Looting or Missioning by Mikkelsen Egil;

Author:Mikkelsen, Egil;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Europe / Medieval
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2019-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 119. Ottar’s travels to Hedeby, England and the White Sea. The sailing route between Norway and Southern England might even have crossed the North Sea, along the East coast of England or through the Irish Sea. Drawing by Ermias B. Tesfamariam, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. Terrain basemaps produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union – EU-DEM layers https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/eu-dem#tab-metadata.

Is it possible, then, to assume that Ottar got the æstel found at Borg as a gift from Alfred, probably together with books and other objects like glasses, pitchers and a bronze bowl? There was no use for an æstel or books if no-one could read them back home. At a time when the work of Gregory was just translated into Old English and several æstels were made at Alfred’s court, a proud Christian king might have wanted to spread the right faith to the far north. Did he send one of his bishops or priests on Ohthere’s ship back to northern Norway, bringing books, the æstel, the glass with gold crosses, Tating ware pitchers and a bronze bowl? That could explain why these objects found in the hall at Borg, having obviously been treated with respect and been used here, possibly in religious ceremonies, were not found in a pagan grave. Again, a parallel story to that of the baptism of King Harald Klak is of great interest: Ansgar was sent with the king back to Denmark as ‘a result of the mission initiative that the events have actualized, but must also be seen as a result of the patron commitments Louis the Pious had taken as Harald’s godfather’ (Tveito 2005, 53). Bringing back a bishop from King Alfred in Wessex to Borg might have been the first real attempt at Christianization in Lofoten at the end of the ninth century.

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