Vikings

Vikings, Norsemen, or Northmen were a successful group of marauders and conquerors who expanded their influence over much of Europe, parts of the Middle East, and as far east as Russia. These groups of Scandinavian clans rose to prominence during the late 8th century and continued to be a part of Western destabilization until the late 11th century.

The common name of these people has its origins in how they were seen, the word vikingr was the name given to a person who would plunder. The word may have a deeper origin in the word vik, in which case Vikingwould roughly translate to “the men of bays (or coves),” referring to the bays and coves found in abundance on their homeland's coasts. The people known as the Vikings come from the region that currently includes Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The Norwegians drove west into the Atlantic and the British Isles, while the Danes pushed south into the Mediterranean and Southwestern Europe and the Swedes pushed east into Russia. Seldom during the Viking Age did these Scandinavian men see any kind of national unity that could raise an army large enough to undertake the large tracts of land that they were raiding in one fell swoop. Rather the raids were held on a much more loosely based group of organizations created from fragile regional governments.

Viking incursions into Europe probably began in the late spring of 789,when three longboats landed on the shore of Dorset in the kingdom of Wessex. On June 8, 793, a Norwegian party assaulted a monastery at Lindisfarne off of the east coast of England. The islands of Ireland and the mainland of Scotland came under attack during the late 790s. To increase their range, permanent settlements were established. By 840,settlements had been built on Ireland and in Northern France, from this point until the late 9th century raids reached their peak of activity. By channeling the numerous rivers of Northern France and of Western Germany, the sleek and agile Viking longboats were able to maneuver their way as deep as Paris. By the year 880, the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom that had not fallen to the Vikings was Wessex. For the time the Danish invaders were satisfied enough to keep the eastern third of England, which then became known as the Danelaw. By the year 911, the Swedes (otherwise known as the Rus) had worked their way through the Baltic Sea, down the Dnieper, through the Black Sea and into Constantinople (modern Istanbul). The Viking intrusion into Russia, violent as it may be, seems to have had more of a basis in trade rather than plundering; grave evidence points to contact as far back as 650. As a result of unsuccessful moves on Constantinople a treaty in 911 provided that Rus soldiers were admitted into the city guard. At the same time in France Norwegian leader Rollo (Göngu-Hrolf), after a series of attacks on the French countryside (notably one unsuccessful on Chartres) worked out the Treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte (911 AD) with King Charles the Simple. The treaty granted the lands that would later be called Normandy (it quite literally means the “land of the Northmen”).

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