Northern Europe in the Middle-Ages
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Northern Europe in the Middle-Ages
While Central Europe was divided in kingdoms - Kingdoms of France, Spain or England, meaning split into many different powers hold by monarchic authorities, only Northern Europe was an exception. No kingdoms or monarchies were ever born in the North. Free people were grouped in small family clans, always independent of each other. However, they eventually joined forces or waged war over the course of their different alliances. In the Scandinavian countries, these clans are known as the Vikings. The peasant-landowner was called gothi and he had some henchmen or thingmen who accompanied him during his expeditions. They used to go plundering and ravaging other territories. "Oh God, save us from the fury of the Northmen" is written on the old churches in France - Such was the plea of desperate monks feeling the surprise and terror of Viking raids and their long ships. The gothi were numerous and met every year for a plenary meeting, the thing, where they dealt with common problems. They held fiercely to their independence and maintained this anarchic political governance, devoid of any kind of authorities or strict laws for centuries. |
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In Scotland those groups of henchmen gathered around one leader, spending their time warring, were called the Highland clans. They were not Vikings but they still acted like them. Our documentary looks at their rich and marvelous history. There's a tale in Norway mentioning a prominent figure: Harald, an ambitious gothi. Harald's betrothed refused to marry him before he was king of Norway so he took a vow not to cut or comb his hair until he was the unique King of Norway. Only after several years of wars and cruelties of all kinds, Harald finally achieved his goal and exchanged the epithet “Shockhead" or "Tanglehair" for the one by which he is usually known: Harald Fairhair. He asked other gothi for their loyalty, but those who were too proud to accept or too weak to confront him fled away. They immigrated to Iceland and other unknown lands. Also, some other, a bit more intrepid, endeavored a journey to America. They named it Vinland in a time long before its discovery by Christopher Columbus. Contemporary mainstream economists under the Chicago School umbrella, Milton Friedman in its head, saw this Viking society as an embryo of their ideal market anarchism. In Scotland those groups of henchmen gathered around one leader, spending their time warring, were called the Highland clans. They were not Vikings but they still acted like them. Our documentary looks at their rich and marvelous history. |
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