The Vikings were a group of Germanic sea dwellers who traded with and raided towns all across Europe out of their Scandinavian homeland. During the late 8th to 11th centuries they ruled all of Europe through their barbaric ways. Even other cultures outside of Europe saw the barbaric ways in which the Vikings acted towards the villages that they encountered. One such case of this was a Muslim Chronicler, Ibn Fadlan, recounting of the Vikings as “[T]he filthiest of God’s creatures.” While they were very savage in their actions, this very trait gave them the ability to be able to roam through and ravage an entire town fully unopposed and within a very miniscule timeframe.
And since the Vikings had expert exploring skills along with their amazingly crafted boats it was very easy to sneak up unsuspecting villages.that not all the Vikings did they had very humble lifestyles back then. Religion,Vikings believe it or not had a religion which was pagan which consisted of many gods. With this religion Vikings invented their own alphabet. It was called the Futhark it was made up of runes or letters. The alphabet was mainly made up of straight line because it was easier to carve into wood or stone.
The western Europeans were scared of Vikings for many reasons. One of the reasons they were scared of them is because they destroyed the Europeans' churches. This affected many people because, religion was a big part of people's lives and in some cases, monks were at the church so that means that their home was destroyed. Another reason the western Europeans were scared was that the Vikings were a very strong group of men and they could destroy any small, local village or town army. Also, the people were afraid of the Vikings because of their terrifying appearance
(Shows a group of Vikings writing poems and painting) Vikings were not only feared as fierce and ruthless pirates, but depicted many talents with poems, lawmakers and great artists. (The monks- frightened away by the Vikings) (Mr Peabody showing that the Vikings- worshipped own gods) After time, converted into Christianity and rebuilt the churches that had once been burnt down. SHERMAN: (Creates a poem about Vikings and shares it with MR PEABODY during a scene)
On June 8th 793ce foreign ships brought an unexpected surprise to the Lindisfarne monastery situated off the coast of England; the Northmen had arrived. This attack marked the beginning of the Viking Age, an era of raids that shook the western world until its end at the battle of Hastings in 1066. According to those on the receiving end of the raids these Northmen arrived and promptly the “heathen miserably destroyed God 's church by rapine and slaughter .” It is important to note that the Vikings had an oral tradition and no known sources exist depicting events from their perspective. There exists a less known side of the Viking Age and its society, one comprised of such aspects as the farmer, trader, craftsmen, and explorer.
What were the real Vikings like? Vikings were not wild, dirty warriors. They were very conscious of their appearance. Combs, tweezers, razors and ear spoons are among the most found artefacts from excavations dating back to the Viking Age.
In Viking society every freeman was expected to own a weapon and be familiar with its use. Weapons had a major impact on Viking society for many diverse reasons. Depending on what they could afford, every free Viking must have been able to use a weapon, a weapon like a spear was very common as it was cheap and easy to make and a weapon like a sword was only common to people with a higher social ranking and someone with more money. In the Viking culture honour played a very important role; any discouragement of honour was sorted through using weapons. As well as honour, pride was very important to the Vikings.
Viking long-ships were lean, speedy, lightweight ships that could easily cut through the most vicious waves that the ocean could throw at them. At the time, no other civilization had been able to achieve such an amazing naval feat, so this gave the Vikings a great advantage over medieval combat, political affairs, and even the trading industry. Since the ships were so fast, the ships were great for transportation of soldiers, or merchandise. “The Viking longboat was the key to the Vikings success in traveling.” (Legends and Chronicles, Paragraph 14).
As we have seen, the introduction of Christianity to the Vikings had significantly contributed to the end of the Viking Age in mid 11th Century, not only due to the persuasive Christian missionaries, and the realization of the benefits of Christianity, but also the forcible nature of Scandinavia king’s conversion of their subjects (which will be looked into in more detailed in due course). One must bear in mind that most of the evidence we have on the conversion of the Vikings is through archaeological excavations, as Gareth Williams explains that “we can see it in the archaeological evidences [that] Pagans buried their dead with grave goods, but Christians normally didn't, and this makes it relatively easy to spot the change in religion.”
The Vikings are a seafaring people native of Scandinavia, an area of Northern Europe commonly consisting of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, albeit Finland and Iceland are sometimes referred as to be part of Scandinavia in current English usage. The etymology of the term "Viking" is still debated throughout the scientific
The Viking expansion started in 793 with the first raid and ended around 1050. The division of the geographical core area is important, because this division also separates Vikings in the way took part in the expansion Norwegians travelled west- and southwest to colonise. The Danes went southwest for their conquests and the Swedes proceeded east- and south-eastward for their raiding and trading. Raiding and trading routes Raiding and trading
The Old Norse Religion or Norse Paganism were practised traditions by the Norsemen prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, dating as far back to roughly 793-1066 CE. This religion was separated, and categorized into three different families; the Æsir, Vanir and Jotnar; these were all polytheistic groups. The Æsir tribe contained some of the best-known Norse Gods and goddesses such as Odin, Thor, Frigg, Tyr, Loki, Baldur, Heimdall, Idun, and Bragi1. These Gods represented kingship, order, craft, etc. The Vanir were Gods and Goddesses such as Freya, Freyr, Njord and the Germanic Goddess Nerthus.
When the Vikings were around there were a lot less resources that are available as there are in today's time.
Ravagers, Pirates, pagans: These words sums up the Vikings for the people who lived in europe during medieval times. Although the Vikings are seen as barbaric fighters, they brought many important technological inventions and had many achievements that made a great impact on european culture. The Vikings had great achievements in technology on a wide range of things, one of which is their weapon crafting skills. They were able to craft swords, spears, javelins, battle-axes, knives, bows, arrows, shields, and body armor with intricate designs (Lamoureux).
The Vikings also could not understand the current people of that days society or language and also were not Christian which was the biggest factor. The Vikings often raided religious places like monasteries. Reasons why is because most often the monasteries were unguarded and
