Please tell me everything you know about the vikings?
Vikings (aka as Norsemen): They came from Scandinavia (Kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden). When Charlemagne was being crowned the Scandinavians began a great migration. The Swedes went East, stopped at Novogrod, Kiev and Constantinople: creation of merchant settlements. The Swedish merchants are called Varagians. Norway controlled the North Sea. From Denmark they plundered the coasts and lower valleys of England and Francia in the Summer. They plundered monasteries in search of gold ornamentation (found on the boxes holding relics). They use the materials and discard the importance of relics. Monasteries are wealthy (donations, revenues from land). Vikings become permanent occupants ex mouth of the Loire and slowly along it. They circled Spain trying to settle. There was no united position against them (internal rivalry in the Carolingian Empire). In 911 the king of the western Franks, Charles the Simple, granted land to a Viking leader called Rollo – the land became Normandy. He had to protect the border, convert to Christianity, pay homage to Charles (he became a vassal). This was the solution for the Viking problem – give them land. England was conquered by the Danes. The Anglo-Saxons unite against the Vikings led by King Alfred (871-899) king of Wessex. By 885 a peace settlement was created, Danes Law – England was split in half, Danes occupied North-East and the Southwest remained Christian. Eventually the Danes convert. The Viking were also in Ireland, Iceland and Greenland (Greenland was Danish until 2009).
Did Vikings really rape and pillage?
A study has shed light on the importance of women in the colonisation of the British Isles in the Middle Ages, suggesting that Viking men were family-orientated and not as blood-thirsty as previously thought.Researchers from the University of Oslo have revealed that ‘significant’ numbers of women accompanied Viking men when they sailed to places like the Scottish mainland in longboats.Their study contradicts the popular notion that raiding parties only comprised men, who were intent on raping and pillaging new territories, The Independent reported.In fact, experts think whole families may have travelled on the iconic boats to form instant communities on newly-conquered lands.Read more on this here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/scien...
Vikings Vs. Pirates?
Vikings play football in Minnesota Pirates play baseball in Pittsburgh
Were the Vikings ever defeated or surprised?
In Ireland, the natives eventually “defeated” the people you are referring to when you say Vikings. Certainly people are called Vikings, but it’s largely a modern term. Viking means raiding or piracy, so calling someone a Viking is the same as calling them a pirate. The Norse (modern Norwegians), the Danes and the Swear and Goths (people whom we would call Swedes all took part in that raiding activity, and often took land in the process. But it was bound to eventually fail. Both the Irish and the Scots would relentlessly attack the invaders, year after year, generation after generation. One good example can stand for all. In 866, a Danish army, raiders loosely lead by Ivar and Ubbe Ragnarson, overran Northumbria. They spent the next year taking land and bringing in more settlers, and therefore more warriors, and then in 868 they invaded Mercia (central England). The king there wasn’t worth the powder to blow him to hell (if you’ll forgive a slight anachronism) and he caved into him. But his brother-in-law, Ethelred of Wessex, had marched a West Saxon army into Mercia. He only partially withdrew, and the Danes did not end up controlling all of Mercia. In 869, Ivar and Ubbe invaded East Anglia, and that became a Danish kingdom. But in 870, Ivar went off to Ireland, where his land had been under constant attack—and he was killed there. His youngest brother, Halfdan, went to Ireland a few years later to avenge his brother, and he was killed. Ubbe, the mad fool, decided it would be a good idea to invade Scotland. After years of fruitless fighting there, he returned to England, to Wessex, in 878, and was killed in the battle of Cynuit in Devonshire.Wherever these Scandinavian raiders went, people resisted them and eventually defeated them. The Irish became so fed up that eventually, they killed anyone landing on their shores they didn’t know, and asked question later. It is often said that Brian Boru drove the Vikings from Ireland in 1014 at the battle of Clontarf. But the truth of the matter is that Norse and Danish people had been incorporated into the Irish people, and “Vikings” fought on both sides, in what was essentially a battle between two claimants for the title of High King. Both men were killed in the battle.
Why do we idolise Vikings and Pirates yet European settlers in the Americas are seen as bad?
Vikings and Pirates are portrayed as cool and badass, but Conquistadors and English settlers to the Americans are seen as bad people, they stole the land from the natives, raped the natives, destroyed their homes and Americans are made to feel guilt over this, meanwhile, Vikings are "awesome bruh" though they did the same things. They pillaged, raped, enslaved etc. etc.
Did the Vikings deserve the reputation of being the most barbaric empire of their time?
They weren't an empire, they basically were glorified pirates. Barbaric empires are usually seen as thus from the eyes of those they fought against. The Viking reputation is derived mostly from Christian sources. Unlike other empires who similarly raided and pillaged, the Vikings did not influence other cultures very much like the Huns (stirrups) or Mongols (meritocracy, trade) did.