The Viking age has long been associated with rape, pillaging and just plain brutality. Vikings left their mark throughout Northern Europe in the way of burning and ravaging the land and communities. This is what most people think of when they hear the word “Viking”. But, some others may think of politics, art, marine technology or economist.
The following is a beginning passage to a Viking Saga story in Time Magazine. “For hundreds of years after their bloody appearance at the end of the 8th century A.D., these ruthless raiders would periodically sweep in from the sea to kill, plunder and destroy, essentially at will. From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord was a prayer uttered frequently and fervently at the close of the first millennium. Small wonder that the ancient Anglo-Saxons — and their cultural descendants in England, the U.S. and Canada — think of these seafaring Scandinavians as little more than violent brutes.” (Dorfman). More often than not, this is the Viking’s persona.
As I mentioned before, Vikings were cruel and unrelenting when it came to conquering land and getting what they intended to get. Vikings were feared and feared for good reasons. One of the most recognized Vikings was Erik the Red.
Erik the Red, as the sagas go, was expelled from Norway for murder. In 980, he was also expelled from Iceland for much the same
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Most important, though, they made the finest ships of the age. Thanks to several Viking boats disinterred from burial mounds in Norway, archaeologists know beyond a doubt that the wooden craft were "unbelievable — the best in Europe by far," according to William Fitzhugh, director of the National Museum 's Arctic Studies Center and the exhibition 's chief curator. Sleek and streamlined, powered by both sails and oars, quick and highly maneuverable, the boats could operate equally well in shallow waterways and on the open seas.