Viking ring fortress

Etymology

This specific type of fortification was named after the first discovered example: Trelleborg near Slagelse, excavated in the years 1936-1941. Historically, the name trelleborg has been translated and explained as ″a fortress built by slaves″, since the Old Norse word for slave was thrall (The modern word is træl in Danish and träl in Swedish) and borg means fortress or city. The word trel (pl. trelle) is also a plausible explanation as it relates to the wooden staves which covered both sides of the protective circular walls.

History

At the end of the 10th century Harold Bluetooth vied with tribal Saxons, the Holy Roman Empire—at that time governed by the (integrated) Saxon Ottonian house—and the Slavic Abodrit and Veleti tribes for the control of the southern region of the Jutland peninsula, This area was also the very same region presumed to have been the ancient homelands of the Angles. Harald also had to contend with Norse people exercising coastal raids. At the Firth of Schlei lay Hedeby, known in the contemporary literary sources as Schleswig, where the Danevirke complex of fortifications stretched across the foot of the peninsula, holding back the hostile hosts from entering the territory, as well as providing a safe trade route via Ejderen from the North Sea coastline into Hedeby and the Baltic Sea.

The entire complex of fortifications, bridges and roads, including Ravninge Bridge on the land route towards Jelling, are presumed to have been in the hands of Harold. The fortresses establish a string of strategic points stretching from Aggersborg at the north of Jutland southward across Funen to end in Borgring at the east coast of Zealand. They have been dated to the reign of Harold Bluetooth, who held sway until c. 985, where he was ousted by his son Sweyn Forkbeard, who eventually conquered the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Æthelred the Unready some years later. This is the apex of the Jelling dynasty, its patristic line ending the year 1042 with Harthacnut, son of Cnut the Great, son of Sweyn.

Fortifications of a similar shape and date have been found around other old towns in Scandinavia, including Borgeby, Trelleborgen, and Helsingborg in Skåne, Sweden, near Aarhus in Jutland, and Rygge, Norway Other, similar forts across Northern Europe include the Walcheren forts in Friesland (built in the outskirts of the Carolingian Empire, with a similar street orientation), and Warham Camp in England, but these are not considered Viking ring forts as they were likely built at different periods in time.

The precise purpose of the fortresses is unknown. Some historians argue that they functioned as military barracks or training grounds by Sweyn Forkbeard. However, it is more likely that they were intended as defensive strongholds along strategic trade points and/or administrative outposts of the budding state. Søren Sindbæk has offered the hypothesis that the fortresses allowed local populations to seek shelter within the fortress walls against an enemy while waiting for assistance from friendly forces from afar; this means that the fortresses helped Harold Bluetooth to control vast territory and send his army to a particular part of his territory without worrying that the undefended parts would be conquered or plundered. Others have debated whether the fortresses were defensive structures, military strongholds, or primarily served as barracks, as well as the economic, religious, and symbolic significance of the fortresses.

List of Viking ring fortresses

Aggersborg near Aggersund, Denmark.

Borgring near Køge, Denmark.

Fyrkat near Hobro, Denmark.

Nonnebakken in Odense, Denmark.

Trelleborg near Slagelse, Denmark.

Suspected

Borgeby north of Lund, Skåne, Sweden.

Helsingborg, Skåne, Sweden.

Trelleborgen, Skåne, Sweden.

Fortification typology

The trelleborgs had similar design, "perfectly circular with gates opening to the four corners of the earth, and a courtyard divided into four areas which held large houses set in a square pattern." They differ clearly from other fortifications in that region because of their geometrical plan, though they do have some similarities with the Frankish forts at Walcheren. A short exposé over early Viking camps in Scandinavia, by Arjen Heijnis, has turned the picture around, marking out these earlier camps "fundamentally different from later defensive structures (ie. the early castles)."

The fortresses are sometimes partially encircled by advanced ramparts, though not always circular. It has been said the trelleborgs were measured with the Roman foot and that the pointed bottom of the moats is a Roman trait.

Dating by dendrochronology has found the wood used for the construction of Trelleborg to have been felled in the autumn of 980 and thus being used for building presumably in the spring of 981. The findings indicate a short construction time with no signs of maintenance, leading to the interpretation of only a short use of the buildings, maybe five years but hardly more than twenty. Fyrkat may be a little older, Aggersborg somewhat younger. 2014 brought a corresponding date to Borgring (end of 10th century), and, in 2019, following the geo-radar survey and subsequent excavation, Nonnebakken also was dated to c. 980. In the 2021 application to UNESCO, all five Danish trelleborgs appear with dates between 970 and 980. Some say the material found at Nonnebakken, Borgring, and the Scandian forts is not suffient for a precise dating. However, the layout of the trelleborgs in their local settings are so similar that it is probable that they were also functionally associated.

At the turn of the century much debate had surrounded the ring fortresses, particularly with emphasis on whether or not to add Nonnebakken to the list of recognized trelleborgs. Nonnebakken was accepted as late as 2017, though at that time the archaeologist Mads Runge concluded there were no signs of buildings inside the rampart. When geo-radar technology was applied the following year, evidence of structures inside the fort was found, affirming the site's classification as a Viking ring fortress.