Vikings: Colonizers Or Barbarians?

Maribel Esparza

Isaias Mendez

Kim Curiel

Kevin Mejia

Vikings: Colonizers or Barbarians?

When hearing the word barbaric, what kinds of things do you think of? Many things such as, savage, brute, primitive and etc. can come to mind, but is there a possibility that a certain culture can be categorized by a single word, a society of barbarians, the Vikings. To know exactly if the Vikings are so called barbaric, we must know the culture, heritage, and other factors that make these people what they are. From then on, we may also infer on another factor, are the Vikings even “barbaric”, or simply the animalistic cousin of other

Europeans that encountered them as just that, and ostracized them to what they are commonly seen as.

The term Viking originated from the Norse noun, which refers to an oversea travel or expedition. The Viking culture is known for their exploration throughout most of the known world at that time. Centered primarily in Scandinavia, the culture flourished in trade, literature, mythology, and of course, conquest. The perceptions of Vikings were powerful Nordic men and

woman, who through exploration

positioned a dominant foothold in

many known countries including,

Great Britain, France, and even Russia. This display of territorial expansion helped to conjure the view that Vikings were savage and brutal warriors.

The Viking’s violence and aggression was believed to originate from their Norse religion.

This religion was centered on the Nordic god Odin, the god of war and death, and his son Thor.

Through Nordic lore, it was believed that in order to reach the kingdom of Asgard, one must go into battle fearless and honorable. With this mental idea in play, the Vikings would rally themselves in frenzy. This frenzy would boost the adrenaline of the warriors who would become furious, frantic, and overaggressive. Thus the term Berserkers was established.

Through these berserk attacks, many of the Vikings would become enveloped, not consciously realizing the actions performed. Men, woman and children would fall victim to these savage attacks that sparked the idea of how savage the Vikings truly were. As the urge to explore became more and more apparent, the culture took pride in pillaging, raiding, and in some cases raping and killing the occupants of other villages and lands.

Taking any valuables within the settlement, the Viking’s collection of antiquities grew drastically as few were able to fight back against the strength and brutality of the culture.

As Christianity grew throughout the world, the Vikings feared the conversion to

Christianity as well as the abandonment of their Nordic beliefs. Witnessing the fall of the Danes, the Vikings reinforced and expanded the defense

fortification of

Danevirke. This

structure became a

last stand attempt at

preventing Christianity

from reaching Nordic

lands. As a result, any

conflict between

Vikings and Franks

continued to result in a brutal battle. This conflict justified not only how proud the culture, but also the drastic measure they would go to protect themselves and their settlements through the use of brutality and violence. This only furthered the view the world had on the Viking culture.

However, the reign of Christianity eventually got their foothold in Scandinavia. The assimilation into the Frank’s culture and beliefs was swift. This didn’t completely detour the attitude of many proud Nordic Vikings. In an offensive attack, the Vikings destroyed an abbey on the island of Lindisfarne. Word quickly reached the Christian capital in Europe who responded with disbelief as no honorable culture has ever performed such an atrocity on the royal kingdom. Because of this attack in 793, the perception of the Vikings was permanently seen as a culture of brutes and savages for the next twelve centuries. Tales and first hand witnesses only confirmed the terribleness of the Vikings as they tried to expand to other lands and once again reestablish a comfortable society. Through raids, pillages, and colonization, the

Vikings continued to uphold the appointed legacy that they have been so perceptively deemed.

Over a few hundred years the Vikings built themselves a reputation of being brutal and savage. This wasn’t just something that came about from a few encounters with people but it was earned through many of their attacks or “Raids” on the European people of that time. It was in 789 that the Vikings began to establish themselves as “Barbarians”, it was an event that occurred on the Wessex shore, located south of Great Britain where According to the BBC historical article “Loot and Land” by Dr. Anna Ritchie, upon arrival a local was sent to greet them but they killed him on the spot. This event was recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

This event was only a prelude to what was to come. 4 years after this event the Vikings launched an assault on one of Britain’s most sacred site, the Lindisfarne. According to Ritchie the first Viking raids where really no different from the daily skirmishes that could arise during this time but what set the Viking raids apart was there total lack of indifference and disrespect of monasteries or sacred places of the Christian faith. According to Richie’s article “The raid of

793 was the first recorded Viking raid on Britain. Alcuin's words express the horror of his

Christian world at the ferocity of pagan raiders, whose attack was sudden, unexpected and devastating… It was unthinkable that such a holy place should suffer attack from foreign heathens, that its monks should be slaughtered and its treasures taken. Yet this was to happen again and again to other monasteries throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Alcuin's letters are just one piece of historical evidence for Viking attacks. Other raids were recorded in the annals kept in monasteries at Iona and in Ireland: 'devastation of all the islands of Britain' reads an entry for 794 in the Annals of Ulster. Columba's famous monastery on the Scottish island of Iona was pillaged the following year, and again in 802, in 806 and in 825. Nowhere was safe from the Vikings.” It was these types of attack that led to them gaining that reputation of being a barbaric people. But with these many recorded events it hard not see why much of the world see the Vikings in this way. The Vikings where not a single or unified group as one would think, the raids that the Vikings committed against various regions where conducted by completely independent groups. These groups all served under a different chiefdom who would have them conduct the raids. Due to this independence the Viking people were able to conduct raids in varying locations. According to a NOVA Online article called The Viking Diaspora, “… the

Vikings…shot around the Northern Hemisphere, plundering vast swaths of territory…The

Norsemen raided throughout the British Isles and the Frankish empire, and even attacked

North Africa. They headed west to Iceland, Greenland, and what is now Canada, becoming the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas…” thanks the autonomy from each other, the Vikings were able to widen their reach in Europe and establish a foothold in the new world.

When it came to Viking warfare, they did not have a standing army. This meant that most of their training came from the experience they gained from hunting and raiding. These fights and raids were not without motive, according to the BBC article “Viking Weapons and

Warfare”, “…Aspiring warriors sought armed service in the retinues of the famous, for which they hoped to be rewarded with weapons and fame of their own. A leader therefore needed to wage war frequently in order to keep his following and maintain power against rivals…”

Basically the Viking people fought and conducted raids on unsuspecting places just for the sake of acquiring some renown amongst their people. This is term would allowed them to inspire confidence in the people who elected them to as their leader. Essentially a major reason the

Vikings may have been seen as barbaric was because of the motives for which they chose to attack other people. Also without a properly trained and organized army it is only natural that they fought with a rudimentary style that may have seemed a barbaric in comparison to those they fought.

Vikings were known to have a bad reputation and after they came to Europe because their homeland could no longer support their population growth, many became fearful thinking that they would only cause chaos in Europe but Vikings actually had level of civilization in their culture. Women often had iron sickles which they used to harvested flax to make linen. The toothed iron heckles or combs were used to straighten the fibers and the stone discs or whorls were used to weight the wooden spindle to spinning the fibers into thread. The Vikings had very beautiful carved boards of whalebone that they rubbed a high gloss on to the linen. Men were usually buried with their weapons such as a sword, shield, axe, spear, arrows, and sometimes with blacksmith's tools such as iron tongs and hammers. Their farm houses were rectangular buildings and built of stone and timber and were 15- 20 meters long. The Cooking, eating, storytelling, sleeping, weaving and carving bone pins all took place in the farm houses. Houses in towns were much smaller and the families rubbish added up and they had poor information about diet, equipment, hygiene, and everyday activities. The women’s dresses were very conservative and was worn for over 200 years and was not only warn in their homelands but also wherever the Vikings settled. The dress consisted of a pinafore of wool or linen that was worn over a long and sometimes pleated linen shift. The pinafore had shoulder straps that were fastened by a pair of oval brooches. There were two brooches, one below each shoulder. Women of higher class had a string with colored beads that connected the brooches from each shoulder.

The oval brooch was very important to the Vikings. It was considered as the most favorite piece of jewelry and it is so unique in design that it is hard to miss, it was found in Norway, Denmark,

Sweden, England, Scotland, Ireland and as far away as Iceland and Russia. After the Vikings settled into Europe they converted from their pagan Nordic gods to Christianity. Works Cited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/diaspora.htmlt/vikings/weapons_01.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/loot_01.shtml

Ritchie, Dr Anna . "viking colonists." BBC News. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011. Web. 18 Apr.

2014. .