The Vikings Research Paper

The reason for the Vikings leaving their homelands and venturing off on trade missions, raids, explorations, and new settlements is largely unknown, due to a lack of evidence (Vikings weren’t huge fans of writing down their day to day lives and history.) However, it can be speculated that they left for a few reasons. The first of those reasons was to escape forced conversion to Christianity by Charlemagne. The Vikings had their own unique religion which differed heavily from Christianity. Add to this the fact that Christians don’t have the best history with accepting other beliefs, it is understandable that the Vikings may have feared Christian conversion and sought to find new lands to escape. This fear of conversion was a large part of the Saxon wars affecting Germanic peoples. It’s worth noting the irony of the Vikings leaving their homeland in fear of Christian conversion considering their leader Harald Bluetooth (935-985), who was the King of Norway and Denmark, eventually converted the Vikings himself to Christianity. The second reason for the Vikings suddenly migrating may be due to their beliefs in relation to inheritance. Vikings gave their first sons all acquired land, this caused younger sons to venture off on their own to gain their own property. Regardless of the reason, the Vikings ventured off in their long ships to raid, pillage,

burn and pillage their way across civilized Europe. During this period much progress was achieved in terms of Scandinavian art and craftsmanship, marine technology, exploration, and the development of commerce. It seems the Vikings did as much trading as they did

The Vikings were a group of Scandinavian raiders that were around from about the 8th century to the 11th. They mainly attacked the British Islands , the Frankish empire, England, but they also plundered places such as the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa. Vikings did not always settle into the places that they found, for instance after exploring North America they left the place never to return again. Even so, after landing on Greenland they colonized themselves there, and ancestors of the Vikings still live there today. So now that you know a little about the history of the Vikings lets go into detail about the specifics of the Viking age. (Peter Sawyer, Oxford Ill. History of the Vikings p. 1-19)

The Vikings were travelers and voyagers as well; which were people that go on long trips, usually in ships. The area in which they traveled to were Southern

The Vikings lived about one thousand years ago in the lands that we now call Iceland, Lapland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. To most people the Vikings were raiders that got in their longboats and sailed somewhere and then went from town to town killing and pillaging. This is not completely true, because the Vikings were also

France was in Carolingain Empire, which was a problem. The Vikings took advantage and raided France. They fastened the fall of Carolingain Empire. Then they changed the ways of the place they attacked. They were also great explorers, they conquered settlements in lots in of countries they invaded. In 860 they discovered Iceland. The Vikings describes this by quoting from the Landnamabok "Once upon a time, men some say it was Naddod the Viking set out from Norway bound for the Faroes but drifted into the Atlantic and found a large new island." They settled on Iceland in 870. The Vikings conquered and settled in Greenland. Throughout exploring the Vikings expanded Europe's knowledge of their surroundings. Vikings also settled on parts of the countries they raided, and they rebuilt the towns. Many of this made of damage cause by the raids. They also had craftsmen and merchants sent to England, Germany and other countries to trade or sell their goods. Trades were only performed once or twice every

The people from the north, Norsemen, lived in villages and on dispersed farms in various regions. The Norwegian Vikings were from Iceland and Ireland. The Danish Vikings were from France and Britain. The Swedish Vikings were from Russia. Regardless of region, Vikings are addressed as one group of people. Written documentation from this era, sagas specify the region of Vikings being recorded.

Considerable difference and similarity can be observed in the records of the Vikings and the different peoples that they interacted with. This largely has to do with geography, as the landscape of Viking Age Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were divided and rugged; this lead to various groups of people vying for power. When a person or group lost a power struggle, they would often use the waterways of the North Sea to gain access to potential raiding lands. The seafaring technological advances of previous centuries enabled interaction between the raiders of Sweden, Norway and Denmark and the peoples of Ireland and the Carolingian Empire. Because of the technological advances and geographical situation, the Viking raiders were able to interact with many different peoples but also come from the same fundamental background. This caused a multitude of similarities between the Viking activity in the Carolingian Empire and Ireland, but there were also many differences.

Vikings were a group of people from Scandanavia (modern-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden) who navigated the North Atlantic and Baltic Regions, sailing to destinations in the south to North Africa, and east to Russia, Constantinople (“Istanbul”) and the Middle East, as ‘hit-and-run’ looters, traders and colonists. Notably, the Vikings were seen as a barbaric clan by their victims, especially to those in Europe with whom they had an imposing influence. Equally, as the Old Norse (the language of the Norsemen) translation of the word ‘Viking’ signifies, the Vikings were feared as fierce and ruthless pirates. However, most of these people may not have called themselves Vikings since only a few engaged in raiding and pillaging, which was seen as a

Ermentarius, a Frankish writer comments that “Everywhere [Christians] are the victims of massacre, burning and plunder. The Vikings overrun all that lies before them…” (Source 2, Viking raids in France.) The Vikings were known for their barbaric reputation however they were also sophisticated and technologically advanced. The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the Christian monasteries throughout the Middle Ages. Nevertheless examples of advanced Viking civilization was their seafaring skills and their complex social hierarchy. ) Thesis statement. This essay will discuss the Viking trading methods and their social hierarchy.

The Vikings were Norse people from Scandinavia who lived during the Viking Age from eighth century to the twelfth century. The first arrival of the Vikings in Ireland was in 795. But at that time the Vikings used the strategy hit and run until the 9th century they began to settle with the Irish. The Vikings were successful around the world because they were very skilled in navigation and very powerful they reached China, Russia, and the Middle East. The Vikings had a great impact on the Irish society in many aspects, for example, trade, art, military, and technology.

The Vikings were a wild raiding nation, and created navigational technology that allowed them to become successful. Their innovations were influential for future sea faring nations. Amongst these different technologies, longships were the most influential. The Vikings created, “curved and highly decorated prow designs, and long, slender bodies…[becoming] the aesthetic signature of Viking warships” (Schlager). The design of the longships were faster and more movable in the water than traditional rowboats. This allowed the Vikings to sail along coasts in shallow water, making it easier for raiding parties to get on and off the ship. These redesigned ships also allowed more people to fit on the ship, meaning there were more warriors for raids. The success of the Viking’s hit and run raids depended heavily on the number of warriors that were present. Having more warriors allowed them to overwhelm their enemies and capture the plunder. Other notable Viking inventions were sun compasses and sun stones (“Viking Navigation: Sailing the Open Seas”). Both of these devices allowed the Vikings to travel more safely and efficiently. The creation of wooden sun compass enabled the Vikings to determine which direction they were heading in based on the sun. This allowed them to travel freely and accurately, which became one of the major factors

The "Vikings" were an ancient people that inhabited Northern Europe and Scandinavia known as the Norse (also known as Northmen or Norsemen). The Norse people were spread across Northern Europe, particularly in the regions known today as: Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland), Germany, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Ireland, and the surrounding islands), Iceland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

They soon heard of how successful and rich they had became and how easy it was to do it, so many Vikings joined together to invade many different countries. Some Vikings decided to stay in the area they conquered and expand in the places they had taken. The Vikings invaded many places along the north sea and Atlantic sea of Europe including, the Netherlands, France and Spain. They also sailed the rivers of Germany to invade settlements along the rivers. The Vikings traveled the sea in ships called longships.

While the common consensus would class Vikings as mainly warriors, the majority of Vikings were actually explorers and