|
THE VIKINGS; SAILORS AND EXPLORERS
The Vikings are best known as pirates and warriors, but they were also merchants, craftsmen, farmers, fishermen, poets, explorers and statebuilders.
Perhaps more than anything else the Vikings were the travellers of their time: they were sailors and explorers. Servatus Lupus, a Carolingian Benedictine abbot; says "No journey is too long for the men from the North".
How could these people from far up north in Scandinavia make such an impact on the rest of Europe, which had a larger population, a more organized society, a better technology?
WITHOUT THE VIKING SHIP, NO VIKING AGE
The Vikings had one thing that marked them out from the rest of the world: They had the Viking ship.
The Viking ships were marvellous at sea, they were clinker built and followed the waves like living beings. They could be drawn up on a beach and they sailed three times as fast as other ships of that time.
It was the seaworthiness of the Viking ships, together with the sailors’ knowledge of navigation and seamanship, which made it possible for them to conquer the ocean.An Arabian source tells that: "The Vikings have filled the sea with red birds [sails] and our hearts with fear".
THE VIKINGS DID NOT WRITE BOOKS
It is true that the Vikings also were pirates and warriors. They lived in a violent time, and in reality they were no better and no worse than their contemporaries. But; the Vikings did not write books. It was first and foremost their enemies, mainly Christian monks and clerks, that wrote about the Vikings and formed the picture that has been handed down to posterity.
THE SCANDINAVIAN NATIONAL STATES WERE FOUNDED
It was during the time of the Vikings that the Scandinavian national states were founded.
In Norway, Harald Fairhair (Finehair) began the process of unification and established Avaldsnes as Norway's first royal throne.
|