative authority.

The man supported by two animals stands in an ancient tradition which we met earlier in the Oslo Cathedral stone. A much much older example of such an achievement is on the Sutton Hoo purse:

In general such an achievement means “the institution of” the unity symbolized by the central motiv, the supporters themselves being the badges of rank of the supporting official. In many cases such achievements were displayed by heads of state, chiefs administration, the magister officiorum, the major domus, the vizir or prime minister. The achievement on the chair can, amongst others, be compared with the so-called Sicilian Coronation mantle.

Indeed we must accept in that case that the beasts supporting the official on the chair and also the two other pairs of beasts on the chair, are lions and not other beasts like wolves or other quadrupeds.

Also it remains to be established whose administration can be mean,t as there have been six kings in Norway between 1157 and 1204. However, we may be fairly sure that the chair has belonged to a royal governor of Hedmark.

Æ Royal Arms