Scandinavian legends preserve stories of great kings, heroes, and warriors, and archaeology has revealed an elite culture of lavish treasure, gilded swords and helmets, and astounding ship burials.īut what set in motion all these cultural trends that we now refer to collectively as the Vendel Period? As always, this epoch did not come out of nowhere, nor was the Norse world isolated at this time, and if we want to understand it then we need to understand the world that preceded and surrounded it. In Scandinavia, the period of roughly 550-750 A.D., which preceded and, in many ways, set the stage for the more (in)famous Viking Age, is known by several different names. In Sweden it is usually called the Vendel Period (vendeltid) , named after a famous burial ground north of Uppsala in Denmark, the Younger Germanic Iron Age (yngre germansk jernalder) and in Norway and much of continental Europe the Merovingian period, after the ruling Frankish dynasty of the day. Whichever name you prefer-though here I will prefer the Vendel Period-this was a time in which Scandinavia underwent enormous societal and material transformation, and something like a ‘golden age’ dawned.
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