By: Daniel Bustamante

• The Vikings were a group of seagoing Nordic people who from the 8th to 11th centuries raided Northern Europe, traded far and wide with Europe and the Middle East, and established numerous colonies throughout the Northern Atlantic.

• They were mostly farmers, but some worked as craftsmen or traders.

• Many Vikings were great travellers and sailed all over Europe and the north Atlantic Ocean in their longships looking for land and ways to survive.

• It is not directly stated anywhere, but some of the reasons for the Viking raids are clear.

• In the 8th and 9th centuries Viking populations had grown to almost insupportable levels, and the relative wealth of the monasteries and coastal regions of southern Europe combined with their lack of defense made them easy alternatives to fiercely competing for inadequate resources at home.

* The earliest important Viking raid took place at Lindisfarne, a monastery on an island off the coast of England; this 793 raid announced their presence to all of Europe.

* The Vikings then continually raided Europe for the next three centuries, using their shallow-bottomed boats to conduct raids as far inland as Paris. However most raids took place on relatively weak and undefended areas.

 

Erik the Red:

Discovered Greenland and founded a Viking colony there.

Leif Eriksson:

The first recorded European to have

reached North America, more specifically, Newfoundland in

Canada, which he called Vinland after the grapes

he found there.

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Eventually the Vikings settled much of Europe, intermingling with other people groups and adopting Christianity. Once most of the main Viking lands adopted Christianity, raiding monasteries was not such an attractive option to them, and they became just another part of Europe.

• The Vikings founded many nations, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, and settled many more areas, including Greenland, Normandy, and England.

• They developed many trade routes and trading centers, including Dublin in Ireland and Normandy in France.

• They introduced many ideas of communal rule, such as the ‘Althing’ of Iceland, the open-air farmers’ meetings which was the first parliamentary government in Europe, and juries from English law.

• And of course they created a gigantic legend of fierce unstoppable warriors.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/vikings/invasion/index.shtml

• http://www.regia.org/vikings.htm

• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/vikings/vikhome.html

• The Vikings by Neil Grant • Vikings Revised Edition by Else Roesdahl