Hedeby: Prestigious Trading Center And One Of The Largest Baltic Sea Ports In Viking Age

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Hedeby was the southernmost Nordic town and a key trading center in the Viking Age.

Reconstructed house at Hedeby. Image credit: Matthias Süßen - CC BY-SA 4.0

Located in southern Denmark, Hedeby was founded around the year 810 by the Danish King Godfred (Godfrey) of Denmark, who arrived with his army in 604 and destroyed the Slavic market town Reric, which many historians presume is today’s modern city of Rostock.

Instead, he founded a new trading center and all merchants of Reric moved to Hedeby, at the southeastern base of the Jutland Peninsula on the Schlei Fjord and the Baltic Sea to the East.

Hedeby, (Haitha Town or Haithabu) in medieval Danish history, was a prestigious market place for Western–Eastern European and European–Western Asian trade.

Reconstructed Viking houses at Hedeby (Haithabu) in Northern Germany. Image credit: Caravaca. Date: April 2006 - CC BY-SA 2.5

It became one of the earliest Scandinavian urban towns, which trade included slaves, furs, textiles, iron, and weapons.

Hedeby soon yielded high tax profits to the Danish kings and became one of the largest ports in the Baltic Sea at the time. It was in times when this area was not part of Germany, but a major Viking trading center.

The city area (today only distinguished from the surroundings by the trees that grow on it) was 6 hectares large and surrounded by a 1300 meter long city wall in a half circle around the city area.

Hedeby coin from grave Bj 526. Image credit: Christer Åhlin/SHM

In the early 9th century King Godfred constructed the Danevirke (Danewirk), an earthwork barrier, along the base of the peninsula south of Hedeby to protect the thriving center from Frankish incursions.

Hedeby’s city wall was directly connected to the Danevirke, which crossed the entire peninsula of Jutland with Hedeby as the Eastern edge.

Thus, Hedeby trade center of the North had its own defensive system with a chain fencing off the harbor area from the Fjord’ s side and it seemed to be well-protected.

Despite this and other protections, the Danes lost Hedeby for most of the 10th century—first to the Swedes and then to the Franks.

In 983, King Harald Bluetooth managed to regain Hedeby. He strengthened the town further by constructing a massive defensive structure, consisting of a semi-circular earthwork, around the town.

From this earthwork the king’s private group of warriors, could guard and defend the town against attack. At the same time the harbor was also safeguarded with a boundary of stakes.

Unfortunately, Hedeby suffered Norwegian and Wendish Slav raids into the 11th century.

Hedeby was sacked again and probably destroyed by the attackers around 1050. Later, it was never rebuilt. By the middle of that century, Hedeby was abandoned and its all trading activities were transferred to neighboring Schleswig (ancient Sliesthorp, or Sliaswic), which began to grow both in size and importance.

Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

Updated on April 2, 2024

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