beliefs- vikings and the people from northern europe believe in gods. Vikings also believed that once they died they got cremated with weapons and potions to take into the next world. 3. Odin-Odin was the god of battle and also of wisdom, magic, and poetry.
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.
One one first great Viking leaders was Rollo of Normandy. He was the first ruler of Normandy which was a section of The West Franks given to him by Charles the Simple in order to protect it from other Viking raids. Rollo expanded and protected the Territory during his rule until his death in 928. Another very well known Viking is Erik The Red or Erik Thorvaldsson. His had family leave his home country of Norway and go to Iceland when his father was banished for murder.
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
While some Viking age Scandinavians were berserkers and warriors the majority were traders and explorers with an extensive trade network that covered all of modern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Northern India, and even some parts of China. During the Viking age the economy of Europe was changed from a simple exchange of goods type system into a mercantile and market based system. The Viking raids in the 9th and 10th centuries took a heavy toll on the stability and political development of ancient Europe. The Scandinavian attackers caused much fear in the populations of Europe and historians at the time were usually priests who saw the pagan Scandinavians as marauders and murders, which they were largely in their primary interactions with the outside world. Additionally the Church, was an extremely rich and defenseless target for the raiders and may have been more frequently targeted than many other parts of European kingdoms.
The Odyssey is an epic poem written by Homer. It is about Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca and the hardships he faced after winning the Trojan war. The deadly sins are the capital vices of the church. All sins are a combination of these seven actions. The Odyssey have many underlying themes, one of which is the deadly sins.
A dynamic character is a person who experiences an inner change over the course of a plot. The poem, Beowulf, greatly displays the meaning of a dynamic character, through the character named Beowulf. Beowulf starts out as a young and conceited hero who defeats the monster, Grendel with his bare hands, but as he ages, he becomes more cautious, and protective over the Danes. Beowulf starts relying more on weapons to fight for the Danes, the people grows to love and care for. Over the course of the poem, Beowulf undergoes major changes in his character.
Beowulf takes place in Denmark and Sweden where a Norse warrior named Beowulf who was portrayed as a hero.. Beowulf was one of the many archetypes the epic uses to create conflict and the themes within the story. The epic culture takes place in a time where Norse mythology was accepted and the thousands of people worshiped. Both character archetypes and the cultural beliefs in Beowulf allow the reader to understand the characters actions and plot thoroughly. Beowulf was portrayed as a hero archetype because of his egotistical mindset, especially when he was younger.
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).
The classic trickster archetypes represent the traits of deceitfulness, craftiness, and stealthiness. Tricksters will repeatedly annoy the gods to make a name for themselves, or they will commit an act of great proportions, gaining infamy in their respective realms. Others, however, commit an act of trickery that results in punishment, such as the deceitful serpent in Genesis. However, Hermes, from Greek Mythology, used a mischievous act at a young age to gain notoriety and influence later in his life. Rather, Loki, depicted in Norse Mythology, committed malicious acts from his position of power.
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
As stated earlier, sailing expeditions became popular during the Viking Age as the Vikings searched for new lands to conquer and settle in. This led to the discovery of the uninhabitable lands Iceland and Greenland. Iceland was discovered by Naddodd, a Norwegian who was one of the first settlers in the Faroe Islands. Naddodd had set a course back to Norway from the Faroes, but a storm knocked him off course, and he landed in present-day Iceland.
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 origin of the Roman Catholic doctrine of penance underlies in early Christian bishops’ activities focused on uncovering of peasants’ paganism and inflicting of corresponding penalty on them. In most cases, the penalty was to penance, which has to take place during certain number of days on bread and water (Backman, 223). Specifically, a number of days or rather to say severity of penalty depended on the nature of pagan rituals realized by peasants. Of course, people suspected in severest pagan actions, all those witches and magicians, incurred most days of penance. Naturally, it was believed that by such means peasants were able to purge of their sins and to merit God’s remission.
