Midgard Timeline
4000
BCE (Before Common Era) to Present |
Detailed Midgard Timeline
4000 - 2000: Settlement
of the North (The First Migration)
Germanic-speaking peoples began migrating into Europe from the east
as early as 4000. Over the next two millennia they settled lands
on the northern fringe of the Celts, who had come to dominate most
of the continent. The principal Germanic settlement centered around
southern Scandia, with numerous other tribes scattered along the
southern Baltic coast.
Those in Scandia drove out or absorbed primitive aboriginal tribes
they encountered, and slowly became more agricultural. Those along
the Baltic remained principally nomadic herders and fishers. [^ TOP ]
1500 - 1000: The
Second Migration
The Germanic tribes along the southern Baltic began to move westward
to the River Elbe and north through Jutland and into Scandia. Sweeping
into the lands of their more settled cousins, they were not welcomed
with open arms. What began as invasion and bitter conflict became
over centuries mutual absorption. Individual tribes remained, in
their own ways, unique from one another, but the Germanic people
began to develop a culture and language distinct from the rest of
Europe. [^ TOP ]
500 - 300: Division
Beginning around the time iron working had begun to spread to the
Germanic peoples, their common culture began to show signs of division.
Over the next two hundred years, these differences became increasingly
apparent, particularly in religion, language, and social structure.
[^ TOP ]
300 - 100: The
Third Migration
Three dominant groups, each encompassing numerous tribes, had emerged
within the Germanic people over the past several centuries: the
Teutons, the Goths, and the Norse.
The Teutons were far more agricultural than the rest, and, as
such placed special importance upon the fertility gods of the Vanir.
Land -- its possession and use for farming and for herding -- was
also important. The Goths, like the Teutons, prized land and highly
revered the Vanir. Theirs was a more pastoral nomadic society. The
Norse were a seafaring people. Though they farmed and raised
livestock, the Norse recognized that the sea could provide food
and access to lands where food and resources could be obtained.
As such, ownership of land had less importance in those tribes.
Rising populations and the growing divisions among these three
major groups served as impetus for a great migration beginning around
300. The Teutonic and Gothic tribes left the Germanic homeland in
Scandia and pushed south and east. The drove out what Celtic tribes
they encountered, and, by 100, occupied Europe from the North and
Baltic Seas to the Danube, and from the Rhine to the eastern steppes.
The Norse remained in Scandia, expanding slowly northward. In
this expansion, they came into conflict with other tribes whose
ancestors were likely those driven north by the first Germanic invasion
of the peninsula. The Norse harried the coasts, driving their
enemies into the inland wilderness or blotting them out altogether.
[^ TOP ]
200 - 50: Exploration
and Piracy
The Norse did not restrict their activities to Scandia. As early
as 200, Norse ships swept across the North Sea to raid the coasts
of Britannia and Hibernia. Though successful in plundering coastal
settlements, the Norse were unable to gain footholds on these islands
against the stubborn resistance of Gaels, Picts, and Britons. The
Norse did, however, manage to establish small supply settlements
in the Orkney, Hebrides, and Shetland Island.
These points facilitated raids along the coasts of the unconquerable
islands, but they also aided later voyages around Europe and into
the Mediterranean. The first Norse ships to plunder the Mediterranean
did so along the southern coast of Iberia around 150. These voyages
were long and, as Roman sea power rose in the region, increasingly
dangerous and unprofitable.
Within a decade of Carthage's defeat in the Third Punic War, Roman
naval might in the western Mediterranean limited Norse activities
to rare lightning fast raids and trading. Further east, however,
prizes were as sweet and the danger less. Norse ships numbered among
those pirates operating out of Crete until the Persian fleet devastated
the island in 100 BCE.
Following Crete's destruction, Norse piracy in the Mediterranean
region was all but stamped out. Competition from the local pirates
along with the danger from the navies of the growing empires and
resurgent Greek city states soon made the long voyage from Scandia
a fool's gamble. Troubles in Scandia itself further increased pressures
on the Norse to curtail these lengthy expeditions. [^ TOP ]
100 - 60: Homeland
Turmoil
Though initially profitable and always making fit material for exciting
tales, the sea expeditions sapped the Norse of manpower at home.
This became even more problematic as more ships began taking the
risk of entering the Mediterranean and fewer and fewer of those
returned safely. Among the Norse, weapons and warfare were the province
of the ruling warrior caste, and, excepting in times of crisis,
common people were not allowed non-hunting weapons.
With more and more of their warrior-nobles absent or lost, the
Norse in Scandia were vulnerable to a growing threat in the far
north. Hunting parties and settlers on the northern fringe began
falling prey to attacks by the primitive tribes the Norse had driven
out during the last migration. The attacks grew more frequent and
pressed deeper into Norse territory. When the Norse at last had
all but halted their expeditions into the Mediterranean, they managed
to resecure their northern borders, though at a great cost in lives.
It was not to last. [^ TOP ]
60 - 50: Northern
Invasion
There was a brief lull in the troubles in the north. But beginning
around 60, attacks from the north were renewed--and more frequent
and sustained. In an inexorable wave, the northern invaders
washed over the Norse, sacking farms and towns and scattering the
Norse before them. For most of the next decade, the Norse were on
the defensive, managing to slow, but not halt, their invaders.
It was largely the effort of Asgeirr Amundsson, a jarl of the
Suevi, the Norse tribes occupying most of southern Scandia, that
at last helped turn the tide. Securing the assistance of their cousins
in Jutland, the Suevi under Asgeirr began a series of counterattacks
that drove wedges through the invading hordes. Within a year, the
invasion had been broken.
The invaders, however, were not wholly driven out of Norse lands.
Many remained, settling in the wilds, and continuing to launch sporadic
raids on nearby farms and towns. Their continued occupation posed
a lingering threat to the Norse and a long-lasting impediment to
the slow process of recovery and rebuilding. [^ TOP ]
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