“Happy is he who wins for himself fair fame and kindly words.” 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. According …show more content…
As the Viking constantly roamed through the rivers of France, raiding towns as they went, they exposed how awful the French government really was. “The Danish pirates, making their way into the country eastward from the city of Nantes, arrived without opposition, November Eighth, before Tours.” As they travelled to each location, the military would’ve had to be sent from its central location of Paris which was too far to be able to reach the Vikings in time. “Rollo refused to kiss the foot of Charles when he received from him the duchy of Normandy. "He who receives such a gift," said the bishops to him, "ought to kiss the foot of the king." "Never," replied he, "will I bend the knee to anyone, or kiss anybody's foot."” In an attempt to end the raids of France the king decided to give them the Duchy of Normandy to live in, but by this time, the King had been exposed as extremely weak and not worth having in his position so power was transferred to local Nobles. This allowed each section of France to have its own ruler and own militia to fight oncoming attacks. The nobles may not have been successful fighting wise but having a local power system meant that other problems could be taken care of faster, locally, and with a person who understands their