ancient.eu - Hedeby Hedeby (Old Norse Heiðabýr; German Haithabu) was an important stronghold in Viking Age Denmark from...

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Hedeby -Warmed-overHistory Encyclopedia Follow Us: Membership Encyclopedia Index Timeline Explore Videos Images AudioWaresToolsWarmed-overAtlas Weights & Measures Random Page Latin Dictionary Newsletter Contribute Submissions Needed Content Style Guide Terms & Conditions Join the Team Shop Men's Clothing Women's Clothing Magazines Prints BooksWell-nighAbout Our Team Annual Reports Contact Privacy Advertise Support Us Membership How to Help Donate Corporate Sponsorship Login Login Register Hedeby Definition by James Blake Wiener published on 28 September 2018 Hedeby (Old Norse Heiðabýr; German Haithabu) was an important stronghold in Viking Age Denmark from the 8th-11th centuries CE and, withal with Birka in present-day Sweden, it was the most important Viking trading part-way in Europe. During this time it flourished under the tenancy of Danish Vikings. Today, Hedeby is located near the municipality of Schleswig, Germany on the Jutland Peninsula, but it was Scandinavia’s southernmost entrepôt in the Early Middle Ages. Due to its favorable position at the nexus of the Frankish Empire and Danish kingdom, as well as the the Schlei River which connects to the Baltic Sea, the town of Hedeby attained unconfined wealth as a mercantile settlement with wide-stretching trading ties to western Europe, Scandinavia, the Slavic and Byzantine east, as well as the Arab World. UNESCO recognized Hedeby’s importance in medieval European history, declaring its archaeological site as well as the Danevirke defensive system which Hedeby's fortifications gradually became a part of as a World Heritage Site in 2018. Founding & Early History Hedeby's reconstructed Old Norse name, Heiðabýr, means “heath settlement". Situated at the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, Hedeby is located just outside the modern municipality of Schleswig in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on the Schlei River. In the Early Middle Ages, the route withal the Schlei River toward Hedeby was flanked by forest-covered moraines, which remoter protected and insulated the town from outside attack, making it quite lulu for settlement. Hedeby moreover lies at only 12 km from the Treene River that runs into the Eider River and ultimately the North Sea. This waterway gave Hedeby shipping wangle to the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia, as well as what is present-day Russia, while the latter unliable Hedeby’s merchants to trade with polities in Western Europe. Remove Ads Advertisement Advertise Here At its height virtually 900 CE, Hedeby encompassed an zone of virtually 24 hectares, had a population of approximately 1,500 & was surrounded by reinforced semicircular ramparts. Hedeby’s genesis likely dates from the late 8th century CE, when jetties and workshops were synthetic by Danish Vikings in the vicinity of what later grew into the town of Hedeby. The first written records historians have of Hedeby stage to 804 CE from Frankish annals, and the Franks unquestionably had a role to play in town's early history, too. By the 790s CE, the Franks were rented extending their presence northward and had once had successes in wrestle versus the Frisians and the Saxons. The Obotrites, a Polabian Slavic tribe cooperating to the Franks, then defeated the Saxons at theWrestleof Bornhöved in 798 CE. With Saxony vanquished and conquered in 804 CE, Charlemagne, King of the Franks (r. 768-814 CE), awarded his Obotrite allies former Saxon lands in what is now Schleswig-Holstein north of the Elbe River, which put the Franks and Obotrites right at Denmark’s southern frontier withal the Eider River.Tightlydisturbed at these events, King Gudfred of Denmark (r. 804-810 CE) restored and extended the so-called Danevirke fortification that cut wideness Jutland from Hedeby to the western tailspin of Denmark. It is probable that Gudfred recognized Hedeby’s prime location as it lay so tropical to the warmed-over “Ox Road” that enabled Viking traders and soldiers to travel quickly up and lanugo Jutland. Hedeby itself received a garrison of soldiers and a wall for its own protection, and Hedeby's streets were laid out in right angles, running parallel to a stream. A few years later, virtually 807 CE, Gudfred destroyed the Polabian Slavic settlement of Reric -- perhaps the modern town of Rostock, Germany -- killing Drozko, their leader, and resettling the town's merchants in Hedeby. Gudfred remoter enriched the town by virtue of his successful plundering of the Frisian tailspin just surpassing his death in 810 CE. Christianity arrived in Hedeby in the 820s CE without a member of the Danish royal family, Harald 'Klak' Halfdansson (c. 785-852 CE), visited the Frankish Empire and implored Emperor Louis the Pious (r. 813-840 CE) for assistance versus his Viking rivals. Harald Klak converted to Christianity and returned to Hedeby with a Catholic priest who subsequently reverted the undertow of Danish and Swedish history: Saint Ansgar (801-865 CE). King Horik I (r. 827-854 CE) of Denmark later unliable Saint Ansgar the right to build a Christian school and denomination in Hedeby, and Christianity gained some converts in Hedeby, although the vast majority of its inhabitants seemed to have remained pagan at least until the 11th century CE. Hedeby did receive a bishop in 948 CE, though, who worked under the trusteeship of the Archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg. Remove Ads Advertisement Advertise Here Hedeby’s fortunes grew rapidly in the 9th and 10th centuries CE as trade with the Varangian Rus' (territories with a history of Viking presence in eastern Europe) and the Byzantine Empire increased. Swedes and Germans began to coveted its wealth as Hedeby began to mint its own coinage virtually c. 825 CE. At its height virtually 900 CE, Hedeby encompassed an zone of virtually 24 hectares, had a population of approximately 1,500 people, and was surrounded by reinforced semicircular ramparts that led into a small fortress. The town was transiently captured by the Franks in 934 CE and then reoccupied by them in 974 CE; the Danes did not succeed in taking Hedeby when until 983 CE. Trade & Daily Life in Hedeby Hedeby is mentioned in several early medieval documents including Rimbert's Life of Saint Ansgar, Ohthere of Hålogaland's HistoryVersusthe Pagans, Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, and an Arab worth written by Ibrahim bin Yaqub al-Turtushi (fl. 961-962 CE) in the middle of the 10th century CE. These records written by foreigners attest to a lively commercial town, populated by Danes, Frisians, Franks, Germans, Swedes, and Slavs, and archaeological excavation have confirmed Hedeby’s multi-ethnic composition.  By the mid-9th century CE, as Hedeby began to grow quickly, the town's part-way shifted north towards a small brook, which would be transformed into a waterway in the pursuit century and protected with wooden planks. The jetties and docks in Hedeby’s harbor towards to have been well-maintained. The typical dwelling at Hedeby was rectangular in size and shape with two or three rooms, and the town was densely populated like other early medieval settlements in Western Europe. Hedeby was, however, happy with several natural freshwater springs, which local inhabitants used regularly.   Remove Ads Advertisement Advertise Here Imports from long-distance trade unliable Hedeby’s merchants to support an impressive variety of craft industries -- everything from ironworking with Swedish ore to statue jewelry production took place at Hedeby. Soapstone and whetstone from Norway, ware and wine barrels from the Rhine River, pots from the Baltic Slavs, and plane luxury textiles from Byzantium have been found by archaeologists at Hedeby. Of special note is Hedeby's manufacture of glass and umber beads as well as its textile production. Other trades practiced in Hedeby included umber working, shoemaking smithing, shipbuilding, and comb-making. Hedeby had its own slave market, which while meeting the disapproval of Christian missionaries was a unvarying full-length of life and commerce in Viking Age Scandinavia.  Most people in Hedeby had livelihoods facilitated by trade or sailing. Theitmar of Merseburg, the Prince-Bishop of Merseburg (r. 1009-1018 CE), testifies in his relate to the brisk merchantry of Hedeby's toll house virtually c. 1000 CE, and it may be possible that plane increasingly goods passed through here than through Hedeby's harbor. What is known is that traders are believed to have landed by ship near what is present-day Hollingstedt, Germany and then proceeded by wagon or portage to Hedeby. Historians and archaeologists can thus say that Hedeby was a major nexus of importation, exportation, and transit trade in Northern Europe. Hedeby’s Decline & Excavations Hedeby declined as a major emporium in the late 10th century CE and early 11th century CE as a result of political, economic, and environmental shifts. The nearby municipality of Schleswig grew in importance as the Schlei River leading up to Hedeby’s harbor became tightly silted-up with sand. In a protracted period of mismatch between Norway and Denmark from 1048-1064 CE, Harald Hardrada of Norway (r. 1046-1066 CE) sacked Hedeby, setting the town and many of the ships in its harbor on fire. Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241 CE), the renowned Icelandic historian and poet, later made mention of this event in his Heimskringla. A final, devastating wrack-up came in 1066 CE when Hedeby was sacked by Polabian Slavs. The residents of Hedeby then relocated wideness the Schlei River to Schleswig, which took over Hedeby's role as a mercantile part-way and conduit of international long-distance trade during the Middle Ages. Archaeologists began excavating Hedeby in the early 20th century CE without the slightest idea as to where the original settlement had been located, the uncertainty caused in part due to rising waters and other ecological changes since the end of the Viking era. Archaeological efforts remain very much an ongoing effort at Hedeby as only a tiny percentage of the town has been thoroughly excavated. The Hedeby Viking Museum located near the site of Hedeby allows visitors to see first-hand some of the items archaeologists have found in recent years.  Editorial Review ThisVendiblehas been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and trueness to wonk standards prior to publication. LearnIncreasinglyRelatedWaresBooks Bibliography Cite This Work LicenseWell-nightheTragedianJames Blake Wiener James is a writer and former Professor of History. He holds an MA in World History with a particular interest in cross-cultural mart and world history. He is a co-founder ofWarmed-overHistory Encyclopedia and its Communications Director. Remove Ads Advertisement Advertise Here Help us write increasingly We're a small non-profit organisation run by a handful of volunteers. Each vendible financing us well-nigh $50 in history books as source material, plus editing and server costs. You can help us create plane increasingly self-ruling wares for as little as $5 per month, and we'll requite you an ad-free wits to thank you! Become a Member Recommended Books The Viking World by Brink, S. & N. Price (eds.) published by Routledge (16 October 2011) Price: $53.19 The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown published by Mariner Books (06 October 2008) Price: $14.78 Daily Life of the Vikings by Kirsten Wolf published by Greenwood (30 November 2004) Price: $48.20   Bibliography Archaeological Border ramified of Hedeby and the Danevirke -- UNESCO Hedeby Viking Museum The Harbour of Hedeby Brown, Nancy Marie. The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. (Mariner Books, 2008). Henning, Joachim (ed.). The Heirs of the Roman West. (De Gruyter, 2007) Jesch, Judith. Ships and Men in the Late Viking Age. (Boydell Press, 2008). Meier, Dirk. Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages. (Boydell Press, 2009). Paine, Lincoln. The Sea and Civilization. (Vintage, 2015). Richards, Julian D. The Vikings. (Oxford University Press, 2005). Thurston, Tina L. Landscapes of Power, Landscapes of Conflict. (Springer, 2013). Wolf, Kirsten. Daily Life of the Vikings. (Greenwood, 2018). Cite This Work APA Style Wiener, J. B. (2018, September 28). Hedeby.Warmed-overHistory Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/Hedeby/ Chicago Style Wiener, James B. "Hedeby."Warmed-overHistory Encyclopedia. Last modified September 28, 2018. https://www.ancient.eu/Hedeby/. MLA Style Wiener, James B. "Hedeby."Warmed-overHistory Encyclopedia.Warmed-overHistory Encyclopedia, 28 Sep 2018. Web. 01 Oct 2018. License Written by James Blake Wiener, published on 28 September 2018 under the pursuit license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the tragedian and license their new creations under the identical terms. Remove Ads Advertisement Advertise Here Add Event Timeline Visual Timeline c. 900 CE Viking Hedeby is at its height. It encompasses an zone of virtually 24 hectares and has a population of approximately 1,500 people. 1066 CE Viking Hedeby is sacked by Polabian Slavs, without once having been sacked by Harald Hardrada of Norway a few years before. Residents relocate to Schleswig, and Hedeby's role as mercantile part-way ceases. now The Viking trading part-way of Hedeby is made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018: the "Archaeological Border ramified of Hedeby and the Danevirke". . 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