Norsemen
The Norsemen appear across two distinct source traditions, each illuminating a different facet of their cultural practices and geographical reach.
The Norsemen appear across two distinct source traditions, each illuminating a different facet of their cultural practices and geographical reach. In Grettir's Saga, the Norsemen are associated with travel to Mikligard (Constantinople), where "many of the Norsemen used to go to Mikligard to take" service (Grettir's Saga, Chapter LXXXV). The Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, by contrast, places them in the context of barrow-plundering, recording that this "was a favourite exploit of the Norsemen, no doubt for the sake of the gold which they often contained" (Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, Stories and Ballads, Chapter 4).
The two sources frame the Norsemen through sharply different lenses. Grettir's Saga situates them in an eastern Mediterranean context, as warriors travelling to the Byzantine court — a common pattern in the saga literature reflecting the Varangian connection. The Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks presents them as grave-robbers in a northern setting, noting that the practice extended beyond Scandinavia: "The ruthlessness with which the Norsemen plundered the Irish barrows is mentioned with great indignation in the Irish Chronicles" (Hervarar Saga ok Heidreks, Stories and Ballads, Chapter 4). Together, the sources sketch a people whose activities ranged from mercenary service in Byzantium to treasure-hunting in Irish burial sites — a breadth of enterprise that the sources treat as unremarkable.
Appears in: Beings, Cross-Source Entities, Entities in Hervarar Saga ok Heiðreks, Celtic Tradition
On trail: Cross-Source Bridges