The Global Gyrfalcon (Ellis, Ottewill-Soulsby, Bandlien, Orten Lie)

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In this episode, guest hosts Caitlin Ellis and Sam Ottewill-Soulsby take to the skies to think about the role played by gyrfalcons in the medieval world. They are joined by Bjørn Bandlien and Ragnar Orten Lie as they discuss the significance of these beautiful and rare arctic birds for diplomacy and commerce across Europe, Asia and the Islamic world. In this conversation they consider the capture and keeping of gyrfalcons in Scandinavia, the value of exotic animals in international relations, and the existence of an elite culture of falconry shared across medieval Eurasia.

Caitlin Ellis is Associate Professor of Nordic Medieval History, University of Oslo, having previously held research positions in Reykjavík, Dublin, and Stockholm. Her research focuses on the North Atlantic but also spans the viking and Norman worlds more broadly. She is particularly interested in cross-cultural exchange and networks.

Sam Ottewill-Soulsby is a researcher at the University of Tübingen, where he leads the DFG project “Carolingian Foreign Relations in the Ninth Century.” His interests include early medieval diplomacy, Christian-Muslim interactions and exotic animals, all of which feature in his book, The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of

Charlemagne (Princeton, 2023).

Bjørn Bandlien is Professor of Medieval History, University of South-Eastern Norway. He has published especially on gender, crusades and cultural encounters in Viking Age and medieval Scandinavia. He is currently working on a study of a Mongol envoy to Norway in the thirteenth century.

Ragnar Orten Lie is an archaeologist at Vestfold County's Cultural Heritage Department. He is Project Leader for “Vikingveien Vestfold og Telemark” (The Viking Route in Vestfold and Telemark). He has published on falconry and falcon-catching, metal finds and metal detecting, and graves, including sled and boat graves.

For further reading:

• A. Akasoy, “Falconry in Arabic Literature: From its Beginnings to the Mid-9th Century,” in K. H. Gersmann and O. Grimm (eds), Raptor and Human: Falconry and Bird Symbolism Throughout the Millennia on Global Scale (Kiel, 2018), pp. 243–65.

• Thomas Allsen, The Steppe and the Sea: Pearls in the Mongol Empire (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

• Bjørn Bandlien, “The Armenian Embassy to King Håkon V of Norway,” Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies, 23 (2014): 49–82.

• Caitlin Ellis and Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, "The Caliph and the Falcons: a Ninth-Century History from Iceland to Iraq,” Early Medieval Europe, 34 (2026). Available open access: https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.70022.

• R.S. Oggins, The Kings and their Hawks: Falconry in Medieval England (New Haven, 2004)

• Ragnar Orten Lie, “Falconry, Falcon-Catching and the Role of Birds of Prey in Trade and as Alliance Gifts in Norway (800–1800 AD) with an Emphasis on Norwegian and Later Foreign Participants in Falcon-Catching,” in Raptor and Human: Falconry and Bird Symbolism Throughout the Millennia on Global Scale (Kiel, 2018), pp. 727–86.

Episode transcript (Note: For a time-dynamic transcript, access the episode through a free podcasting platform such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify):

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Sam: Hello, and welcome to the Multicultural Middle Ages podcast. My name is Sam Ottewill-Soulsby, and I'm a researcher at the University of Tübingen.

Caitlin: And my name is Caitlin Ellis, and I am associate professor of Nordic Medieval History at the University of Oslo.

Sam: We are your hosts for this episode, where we'll be taking to the skies to talk about the falcon in the global Middle Ages, giving us a bird's-eye view of the connections that link people across Afro-Eurasia, and, a new perspective on elite culture, trade, environmental issues, the whole, uh, the whole shebang.

Joining us will be wonderful selection of guests, including Ragnar Orten Lie of Vestfold County Municipality, and Bjørn Bandlien, professor at the University of Southeastern Norway. And our first issue for this episode is how exactly are we gonna pronounce this, uh, this bird's name? Caitlin.

Caitlin: Yeah, that is a good question. We have been discussing this actually as to we're not even sure in our own language, in, uh, Sam and I's own native language in English, if it's gyrfalcon or guy falcon or...

Did we have another option once?

Sam: Gerfalcon maybe.

Caitlin: Gerfalcon. Um, so yeah, if we are inconsistent, um, in the course of the episode, uh, we apologize. Um, we were saying how actually it's easier in, Norwegian and, uh, the modern Scandinavian languages that it's jaktfalk, and that's sort of a bit more...

We know how to pronounce that. Um, and that means, hunting falcon if we translate it literally. so that's also telling us a little bit about, how they were used and how people think of them, in Scandinavia. So, so that's quite interesting too, and relevant to some of what we'll be talking about later.

But yeah, as, Sam said, we're sort of using, using these falcons as a kind of a case study or sort of, yeah, a window into all of those wider issues and themes, and why, why those falcons in particular? You have to excuse me, my voice is dying slightly.

Sam: No.

Caitlin: It's the winter cold season.

Um, so yes, uh, gyrfalcons are the largest falcon, in the world. I'm also not even sure if I normally say falcon or falcon, to be honest, but too many, uh, pronunciation problems. Um, and, uh, they are one of the fastest, not as fast as a peregrine falcon, but they're still quite valued for their, their sort of size and their speed.

and as mentioned, we can sort of talk about them as being arctic birds. So if we're thinking about where do they live, it's places that are maybe a bit more difficult to access, for humans, um, quite high up, on mountains or maybe quite coastal too. but in terms of why people in the Middle Ages are interested in these, birds, obviously there are traditions of um, hunting with, a falcon or a hawk, falconry and, um, hawking, across, um- Europe and beyond.

but the thing about the gyrfalcons is that probably the color is so striking, and there are these different color morphs. There are sort of darker birds, and lighter birds, or some that have distinct sort of the end of the feathers are dark, but the rest are, are light, so they have really interesting patterns on them.

and we can definitely see a trend, in the medieval period that white, white animals in general are valued. partly because they're unusual. Obviously, if you think how many kind of pure white animals are there in general, I mean, you're probably all thinking of a polar bear

And there's a few other options, but not so many. Um, obviously, most birds of prey are kind of shades of brown and maybe a bit of gray and black and so on. so yeah, the color is obviously very striking. but in that period, it's also, associated with purity and this sort of holiness in a sense, something kind of a spiritual, aspect as well.

and yeah, the kind of exotic nature of them in some senses and when we're broadening our geography, quite a lot, in this episode. so obviously, just the fact that something is difficult to obtain and expensive, um, can then make it, very valuable, as well. and I suppose hunting obviously can be a very practical thing that people need to eat.

So if they have, these birds that can go and take, large prey, um, so as we said, they're not quite as fast as a peregrine falcon, but they're a lot bigger, so they can take bigger, bigger prey, and bring it back. but then in the medieval period, we also see hunting being, something that becomes associated with the elite as well and courtliness and Europeanization, um, you know, associated with people on horseback and, being a sort of knightly, culture too.

So that's, something to bear in mind as well. And yeah, in terms of, written sources, um, we often hear about, birds of prey in, Old Norse poetry. That's something that, is used in some quite colorful images. Um, you know, if you say someone is a good warrior in, in Old Norse poetry, when they use these kennings and poetic circumlocutions, these roundabout ways of saying things, they might describe someone as being the feeder of the raven or of the feeder of the, um, the hawk or the eagle or some sort of, um, carrion bird because, you know, if you're a good warrior, you, you end up leaving bodies behind, unfortunately.

So yeah, we do see, birds appearing all over the place, um, and in, in, material culture, um, and, art as well. and we also have a really fascinating text, from thirteenth century Norway, Konungs skuggsjá or Kongespeilet, The King's Mirror, so sort of an advice text on how to be a good ruler, from King Haakon Haakonsson to his son.

and that has all these sort of encyclopedic sections, so the things that, a future king of Norway should know about, um, the areas that, Norway has sort of influence over, the areas that Norway is connected to. so there's lots there about Iceland and Greenland, and that's somewhere where a lot of these, gyrfalcons are.

Um, and we're told that they are larger and greater in number in Greenland than anywhere else, and it emphasizes how valuable they are. and they particularly, emphasize that, that some of them are white, although they say that people there don't really know how to use them.

So maybe a little bit insulting to some of the Greenlanders perhaps. Um, but yeah, they're sort of remarked upon as, important aspects of the, of the natural world, in these North Atlantic islands. Yeah, so that's my introduction, uh, to, the gyrfalcon. we're gonna turn over to our, real expert, to Ragnar, to think a bit, more about, falcons in medieval Scandinavia.

so yeah, could you maybe tell us a little bit about how we can find out about falcons and their uses in medieval Scandinavia?

Ragnar: Yeah, it's, um, part of the written, uh, especially the diplomas of course, tells us a lot about which birds, they do. And it usually goes into the, as gifts, royal gifts. so we see a lot of, uh, the gyrfalcons going out in that.

Uh, then we have archeology, so particularly like the finds at the Gokstad ship burial-

where you have the goose hawks. and of course in archeology, we can see that both the goose hawks in the Gokstad burial, are females.

Of course, at birds of prey, the females are larger than the male, so that makes the female more attractive as a gift and as something you wanna use.

'Cause the larger the bird, the more status. so you want the females, in this. Uh, we see both of these birds in the Gokstad burial, which is dated about 900, 903, 905-ish, in that sphere.

It's, in a pack with dogs and there's, uh, horses. So you get this hunting array with birds of prey, horses, and, uh, and dogs.

And the dogs are then of various types to have a hunting pack. Of course, then you get the opposite exotic animals. You get the peacocks aboard the Gokstad ship in Norway-

around 900, which is then of course something that's, yeah, exotic on the Norwegian part. Whereas when they sent the gyrfalcons away, that would be exotic to, which court they, they get.

Cause whereas all the other birds like, uh, the peregrines migrate a lot. You get the bird in Spain, on the coast of France, in the Netherlands, in Denmark, in Norway. They would, have a lot of breeding in Norway of them. But the gyrfalcon doesn't go south, so it stays within parts of Norway, part small section of Sweden, then they go into the northern Finland into Russia, or there are at Iceland and Greenland.

They don't rarely migrate south. So that means this bird is more or less exclusively available to the parts Swedish, in the medieval period, Norwegian kings, uh, and later on of, of the Danes.

Caitlin: Hmm. Yeah, I think it's so fascinating with the Gokstad burial that I suppose there's a tendency for us, or at least sort of people in the wider world to maybe just think about the ship which obviously is, is so emblematic and so cool.

But actually as you say, there's so many, um, other things that we can get from that archeologically, with all of these animal bones as well. so that's, useful to bear in mind and as you say, the fact that then, it's like a, a thing that Scandinavians in this period maybe have that no one else has.

So I guess that's always useful if you're trying to trade, if you've got the, if you've cornered the market, um, that sort of makes, makes it more valuable. And I suppose we maybe talk more often about Scandinavians kind of trading in furs and other things that are associated with a, a more northern cold climate perhaps.

Ragnar: And also there's a slight irony in it. Of course, neither Greenland, Iceland, or Norway is especially well-adapted for actually doing the falconering with the gyrfalcon. 'Cause we

us- we have them and they hunt a lot in the, in the wild, um, maybe mainly in the mountains, But for the Norwegian kings to do falconering or Icelanders or people at Greenland, th- their landscape is not such that they can ride around on horseback for covering miles having the gyr falcons in the air.

Mm-hmm. Uh, Norway is more adapted to hunting, actually to do hawking than falconering. So they have this exclusive availability to gyrfalcons, but they're not the best-suited bird for doing that kind of hunt in Norway.

Caitlin: So yeah, they really have extra motivation just to try and sell them to other people if they're not gonna get the most benefit out of it, themselves, absolutely.

so, so do you think then that means there's not that much of a culture of, of falconry here in Scandinavia in that period?

Ragnar: What we mainly see in, uh, in Norway, of course, we have a few because we've, we've been not that good at keeping the bones from old excavations. The Swedes, on the other hand, have done that, and we have now, I think they have, uh, 40-plus elite burials in Sweden with, birds of prey in them.

From about 550 to 950 or something, they have more than 40 elite burials with birds of prey. So then you can see the array of them. You see slight section of sparrowhawks, you see the goshawk, you see the peregrine, and you see in slight cases the gyrfalcon. but then it's like you get all the other birds in.

You get the owls, and you kind of see the entire, structure behind it. Which birds do you use, to hunt with? Which birds do you use to attract other prey? Which birds do you use to uh, catch the falcons or catch the, uh, the hawks? So it's, it needs to be a very knowledge-based thing they're doing if w- looking at the Swedish material, whereas in Norway we have only the Gåsta burial, that actually is that good archeological proof.

Caitlin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's fascinating that it's so early in Sweden with the, from the Vendel period, as you say. So yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about how do you actually catch a falcon? How would you then maybe kind of raise and, and train it afterwards? 'Cause for a lot of our listeners, I'm sure they're sit- they're thinking, "How on earth do you..."

You, you're talking about it in a very straightforward way that, yeah, they can trade them and... But how do you actually get one in the first place? How do you get hold of one?

Ragnar: Yeah, that's one of the fascinating things. Of course, of course you need, you can get one as a trick or as, as a bird you kind of find.

but in falconering, once this is more adapted into the European elite, uh, a bird of prey, it's about a 50% chance that they die during the first year of their life. So all the bad hunters, they die. The good hunters survive.

And basically in falconering, if you're a king and you have all your friends on the hunt, you want to impress them.

So you don't want the bad performing birds. You want the good performing ones. So that basically shifts towards getting, you want the birds that has survived their first year in the wild, which has survived, learned to hunt itself, is a good hunter, a survivor, and then basically you want to trap that once it taught everything in the wild, but you want to trap it before it gets too old and too stubborn or- So, so basically you kind of want to, to trap young birds females if you can.

so th- this means that you have a lot of different setups. Uh, you can have nets that a bird fly into, and they have a lot of bird trapping as kind of a food supply on the coast and stuff. And of course, birds of prey that, goes into the same traps, just large nets hanging on poles along the coast.

Uh, you get some of them there. When you go into the more actual hunting of them or trapping them, you usually use the, uh, dove as kind of a, a lure to kind of attract the bird of prey, and they have a trap, behind it. so then you get these specific methods for catching peregrines, for catching gyrfalcons, uh, and that's the ones we see, especially in 16th, 17th, 18th century, Norway in, in the mountains, where you find these round circular, huts, with, um...

where you had the poles to kind of put up the trapping, uh, system.

Caitlin: And I suppose that's something that, that maybe doesn't leave as much of a trace archeologically as we would like, that we maybe can't find as many examples from our period, but just by common sense, I guess we assume that there must be something similar that we have more evidence for in that later, early modern period

Ragnar: Yeah, 'cause you get a lot of, uh, the written contract of who has which royal or, king's cousin or whoever has the rights So then you get the diplomas. in archeology, of course, it's just a small circle of stones. Uh, it might be just place names.

Uh, the gyre mountain or the falcon mountain or the falcon trapper's mountain.

then you have tradition on it. but of course, the, the archeology is, uh, is scarce.

Caitlin: Yeah, unfortunately. Um, but yeah, it was interesting about the, that almost the sweet spot between, you know, not wanting them to be too old, um, and sort of, yeah, as I say, d- difficult then to train, but yeah, as you say, nee- needing them to not be too young, that they haven't got any skills, these birds, or, yeah, that you can't maybe just take an egg out of the nest because that might seem a bit easier maybe, maybe in terms of catching them.

But, um, so once you have caught one, do we have any sense of how you might transport these falcons over longer distances?

Ragnar: Yeah, that's what we've been kind of wondering a lot about because The logistics of this is You're moving a bird that never gets tame. It, it won't be tamed.

But you can hunt with its natural resources, kind of, cooperate with it. But especially the gyrfalcon, whereas an eagle or a goose hawk, they can eat roadkill or whatever is dead.

Caitlin: They're not very picky.

Ragnar: Nope.

Uh, once you have a gyrfalcon, it only feeds on fresh meat, so it basically feeds on what it's killed itself.

It won't do roadkill. so in, in this respect, you kind of have to move a bird that's entrapped that will have its instincts well acute, so it- if it sees something, it will try to attack it. It will try to... If it sees a bird, it will kick in the, the instinct to hunt.

So they have to blind them, and that's what the hood was for, of course.

But the hood comes in fairly late. It comes in with, uh, Emperor Frederick II probably, learned it on, in the Middle East, and took it back to Europe. So that's, like, 1230s, '40s, or something. before that, we see that they sew the eyelids of a falcon closed. So you have to seal its eyes either by sewing it, or you put it in a linen bag and keep it that.

But then, of course, you need to feed it, and each time you feed it, you need to kill something and feed it fresh meat. So what we see the transport, when you go on a ship, you actually, you bring live sheeps aboard the ship, and then slaughter as you need the meat. then you get the diseases. stitching the eyes is not good.

they get, uh, cold from the opposite problem of we have, like, they come from an arctic or cold environment. They're brought down to Spain, plus 30 or plus 40 degrees. Uh, they get kind of reverse colds. so this part of, moving them seems to be one person with this frame. On the frame, you can have maybe six birds, 'cause of course, if you have them, they will hold, uh, cling on to a wooden frame, but they're blind.

So once they feel out of balance, they will kind of flow their wings, so they can't then kick down the, the neighbor, who's also blind, with its wings and kind of flap it around. so each person that carries these out to the mountains can only carry very few birds. then you have to get them down to the coast, and then you have to get them to the nearest port, and then you have to get them to wherever you wanna train them, and then you have to get them to the court which you gift them or which has bought them.

Of course, the logistics of this is really interesting, and it has to be really knowledge-based So what we see from the later sources is that, especially the Dutch falconers operate a lot in Norway with falcon capturing. They are family businesses on the Prince of Orange or Count Nassau's orders.

we see they are families. So the father brings his son to Norway. within 10 years, the son has taken the father's place, and he brings his son. they have, uh, professionals with them. So it seems to be they catch the birds, they keep them alive with the knowledge they have. They oversee the total transportation back.

In this case, they go to, to the Netherlands, and then they start training them. so these are like professionals That follows from the catching to the transportation, probably also into the, uh, into the, uh, training. And they are the kind of the, the court falconers, the main employees for maintaining the falcons.

Caitlin: I think that really shows how, how much of an investment this is, you know, to, to catch the falcons in the first place, and then as you say, this, this transport and the food and all of these sort of, yeah, logistics and all of these plans, um, that they have to make. So obviously, yeah, it shows they must have got something out of it.

Um, They must have been worth it, doing, doing all of that. and I think the other really interesting thing is, the idea that, that you have these people who specialize in this, um, and follow them all the way through.

as you highlighted there, that I suppose other times when we think of, um, maybe like objects that, that move a really long distance that we can see, we kind of maybe assume they might change hands a few times, right? That, you know, okay, this object started here and it ended up really far away, but we don't always necessarily think it's the same person that takes it on the entire journey.

But obviously this extra, extra knowledge is required, to be able to, do that for, for a living creature perhaps.

Um, so yeah, now we've thought a bit more about how you get your big bag of falcons- ... and start to, uh, uh, sort of start to transport them, and get them to a kind of suitable, market. I will hand more over to, Sam and Bjorn to think a bit more about, this trade and this kind of, um, wider world.

Sam and I have been thinking a bit more about, a ninth century, example of contact, um, with the Islamic world. and he's an expert in the Arabic world, so can tell us about that. but we can also broaden our chronological perspective a little bit. and Bjorn has done some really interesting work on, trade with Armenia and, various places.

Sam: Yeah, absolutely. And, and this is, I mean, ' looking at, at your work, Bjorn, you've, done a huge amount connecting medieval Scandinavia with the wider world. And I mean, most famously of course, there's Vikings, but you look at, pilgrims, merchants, people, coming to and, fro.

But Scandinavian perspectives on, on the wider world. Where do falcons fit into this? How do, how do falcons help connect sort of Scandinavia to the wider world in your, view?

Bjorn: Yeah, that's the kind of peculiar thing. I work mainly on the High Middle Ages, like especially 13th or 14th centuries, and then you get into, you know, the world of Crusades and the Silk Road, and you have the Mongols, uh, coming in in the 13th century.

So what fascinates me is that, uh, Ragnar talked about, getting falcons in from Greenland in the far northwest of the known world, but they were as keen on falconry in East Asia as well. so for me, it's this art of, uh, of, you know, hunting with birds of prey is something that connects the elite in Eastern Asia with Western Europe as well.

and it crosses over, you know, cultural, uh, linguistic, religious, uh, barriers, something that connects them, and they can acknowledge each other if they meet up at a court somewhere in the Middle East, perhaps. A guy from, you know, Mongol China, uh, and a guy from Western Europe, and, uh, and appreciate this, uh, this, art, um, kind of physical art, but, uh, it's, it's, yeah, transgresses borders, in the known world.

So, uh, that I think is very fascinating. And, then to think about how, Norway having access to these kind of exclusive birds, even especially the white birds from, from Greenland, that Frederick II, the emperor who wrote this book about, art of, uh, hunting with birds in the 12, well, 40s, and how he advertised them as the best birds ever, you know?

That's a great way for the Norwegian king who's got this exclusive right to trade with these kind of birds. Not anyone could, you know, uh, any merchant could do this. It's the prerogative of the king. That's a great, advertising for, for the Scandinavian, the Arctic birds, and, raised the value, I think.

And this book by Frederick II, it was translated into, into French, and spread, uh, at least to northern France as well. Uh, and it would be known in perhaps the Arabic world as well. They have their own manuals for, hunting with birds.

Sam: Yeah. Uh, which, which of course he, Frederick was drawing upon, the, the, Arabic traditions, Arabic knowledge in, in writing this book.

Bjorn: Yeah. , you know, his network, uh, is in the Middle East and, and, Mediterranean, but also he has quite close relations to, to the Norwegian king Haakon IV, uh- at one point, Haakon, uh, King sends off a polar bear to Frederick II.

Well, of course, the polar bears at the Tower, in the 1240s, '50s they are quite famous. They swam in the Thames and so on. But the one he gave to Frederick II, was given further south and ended up in Damascus with the Emir of Damascus in the 1250s. It's described in an Arabic source. So- Through Frederick II, you get, the kind of publicity about, uh, good Arctic, birds.

but you also get the network, and, the markets and connecting, the-the-the-the Muslim rulers, making them aware of, you know, there is a guy up in the Arctic, the way north of Europe that can bring these, valuable birds, down to the Mediterranean.

Sam: I mean, the, uh, the present day analogy that occurs to me is perhaps, um, Chinese panda diplomacy, where sort of, uh-

Bjorn: Yeah.

Sam: a lot of, you know, the, you know, much the same way that sort of modern China uses pandas as, a mark of their brand and mark of soft power throughout, throughout the world. medieval kings of Norway uh, perhaps, using these falcons as their own, hallmark, their own charismatic animal that sort of-

Bjorn: Yeah, yeah

Sam: you know, spread around the world. But I'm, I'm really interested though in hearing, about markets, it sounds like the, King of Norway controls the market at one end. But, do we see much, of a market for these birds elsewhere once, they've, left Norway?

Bjorn: Well, um, the records, the written records, uh, they start to show us, some of the scope of this trade in the 1220s, 1230s, and onwards. so what you can kind of see is that especially in the early 13th century, the king, King Haakon, might give, birds to the English king, for example. and then the English king could send them on, either as gifts, like diplomatic gifts, like kind of soft diplomacy.

but there also seemed to be, selling off locally, to the nobility in England even. and then there is the next stage where, you can kind of associate it with, a remarkable, marital alliance between King Haakon in Norway, marrying off his daughter, Kristin, to the brother of Alphonse X, the vice of Castilla in the early 1260s.

So then according to one source, there are like 100 Norwegians going down to Spain through France and, Not only that, but one of the envoys from, the king, King of Norway, went further on to Tunis, and there is a scholarly poem that kind of, the Norwegians, they were greeted by the, the ruler of Tunis and brought birds with them as maybe gifts.

And then you have, like, this is early 1260s, and this same envoy is called Ludin Leppi appears in Alexandria in 1280. And about that time, you have a, a Arabic source saying that, these Arctic birds, they are bought for, like, 100 golden coins. Even a dead one is bought for 50, like, half price.

Um, according to another Arabic eyewitness who went to Damascus, he said that, the emir there had, like, hundreds of these hunting birds. Might come from Asia, might come from Northern Africa, maybe Southern Europe as well, but somewhere from, clearly from, from the Arctic areas, uh, as well. Several hundreds of them, not all of those were gifts, far from it.

That would be, the market. And I can mention another, uh, source that indicate the importance of this trade. Uh, in the 14th century, mid-14th century, the King of Norway and Sweden, they were kind of joint, kingdom at the time or there was one king in both kingdoms, um, he want to start an expedition, military expedition, a kind of crusade against the Russians at the end of the 1340s.

And then He asked the, asked the pope, is it okay if, you know, because there is an embargo on the trade with the Muslim, you have to kind of have permission to trade with the, you know, infidels and, and, and heretics and so on. So he asked the pope, is it okay if I sell off a lot of falcons to finance a crusade against the Orthodox, the kind of heretic Russians?

Sam: That's fascinating.

Bjorn: Yeah, and there is a record of two Swedes going down in the 1340s to Barcelona and get a passport for a ship from Barcelona to Egypt at the time in order to sell falcons. so it indicates a huge market, and especially Mediterranean, the rich, rulers of the Muslim world, they were really keen on this.

Sam: absolutely. and even talking about the secondary market, the re-gifting and, and so on, I, I understand that, you end up with the occasional set where kings of England or kings of France might get approached by, uh, by Mongol rulers or rulers from elsewhere to, try to get access to, uh, to these falcons as well.

Bjorn: Yeah, and that's something I find very fascinating, that you have, sources that says it... They're often very short, particularly from the Icelandic annals, uh, so they're kind of short, events from year to year, who died and stuff. But then you have, in 1286, you have this kind of short sentence that, oh, there were envoys from the kings of the Tatars, you know, the Mongols coming to Norway.

And then in 1313 maybe 1314, there are two different albums with, uh, different years, there is, um, envoys from the king of Armenia coming to Norway, and it doesn't say the purpose of this. So then you have to find out the context, you know, the envoys, were they in Europe, uh, in Rome, in England, in France, and stuff like that.

and the best explanation I can give is that they were searching for, for falcons. They actually have a document, in a French archive. It hasn't been printed yet, but there is a French historian, Charles Langlois, who wrote about this document, and I think, uh, the National Archive in Oslo have actually found the original, and it will be printed soon.

But the, the document says that in the 1270s, there is a letter from the Mongol ruler in Baghdad, the Il-Khans, is, uh, Abaqa Khan. He sends a letter to the French king, and he says that he has sent some guys, merchants, envoys, well, some people from Baghdad into Europe, with a lot of money, and they were supposed to go to Norway to buy falcons, but they have went astray.

They could n- not be found. So, you know, the Il-Khan was of course, uh, kind of worried that, uh, they had gone away with the, the money it was either that was the concern or they had actually gone to Norway, kept the money, and asked for gifts. You know, falcons are gifts, and that these, people, might have you know, get them as gifts from the King of Norway and sold them to nobility in Europe, you know, whoever want to buy them.

and again, when you have commons- ... kind of underground black market for falcons, then you get a- another impression that this is big money. This is big business, and you have the gifts to the kings, but you also have a huge, um, market beyond that. You also have a record from Raymond de Lagena, early 14th century, going to Bergen in, in Norway and searching for birds.

He want to buy everything they have, but, he sends a letter back to France that, "Ah, unfortunately they, they have only a few of them. I will wait," and he stays for a year you know, in the hope of getting more, uh, more falcons to sell on the continent.

Sam: Uh, was he successful?

Bjorn: No, he didn't seem to be.

Sam: Mm-hmm.

Bjorn: He took what he could find, but he seemed to lack, uh, I think, the prestigious ones. So I think he got some hawks and, and stuff like that.

Sam: Mm-hmm. Well, that's a, that's a shame for him.

Caitlin: I was just wondering, um, you mentioned, that they might still be paid for a dead bird even though it, it's less, and I don't know if you or, or Ragnar have, have thoughts about, like, why that is.

Is that because if you're the falcon catcher and you've gone to all that effort, and then it's not your fault that one dies, you still should get some reward, or is there some value to the, the dead bird as well?

Ragnar: Um, there had to be, and it seems to be that, that, the payment of price for a bird and then half the price for a dead bird is based on experience.

Uh, and what we see, we, we have only two good sources to, trapment of about 10 birds. Uh, one going to England, and one is going down to, uh, to Spain. and in both cases, about 60 to... uh, 70 to 80% of these birds die within half a year to a year. most die during transportation. So even though you have a high-priced bird you have at least 70% chance of them dying.

So in that, the respect of bringing the birds to Europe was okay, but once you bring them down to the Mediterranean and then across the sea into the Middle East, or, uh, if you're going to the Damascus or something, then the risk is so big that the buyer has to take the risk and pay for half the bird.

But then you either bring, the bird, one of its wings or one of its feet as evidence that we started off with 30 birds. Sorry, but 10 of them died. Here are the wings and birds, uh, wings or, uh, legs or something. Uh, but here are the 20 that's alive, and then they, they do this. So it's based on experience that the, the mortality rate during transportation is huge.

but still, they're willing to take that risk. That says something about the status of this.

Sam: are the feathers worth anything? 'Cause I, I know in, East Asia there's... in addition to, collecting live, uh, live gyrfalcons, there's, We also have reference to people from the Amu River Valley bringing, down the, the feathers of, uh, of gyrfalcons.

And is, is there a market at all for, gyrfalcon feathers further west?

Ragnar: Not that I know about. I think, uh, I think it's actually in North America there's found one gyrfalcon feather in, in an arrow in one of the ice patches. but it's, uh, but it's not, not something I've seen.

Uh, but I would guess, like- Once you have a, a white gyrfalcon or something that you... There is some kind of market for the feathers or something like that But what you see, they make also porcelain, uh, casts of the falcons and kind of have the falcons by the throne, but then this was my falcon.

He died four years ago, but I have him in porcelain or something. So, so it's, it's something you want to show this. But just also to give one example, we get the gyrfalcons. We get them from Sweden, Denmark. No, no, Sweden, Norway. They are kind of, uh, partly white on the unders, but more gray, uh, on the back.

Once you get into the Icelandic ones, you get the light gray, then you get the white ones on Greenland, but the white ones migrate to Iceland and partly Norway if there's a lot of ice patches to land on. So the Danish king from about 1680 till 17 something, we have about 80 years of record, and they bring in about 100, 150 birds from Iceland each year.

Ship goes over, brings sheeps, feed the falcons, bring them back, and you put them in. The record of white birds entering the European market during an 80-year period, the top year is 52 birds. The average year is four to six birds. So it means from the real big white females from Greenland entering the market is maybe down to four to six birds a year

How are the living conditions actually? Birds of prey go with the prey. So are there many of them this year? Are high mortality this year? Uh, is there a lot of ice so they can migrate to Iceland? Yes or no? A lot of factors goes in. So, so this is a market that's the high-status birds are extremely high status.

Sam: Absolutely.

Caitlin: I guess that environmental impact, I think, or environmental aspect is something we might come back to as well. like the idea of the porcelain version of the bird more than I was sort of picturing some horrible medieval taxidermy form, some stuffed poor creature. Um, and I guess the correspondence that Bjorn highlighted, the sources that we have, I think that there we get the impression that, yeah, they value the white birds most and then the gray, as you say, that, that's the order they list them in, isn't it, often, that they kind of list the most valuable ones first and then going down the spectrum to the darker ones.

Sam: so as we've talked about, gyrfalcons end up across Eurasia, and one place where, as we've mentioned, they have a particular significance is the Islamic world, and that's still the case today, by the way.

So wealthy Arab sheikhs maintain large collections of hunting raptors, and particularly rich ones will charter planes just to ferry them around. And if you're ever feeling a bit miserable and need to be cheered up, I'd strongly recommend searching for the pictures online. they're absolutely wonderful.

Um, but yeah, hunting with falcons is really important in the medieval Islamic world, and the, the power and grace of the animal stands in the place of its owner, like acting as a mark of prowess and distinction. It's also connected with the Persian kings of old who are kind of celebrated in poetry and epic, and keeping hawks and falcons links you with the grandeur and chivalry of antiquity.

one of the things I find interesting about falconry and hawking in the Islamic world is that, at least some birds are relatively cheap, and we have, we have descriptions of people making a living by going hunting in the wetlands, outside Baghdad, using, raptors to catch birds to, sell at market.

Interestingly, also, more than one, uh, out-of-favor scholar is reported to have, taken up falconry in just this way in order to make a living while biding their time until they could get their way back in, which I, I feel like in, you know, there are career options out there for junior scholars, kind of a, you know, I, I think, I think maybe even to this day.

and kind of given this kind of comparative affordability, elites in the Islamic world have to distinguish themselves. and part of that is by assembling a really huge collection, and we see, powerful Islamic rulers like the Abbasid caliphs- Mamluks, Ottomans, assembling really huge collections of birds.

But also you want birds which are rare, far away, and are hard for anyone, else to get hold of, and that's where, the gyrfalcons come in. And I mean, one of my favorite examples here is, um, in 1393, the Ottoman sultan sent the Mamluk sultan, a gyrfalcon, and in exchange he wanted a, a celebrated doctor.

You know, because the, uh, the sultan was, suffering from, a recurring illness and, you know, and this is, you know, and, and I find that sort of interesting as an i- an idea of like, you know, the comparative value of, of, uh, of a gyrfalcon at this point.

One of the other things I find interesting also with thinking about these falcon gifts is, you know, the upkeep, the care. I mean, Ragnar was talking about, these are delicate birds who need, careful handling and we often see rulers sending keepers with, with the birds as part of diplomatic exchanges.

So um, in, in 1411, for example, the Byzantine emperor sent the Mamluk sultan falconers with rare birds together, and they're, sort of a complete package. And I, I sometimes wonder in, in a lot of our briefer sources, our, more, our more terse sources, like, you know, we see the bird is there, is there also a person or people kind of attached there who don't, don't merit it in the same way?

But I, I think one of the other things that's sort of interesting, and I, I suspect this may be the case outside the Islamic world as well, is that falconry is an opportunity for spectacle. you know, people come and watch. So the Mamluks in Cairo, they have, falconry grounds on, on the northeastern edge of the city, and it's quite common for ordinary people to gather to watch the, you know, the, the falconry in action, and they can often be combined with official ceremonies and, announcements.

So it's a really-- It's a spectacular thing that can be used as a publication and a, and a public event. And that's, I think that's a trend we see across, the world of falconry. So Marco Polo famously, describes watching Kublai Khan, of Xanadu fame, when he's not stately pleasure dome decreeing, like, you know, publicly hunting with, with gyrfalcons and, and publicly showing off in a way that becomes-- It's a display of power, but it's also a form of, of entertainment and bringing people together.

and, uh, Caitlin and I have, uh, have been working on when the first gyrfalcons really begin showing up in the Islamic world. And we've got, something coming out where, we argue that it's actually the late ninth century in which large numbers of these birds begin showing up in, in the 880s and the 890s being presented, to the caliphs in Baghdad.

and the, uh, these are gifts being sent to him by Muslim dynasts ruling in northern Iran, Uzbekistan, Armenia, those sorts of places. And we think that what's happening here is that these birds are originally coming from the Nordic world. As, as a lot of listeners will know, Scandinavians known as the Rus travel from the Baltic down rivers like the Dnieper and the Volga up in the Islamic world.

Yeah, and these are the people who, um, Antonio Banderas, I mean, Ibn Fadlan encounters in, in Rostam. Yeah, damn. Yeah,

Caitlin: damn. I realize that joke might be too old for some of the listeners.

Sam: What? No, all, all the kids are, are, are- Seen

Caitlin: the Percy movie.

Sam: I mean, yeah, that, that only came out a couple years ago, right?

So that is... Yeah, damn. But like, uh, and the- but it's, you know, but s- as, uh, as we've alluded to, gyrfalcons don't, don't just come from the North Atlantic. And, you know, from 10th century on, the Islamic world becomes ever more tightly intertwined with Central Asia and the steppes as, the Muslim faith spreads east, as Turkic people become more important in the old heartlands of the caliphates.

And, you know, one of the consequences of that is that in the 11th century we see more gyrfalcons appearing, and, and these appear to be coming from places like Siberia, like, possibly, uh, possibly from the Pacific. And suddenly much of the Islamic world is, is being pulled in And like, and this particularly comes out with the Mongols in the 13th century and these people are really, really into falconry, and they've been getting their, their gyrfalcons from Siberia, from the Pacific.

And this is why a lot of the Arabic vocabulary for gyrfalcons comes from Turkic languages. And as, as Bjorn was saying, this brings multiple different traditions of falconry together, and what's really striking is how, how well they blend. Like, as elites in China have been keeping gyrfalcons for centuries, steppe people such as the Kyrgyz often give gyrfalcons as tributes to the emperors of China.

And it was believed in Song China that gyrfalcons could be used to catch swans who had eaten oysters that, that had themselves pearls in them, which led to something, something of a craze for them. And You know, there, there are more straightforward ways of using gyrfalcons to get pearls, which is that, um, the, the Ilkhanids when they're not going straight to, the source in Norway or asking various European rulers for gyrfalcons, they'll, they'll give the Khan of the Golden Horde pearls from the, uh, from the Persian Gulf in exchange for gyrfalcons at a one-to-one ratio.

And I think this is kind of one of the things, as we said, this is a global culture. And like, people in medieval Europe aren't planning on using gyrfalcons to catch oyster-eating swans, and like nobody in Song China is thinking about ancient Persian heroes. But Marco Polo can, can go all the way to the court of the Khan, and know what he's seeing when he, when he watches a hunt with gyrfalcons.

And, as, as Ragnor was saying, that's partly because there are certain ne-necessities governed by the physical biology of a bird. Like, the very nature of, the gyrfalcon sort of has certain constraints on it, but also that there's a shared culture here, and that, people are communicating with each other, talking with each other, reading each other's books and, trading birds with each other.

And yeah, and that's, part of, what makes these gyrfalcons so exciting 'cause it reveals a medieval world that's simultaneously distinct and separate and multifaceted, and yet one or all at the same time. something which really brings a lot, of strands together.

Caitlin: Yeah, I guess this is something that seems to be going on for centuries. We've covered a lot of, a lot of grounds, as you say, from the Mongols, um, and the Mamluks and so on. But yeah, we're sort of thinking that maybe there's this sort of early, um, instance of it that has previously been a bit overlooked.

So maybe 'cause the vocabulary isn't there until later but yeah, these references to white, white falcons in the Arabic sources, we have assumed must refer to to gyrfalcons because they're the big white bird. Um, I don't know if you had any thoughts about the kind of change over time

Sam: Uh, absolutely. and so generally, like when, when thinking about, um, gyrfalcons in these, like well, the assumption is that they, they really start showing up in the 11th century and then, and then in larger numbers in the 13th century, and that's, 13th century because of the Mongols. 11th century that's, that's, you know, and there's more exposure the steppes, and that's something, we see it in the sources, we see it in, we can see it in the vocabulary when, they're called shunkur.

And these, this is, very much like, uh, Turkic words. Which is what makes it so interesting when all of a sudden, we discover together in the, in the late 9th century, we have references to large white falcons showing up in Baghdad several centuries before they're supposed to be showing up.

And, and one of the things that's really actually interesting is these are very much they're, they're marked out as being new things. So we, we have, a lot of, early, early falconry manuals in Arabic, and they, they tend to aim to be quite, quite complete. We've got one from about 861, and that's, that lists all of these raptors.

It doesn't list anything that sounds like a gyrfalcon. And then with-- a decade later, someone presents the caliph in Baghdad with birds which the source tells us no one has ever seen the like of before, and that's, and it's 'cause of their size and it's because of their color. And it really feels like this is a, a specific moment has arrived.

And, and that's, that's really fascinating ' cause that's more or less the time when we start seeing a lot of, interesting things happening in, in Eastern Europe which appear to be, be linked with Scandinavians, traveling through them, the emergence of, Rus.

it's really fascinating that we, start seeing a lot of symbols that look like a diving falcon showing up in, in these areas. they're on sword chapes. And, um, and if you, if you don't know what a sword chape is, don't worry. I, I had no idea either, but it's, it's, it's part of a sword.

And it looks like we have a diving falcon shape on it, and it's showing up more or less exactly the same time that it looks like these birds are showing up. it's a very interesting symbol 'cause it, it's also-- it's probably the origin of, of the symbol for modern Ukraine.

So, um, it looks a lot like, like a trident, but it's, it's probably originally a diving falcon, and that's, uh, It's, um, a little, a little ghost of that, uh, of, of, of that contact and that movement.

But I think it's also particularly interesting for the timing. And, and I, I think this is something you've got, you've got a better grasp on than I have, Caitlin, but for thinking about, you know, Iceland and what's, what's happening there.

Caitlin: Yeah. So, um, a-as you say, I think also one thing that you highlighted as well is, um, yeah, we kind of know there are these networks, but this is also interesting for us to think about, like how do they know that there is a market in this faraway place?

'Cause Ragnar says, maybe the same kind of people are transporting them all the way, but I guess must maybe, I'm assuming, get an inkling beforehand that, um, that it's worth doing it and taking it all the way, over there. So that sort of maybe suggests there's this, contact before.

And as you say, maybe, maybe via, via Rus as well. Um, but yes, in terms of the timing, as you say, w-it is very tempting for us to connect it to, um, the sort of settlement, of Iceland, in the sort of late 9th century. Traditionally, we, the archaeologists would say eight seven one plus or minus two was always how I was taught it is the, the name of the, uh, the sort of museum in Reykjavik.

Um, you use the, uh, the volcanic ash layers, the tephra layers, for dating, um, of that. And as Ragnar mentioned, this period with the-- where we see these white falcons appearing for the first time, in the Arabic world is, is sort of too early for the settlement of Greenland, which is sort of where the white birds are associated with specifically.

But yeah, as Ragnar mentioned, if they end up kind of coming over on the ice and so on, from Greenland to Iceland, then yeah, it was quite tempting for us to, to, um, to connect those two things. and there's been other sort of recent work about how maybe, um, walrus ivory was also a, a reason that, that they might have wanted to settle Iceland in the first place.

so I guess before we just sort of used to think, about Vikings just kind of, or Norse people just as them having that spirit of adventure or needing more land and somewhere to live , a, a nice new farm. but then obviously, yeah, the, the walrus population in Iceland is driven to extinc-extinction, so in later they're able to exploit the, the Greenlandic one.

Um, so I guess that also relates back to what we were saying earlier when, when you see in some of the later records, varies wildly h-how many birds they're getting. It's sort of difficult to know, were they just lucky that year when they got lots of extra birds?

Um, or yeah, is, is there something else going on sort of climatically or as you said, you know, with the, um, the food, obviously, is, is it something about the food supply, that for some reason there's fewer survived that year. and we obviously talked, about why do they suddenly appear, at that time, but then they, kind of seem to drop off again as well.

Sam: Absolutely.

Caitlin: So we were wondering whether that is partly because of the, the risks that we've heard that they might not all survive. Um, or yeah, maybe they temporarily have kind of overexploited this population or sort of not even a, proper population, a kind of occasional stragglers kind of rocking up in Iceland.

So that's something that we've been yeah, thinking about, wrestling with.

Sam: Absolutely. Yes, and it's sort of, it's a relatively brief period 'cause, uh, we, we had our first, our first instance about, about 8- 871, 800 AD, you know, and is when the first of these birds start showing up, and then the last of the birds is about 911.

And there's a relatively brief window here and there's, possible explanations to be looked at within the caliphate. But it is interesting to wonder, yeah, did in, in the same manner, uh, uh, as with the walrus, did the early settlers of Iceland just overexploit the falcons?

Ragnar: Yeah, 'cause once you do have a preference for the females, then you have a preference for first the white ones, then the gray ones, uh, the lighter gray. You also see in the documents that they also, every now and then you just see 15 gyrfalcons. But often you see, oh, there's three white, there's, uh, three gray, and then there's six gyrfalcons.

Uh, so you see they, always the white first, the gray, and then... But of course, if you do prefer the females and the white ones, of course, can you shift, actually shift, uh, as these migrate from Greenland to Iceland or Iceland to Norway? If you do a massive hunt for, like, 10 years for white females, uh, then Iceland will be gray.

But then you need a refill, uh, after a winter of ice, uh, you get a refill from, from, uh, Greenland. So, so it's like, can you actually, how fast will they shift? Because there are never many gyrfalcons in one area. They, they roam over large areas. They don't nest in colonies. They nest miles away from each other.

so, so it's like, how do we, during the thousands of years we've been catching, how have we affected this?

Sam: And, I think in a way there are so many interesting things about these, these falcons in the, in the medieval worlds and so many, things for us, to reflect on in, in the present day and, you know, thinking about, environmental impacts, how humans interact with their environments, how exploration, commerce, all these things interlock in, in, in complicated ways and how, environmental impacts in Iceland might have a ripple effect in, in, in Baghdad or how, demand in, in Iraq might shift the other way

Caitlin: yeah, and I guess we want, also want to emphasize that, the, these, huge trade networks of contacts and diplomatic relations, that they were often, things going in both directions. It's not just spreading outwards, from Scandinavia. So as, Ragnar mentioned earlier, we also have this peacock, in the Gokstad, um, ship burial.

So, you know, that's obviously not, not something you normally see in Norway, so that must have come from further afield as well. obviously it's very tempting to, to think of, um, yeah, the falcons going in one direction and peacocks, uh, coming back in the other direction.

and I hope that we've also, at the same time as highlighting this sort of really, well, maybe global or at least, uh, Eurasian, um, trade networks and all these multifaceted kind of contacts between all of these different groups of people. Um, but yeah, there's maybe been the, the sort of the human angle to an extent as well of the people actually involved in this.

and obviously the animals, I guess we obviously have to spare a, a thought for the- Mm-hmm ... the poor gyrfalcons having their eyes sort of gouged out maybe. Uh, not very pleasant, but, yeah, sometimes when we talk about the global Middle Ages, it can feel so sort of big and impersonal and a bit vague maybe.

so it's nice to try and get the balance, between those things. it can be easier to look at material objects that we still have today, obviously, as, as archaeologists when you can trace the, the flow of dirhams and all of these things that, uh, Viking scholars often, often like to do.

And it's obviously, more difficult now to do it with animals. Although, as you say, maybe, nowadays we try and be a bit more careful about keeping the bones and then, um, trying to identify them, and so on. But, yeah, the sort of diplomacy, um, with animals obviously is something that has cropped up a few times in the written sources.

And as you say, maybe even in a, in a sense is a practice that continues into the modern day as well.

Sam: Well, thank you so much, Bjorn, Ragnar. This has been a really, wonderful, conversation. Um, thank you so much for joining us.

Caitlin: Thank you.

Ragnar: Thank you.

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