Was Noirmoutier Used as a Viking Wintering Base?

A Deep Dive into the Viking Invasions of Western France — Episode 6

Bishop Gohard being slain by Hasting at the sack of Nantes, 843

It all starts with the entry for the year 843 in The Annals of St. Bertin, which relays to us the sack of Nantes in 843 as follows: “Northmen Pirates attacked Nantes, slew the bishop and many laypeople of both sexes, and sacked the civitas…finally, they landed on a certain island, brought their households over from the mainland and decided to winter there in something like a permanent settlement.”

The fall of Nantes shocked the entire empire, with one chronicle describing it as an apocalypse. Ermentarius relays that they sailed up the Loire with 67 ships, and the Annals of Angoulême suggest they were Vestfaldingi, or men from the Vestfold region of Norway. More intriguing to our purpose here is the mention in the Chronicle of Nantes, which was composed using earlier manuscripts, that directly references the island of Noirmoutier (then called Herio) as a wintering base for the Vikings.

The Annals of St. Bertin, along with the Chronicle of Nantes, seem to confirm Noirmoutier as a Viking base. However, there is an issue. Although the Chronicle of Nantes is recognized as a medieval document, it has been questioned for including later embellishments, such as the mention of Charles the Bald as king of France in 843. Therefore, we must approach its information with great caution. Whether Noirmoutier was used as a wintering base remains uncertain. As a result, we need to consider two other pieces of evidence that, when combined with the Chronicle of Nantes, support the theory.

First, the Annales of Angoulême tell us that a large fire erupted on the island in 846, destroying any settlement there. Several historians see this as evidence of a permanent settlement on the island, which was then destroyed after about ten years. Second, we have a report from a slightly farther source—from Andalusian Spain—by the envoy al-Ghazal, who traveled north with the Vikings who sacked Seville in 844 to learn more about them, as had been agreed with Emir Abdu al-Rhaman. Al-Ghazal describes that the fleet stopped on the French coast to resupply, where the Vikings had built a beautiful, prosperous port town before moving on to what historians believe was Ireland. Again, the island of Noirmoutier is not explicitly mentioned, but given the context of references in the Annals of St. Bertin, the Annals of Angoulême, Ermentaire, and the Chronicle of Nantes, the timing and location of al-Ghazal’s account seem to possibly confirm the base.

Like many aspects of the Viking Age, we can't definitively say that Noirmoutier served as a wintering base based on our current sources. However, we do have one more piece of evidence to add to the puzzle: the later pattern of how the Vikings conducted their raids in the region as they moved inland. Noirmoutier marked the start of over a century of Viking activity in the area. Beginning in the 840s and into the 850s, a clear strategy emerges. The Vikings established wintering bases in the lower Loire River Valley, starting with Nantes in 853, Mont-Glonne in 854, and further upriver in 856 and 866, each location bringing them closer to key targets like Angers, Tours, and Orléans, which they repeatedly sacked. Adrevald, a monk who wrote the Miracles of St. Benoît, notes that the Northmen built cottages as wealthy as a ‘Bourg’ (or wealthy trade town).

The establishment of bases across the Loire River Valley sets a precedent for the strategy used by the Vikings, making the base on Noirmoutier even more believable. If Nantes was their primary target, it makes sense they would have set up a settlement nearby to receive, sort, and ship their loot. However, as their targets moved inland, they shifted their bases accordingly, even using their former target of Nantes as a new base. As the Annals of St. Bertin tell us, in 853, “Danish pirates from Nantes heading further inland brazenly attacked the town of Tours and burned it.”

We have strong indications from the sources that Noirmoutier was used as a wintering base by the Vikings, although a clear ‘smoking gun’ remains elusive. By piecing together various partial mentions and establishing a pattern of behavior consistent with such activity, I believe we can make a solid case for Noirmoutier being a Viking settlement for at least ten years.

The settlement of Noirmoutier, its destruction, and the sack of Nantes are all pivotal events in my series, The Saga of Hasting the Avenger.

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