Who really were Vikings?

By Amal Hewavissenti

The Vikings who were farmers in their own countries, often made much effort to explore more land and made raids across the seas for settlement in other countries. As far back as eighth century AD Vikings had acquired wide fame as great traders who reached as far east as Istanbul and far west as new found land.

Being a warrior people, the Vikings invaded much of Northern Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries. On account of the dramatic rise of population and the lack of sufficient, land for cultivation, they were forced to develop the 'long ship' which offered them ample opportunity to conquer other lands. Most Vikings counted on farming as their living and were in the habit of constructing a queer type of farm house as soon as they established new settlements. The most important part of this 'farm house' was the great hall where almost all the activities of the family centred. The great hall was subsequently divided into a number of rooms which were meant for specific purposes. The most noticeable characteristic of Viking houses was the smoke inside because the people did cooking over a large open fire in the middle of the room.

Armed attacks

However the Vikings from Sweden and Denmark are probably best known as fierce raiders of land occupied by another people. They exploited twin long ships to destroy a monastery on Lin disfame in England and before long, they launched further raids on most of the neighbours. In the process of raiding, the Vikings would suddenly disembark on the coast, plunder a few villages and escape with their loot leaving a long trail of destruction.

In 851, the Viking force made a sudden armed attack on Kent and destroyed Canterbury. For this battle, they employed a great army and three hundred battle ships which caused heavy damage and helped them to occupy the land owned by the defeated people. In 866 AD, Halfdane and Basecg gave leadership to a larger Viking army which virtually defeated and conquered all of England within five years. However, King Alfred the Great offered a strong resistance to the Viking army commanded by Guthrum and succeeded in safeguarding western England.

Viking settlements

In course of several confrontations, large number of Vikings established settlements in the conquered lands of England. Here they settled as traders and farmers. Derby, Lincoln and York were soon transformed into trading cities of Viking people who founded the Kingdom called the "Russia" at Kiev.

Earl Rollo captured most of the northern France and established Viking settlements there.

They were highly accomplished navigators because they possessed the scientific skill to travel accurately across enormous distances of open sea. They did this by careful calculations of the movement of the Sun and stars.

Later, they reached Iceland where they established "the Althing" a general assembly to discuss and determine communal matters. However this assembly "The Althing" is considered to be the world's first ever parliament which still meets!

In 980, the first Viking settlements on Greenland were established and Leif Ericsson, a Viking even voyaged to new found land for timber which is scarce in Greenland. It is interesting to note, however, that Vikings never chose to settle in North America even though they continued to visit it for many decades.

Battles between Viking settlements, and surrounding kingdoms largely remained common by 900 Ad but there was a manifest change in their attitude to other peoples. Almost seventy years later, the native kingdoms organised themselves to fight back and takeover the Viking kingdoms because most Vikings had settled down to a more peaceful existence.

Religion

The 'Saga's (long poems) in Viking literature illustrate the adventures, feats and origin of the gods and heroes. They strongly believed that the world would be devastated in the course of a fierce battle between the gods and giants at Ragnarok ("Twilight of the gods).

Men who valiantly met their death in the battle fields were thought to be chosen by Valkyries, the handmaidens and then taken to Valhalla, a great hall to spend eternity feasting and fighting.' the Valkyries were the hand maidens of Odin, their chief god.

In the same tradition as of the ancient Egyptians, Vikings passionately believed in the life after death and they claimed that the people would need some of their possessions in the after life. Most Vikings were either buried or burned in their long ships along with the possessions they had prized during their lifetime.

According to this custom, the most prized possession a Viking could take with him to the other world was his long ship which practically served him in the expansion of Viking settlements. Generally, the Viking gods are portrayed to be fierce and warlike.

The Vikings were famous for the goods they manufactured and for their commercial transactions with far-off countries. They traded as far north as Iceland and with the lapps (for ivory and furs), as far south as Baghdad (for silk and spices) and into Russia (for slaves and furs).

Archaeologists have found the remains of Viking houses at York. They have exclusively discovered a strong leather boot on a skate made of animal bone from Jorvik. In towns, crafts people made a variety of products ranging from utensils, clothes and jewellery to tools and weapons of bronze and iron.

When they looted a village they paid immense attention to capturing slaves who were subsequently compelled to work on the farms for affluent landowners. The landowners, on the other hand, were provincial chieftains.

The most outstanding aspect of Viking warfare is the special long ship which they frequently used in exploring and capturing land foreign to their own territories. The key to the overall success of the Vikings in trading and raiding was the long ship which could probably withstand even an Atlantic crossing.

The Vikings built not only 'Long ships' for raiding but also wider, deeper ships called "Kharrs" for trade and small rowing boats called "Faerings".

The Vikings and English lived almost in harmony for a time and England became part of the Scandinavian empire. A last attempt of conquest made by Norwegian Viking Harold Hardrada was foiled by the English and he was finally killed. From then on, the Vikings adopted farming and trading and abandoned raiding and conquest.