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Vikings Influence

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In Norse society, the word Viking meant a sea-borne raider. It was used similarly to the way we use the word "Pirate". To go a-viking meant to undertake sea-borne raiding. The word itself was job description and did not apply to everyone. The word Viking did not apply to women, children, slaves or others who did not undertake raiding. In the nineteenth century, the word passed into common English usage, where it has come to be used as a descriptor for the peoples of Scandinavia in the period from the late eighth to eleventh centuries, not just for those who undertook sea-borne raiding. In some ways, the Vikings were not that different from their European contemporaries. Scandinavian social hierarchy involved kings and chieftains who …show more content…

For the most part, their impact was destructive. Towns and trading centers were attacked. Some of them, such as Dorestad, an important Carolingian trading center, subsequently disappeared entirely. Viking conquest and settlement indeed disrupted existing power structures across Europe and the British Isles. This was not the only impact the Vikings had on early medieval society. They opened up trade routes, which helped start a revival of Europe's economy. The Vikings also founded some of the best-organized and most dynamic states in Western Europe. For example, the Vikings contributed substantially to the making of the medieval kingdoms of England and Scotland. They founded Normandy as a virtually independent state in western France. Having established a well-run government there, they spread out to conquer England in 1066, laying the foundations for that modern nation. Viking settlement brought further social and economic change. To early medieval Ireland, entirely devoid of urban centers, the Vikings introduced towns and important trading centers. Viking merchants created trade networks that stretched from Kiev and Novgorod to York and Dublin, and from Constantinople to Greenland. The Vikings also made a huge contribution to the design and development of the ship. In linguistic terms, Old Norse was a strong influence on the transition from Anglo-Saxon to Middle English. For example, English now uses the …show more content…

One strength is that some of these sources were carved into stone. Runic inscriptions are a reliable source of information because they were written down at the time of the events they refer to. These runic inscriptions give a certain insight into the political and social conditions. Another strength is that some of these sources, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, are well informed and astonishingly detailed. They illuminate a number of important points relating to Viking activities in England in the second half of the ninth century. Despite these strengths, there are many weaknesses in the various sources for Viking history. One weakness is that runes were never used for long narrative. Most of the early runic inscriptions are brief and hard to interpret. Another weakness in the various sources for Viking history is that few written documents survive from Scandinavia before the eleventh century. This is because the Scandinavians did not adopt the Roman alphabet until their conversion to Christianity. It is really only from the eleventh century that native Scandinavian written sources began to multiply, and they did not become abundant until the thirteenth century, after the Viking Age had ended. The Vikings have left a substantial and remarkable literature in both prose and poetry. The problem is that none of this material comes to us from the Viking Age, surviving instead in later texts.

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