1. Viking Conquest Mount And Blade

From the Silk Road, built by trading the work of Han Dynasty–era Chinese women, to the dawn of the industrial revolution, when women working spinning machines were the first people to toil in factories, women’s textile work has been work that has driven societies’ economic engines. Though the names of most of the women who did this work were never recorded, their labor has been critical, to not only the functioning of societies but also the course of history.As I was writing a trilogy of books about Norway during the Viking age of exploration (ca. 793–1066 CE), I became interested in women who picked up swords and performed stereotypically male tasks and women who exercised their power from the more traditional position of wife and housekeeper. The popular image of Vikings is sword-wielding men, sailing forth to pillage and conquer. Their voyages did change the world, but they would not have been possible without the women making ships’ sails, warm garments, and cloth for trading.The Viking Age began in 793 CE with the Viking attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne and ended in 1066 with the Norman conquest of England, when one Viking-founded kingdom, Normandy, conquered another, Anglo-Saxon and Danish England. During that time, Viking men and women traveled all over Europe and the North Atlantic, sailing as far west as North America, around the Mediterranean and to Constantinople, and through the Russian river system to Kiev.

Their trade network was wide and even intersected with the Silk Road. We have an image today of Viking women as warriors, fighting alongside their men, an image that owes more to propaganda than to history. While some women likely fought (as women have always done), Viking societies had fairly strict gender divisions, and the vast majority of women did not wield weapons.Still, viewing Viking women as “simply” keeping house diminishes the importance of at-home activities. A housekeeper’s role in the Viking Age was more akin to managing a small company than keeping house today. At that time, households were small communities, comprising extended families along with the families of servants and slaves, and could contain over a hundred individuals.

The Roman Fort is a location in Viking Conquest. Upon arrival you may enter it during the daytime, but only if you are carrying more than 20,000 peningas. In the middle of the fort is an NPC known as the Short Man, who will play a riddle game with you.

These households were self-contained economic units with dairies, smithies, and carpenters, which fed and clothed themselves, as well as making some goods for trade.Women’s textile production was a vital part of their role, and instrumental in the economy and politics of the Viking Age. While Vikings’ success was enabled by the longship — an elegantly designed craft that could travel huge distances by oar and sail, penetrate river systems with its shallow draft, and attack and retreat quickly — that ship would not have had its awesome reach without the huge sail (measuring as much as 50 by 30 yards) that powered it. Trade, raiding, and settlement were the hallmarks of this time, but so was the weaving work done by armies of forgotten women.The labor of turning dirty, matted sheep’s wool into cloth has been predominantly women’s labor in pre-industrial societies across the globe. It would take one woman three years of weaving to make the sail of a medium-size Viking ship — and that’s only the weaving; it doesn’t count the thousands of hours of processing sheep’s wool into the yarn that makes up the warp and weft of the fabric. Processing flax, which produces linen, is even more labor intensive (so much so that it could not be used for sail material). Estimates place the time needed for growing and processing the flax for one shirt at 400 hours.Not only would Viking raids and exploration have been impossible without women’s labor (in addition to the sails, they created the clothes that protected sailors from the elements on long voyages), but also wool fabric they created became the chief export of the Viking Age and Medieval Iceland, putting the economy of the country into the hands of women.

Wool cloth was used as currency, for taxes and tithes, and to buy foreign goods. It replaced silver currency, which had been gathered on sporadic, violent Viking raids. Now the currency was created by peaceful women’s weaving.

Marriage agreements from Viking Age Iceland even set bride prices based on the amount of cloth the bride could produce in a year. Viking Age Icelandic women also invented a type of shaggy wool coat that became very fashionable both at home and abroad. Because of its popularity and importance to Iceland’s economy, laws and standards were created to codify the size (and shagginess!) of the coats, in much the same way the French government now controls French wine. This ensured quality and fairness in trading and maintained the reputation of Icelandic craftswomen. The use of fabric as currency also led to the standardization of lengths in Iceland — after all, an ell of fabric, originally measured as the length from a man’s shoulder to his fingertips, needed to be the same everywhere, or a short-armed man would have an advantage in any trade.The Viking Age is generally considered to have ended with the Norman Conquest in 1066, when William the Conqueror of Normandy invaded England.

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By this point, Scandinavian kingdoms were well-established countries that had entered the political world of Europe. The peoples who had once been Vikings — pagan raiders, traders, and explorers with little allegiance to a centralized authority — were now instead Christian soldiers and merchants.William the Conqueror defeated King Harold and put all of England under Norman rule. The Bayeux Tapestry — actually an embroidery, not a tapestry — documents this in a piece of textile art, nearly 230 feet long and twenty inches tall, depicting major scenes from the events of the conquest. It is a work of historical documentation, propaganda, and artistic expression that was surely the result of women artisans’ crafts.Though some women sponsors of the Bayeux Tapestry have been suggested, among them Queen Matilda, England’s first female monarch, most scholars believe that William’s brother Bishop Odo was the one who commissioned it. The Abbot of St.

Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury has been put forward as the most likely designer because of his previous position as head of the scriptorium, where illuminated manuscripts were created. However, there is little doubt that it was Norman gentlewomen, most of whom were trained since birth in embroidery and other fine textile arts, who did the physical work of embroidery and thus created one of the most famous and enduring historical artifacts of the Norman Conquest.It is now common for history books to mention, briefly, the unsung work of women before moving on to political history centered around men’s violence. Still, it is worth remembering that work was not simply a support for the men in a society but one of that society’s vital engines. Viking women’s work has led to the foundation of countries and economies and created the most famous historical artifact of the Norman Conquest. Women’s work and history cannot be separated: the true history of women’s work is the history of work itself.Linnea Hartsuyker is a writer living in the seacoast area of New Hampshire and the author of The Half-Drowned King and The Sea Queen, from HarperCollins.

Viking age,.The Viking Age (793–1066 AD) is a period in, especially and, following the. It is the period of history when Scandinavian explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonization, and conquest. In this period, the Norsemen settled in, and present-day, and.travellers and colonists were seen at many points in history as brutal raiders. Many historical documents suggest that their invasion of other countries was retaliation in response to the encroachment upon tribal lands by, and perhaps by the prosecuted by and his kin to the south, or were motivated by overpopulation, trade inequities, and the lack of viable farmland in their homeland.Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from what was written about the Vikings by their enemies, and of archaeology, supplemented with such as the. Contents.Historical considerations In England, the beginning of the Viking Age is dated to 8 June 793, when Vikings destroyed the on, a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in. Monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as along with the church treasures, giving rise to the traditional (but unattested) prayer— A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, 'Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord.'

Three Viking ships had beached in four years earlier (although due to a scribal error the dates this event to 787 rather than 789), but that incursion may have been a trading expedition that went wrong rather than a piratical raid. Lindisfarne was different.

The Viking devastation of 's Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar, who wrote: 'Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared'.Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. In medieval English chronicles, they are described as 'wolves among sheep'.The first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a small readership in Britain. Linguistics traced the Viking Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas.In Scandinavia, the 17th-century Danish scholars and and Swedish scholar were the first to use runic inscriptions and Icelandic Sagas as primary historical sources. Viking voyages in the North AtlanticThe Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were mainly pagans from the same area as present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

They also settled in the, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland (, the and the ), Greenland, and Canada.Their, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a strong central authority appears to have been established in, and the Danes were beginning to look beyond their own territory for land, trade, and plunder.In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries. Communities remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in lowland Denmark. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway.The sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. In the eighth century, Scandinavians began to build ships of war and send them on raiding expeditions which started the Viking Age.

The rovers were traders, colonisers, explorers, and plunderers.Probable causes of Norse expansion Part of a on the. Main article:Many theories are posited for the cause of the Viking invasions; the will to explore likely played a major role.

At the time, England, Wales, and Ireland were vulnerable to attack, being divided into many different warring kingdoms in a state of internal disarray, while the Franks were well defended. Overpopulation, especially near the, was possibly influential (this theory regarding overpopulation is disputed). Technological advance like the use of iron, or a shortage of women due to selective also had an impact. Tensions caused by Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia, and their subsequent attacks upon the Viking peoples, may have also played a role in Viking pillaging. ('Harald Fairhair') had united Norway around this time and displaced many peoples.

As a result, these people sought for new bases to launch counter-raids against Harald.Vikings would plant crops after the winter and go raiding as soon as the ice melted on the sea, then return home with their loot in time to harvest the crops. Viking-era towns of ScandinaviaThe earliest date given for a Viking raid is 789, when according to the, a group of men from Norway sailed to the in (it was wrongly recorded as 787).

They were mistaken for merchants by a royal official. When asked to come to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods, they murdered the official. The beginning of the Viking Age in the is often set at 793. It was recorded in the Anglo–Saxon Chronicle that the Northmen raided the important island monastery of Lindisfarne (the generally accepted date is actually 8 June, not January ):A.D. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island (Lindisfarne), by rapine and slaughter.

Viking expeditions (blue line): depicting the immense breadth of their voyages through most of, the, Northern, the, and., depicted as a ″Viking territory in 911″, was not part of the lands granted by the king of the Franks to in 911, but.The Kingdom of the under Charlemagne was particularly devastated by these raiders, who could sail up the with near impunity. Near the end of Charlemagne's reign (and throughout the reigns of his sons and grandsons), a string of Norse raids began, culminating in a gradual Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as.The -built used by the Scandinavians were uniquely suited to both deep and shallow waters. They extended the reach of Norse raiders, traders, and settlers along coastlines and along the major river valleys of north-western Europe.

Viking Conquest Mount And Blade

Also expanded to the east, and in 859 became ruler either by conquest or invitation by local people of the city of (which means 'new city') on the. Moved further, founding the early East Slavic state of with the capital in. This persisted until 1240, when the.Other Norse people, particularly those from the area that is now modern-day Sweden and Norway, continued south to the and then on to.

Whenever these Viking ships ran aground in shallow waters, the Vikings reportedly turned them on their sides and dragged them across the shallows into deeper waters. The eastern connections of these ' brought, a from the Red Sea, and even coins from, to.In 884, an army of Danish Vikings was defeated at the (also called the Battle of Hilgenried Bay) on the Germanic coast by a army under Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg, which precipitated the complete and permanent withdrawal of the Vikings from.In 911, French King was able to make an agreement with the Viking warleader, a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish origins. Charles gave Rollo the title of duke and granted his followers and him possession of Normandy.

In return, Rollo swore to Charles, converted to Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers not only identified themselves as Norman, but also carried the (a language with Germanic influence), and their Norman culture, into England in 1066. With the, they became the ruling aristocracy of.In Scandinavia, the Viking age is considered to have ended with the establishment of royal authority in the Scandinavian countries and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion. The date is usually put somewhere in the early 11th century in all three Scandinavian countries. The end of the Viking era in Norway is marked by the in 1030. Although Olafr Haraldsson's (later known as ) army lost the battle, Christianity spread, partly on the strength of rumours of miraculous signs after his death.

Norwegians would no longer be called Vikings. In Sweden, the reign of king ( c. 995–1020) is considered to be the transition from the Viking age to the Middle Ages, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, and he is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden.The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by the failed invasion attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III , who was defeated by Saxon King in 1066 at the; in Ireland, the capture of by and his forces in 1171; and 1263 in Scotland by the defeat of King at the by troops loyal to. Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, Duke of.

Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the between the 13th and the 15th centuries; the and the remained under Scandinavian authority until 1266. And belonged to the king of Norway as late as 1469.

Anglo-Saxon-Viking coin weight, used for trading and: Material is and weighs around 36 g (1.3 oz). It is embedded with an Anglo-Saxon (Series K type 32a) dating to 720–750 and minted in Kent. It is edged in a dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the Danelaw region and dates to 870–930.According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Viking raiders struck England in 793 and raided Lindisfarne, the monastery that held 's relics.

The raiders killed the monks and captured the valuables. The raid marks the beginning of the 'Viking Age of Invasion', made possible by the Viking longship. Great but sporadic violence occurred from the last decade of the eighth century on England's northern and eastern shores; Viking raids continued on a small scale across coastal England. While the initial raiding groups were small, a great amount of planning is believed to have been involved.

The Norwegians raided during the winter of 840–841, rather than the usual summer, having waited on an island off Ireland. In 850, Vikings overwintered for the first time in England, on the,. In 854, a raiding party overwintered a second time, at the in the Thames estuary. In 864, they reverted to Thanet for their winter encampment.

The Anglo-Saxon before 925: Normal diocesan life was greatly disrupted in England during the Viking Age.The following year, the, led by brothers ( and ), and also by another Viking, arrived in East Anglia. They proceeded to cross England into Northumbria and captured York, establishing the Viking community of Jorvik, where some settled as farmers and craftsmen. Most of the English kingdoms, being in turmoil, could not stand against the Vikings. In 867, Northumbria became the northern kingdom of the coalescing, after its conquest by the brothers Halfdan Ragnarsson and Ivar the Boneless, who installed an Englishman, as a puppet king.

By 870, the 'Great Summer Army' arrived in England, led by a Viking leader called and his five. Aided by the Great Heathen Army (which had already overrun much of England from its base in Jorvik), Bagsecg's forces, and Halfdan's forces (through an alliance), the combined Viking forces raided much of England until 871, when they planned an invasion of Wessex. On 8 January 871, Bagsecg was killed at the along with his earls.

As a result, many of the Vikings returned to northern England, where Jorvic had become the centre of the Viking kingdom, but managed to keep them out of his country. Alfred and his successors continued to drive back the Viking frontier and take York. A new wave of Norwegian Vikings appeared in England in 947 when captured York. Fire-gilded from Ireland, found in a Viking grave at, Norway (, Copenhagen)In 1003, the Danish King started a series of raids against England. This culminated in a full-scale invasion that led to Sweyn being crowned king of England in 1013. Sweyn was also king of Denmark and parts of Norway at this time. The throne of England passed to of Wessex after Sweyn's death in 1014.

Sweyn's son, won the throne of England in 1016 through conquest. When Cnut the Great died in 1035 he was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden. Became king of England after Cnut's death, and Viking rule of England ceased.The Viking presence dwindled until 1066, when the invading Norsemen lost their final battle with the English at. The death in the battle of King of Norway ended any hope of reviving Cnut's; it is because of this rather than the Norman conquest that 1066 is often taken as the end of the Viking Age. Nineteen days later, the Normans, themselves descended from Norsemen, and defeated the weakened English army at the.In 1152, led a plundering raid down the east coast of Britain. Main articles:, andThe Vikings pillaged monasteries on Ireland's west coast in 795, and then spread out to cover the rest of the coastline.

The north and east of the island were most affected. During the first 40 years, the raids were conducted by small, mobile Viking groups. By 830, the groups consisted of large fleets of Viking ships. From 840, the Vikings began establishing permanent bases at the coasts. Dublin was the most significant settlement in the long term. The Irish became accustomed to the Viking presence. In some cases, they became allies and married each other.In 832, a Viking fleet of about 120 invaded kingdoms on Ireland's northern and eastern coasts.

Some believe that the increased number of invaders coincided with Scandinavian leaders' desires to control the profitable raids on the western shores of Ireland. During the mid-830s, raids began to push deeper into Ireland, as opposed to just touching the coasts. Navigable waterways made this deeper penetration possible. After 840, the Vikings had several bases in strategic locations dispersed throughout Ireland.In 838, a small Viking fleet entered the in eastern Ireland. The Vikings set up a base, which the Irish called a. This longphort eventually became Dublin. After this interaction, the Irish experienced Viking forces for about 40 years.

The Vikings also established longphorts in Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Wexford. The Vikings could sail through on the main river and branch off into different areas of the country.Norwegian Vikings and other Scandinavians conducted extensive raids in Ireland.

They founded in 812, then established in 853, founded the only Viking capital city in the world outside the Nordic countries in, and founded trading ports in in the 9th century. Predominantly Norwegians, and to a smaller extent other Scandinavians, settled down and intermixed with the Irish. Literature, crafts, and decorative styles in Ireland and Britain reflected West Norse culture.

Vikings traded at Irish markets in Dublin and solidified Dublin as an important city. Excavations found imported fabrics from England, Byzantium, Persia, and central Asia. Dublin became so crowded by the 11th century that houses were constructed outside the town walls.One of the last major battles involving Vikings was the on 23 April 1014, in which Vikings fought both for the Irish over-king 's army and for the Viking-led army opposing him. Irish and Viking literature depict the Battle of Clontarf as a gathering of this world and the supernatural, including witches, goblins, and demons. A Viking poem portrays the environment as strongly pagan, with chanting Valkyries deciding who would live and who would die.Scotland. Main article:While few records are known, the Vikings are thought to have led their first raids in Scotland on the holy island of Iona in 794, the year following the raid on the other holy island of Lindisfarne, Northumbria.In 839, a large Norse fleet invaded via the and, both of which were highly navigable, and reached into the heart of the of. They defeated, king of the Picts, his brother Bran, and the king of the Scots of, along with many members of the Pictish aristocracy in battle.

The sophisticated kingdom that had been built fell apart, as did the Pictish leadership, which had been stable for more than 100 years since the time of (The accession of as king of both Picts and Scots can be attributed to the aftermath of this event).In 870, the around the came under Viking attack as well. The fortress atop ('Rock of the Clyde,' the name for, which had become the for their kingdom) was besieged by the Viking kings. After four months, its water supply failed, and the fortress fell. The Vikings are recorded to have transported a vast prey of British, Pictish, and English captives back to Ireland.

These prisoners may have included the ruling family of Alt Clut including the king, who was slain the following year under uncertain circumstances. The fall of Alt Clut marked a watershed in the history of the realm. Afterwards, the capital of the restructured kingdom was relocated about 12 miles (20 km) up the River Clyde to the vicinity of and (within present-day ), and became known as the, which persisted as a major regional political player for another 150 years.The land that now comprises most of the had previously been the northernmost part of the Anglo-Saxon, which fell apart with its Viking conquest; these lands were never regained by the Anglo-Saxons, or England. The upheaval and pressure of Viking raiding, occupation, conquest and settlement resulted in alliances among the formerly enemy peoples that comprised what would become present-day Scotland.

Over the subsequent 300 years, this Viking upheaval and pressure led to the unification of the previously contending Gaelic, Pictish, British, and English kingdoms, first into the, and finally into the greater Kingdom of Scotland. The Viking Age in Scotland came to an end after another 100 years, see this section, below. The last vestiges of Norse power in the Scottish seas and islands were completely relinquished after another 200 years, see this section, below.Earldom of Orkney By the mid-9th century, the Norsemen had settled in Shetland, Orkney (the Nordreys- ), the Hebrides and Isle of Man, (the Sudreys- —this survives in the ) and parts of mainland Scotland. The Norse settlers were to some extent integrating with the local population (see ) in the Hebrides and Man.

These areas were ruled over by local, originally captains of ships. And Shetland, however, claimed supremacy.In 875, King Harald Fairhair led a fleet from Norway to Scotland. In his attempt to unite Norway, he found that many of those opposed to his rise to power had taken refuge in the Isles. From here, they were raiding not only foreign lands but were also attacking Norway itself.

He organised a fleet and was able to subdue the rebels, and in doing so brought the independent Jarls under his control, many of the rebels having fled to Iceland. He found himself ruling not only Norway, but also the Isles, Man, and parts of Scotland.Kings of the Isles. The last written records of the Greenlanders are from a 1408 marriage in the.The Viking-Age settlements in Greenland were established in the sheltered fjords of the southern and western coast. They settled in three separate areas along roughly 650 km (350; 400 ) of the western coast. While harsh, the along some fjords allowed for a pastoral lifestyle similar to that of Iceland, until the climate changed for the worse with the around 1400. The: The remains of about 450 farms have been found here. Erik the Red settled at Brattahlid on Ericsfjord.

The, near modern, consisted of about 20 farms. The at modern, was established before the 12th century. It has been extensively excavated by archaeologists.Kvenland. On, 800-1099.In 862, the Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled against the Varangian Rus, driving them overseas back to Scandinavia, but soon started to conflict with each other. The disorder prompted the tribes to invite back the Varangian Rus 'to come and rule them' and bring peace to the region.

This was a somewhat bilateral relation with the Varagians defending the cities that they ruled. Led by and his brothers, the invited Varangians (called Rus') settled around the town of Novgorod (Holmgard).In the 9th century, the Rus' operated the, which connected Northern Russia (Gardariki) with the Middle East.

As the Volga route declined by the end of the century, the rapidly overtook it in popularity. Apart from Ladoga and Novgorod, and were major centres for Varangian trade.Western historians tend to agree with the Primary Chronicle that these Scandinavians founded Kievan Rus' in the 880s and gave their name to the land. Before the fall of the Soviet Union many Eastern European scholars were opposed to this theory of Germanic influence on the Rus' and have suggested alternative scenarios for this part of Eastern European history.In contrast to the intense Scandinavian influence in Normandy and the British Isles, Varangian culture did not survive to a great extent in the East. Instead, the Varangian ruling classes of the two powerful city-states of and Kiev were thoroughly Slavicised by the end of the 10th century.

Old Norse was spoken in one district of Novgorod, however, until the 13th century.Central Europe. See also:, andThe French region of Normandy takes its name from the Viking invaders who were called Normanni, which means ‘men of the North'. Today, nordmann (pron. Norman) in the, denotes a Norwegian person.The first Viking raids began between 790 and 800 along the coasts of western France. They were carried out primarily in the summer, as the Vikings wintered in Scandinavia. Several coastal areas were lost to during the reign of (814–840). But the Vikings took advantage of the quarrels in the royal family caused after the death of Louis the Pious to settle their first colony in the south-west of the kingdom of Francia, which was more or less abandoned by the Frankish kings after their two defeats at.

The incursions in 841 caused severe damage to. The Viking attackers sought to capture the treasures stored at, easy prey given the monks' lack of defensive capacity. In 845 an expedition up the Seine reached. The presence of of ca 847, found in 1871 among a hoard at Mullaghboden, County Limerick, where coins were neither minted nor normally used in trade, probably represents booty from the raids of 843–846. After 851, Vikings began to stay in the lower Seine valley for the winter. Twice more in the 860s Vikings rowed to Paris, leaving only when they acquired sufficient loot or bribes from the rulers.The Carolingian kings tended to have contradictory politics, which had severe consequences.

In 867, signed the, by which he agreed to yield the to the king, on the condition that Salomon would take an oath of fidelity and fight as an ally against the Vikings. Nevertheless, in 911 the Viking leader forced Charles the Simple to sign the, under which Charles gave Rouen and the area of present-day to Rollo, establishing the. In exchange, Rollo pledged vassalage to Charles in 940, agreed to be, and vowed to guard the of the Seine from further Viking attacks, even though the exact opposite was often the case. The Duchy of Normandy also annexed further areas in Northern France, expanding the territory which was originally negotiated.While many buildings were pillaged, burned, or destroyed by the Viking raids, ecclesiastical sources may have been overly negative as no city was completely destroyed. On the other hand, many monasteries were pillaged and all the abbeys were destroyed. Rollo and his successors brought about rapid recoveries from the raids.The Scandinavian colonization was principally Norwegian and Danish under the leadership of Rollo.

A few Swedes were present. The merging of the Scandinavian and native elements contributed to the creation of one of the most powerful of. The naval ability of the Normans would allow them to and, and play a key role in the.Italy In 860, according to an account by the Norman monk, a Viking fleet, probably under and, landed at the Ligurian port of and sacked the city. The Vikings then moved another 60 miles down the Tuscan coast to the mouth of the, sacking and then, following the river upstream, also the hill-town of above; and others victory around the Mediterranean (including in Sicily and North Africa).Many Anglo-Danish and Varangian mercenaries fought in Southern Italy, including and who conquered parts of Sicily between 1038 and 1040, and who participated in the. Were raised in Sweden in memory of warriors who died in Langbarðaland , the Old Norse name for southern Italy. Statue in, Galicia, commemorating the Viking invasionsAfter 842, when the Vikings set up a permanent base at the mouth of the river, they could strike as far as northern Spain. They attacked in 844.

In some of their raids they were crushed either by or Emirate armies. These Vikings were Hispanicised in all Christian kingdoms, while they kept their ethnic identity and culture in.In 1015, a Viking fleet entered the and sacked the episcopal city of ; no new bishop was appointed until 1070. Portugal In 844, many dozens of drakkars appeared in the 'Mar da Palha' ('the Sea of Straw', mouth of the river).

After a siege, the Vikings conquered (at the time, the city was under Muslim rule and known as Lashbuna). They left after 13 days, following a resistance led by and the city's inhabitants. Another raid was attempted in 966, without success.North America. Main article:In about 986, the Norwegian Vikings, and from Greenland reached, over 500 years before, and they attempted to settle the land they called. They created a small settlement on the northern peninsula of present-day, near. Conflict with indigenous peoples and lack of support from Greenland brought the Vinland colony to an end within a few years. The archaeological remains are now a.

Old Norse influence on the English language The long-term linguistic effect of the Viking settlements in England was threefold: eventually became part of; numerous places in the East and North-east of England have Danish names, and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin. Scandinavian words that entered the English language included landing, score, beck, fellow, take, busting and steersman.

The vast majority of loan words did not appear in documents until the early 12th century; these included many modern words which used sk- sounds, such as skirt, sky, and skin; other words appearing in written sources at this time included again, awkward, birth, cake, dregs, fog, freckles, gasp, law, moss, neck, ransack, root, scowl, sister, seat, sly, smile, want, weak and window from Old Norse meaning 'wind-eye'. Some of the words that came into use are among the most common in English, such as to go, to come, to sit, to listen, to eat, both, same, get and give. The system of personal pronouns was affected, with they, them and their replacing the earlier forms. Further information: andThe Vikings were equipped with the technologically superior longships; for purposes of conducting trade however, another type of ship, the, wider and deeper in draft, were customarily used. The Vikings were competent sailors, adept in land warfare as well as at sea, and they often struck at accessible and poorly defended targets, usually with near impunity. The effectiveness of these tactics earned Vikings a formidable reputation as raiders and pirates.

Chroniclers paid little attention to other aspects of medieval Scandinavian culture. This slant was accentuated by the absence of contemporary primary source documentation from within the Viking Age communities themselves. Little documentary evidence was available until later, when Christian sources began to contribute. As historians and archaeologists have developed more resources to challenge the one-sided descriptions of the chroniclers, a more balanced picture of the Norsemen has become apparent.The Vikings used their longships to travel vast distances and attain certain tactical advantages in battle. They could perform highly efficient hit-and-run attacks, in which they quickly approached a target, then left as rapidly as possible before a counter-offensive could be launched. Because of the ships' negligible draft, the Vikings could sail in shallow waters, allowing them to invade far inland along rivers.

Not only were the ships light and agile, but they were light enough to be carried over land from one river system to another. 'Under sail, the same boats could tackle open water and cross the unexplored wastes of the North Atlantic.' .The ships' speed was also prodigious for the time, estimated at a maximum of 14–15 knots (26–28 km/h). The use of the longships ended when technology changed, and ships began to be constructed using saws instead of axes. This led to a lesser quality of ships.While battles at sea were rare, they would occasionally occur when Viking ships attempted to board European merchant vessels in Scandinavian waters.

When larger scale battles ensued, Viking crews would rope together all nearby ships and slowly proceed towards the enemy targets. While advancing, the warriors hurled spears, arrows, and other projectiles at the opponents. When the ships were sufficiently close, melee combat would ensue using axes, swords, and spears until the enemy ship could be easily boarded. The roping technique allowed Viking crews to remain strong in numbers and act as a unit, but this uniformity also created problems. A Viking ship in the line could not retreat or pursue hostiles without breaking the formation and cutting the ropes, which weakened the overall Viking fleet and was a burdensome task to perform in the heat of battle. In general, these tactics enabled Vikings to quickly destroy the meagre opposition posted during raids.Together with an increasing centralisation of government in the Scandinavian countries, the old system of —a fleet mobilisation system, where every skipen (ship community) had to deliver one ship and crew—was discontinued.

Changes in shipbuilding in the rest of Europe led to the demise of the longship for military purposes. By the 11th and 12th centuries, European fighting ships were built with raised platforms fore and aft, from which archers could shoot down into the relatively low longships.Exactly how the Viking's navigated the open seas with such success is unclear. While some evidence points to the use of to find the sun's location, modern reproductions of Viking 'sky-polarimetric' navigation have found these sun compasses to be highly inaccurate, and not usable in cloudy or foggy weather.The archaeological find known as the from the Swedish island of Gotland may be components of a. It appears to date from long before the invention of the telescope in the 17th century.

Recent evidence suggests that the Vikings also made use of an optical compass as a navigation aid, using the light-splitting and polarisation-filtering properties of to find the location of the sun when it was not directly visible. Religion.