Massacre at Salme

Around 1,300 years ago two boatloads of hardy, young warriors received the shock of their lives on landing at an Estonian island. Defenders on Saaremaa slew them all as they advanced onshore, the first known repelling of an invasion of Estonia.

Discovered in 2008 and 2010, the scanty remains of clinker-built wooden sailing / rowing vessels and human bones attest to a Scandinavian burial. It appears the defenders had allowed survivors or kinfolk to bury their dead. The 11-metre and 17-metre boats were dragged up the beach, and bodies of the slain laid inside them, wooden shields and stones piled on top.

Some were of noble birth, even a king, judging from the belongings left with them, the remains of rich clothing and weaponry, remarkably, more swords than invaders. Other artefacts include bone and antler combs, whetstones, and hundreds of gaming pieces including dice. The centuries passed, and sand and vegetation covered the burial site, and all memory of this raiding party became lost.

Reconstruction of one of the Salme ships, Salme: Ancient Viking Burial Ships » TVF International

We visit Salme on our bikes after a day of rain, and see only a park bench by a road configured in the shape of a long, thin rowboat as a memorial. Wikipedia records 700-750 CE for the incident, based on carbon dates of the ships’ timbers, and evidence of wear and tear from prolonged use, and repeated repairs. There is a suggestion of a third boat, yet to be discovered.

Thinking on this encounter between the first known Viking raiders and Estonian speakers, we leave Salme in search of a campsite, which we make in a wooded meadow fringing an oak grove. Such are sacred to Estonians, as they were across northern Europe, including in Norse mythology. The thunder god Thor is said to reside in an oak tree; tamm is also associated with the Estonian god Taara.   

So, who were the people who under-estimated the Saaremaa locals? One can look to the Icelandic sagas for a description of a failed Scandinavian raid to Estonia. In the Ynglinga Saga (1227), the king, poet and historian Snorri Sturluson wrote on the fall of a Swedish king, Ingvar Harra, known – in legend at least - for his naval exploits in the Baltic Sea. Snorri based his knowledge on a 9th Century poem, which says Ingvar was killed by the syslu kind (the Estonians) in “the heart of the water”, poetically speaking, an island.

A chronicle of Norwegian kings dating from the early 13th Century and written in Latin places the Swedish king Ingvar’s death while campaigning in the eastern Baltic on an island known in Old Norse as Eysysla (Estonian island). This word transliterates into Ösel, which is still today the Swedish word for Saaremaa, meaning in Estonian, “island land”.

At the time of writing National Geographic republished a special issue titled “The Vikings” (2018). A map of their territories between 800 and 1,000 CE is revealing – the Vikings had studiously avoided the Sámi (Laplanders), Finns and Estonians, except for incursions into Estonian Hiiumaa and Saaremaa.  

It would take until the early 1200s for Danes to establish a presence in northern Estonia, as the Viking age drew to a close, only to relinquish it in 1346.