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The Vikings
They came from the cold North.
They robbed Monasteries, burned down Villages, and from the end of the
8'th century this Prayer could be heard from the churches all over
Britain...
Oh God !
- free us from the wild Normans That, Oh God, ravage our Country...
But their Prayers were
not heard....
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The Vikings were more than just a bunch of raiding pirates.
They also were venturesome Seafarers, farmers, settlers and great
ambassadors of the nordic culture.
From Scandinavia they spread through Europe and the North Atlantic in
the period of vigorous Scandinavian expansion (AD 800-1100) known as the
Viking Age.
 From
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, they appeared as traders, conquerors, and
settlers in Finland, Russia, Byzantium, France, England, the
Netherlands, Iceland, Greenland and NewFoundland in Canada.
For many centuries before the year 800,
such tribes as the Cimbrians, Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Angles
had been wandering out of Scandinavia.
But this time, they came in their Longships by the Sea road.
The word Viking is not, as many
believes, the name for all the people living in Scandinavia in that
period.
'Vik' is the norse expression for bay, and the expression was originally
used for the Seafares or more accurate, used for what they did. To say -
They were, or laid in Viking, would be a more correct use of the term.
And - Vikings did NOT wear horned helmets.
The Vikings were different because they
were Sea Warriors and because they carried with them a Civilization that
was in some ways more highly developed than those of the Lands they
visited. Scandinavia was rich in iron, which seems to have stimulated
Viking cultural development. Iron tools cleared the forests and plowed
the lands, leading to a great increase in population.
Trading cities such as Birka and Hedeby appeared, and became the Centers
of strong local Kingdoms.
Following the Routes of the Map shows how far they ventured - the Danes
and Norwegians went Westward and South, and for a period most of England
was under the Danish Kingdom. The vast area of England called Danelaw or
Danelagen still has numerous places and cities founded and named by the
Vikings.
40.000 Danish Vikings conquered Paris - and a Chieftain was given a
large area of France to protect it from other raiders - that area was
called Normandy, Land of the Norsemen.
Norwegian Vikings were most explorative
- they came to Iceland and from there they went on to establish several
settlements in Greenland and Leif Ericson (Leif the Happy), Son of Eric
the Red, went on to what he called Vinland - a place on the coast of New
Foundland, L'ance aux Meadows.
The Swedes went East.
The Northeastern Slavic tribes called the Swedes 'The Rus-people' (from
the Sweedish area "Rus- or Roslagen"), and these Vikings were asked to
rule the land of the tribes and by uniting the Cities and areas of
Novgorod and Kijev, they founded Russia.
and thus became the name of the new founded country, Rusland - or Russia
in English. Through the rivers of Russia they ventured as far as the
Caspian Sea and longer.
They took service at The Emperor of Byzanz as his lifeguards
(Vangarians) and even the Calif of Baghdad were visited.
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- Rasmussen