Back to the Mainly The Vikings calendar
From this date on, Viking raids became more regular. Funnily enough, considering the cold in their own lands in winter,
Vikings would come over in summer, attack villages, steal things, kill villagers, take some of them prisoner and then go home for winter.
Let’s look more closely at these Vikings. They came from what
is now Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In their countries the winters were very long and cold. For some months they didn’t really see any sunshine but in summer
they hardly had any darkness.
They had beautiful long boats, a replica is shown in my picture, that could go almost anywhere. Some of these boats had an identical prow (front)
and stern (rear). This meant they could glide up onto a beach and then relaunch without having to turn the boat around. The ship would carry everything needed
for the voyage. They would have drinking water, dried meat, tools, weapons and furs to keep warm. They also had slower ships called knorrs which would carry
passengers and cargo. These were the boats later used to bring across the people who decided to settle in England.
Some people think that, less than two hundred years later, the
Vikings reached America, which would be pretty awesome all those years ago. The boats were very narrow and didn't go deep into the water so could sail right up
shallow rivers. The Vikings were also known to drag their boats over land if they ran out of water. The map shows the places they reached and we, in England,
will meet a descendant of a Viking tribe a little later.
If you look at where these people came from you will see that they lived in countries which have lots of snow and not an awful lot of fertile land
to grow crops on. The idea of being able to live somewhere slightly warmer seemed a good thing. They also had a unique culture and lifestyle. In their homeland
they had no towns only villages, no written laws and no Christianity.
Another reason for the Vikings being raiders and coming here could be that the Viking tradition was for land only to be given to the eldest son when
he became an adult. Many of the raiders were the second or third sons looking for their own land. Like Romans and Saxons before them, the Vikings knew that the
land and opportunities in England were better than in their homeland.
It is not true that Vikings were only savage warriors; many were skilled craftsmen, traders and great explorers. However they are remembered for being
very fierce and blood thirsty. The wildest warriors wore bear shirts and were called Berserkirs. They rushed about madly before the battle and charged wildly at
the enemy. Now you know where the phrase “going berserk” comes from. The Vikings fought using long swords and axes. They did not wear much armour but would carry
a wooden shield and they did wear helmets but not with horns on. Sorry, no horns on helmets.
Most of the Vikings that landed in England came from Denmark, in fact the Anlo-Saxons called the invaders Danes, while those from Sweden and Norway
settled on the islands north of Scotland, in the west of Scotland and on the Isle of Man.
Forward to 848AD
