The old Gascon law, a Scandinavian law

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Joël Supéry, The old Gascon law, a Scandinavian law ? Academia, March 10, 2021
The old Gascon law, a Scandinavian law ?
Legal and political traces of the Viking presence in Gascony
Joel Supéry
Bordeaux, March 9, 2021
Le Petit Lavisse, the book for schoolchildren of the Third Republic, evoked Vercingetorix,
Joan of Arc and the Normans... in Normandy. French historiography on the Viking invasions
has been Norman-centric since that time. This is an archaism inherited from the great era of
the Roman national.
The possibility of an invasion followed by a Scandinavian principality in Gascony has never
been considered. By principality, we mean an organized political power with an armed force
and a lasting influence on European diplomacy.
This was never considered because in 1911, in the wake of the nationalist mythology forged
by Jules Michelet and spread by Ernest Lavisse, Norman historians decided that they would
study the founders of Normandy, the Danes to the north of the Loire, and ignore the deeds of
the Norwegian pirates to the south. Lucien Musset was still on the same line in 1971: "The
Norwegian raids south of the Channel, pure piracy ventures, have left no lasting traces on the
Loire, the Garonne or the Bay of Biscay. " (Musset, p.132). In other words, the Vikings south
of the Loire did not deserve to be studied.
However, the annals of Saint Bertin are formal: they are the same leaders who are famous
north and south of the Loire. Asgeir who took Rouen in 841 and Beauvais in 851, seized
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Saintes in 845 and Bordeaux in 848. According to Lucien Musset, Asgeir was Danish when
he attacked Rouen and became Norwegian when he laid siege to the capital of the kingdom of
Aquitaine. A ten-year-old child understands that something is wrong.
The distinction made by the Norman school is totally artificial and has no historical basis. It is
a cliché that has been obediently repeated without ever being questioned. A scientific
nonsense that has lasted for more than a century. It is because I denounce this immobile
relentlessness of historical research that I am accused of being a conspirator, a negationist, an
impostor.
I have nothing against historians who do their work honestly. On the other hand, when
historians who have not done their work properly refuse to admit it in order to preserve their
reputation and their careers, I consider that these historians behave not as researchers, but as
guardians, not of the Temple, but of their academic comfort. I consider that history, which is
our collective memory, a common good for all, deserves better than to become a career tool
for technocrats without courage or stature.
There are two certainties concerning the Vikings in Gascony. The men from the North came,
no one disputes that, and historians have never studied them, no historian says otherwise. The
only uncertainty concerns the nature of the Scandinavian presence. Some want to see simple
settlements without a future, others, the medievalist Rénée Mussot-Goulard and myself,
consider that a real Scandinavian principality existed in Gascony.
In fact, no researcher, be he a linguist, archaeologist, historian or ethnologist, has ever looked
for traces of the passage of the Scandinavians in Gascony. However, it is enough to read the
texts, to study the traditions, to look twice at the archaeological discoveries or to study the
toponymy to identify these traces.
There is a fifth field in which to search, the legal field. The Scandinavians applied an original
law that we know well thanks to the Icelandic Saga. Very few legal traces exist in Normandy,
but this is logical: this region was founded 80 years after the beginning of the invasions by
men belonging to the third generation of invaders, men whose mothers and grandmothers
were Christians, men in the process of acculturation. (See Could Rollo be the grandson of
Bjorn Ragnarsson Ironside?). On the other hand, those who invaded Gascony in 840 were still
strongly impregnated with Scandinavian culture and would have left more Nordic traditions in
Gascony than their followers in Normandy.
The Vikings remained masters of Gascony for 142 years and logically left political and legal
vestiges of their passage. The medievalist Alban Gautier found it interesting in May 2018 to
look for traces of Scandinavian political institutions, but a month later, without having taken
the time to conduct his research, he concluded that they did not exist and that therefore to
evoke a Scandinavian principality in Gascony was a sham. Obviously, this is not the way to
conduct research. In his defense, Alban Gautier never claimed to be a researcher. (See Supéry,
Viking Principalty in Gascony, imposture or pragmatism ?)
A quick inventory of legal and political traditions is enough, in our eyes, to raise the question
of their possible Scandinavian origin. It is up to you to judge!
I- Scandinavian political institutions in the heart of Gascony.
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The traditional Gascon society remained the most alive in the French Basque Country; in
Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Soule. This society was dominated by the membership of a
house, the oustau, the casal or the etche according to the region. The master was a free man,
the only one entitled to participate in the assemblies that governed the life of the community,
an assembly called biltzar in Labourd. In other words, this political organization was totally
foreign to the feudal system that governed human and political relations everywhere in
France.
A- The Cap de casa, like a bondi in his skali.
In the Scandinavian world, the bondi, the head of the family, master of a skali, is the only
actor of the political and social life. To get an idea of his status, let us look at the description
of the Gascon cap de Casa and that of the master of the Basque etche.
In 2001, Maïté Lafourcade, Doctor in History of Law at the University of Bayonne, reports in
the chapter devoted to Basque assemblies: "The individual in Basque country, faded before
the interest of the house, almost sacred" (Lafourcade, p.73). Paul Ourliac, member of the
Institute, specialist in the History of Law, professor in Toulouse, wrote in 1993: "Everywhere,
the house maintains the unity of the family, of which the master of the house -the one who in
Béarn, "blesses the table"- is naturally the head [...] The "cap de casa" is at home an absolute
monarch; he possesses domestic justice over his wife, his children and his servants; it is to
him that one must bring complaints of the offenses they have committed: he can take their
defense and expose himself to the vengeance of the victim". (Ourliac, p.179).
Those who have read the Icelandic Saga will easily recognize the status of the bondi in
Scandinavian society. The bondi is also a member of a community.
In Gascony," Ouliac continues, "the man belongs to a community, the Besiau (Vesis, vicinus,
neighbor): 'It is a meeting of free and equal men. Only the heads of families, owners of a
house, belong to it. "This description fits word for word with the Scandinavian society
contemporary with the invasions. "The neighbors participate in all the acts of life, they are
witnesses or guarantors in the contracts, cojurers in the lawsuits, they must lend their
assistance when they are called by the cry "Biaffore" or "via fora". (Ourliac, p.178). This
community exploits the ground in common: "In the forests, the inhabitants can take the wood
which are necessary to them, wood of fire, beams of the houses, coffins, instruments of
kitchen, confection of the bridges..." (Ourliac, p.178). It is the same of the pastures, hunting
and fishing. The mountain is the collective property of the community.
This collective property was not specific to Scandinavian society, but it was one of its
attributes.
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B- The Biltzar, like the althing.
These free men met in assemblies to settle their current affairs.
"In each parish, or even in each hamlet, explains Maïté Lafourcade, the masters of the house
met on Sundays after mass, under the porch of the church [...] In Basse-Navarre, the general
court included in principle all the masters of the house of the country or of the valley,
including the noble houses " (Lafourcade, p. 75).
This gathering of heads of families was the tradition throughout Gascony, the Pyrenees and
the Basque Country, lands long dominated by men from the North. In the Scandinavian
world, these gatherings were called things. The toponyms in Tin, Din, Sin, and even Tilh in
Gascony (but also Ten, Den, Sen and Teil) could be the remains of these things.
"The provincial assembly of Labourd or biltzar met at least once a year in Ustaritz... Each
parish had a vote whatever the number of its inhabitants. This legal system, animated by a
powerful community spirit, resulted in a type of unitary society where all men were free and
all houses were legally equal, and where the interest of each person merged with the general
interest. "
There is no better definition of Scandinavian organization and community spirit. The
provincial assembly was called the althing among the Northmen, the assembly of all. This
name could have given rise to several toponyms which could be declined according to the
following forms: Hal/ty, Har/ty, Han/ty, Hau/ty, but also variants in -dy and -sy. These
toponyms could designate ancient althing. Ausseing (Hau/sy), Artix (Har/ty), Audenge
(Hau/dy), Hardy etc... Linguists howl when I take this methodical approach to a discipline
they want to be literary. I do not claim that all of them correspond to Scandinavian words
(there are necessarily false friends), but some of them correspond in their geography to places
chosen by the men of the North, which reinforces the Scandinavian presumption.
When the althing is located on a hill, one can find derivatives of althin(g)haug, the hill of the
althing: Altillac, Autignac, Antignac etc... If the site is picturesque and without strategic
interest, that is to say that it is beautiful and neutral, chances are that it is indeed a
Scandinavian meeting place. These sites have often remained deserted. Sometimes, they
became villages. The hamlet, always off the main roads, devoid of commercial interest, often
remained tiny. The war memorials of 14-18 rarely have more than 10 names. In general, the
hamlet is crowned by a very old church built on the pagan meeting place: Altillac (Corrèze)
and Antignac (Charente) are typical. Normally, devoid of strategic interest, the site has never
been fortified. An exception is Lautignac (Haute-Garonne) where a moat indicates the
presence of a small castle. This small half-timbered castle was destroyed before the
Revolution. In fact, it was more the lordly residence of the owner of the surrounding forest
than a fortress with a strategic vocation. If the toponyms correspond to a site of this type, then
the probability of a Scandinavian origin increases. For those who doubt that Lautignac comes
from althinhaug, a villager told me that the Lautignacois could also be called Altignacois
"because of the Roman Altiniacum". Obviously, no Roman remains have ever been found in
this isolated place.
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I know that some people will reproach me with this toponymic approach. However, as
Chruchill used to say : « Only those who never try never fail ». A researcher has to try and
accept to fail.
"With regulatory power, the biltzar issued regulations with sanctions for the maintenance of
order, economic development [...] He distributed the total sum due to the royal tax authorities
[...] He could also create local taxes to cover the expenses of the country [...] He distributed
among the parishes the contingent of the local militia, made up of a thousand men, which
ensured the police force of the country and ensured its defense against the enemies of the
outside. He made treaties of good correspondence with the Basques of Guipuzcoa of Biscay,
regulating in times of war as in times of peace the use of the sea.... He organized the
distribution of corn to the poor". (Lafourcade, p. 76).
The functions of the biltzar are almost the same as those of the althing, the assembly of all.
The local militia is in perfect conformity with the Scandinavian tradition. By chance, there is
a place called Halty in France, phonetically very close to althing. This place is in the Basque
Country, in Ustaritz where the biltzar was located. The academics of Caen will claim that this
is a coincidence and that Halty does not come from althing; they are surely right since they
hold diplomas that prove their competence.
The biltzar of Labourd had equivalents in the other 6 Basque provinces. These assemblies
also existed in Gascony. As in the Basque Country, the nobles and the religious were not
allowed to sit in them. Belonging to a noble or religious hierarchy, they were no longer free
men. This exclusion of nobles might explain why the most powerful families in Gascony were
so attached to their title of "Sire", Sieur. Thus, the Albrets refused any title of nobility for 5
centuries, preferring their title of Sire, a title which is not a title, but which allowed them to sit
in these assemblies, real places of power in Gascony. Obviously, the Great of Gascony (Sire
de Caupenne, Sire de Budos, Sire de Lesparre) preferred their participation in local political
life to a title of nobility, even if granted by the king.
As a result of this communal system, feudalism arrived only very late in Gascony and
serfdom was virtually absent. The Lords of Albret had no vassals, but made contracts with the
local assemblies. This contractual dimension of power relations is typically Scandinavian.
Such institutions never existed in Normandy, because Normandy was founded 70 years after
Gascony by third generation Vikings in the process of acculturation. The conquerors of
Normandy were much less Scandinavian than the conquerors of Gascony in 840, which
explains why the Norman political system is much less original than the Gascon. The fact that
Norman scholars consider Normandy as the standard for Scandinavian settlements in France
explains why they never recognised the Scandinavian elements that were so visible in
Gascony. They did not have the same ones at home, so those in Gascony could not be
Scandinavian!
C - The fors or fueros, a social contract between the chief and his 'constituents'.
The fors in Gascony and fueros in Spain were political contracts that united a community of
free men to the king or a powerful lord : "This freedom of the heads of families is evident in
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the oaths they swear to their counts, oaths similar to those exchanged by the Great. (Ourliac,
p.178).
Thus, we find in political law the contractual dimension, typical of Scandinavian culture. A
chief would propose a felag, a contract, to his men and they would adhere to it or not.
« Valleys such as Aran, Aspe and Andorra administered themselves," adds Ourliac, "and dealt
with their lord almost on an equal footing [...] In Aragon, Bigorre and Bearn, the right of
rebellion of the subjects was openly recognised ». The fors of Sobrarbe and the oath of the
Aragonese stipulated: "We are as good as you; we make you our king on condition that you
preserve our laws and our liberties; and if not, not [...] The preamble to the fors of Béarn
repeats, not without some insolence, the same idea: the viscount must be the first to swear an
oath to be a "good lord" to his subjects, and we are reminded that the Béarnese had murdered
two viscounts who had broken their word" (Ourliac, p.184).
All these provisions resonate perfectly with Scandinavian law. Regis Boyer recalls the
warning given by the bondi to their newly elected king: "But if you do not want it to be as we
say, we will attack you, kill you and will not tolerate hostilities or injustices from you. This is
how our ancestors did it. They threw five kings into a quagmire at the thing of Muli, who had
shown themselves to be arrogant, like you towards us. Say quickly which side you want to
take ». (Boyer, p.70).
Again, nothing resembles Gascon political law more than Scandinavian law. This kinship also
appears in civil law.
D – Sureties and hostages.
"The fors are a kind of social contract [...] This one, as Gregory VII rightly indicated, has a
double function: it must render justice and maintain peace, and this duality appears very
clearly in the opposition that the fors always make between sureties and hostages: hostages
guarantee the peace of the country, sureties the good administration of justice'. (Ourliac,
p.208).
"Before entering Aspe, the viscount, in order to guarantee his safety, must receive eighteen
hostages whom he chooses and give two men from his retinue as a guarantee of their return.
The hostages are held and fed; they are responsible for any aggression whose perpetrator
could not be caught". (Ourliac, p.208).
According to Ourliac, these hostages are typical of the Scandinavian world.
The counterpart of hostages in the diplomatic world is constituted by sureties in the civil
world. Paul Ourliac makes a clear distinction between the two statuses: 'Sureties intervene in
a trial either to ensure the appearance of the parties or to guarantee the payment of fines or
sentences; hostages must be given as soon as a state of war exists'. (Ourliac, p.198).
At the beginning of a trial the plaintiff must give a suretie. The surety is a free man who
stands by his friend.
"All sureties appear to be subject to the same obligations: they must be solvent, possess a
house or sufficient property. " (Ourliac, p.212).
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This is a way of guaranteeing procedural excesses. A friend must be convinced of his right to
sue.
Brunner saw these bonds and hostages as similar to Scandinavian practices. If hostages are
part of the political tradition, sureties bring us into private law.
II- Inheritance law, maritime law and criminal law, a Scandinavian taste.
The institutional elements and the structure of power lead us back to the Scandinavian world,
but this Scandinavian influence is also to be found in private law, as the existence of sureties
suggests.
A - A criminal law, resolutely Scandinavian.
Earlier, Paul Ourliac mentioned the cry of Biaffore or Via Fora. When an assault was
committed, the victim would shout this cry and all those around him would immediately come
to his aid. It was a delegation of justice, an essential element of collective justice.
What Ourliac calls Biaffore, Montaigne calls Bihore. (In Gascony, the « f » is equivalent to an
aspirated « h »). This rallying cry is comparable in its functions to the Norman rallying cry,
the haro. According to some, haro was a call for justice from the founder of Normandy, Rollo
(whose name would not have been Rolf, but Harold) (See Saga des Vikings, une autre histoire
des invasions, Autrement, 2018). Could bihore be a call to justice for the founder of
Scandinavian Gascony? This would make sense in a Scandinavian context. Yet the founder
was named Bjorn. This reference to the founder as well as the existence of Scandinavian
practices are further arguments in favour of a principality, i.e. a sovereign enclave.
Those who claim that the cry derives from the Latin via fora cannot rely on any tradition or
text. Not only will they find no via fora cry elsewhere in Europe, but nowhere in the Roman
Empire is there any trace of such a tradition. The only basis for this Latin origin is purely
paronymic.
In reality, this tradition is typically Scandinavian, as attested by the Norman haro and
comparable cries found on the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Paul Ourliac is going to take an interest in Gascon criminal law and he tells us: "One of the
most serious crimes, sanctioned by all the fors of the major fine, is the assault on a house. "
(Ourliac, p.179).
This is not a simple "burglary". "An article in the Jugés de Morlaas relates the assault on a
house by two hundred armed men ». Paul Ourliac does not mention the fate of the assailants,
but in the Scandinavian world, the assault on a house was almost ritualised: the house was set
on fire and the occupants were waited for to come out to massacre them, men, women and
children without distinction. It would be interesting to know if the assault was as definitive in
Gascony.
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The storming of houses was a very common crime in medieval Iceland. It was the way to end
a quarrel by eliminating all members of a clan. Successful house raiding was the ambition of
every man seeking revenge. Surprisingly, this crime was also a 'habitual crime' in Basque
society.
The ultimate punishment in the old Gascon law was banishment. Pierre de Marca mentions it
in his Histoire de Bearn in 1640. Banishment is certainly a Germanic tradition that is not
typically Scandinavian, but it is also Scandinavian. Pierre de Marca also mentions the
Vueregilt, a compensation ending a cycle of revenge. The wergeld, the price of blood, was
known to the Franks, but also to the Scandinavians. However, unlike the Franks, who were
content to lead expeditions against the Gascons and the Basques, the Scandinavians occupied
the country.
There is another area in which Germanic law is present in Gascony, maritime law. This too
can hardly be attributed to the Franks or Visigoths.
B- A Nordic maritime law.
In Scandinavia, kings had the right to claim ownership of wrecks that washed up on their
shores; these things brought by the waves were called vagreki, varech in Gascony.
The right of kelp or wreck is typically Scandinavian. It exists in Normandy and Brittany
which is natural. But there is also in Gascony what is abnormal according to the Norman
school. The right of Wreck was very important there, not so much because of shipwrecks, but
because of whaling. It was estimated that nearly two whales out of three harpooned managed
to escape their pursuers, but succumbed to their injuries at sea. Their corpses were then
brought back to the coast by sea currents. Gascon law provided that the lord who found a
whale stranded on his beach was entitled to one third of the catch. A second third was due to
the crew that harpooned the whale, and a third to the owner of the whaleboat.
Whale oil was the « white gold » of the time and a guarantee of substantial income. The
Gascon kelp right was therefore closely linked to whaling. Whaling was practised in Biarritz
and Capbreton by the Agots, i.e. descendants of the Goths. These Goths hunting whales with
Scandinavian techniques were logically Scandinavians, so would be the right of kelp. (See
Supéry, The Aquitain miracle and the navy of Eleanor). As for the Roles d’Oléron written
down by Eleanor, they are mainly rules concerning armament and shipwreck, of which
Aquitaine, for a reason that still escapes many archaeologists and historians, had become a
specialist.
This Gascon maritime law is Scandinavian, as is the use of clinker in shipbuilding and
whaling. Hérubel and Yturbide had suggested that whaling, practised with Scandinavian
techniques, would have been imported into Gascony by whalers from Cotentin in the 11th
century. But this hypothesis is not based on any text. As for the clinker, the archaeologist Eric
Rieth thinks that it arrived in Gascony from England after the coronation of Henry II
Plantagenet in 1154. However, after the conquest of 1066, William the Conqueror had
forbidden the English to build ships. When Henry II became King of England, his kingdom
had stopped building ships for 88 years. The Aquitanian clink did not come from England,
nor did the whale hunting from Normandy.
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C- An inheritance law protecting the community.
Gascony owes part of its reputation to Alexandre Dumas and his cadets who went to the
capital to become the Musketeers. These cadets were victims of an unequal inheritance law
that allowed the father to give the family estate to his eldest son. The cadets had to leave to
make a life for themselves elsewhere. This inheritance law is totally atypical in the south of
France, which is supposed to be a country of Roman law advocating equal sharing between
heirs.
This inheritance law allows the father to transmit the family patrimony to a single heir. The
aim is to preserve the integrity of the house and the land around it.
Gascony had a full birthright (Droit d’aînesse absolu): 'M. Poumarède has clearly indicated,'
says Ourliac, 'that the privilege of masculinity only appeared in the 13th century under the
influence of feudal law. The old Pyrenean law of the west knew only the full birthright, which
at the time, is without other example, by recognising not only the equality of women, but their
right to become head of the family. " (Ourliac, p.181).
This status of the woman is totally exorbitant from Roman law, which has always considered
the wife as a minor, the daughter of her father, then of her husband, who speaks and decides
for her. In Gascon society, as in Scandinavian society, women had a real place in the home
and enjoyed a certain independence. As in Scandinavia, women could recover their dowry
when the marriage was dissolved. The Scandinavian woman could divorce. In Gascony, it
seems that only the death of the husband could put an end to the marriage and give the right to
recover the dowry. A concession to the Roman patriarchy.
It is therefore the eldest, boy or girl, who inherits. This was the law in force in Labourd. But
in other places, the choice was even freer. Thus, 'In Andorra, a girl may be designated as
pubilla, but she is not necessarily the eldest'. (Ourliac, p.180). In other words, the father was
free to choose among his children his heir. This is typical of the Scandinavian tradition which
allowed the father to bequeath his fortune to the child he deemed most suitable, and this could
even be a natural child. William the Bastard is the embodiment of this Scandinavian
flexibility.
This law of succession made the fortune of certain families, notably the Albrets, who gave
France her most popular king, Henri IV, family who succeeded in accumulating an enormous
fortune thanks to this Scandinavian rule of succession. This Scandinavian law was applied in
the jurisdiction of the Coutume de Dax, the coastal area where the Scandinavian presence was
most durable, but not in the Garonne valley where Roman law applied. To escape the
egalitarian division, the Albrets invented a custom made to measure, the coutume de
Casteljaloux, which allowed them to derogate from Roman law for the allocation of their
lands in the Garonne valley. The fact that the Albrets remained fiercely attached to their title
of "Sire" for nearly five centuries in order to be able to sit in the assemblies, that they were
treated as shipwreckers by the nobility because they prospered with the right of kelp, that they
financed maritime expeditions and chose their heirs may suggest that this Gascon family was
of Scandinavian origin.
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The purpose of this unequal inheritance law was to protect the house. Preventing the
disappearance of the house kept the balance in the community. The number of voters had to
remain stable for the system of government to continue.
This inheritance law was complemented in this task by the matrimonial law. If two heads of
household married, one of them had to give up his house and leave it to his younger sibling. If
the man chose his wife's house, he gave up his house and took the name of his wife's house.
Inheritance law prevents disappearance, matrimonial law prevents accumulation. The aim of
these two laws was to maintain the balance in the community and the number of Cap de Casa
in the Besiau. This balance is fundamental in Scandinavian society. When conquerring a new
land, the Viking chiefs shared the land equally. Each man was given a piece of land that was
neither too small nor too large to live on without neglecting it. Rollo had as much land as his
men. This principle of equilibrium in equality is what animates Pyrenean law.
A right with "obscure" origins
Banishment, wergeld, house assault and rallying cry... these are Germanic traditions. Some of
them could be attributed to the Franks or even the Visigoths. But the law of succession is not
Frankish, the Franks applied the Salic law; that is to say the egalitarian division between
heirs. As for the Visigoths, they had been Romanised for a century when they settled in
Gascony. When they composed Alaric's code, it was a codification of Roman laws, not
Germanic laws. The Germanic law of Gascony, Scandinavian in all its attributes, cannot be of
Frankish or Visigothic origin. As for maritime traditions, they came neither from England nor
Normandy, although they are Nordic. It is admirable to see how the Ligurians, the Romans,
the Visigoths, the Franks, the Normans, the English and the primitive Pyreneans were in turn
called upon to explain the originality of Gascon law and traditions, which in all their variants
are Scandinavian.
But this Scandinavian origin is inaudible to medievalists from Gascony and Normandy who
are stuck in the ruts of knowledge traced by their elders. It takes shoulders to get out of ruts
and shoulder training is not part of university training.
Paul Ourliac himself was caught in these ruts ; he raised the question of the origin of this
right. "The recourse to private vengeance, the generalisation of voluntary or legal
compositions and even the system of proof can hardly be explained by Germanic influences,
which we do not know how they reached the Pyrenees. Especially with regard to the system
of proof or the taking of hostages, they can be found in Celtic and Scandinavian law, which
cannot be imagined to have been known in the Pyrenees". (Ourliac, p.189)..
Paul Ourliac's lack of imagination is all the more remarkable given that the law professor
wrote a little earlier: 'The high valleys were, by their very location, safe from invasion (sic).
Elsewhere, the threat was constant. The battle of Taller in 981 liberated western Gascony
from the Normans. " (Ourliac, p.184). In the historiographical tradition, Ourliac considers that
the invaders settled in the rich plains and pushed the original populations into the desolate
mountains. This idea is an unfounded cliché: the Scandinavians were mountain people and
they never looked at the Pyrenees as desolate mountains, but on the contrary as sunny valleys
leading to Spanish and Mediterranean prosperity. However, the same author wrote: 'Until
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their defeat in 982, the Normans threatened the Somport and Roncesvalles and the road to
Spain passed through Bigorre: from Gavarnie one could easily reach the Cinca and Ebro
valleys, from Cauterets one could reach the Tena valley. " (Ourliac, p.219).
Thus, the Vikings 'threatened the Somport', but 'the high valleys' remained 'safe from
invasion'. The historian is in the middle of a contradiction like all those who try to understand
the history of Gascony by ignoring the invasion of 840.
Once again, a preconceived idea - that the Vikings were river men - prevents a researcher
from making an obvious link.
After rejecting the Scandinavian origin, Paul Ourliac writes: "It is better to admit that these
are practices that come from very far away, that had subsisted obscurely in the valleys whose
Romanisation had been superficial and that resurfaced in the 6th or 7th century, at the time
when the gods of the Iberian and Ligurian pantheon reappeared in the Pyrenees. (Ourliac,
p.189).
"Obscurely'.
Rather than considering an obvious hypothesis (he admits that the Vikings remained in
Gascony until 982), the historian takes refuge in obscurity. His obscurantism is that of those
who refuse to consider the Scandinavian hypothesis in Gascony, a hypothesis that is
nevertheless attested by contemporary sources. This academic negationism is still alive and
well today.
Some historians think that in order to discover new things in 2021, it is necessary to discover
documents that have never been studied. They are once again victims of academic
brainwashing. In reality, to make discoveries in history, as elsewhere, it is enough to ask
questions that have never been asked, but to do so, one must be able to leave the ruts traced by
one's elders.
Bibliographie.
12
Bauduin, Pierre , Histoire des Vikings, Tallandier, 2019
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p.173-185.
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Pais Vasco, 1990.
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Paris, Champion, 1911.
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Rieth, Eric, in Les Vikings en France, Dossiers de l’Archéologie, n 277, octobre, 2002.
Supéry, Joël, Agots of Gascony and Navarra, outcasts of Scandinavian origin ? Academia, 20
mars 2015, 15 pages.
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6 pages
Supéry, Joël, The Viking “illusion” south of river Loire, June 4, 2019, 7 pages.
Supéry, Joel, La bataille de Taller, raid repoussé ou bataille de liberation?, Academia, 13
janvier 2020, 12 pages.
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Supéry, Joel, Could Rollo be the grandson of Bjorn Ragnarsson Ironside?, Academia,
December 12, 2020, 8 pages.
13
Veyrin, Paul, Les Basques, Arthaud, 1947.
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Bayon,. d’Et. Reg. 1918, p.16.
Los Fors et costumas de Bearn, Camins, 2010 ;

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The old Gascon law, a Scandinavian law

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