Long before there were Vikings in the sense of the sagas, there was already a town in south-west Jutland: Ribe, founded around 700, the oldest town in Denmark. Here the heart of trade beat – and here arose the first coins of the North, small pieces of silver on which appears a face called Woden. A look at the place where Northern wealth began.
Ribe lies on a river near the North Sea coast, in the marshland of south-west Jutland. As early as the beginning of the 8th century the site was a busy market – long before the great Viking voyages. Excavations show an orderly trading quarter with plots, craftsmen and goods from afar. Trade contacts reached above all to Frisia and England. Ribe was the gate through which foreign silver, glass and ideas streamed into the North.
And this trade needed money. Around the year 720, small silver coins were struck in Ribe, so-called sceattas – the earliest coins associated with Scandinavia. Of over 300 such sceattas found in Denmark, 216 come from Ribe and its surroundings alone. Most belong to the Frisian “Woden” type.
On one side a stylised face with wild hair – called “Woden” – on the other a monster: that is what the first money of the North looked like. after the Ribe sceattas of the “Woden/monster” type, early 8th century
Whether the face was really meant to show the god Woden – the later Odin – is not certain; the name is a modern label after the coin type. But the very idea is a fine one: that the very first money to come out of the earth in the North bears a divine face. More about this god is in our piece on Odin.
Ribe stayed important as the times changed. Around 860 the missionary Ansgar asked the Danish king to be allowed to build one of the first churches in Scandinavia at Ribe. Excavations found here thousands of early Christian graves of the 9th century – a sign that Christians and heathens lived peacefully side by side long before Harald Bluetooth's official conversion. So Ribe mirrors the whole upheaval of the age: from a heathen market with Woden coins to a bishop's town.
Ribe reminds us that the Vikings were not savages out of nowhere, but heirs of a town and trading culture that already flourished around 700. And it shows how closely trade, craft and belief were interwoven – down to a god on a coin. Whoever wants to carry a piece of this old North will still find the images of its gods today – in silver as of old, or in stone.
Ribe (south-west Jutland) is the oldest town in Denmark; as early as the beginning of the 8th century the site was an important market with trade contacts to Frisia and England. Around 720 sceattas were struck there – the earliest coins associated with Scandinavia. Of over 300 sceattas found in Denmark, 216 come from Ribe, mostly of the Frisian “Woden” type. Around 860 Ansgar requested the building of one of the first churches in Scandinavia at Ribe; excavations found thousands of Christian graves of the 9th century.
The name “Woden sceatta” is a modern, typological label: whether the depicted face was actually meant as the god Woden/Odin or is merely a borrowed Frisian coin image cannot be said for certain. Likewise “720” is a rounded approximation. What is certain is the core: at Ribe a market arose early with its own coinage – the beginning of money in the North.
Thyra Danebod – Denmark's mightiest woman · Trelleborg – Harald's ring fortresses · Odin · The Skuldelev ships · The Golden Horns of Gallehus.