The Vikings Research Paper

Coming from Scandinavian countries, predominantly Denmark and Norway, the Vikings began raiding the British Isles in the late 700s (James). The Vikings primarily targeted monasteries, because that is where most of the wealth was concentrated (Loughrey). These raids were very violent, people were killed, and the survivors were sold into slavery (Loughrey). These violent raids earned the Vikings the reputation of barbarians, much like the Mongols a few centuries later in Asia. After some time, once the Vikings exhausted most of the wealth in the monasteries, they turned their interest into settling the British Isles (James). By the late 9th century the Vikings had conquered most of England (James). However, even though these Viking kingdoms did not last very long, the Scandinavians who resided there stayed. These Scandinavians would go on to change the British Isles in many ways. Despite the violent and negative impacts of Viking raids on the British Isles, once the Vikings settled down, they had a significant and positive peaceful impact on the British Isles culturally, politically, and economically.

The Vikings were Norse seafarers, who mainly spoke the Old Norse language. They raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of northern, central and eastern Europe, during the 9th to 11th century. The Vikings originated from Scandinavia, and the beginning of the Vikings expansion often originates from the raid of the Lindisfarne Monetary on 8 June 793. The Vikings were the first Westerners to sail to Iceland, Greenland, and over to the New World. However, the story of the Vikings is also an important story for the development of the Christian world in the West. Throughout this essay, I will explain the importance of Viking religion, Viking trade, and how the Viking age had an impact on the way Western and

Beginning in about A.D. 800, many Scandinavians sailed south from their homelands to seek their fortunes. These seafaring warriors began by raiding coastal sites of the British Isles but soon grew more ambitious. During the next three centuries, they left their mark as traders, pirates and settlers on much of Britain and the European continent. These raiders became known collectively as Norsemen, or “Northmen,” though they are better remembered by another name: Vikings.

The Vikings were a very successful group of warriors from Scandinavia. They started raiding and violently attacking other places because of their lack of resources. The Viking homeland was rural and people worked as fishers or farmers. Scandinavian people got their fish from the sea, but because the soil in that area was not very fertile, there wasn’t enough grain being grown to feed the rising population. “As Scandinavia's population grew, food shortage became a common problem. Looking for new sources of food and wealth, some Viking leaders decided to take what they needed from other people” (Doc. A). When the Vikings attacked cities, they took everything they could and then burned what was left of the destroyed city. “And the Vikings came on them just like a storm and cut them down, carried off everything, and burned the place” (Doc. B). Because of this, there was no one left to come after them, or anyone to avenge

When one sees the word Viking, the mind firstly shifts to men who are uncivilized and unprincipled. Using evidence of achievements and victories will not only show how much they impacted Europe, but how sophisticated Vikings actually were. As Charlemagne’s empire ended, the people of Europe showed extraordinary resilience toward the new movements of the era. From 800 to 1200 CE, Vikings ruled medieval Europe. These Vikings, along with thick soil, are credited with shifting Europe from endemic violence toward cooperation and legal order. An attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age. Vikings began to appear in Europe due to Scandinavian raiders repeatedly visiting the Christian countries of Europe. At first they were content with just raiding lands, but soon they began to seize land and proclaim rule. They sought riches, not land. With this established rule, Vikings promised safety and began to reform the lands they had acquired. The people agreed due to starvation and possible attacks from eneimes. The new lands had a need for settled agriculture, defensive warfare and commerce. As the Vikings began to fulfill these needs they saw an expansion in cooperation and rule of law among the villagers.

The Vikings were important in the Middle Ages. The warriors disrupted a lot of European countries. Europe benefited the attacks because it helped spead of tech. , trading and settling. Vikings were explorers and conquered lots of settlements throughout Europe. Vikings stated from the time they began their raids. In 793 the Vikings raided France. They killed lots of monks, destroyed churches and took treasures. The British were shocked and mad about these raids. Most of the raids were targeted to monasteries. The monasteries was place of learning and the raids disrupted the education in Europe. The Vikings broke up power structure in England and Scotland strengthing the Scots. According to

The Vikings’ government was unlike any other at that time. In fact, there was no emperor, king, or lord. The only sagas found about Viking law were written late in the 10th century in Iceland. The people were governed by consensus, and legal issues were resolved by compromise and negotiation. This doesn’t mean that feuds didn’t

The Vikings were very civilized and had a very unique way of life. They were travelers and settlers, traders and conquerors. Over the span of about 400 years, the Vikings explored and discovered many places. Among these places are Greenland, Iceland and even North America.They were master shipbuilders and built ships superior to any other ships of that day.Their ships were built of planks of timber, usually oak, overlapped and nailed together. The ships were made watertight by filling the spaces between the planks with wool,

Vikings were clever with their attacks, and made strategic battle tactics and

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.

Initially, the Vikings set sail towards the West in search of ‘booty’ (treasure) as a means of supplementing their income. Their ships, the Longboat, were central to the Viking warrior culture: A master builder would build a boat from memory, entirely by eye, and carved a dragon head on the bow of the ship to protect against evil spirits of the sea. An average boat would require wood from more than a dozen trees, mostly species of oak, spruce, and pine. Moreover, the prominent curves of the stem and stern created an ingenious design element: the Vikings, with the use of either sails or oars, could quickly change direction without turning around. Also, with the shallow draft of the ships being as little as 20 inches under the water, they were able to navigate shallow rivers, perform beach landings and portage their ships

The arrival of the Vikings brought a better technology and a few new weapons, for example the axe, and the bow. However, the swords and some other weapons used as symbols of wealth because it was very expensive and hard to

One difference between the Vikings and the Polynesians was in the design of their ships. Early Polynesians developed twin-hulled vessels that were made of planks tied edge to edge and that could be ninety to one hundred feet long. In contrast, the Vikings used the clinker, or overlapped construction, method. The Vikings also managed to keep strong trading networks between their settlements, no matter the distance. This was not possible for Polynesian peoples, where trade was a more local

The Viking boats were the best and fastest in the world at the time and could travel at a whopping 18.5 kilometres per hour and could cover over 200 kilometres per day. They were able to reach such speeds because they were the first to master the sailing techniques of the longboat. Some of their weaponry and armour were so intricately crafted that there were very few societies that could craft things like the Vikings until many years after the Viking age. Some of the Viking building techniques were also very advanced for the time. For example, before they conquered and settled the Viking city of Jorvik (previously York), the building techniques were very rudimentary and consisted mainly of post and plank constructs.

In our society, we remember the Vikings as a heritage of ruthless, land-ravaging, horned helmet wearing, blonde haired, white men. However, only one of those stereotypes is historically correct-their ruthless tendencies. Vikings were not known as Vikings until they had long disassembled, they were primarily known as Danes. Their homelands were located in the northern areas of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, three countries of Scandinavia. Like any other powerful leader and person, Harald Sigurdsson ‘Hardrada’, which is an epithet given to him, had strengths, weaknesses, climaxes and downfalls throughout his life, beginning on his nameday in 1015 AD (Mandal). Viking kings are still remembered and their stories are