Hedeby – the Gateway Between the Seas

Here silver from Baghdad, furs from the North and glass from the Rhineland came together. Hedeby was the pulsing trading heart of the North.

Anyone who sees the Vikings only as warriors overlooks perhaps their greatest achievement: trade. Its centre in the southern North was Hedeby (Haithabu), set on the narrow isthmus between the North and Baltic seas – today near Schleswig.

Gateway Between the Seas

The location was ideal: goods could be carried over the short stretch of land from one sea to the other, avoiding the dangerous voyage around Jutland. So Hedeby became a transhipment point for goods from half of Europe and the Orient.

What Was Traded

On the markets lay amber and furs from the North, glass and weapons from the Frankish realm, silk and above all silver from the Arab world. Payment was often by weight: people chopped silver coins and jewellery into hacksilver and weighed it on small folding scales. The trade in slaves was also part of the less glorious truth of this world.

Life in the Early Town

In Hedeby, workshops of comb-makers, glass-bead blowers, smiths and amber-grinders crowded together. It was loud, cramped and international – one of the first urban settlements in Northern Europe. Around 1066 Hedeby was finally abandoned; its ramparts can still be seen today.

We link to the Hedeby Viking Museum and other find sites in our Library.

Trade between the worlds

In Hedeby goods from half of Europe were transhipped: furs and amber from the north, wine and pottery from the Rhineland, silver from the Orient, along with slaves, cloth and crafts. The town even struck its own coins – a sign of its economic power.

Life in the town

Thousands of people lived crowded together in wooden houses behind a mighty semicircular rampart. Craftsmen made combs, jewellery, glass beads and shoes. The Arab traveller at-Tartushi described the town in the 10th century – not always flatteringly, but fascinatingly.

Hedeby and the Danevirke

Hedeby lay protected behind the Danevirke, the greatest border rampart of the north. Town and rampart formed a system of trade and defence on the border between Danes, Saxons and Slavs.

Rise and end

After raids and destructions in the 11th century Hedeby was abandoned; its role was taken over by nearby Schleswig. In 2018 Hedeby and the Danevirke were inscribed as German Viking heritage on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

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