How Did The Vikings Contribute To The Expansion Of Civilized Western Civilization

History of the Viking Age: Expansion and Assimilation One day off the coast of England in 793 C.E. off the misty shores of an isolate monastery on the island of Lindisfarne emerged monstrous ships filled with grotesquely clad demons come to slaughter all: the Vikings had arrived. The Vikings were Nordic people from Norway, Denmark, and Sweden who terrorized much of Western Europe three centuries and whose influence extended from Greenland and Iceland to Russia and the Byzantine Empire. Though there is debate over when the Viking Age specifically occurred, it is generally agreed that this period lasted from the end of the eighth century to the middle of the eleventh century ( ). Regardless, this was a time characterized by brutal raids and concerted incursions into Western European countries, especially Ireland, France, and various English kingdoms, by a relatively secluded and remote group of barbaric Northmen. How could such a people instill so much terror on civilized Western society for centuries with almost no risk of retribution? The Vikings' great success in warfare and their subsequent expansion were a direct result of their cultural necessity for war, desire for wealth and glory, geographic location, advanced seafaring

Also known as the drakkar, these ships possessed an unusually shallow draft of less than 3 feet and spanned approximately 100 feet in length and 16 feet in width, making them quite slim and mobile. Additionally, their keels, or the centered support at the bottom of their hulls, consisted of homogenous wood carved directly by axes from tree trunks, thereby increasing the ships' overall flexibility (Pruneti 10-11). Thus, the drakkar was an