Freeway - The vikings

The Vikings

In the Middle Ages the people of Europe thought viking meant "robber on the sea". Today it´s the name of the earliest scandinavian people who was first heard of in the 8th century. In their own homecountries they were farmers. But they became too many with too little food and begun a life at sea. Swedish vikings became traders in the east of Europe and Asia when Danish and Norweigan vikings made raiders in the west of Europe. They lived in houses which looked almost the same as they did in the Swedish stoneage. See earlier issue of Freeway.

Swedish vikings
went to the east. They could help other tribals to fight against strange people. But later on they started to trade slaves, amber, weapon and furries for silvercoins and textiles. During the viking period Russian chiefs sent for a Swedish viking, called Rurik, and made him their king. Perhaps that's how Russia Got it's name.

Norweigan and Danish vikings
discovered Greenland and Iceland. They were often in conflict with each other about who should rule the Brittish islands. Even though they travelled together to find new landmarks. 1066, a Norweigan king, William the conqueror, led a sucessfull army into Britain which made him a king over Britain and united many small kingdoms. Thanks to the Norweigans the raider begun. They took the control over a few Islands around Britain and Ireland, from which they could reach wealthy churches of Scotland and Ireland. From there they could sail further down in Europe. They even manage to take control over Pisa and Luna for a while.

Taking the power of Ireland and Britain.
From the beginnning Nordic vikings established on small islands as The Shetland islands, and Isle of Man. For some years they robbed churches and killed people, noncaring about sex or age. But in the years 800 - 830 they started to make raides agains the coast of France instead. 840 the Danish vikings went back to Ireland. A chief called Turgeis founded Dublin and turned it to his headquarter. But he kept on robbing the Irish people so they killed him and the Norweigan vikings took over. They could keep the power untill 901 when the Irish people sent them away. Dublin was a very important village at that time. From there they could reach Britain.

The vikings were difficult to stop.
The Danish people ruled most parts of Britain after a few years. As long as the Brittish people paid their ransom they didn't have to fear the barbarian people. But the king of Wessex, Alfred the greatest, managed to force them into one small peace of earth. The only way to stop the vikings seemed to be bigger ships. The new state ws named Danelaw after the rulers, the Danes. There the people had to pay "danagäld" and follow danish law. In france they made it another way. The French king Karl made a deal with the Norweigan chief Rolf. He would get a piece of earth if he promised to protect it. That became the part of France that we today call Normandie.

During the 11th century
the vikings became more friendly. Villages had started to come together and then they had to find someone to rule the state. That made the vikings stay at home to try getting the power. Another reason was the christianity of the vikings. When they got their new religion they no more wanted to fight against their own "brothers".

As a result
of the vikings, countries in Europe became united. The beginning of feodalism was a fact. They´ve changed Europe by given their cities Nordic names with suffixes and prefixes like -bor -ed -drag.Words like "by" and "toft" means village and many villages contained names of their gods. It's also thanks to the vikings we have trousers today. They brougt it to Europe after seeing them in Asia. Some of the viking cities that still exist are Waterford, Limerick and York.