TROUBLEMAKER FROM DENMARK

     TROUBLEMAKER FROM DENMARK

Olaf Fine-Hair turned out to be a very arrogant son that caused a lot of trouble in Northern Jutland. Olaf bullied the earls and killing some of those out of pure boredom. Olaf was a young Norse man in his twenties, known for his fine hair, and arrogant ways. He hails from North Jutland (modern-day Denmark). His father, Harald Slender-Legs had enough of Olaf's mischievous actions and decided to send him off to learn a thing-or-two about discipline. Harald heard of an opportunity among them, that could save his son Olaf. 

It was generational for his family to settle down to the English nation to raid. Harald has done it, Harald's father has done it, and even Harald's grandfather has done it. It was only a matter of time that Olaf was to follow the family tradition of raiding. 

In the morning, as soon as it was light outside, Harald, Olaf, and a few of Olaf's friends settled for the Knarr ship for a journey that at least three days to venture to (if the weather was right). The vessel was elaborately carved and decorated with the carving of a dragon head and filled with their possessions. 

The Viking Sea Raiders by Albert Goodwin

They leave North Jutland in 865 as they sail with other Danish warriors to England. They were told they would be meeting with other warriors to attack raid England. Apparently, the English have been getting better in defense so it required more manpower to overcome them. They would be known to the English as the "Great Heathen Army." 

The journey to England was rough and difficult. The winds were against Olaf and the crew's favor, so they had to settle in the fjords for some time before continuing. After weeks of travel, they finally made it into East Anglia. Thus, Olaf's new journey and life
begins. 

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Bibliography

 Primary Sources The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Trans. Dorothy Whitelock, David C. Douglas, and Susie I. Tucker. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1961. The Annals of Ulster . Edited by Pádraig Bambury and Stephen Beechinor. CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts. https://celt.ucc.ie//published/T100001A/index.html.  Grammaticus, Saxo. Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes . Edited by Karsten Friis-Jensen. Translated by Peter Fisher. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2015.  The War of Gaedhill with the Gaill or The Invasion of Ireland by the Danes and Other Norsemen . Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney . Secondary Sources  Ables, Richard. "English Logistics and Military Administration 871-1066: the Impact of The Viking Wars," in Military Aspects of Scandinavian Society in a European Perspective, AD 1-1300, 1997. Retrieved from https://deremilitari.org/2013/07/english-logistics-and-military-administration-871-1066-the-impact-of-the-viking-wars/.  Bidd...
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Introduction

This assignment was created by Brandon Molina for HIST 101: Western Civilization I at Northern Virginia Community College. The purpose of the assignment is to create an imaginary primary source in the use of a travel journal. For this project, the focus is on the Viking Age, specifically in Anglo-Saxon England.  The project is centered around the idea of the use of saga as Viking mainly used oral traditions to pass down stories. Vikings were not illiterate per se, they did know how to use runes. They did not write as much in a way to save the information until after the introduction to Christianity and the Roman alphabet (see Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age, p. 180). Olaf's story is passed down through his children and eventually written down to preserve the family story. 
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