16 Jan Awe and Envy: Byzantine motifs in Scandinavian Saga literature
“The cool breeze forced the black prow of the ship forward along the coast, and the armoured ships proudly bore their tackle. The eminent king saw iron-thatched Miklagard before the bow; many fair prowed ships advanced toward the tall arm of the city”- translation of Morkinskinna by Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade.
A great city in the distance approached by armoured ships, a soon to be famous king aboard makes his way to adventure and glory in Byzantium, the first challenge to his own royal character by a civilization greater than he. So begins the adventure of arguably the single most famous Varangian mercenary in history, the Saga of Harald “Hardrada” Sigurdarson. One of the most famous Nordic accounts of Byzantium, his story shows a characteristic view of the Byzantine empire that is prevalent in the Scandinavian 13th-century sagas. The greatness of the Greek kingdom is contrasted by the great deeds and character of the Norse hero.
Various similar motifs show up in several different sagas from the 13th century. The Morkinskinna, a 13th-century royal saga authored in the monasteries of Iceland, the Heimskringla, a royal saga authored by the famed Snorri Sturlason, and the manuscript 64b Holmiensis, popularly known as Guta Saga, all paint a vivid picture of how the Northerners viewed the Byzantine empire.
The Varangian-Byzantine relationship in the sagas is one partly based on exoticism, prevalent for lands in the periphery of the known world, and partly on a reverence bordering on envy for the might of the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium’s narrative function thus becomes twofold: to serve as an exotic setting for Norse heroes to prove themselves against dragons and Saracens and the emperor, but also as a narrative contrast to show off the heroic qualities of the protagonists.
Harald Hardrada’s story is emblematic in this respect. In both Heimskringla and Morkinskinna he begins his journey after the battle of Sticklestad, from which point he makes his way to the court of prince Jaroslav and asks to marry his daughter Elizabeth. Jaroslav however will not marry his daughter to a man of no renown, regardless how impressive his lineage is. With a quest at hand and a reputation to earn, the young lord leaves for adventure in Miklagard the golden.
Byzantium was at the time of Haralds arrival ruled by the empress Zoe and her husband Michael. Zoe is contrasted with Harald at once by being given the title “En rika,” the powerful. In a confrontation with the Empress in Morkinskinna, she asks him for a lock of his hair, to which Harald responds with a request for the empress’ pubic hairs. This insult forms the initial antagonism between Harald and the empire.
Harald then enters service in the Varangian guard under the pseudonym Nordbricht and quickly becomes leader of the Varangians after slaying a dragon and helping the Varangian Erlender’s wife through his ingenuity, thus proving his wisdom. The young prince goes on various campaigns with Jarl Gyrgir, a Byzantine admiral whose incompetence is compared to Harald’s spectacular achievements in battle and in wits. During this time, the disagreements about the distribution of loot causes a big conflict between the two men. While Gyrgir was a part of the imperial salaried system, Harald the Scandinavian was used to the system of his homeland where a warrior would keep the loot he earned.
After many such campaigns in which this charade is repeated, Harald is “unfairly” accused of stealing the loot of the empire and of seducing the niece of the emperor. The sense of injustice rings hypocritically here, since the same sagas admit that Harald was guilty of both crimes. Harald is arrested and thrown in the dungeons where he slays another dragon, escapes and ends his adventure by blinding the emperor and kidnapping princess Maria. He later releases Maria with a message to Zoe, challenging the empress by asking if she could have done anything to stop him. Having thus proved his superiority, wisdom and martial might, Harald departs with his reputation and treasure to Norwegian dynastic squabbles and English arrows.
In Morkinskinna, a descendent of Harald and king of Norway, Sigurd the Jerusalem-farer, rides the waves of conquest and glory on his crusade to the holy land, upon the end of which he arrives before the Golden Gate of Constantinople. The majesty of the city is described by the author of Morkinskinna to be on full display for the king’s arrival.
The young king is given great gifts and tests alike as he parties with the emperor Kirjalax (Alexios I Komnenos). The king refuses to keep these gifts himself and instead distributes them among his men, proving his generosity and showing himself equal to the emperor and in no need of his gifts.
The trials included the gifts: by rejecting them and thanking the emperor for his generosity in Greek, Sigurd earns an equal spot next to the emperor at the hippodrome, which is itself praised by the saga author. The empress lays out a trial to test his ingenuity: to make a fire without any wood. Sigurd responds by using walnuts, proving his wisdom a final time. Through the completion of these trials, the king proves his final worthiness as an equal of the Byzantine emperor before going home to Norway. The emperor and the empress function as his final challengers on a long adventure.
On the island of Gotland, the text 64 B Holmiensis popularly called Guta Saga, written as part of a lawbook “Gutalag” told the story of how a third of the Gotlanders left the island to travel through the East to the Byzantine empire. Once they had arrived the Gotlanders asked the emperor to let them stay for the “waxing and waning” of the moon. While the emperor of the Greeks agreed, believing this to mean no longer than a month, what Gotlanders had in mind was “forever and ever”. The empress interjected on behalf of the Gotlanders, settling the dispute in the migrants’ favour. The Gotlanders thus having tricked the greatest Christian king, were rewarded with a home in the kingdom of the Greeks where, according to the author of the text, they stayed to the day into the present day. In this episode, a special emphasis is placed on the role of trickery and riddles: the Gotlanders’ ways to best the emperor, who once again serves as the story’s antagonist.
The role of the empire as antagonist for the Norse heroes is not always a villainous one. In the cases of Harald Hardrada and the Gotlanders, the Empire can be described as the victim of the protagonists’ ambitions. The only crime that the Empire commits in order to deserve this antagonism is simply interpreted incompetence, unfitting for the supposed importance of their status, and the cultural clash resulting from the Norse rejection of Byzantine army centralisation. Gyrgir, Zoe, the blinded emperor, and the emperor of ’64 B Holmiensis’ all take on the role of the ruler defeated by the great Norwegian king and crafty Gotlanders. While Kirjalax and Sigurd have a much more positive relationship, that episode follows the same pattern as the other sagas since Kirjalax gives Sigurd the final trials on his journey – once and for all proving why Sigurd should be the king of Norway. The actions of the Scandinavian heroes in relation to Byzantium reflect a desire to establish legitimacy and status comparable to that enjoyed by the Byzantine Empire.
The view the Norse had of the Byzantine Empire evident in the sagas – from the physical descriptions of Constantinople’s greatness through words as golden, high-walled, iron-thatched, to the Norse heroes’ rejection of gifts that are offered instead of earned, to the antagonism towards the Byzantine state and the exoticism associated with the area – reveal a picture of Byzantium defined by Scandinavian monarchic ideals and the challenge that the existence of an admittedly greater kingdom poses to them. The antagonism with which the Byzantines are portrayed serves an important function, then, to exemplify and contrast the Scandinavian ‘underdog heroes’ as being equals or even superiors to the greatest Christian state they knew.
The sagas, which were composed across a wide geographical area in the Scandinavian cultural region, all share a set of motifs in relation to the Byzantine empire, evident across different episodes and works. The impression the sagas give of this distant land speaks of a great admiration for Byzantium, which paradoxically makes the inhabitants of that state ideal rivals to whom Scandinavian heroes can compare themselves. This relationship can then be said to be based on Scandinavian impressions and ideals clashing with those of a society which they did not entirely understand, yet whose success and even approval they desperately desired to emulate through shows of worthiness and superiority.
Aron Johansson, BA student of history at Stockholm University and intern in Retracing Connections in the winter of 2024-25