Viking

Definition

In the broad sense, the term Viking indicate sometimes the whole of the Scandinavians of the period characterized by the phenomenon Viking. The people in liaison with the Vikings gave them various names: Norman for the Frank , Danish for the English, Rus for the Slavic , Arab and Byzantine . They were sometimes also qualified pagan or of foreigners . Varègue is the name given to the Vikings exerting on the road of the East.

The Scandinavians knew probably a demographic expansion from, which showed expensive wars of succession (mainly with the Denmark). The increase in the population and insufficient agriculture because of very marshy or very undulating territories, pushed the Norwegians and the Swedes to seek new grounds and shopping streets. The wars of succession pushed, as for them, the Danes with launching forwardings of piracy and conquest, in order to acquire richnesses and prestige. The war against the people of Germanic, cousins of the Vikings can also explain, partly, the first Strandhögg Vikings having for target the Christian buildings (see chapter hypothetical Causes of the phenomenon below).

The Vikings of any origines quickly established semi-permanent bases on the coasts, and the coastal islands then settled definitively in number of these counters , named vicus by the Latin people, in particular on the coasts of the Handle and the the North Sea or in Russia, of.

Although they also settled as well in Ireland, where they founded the majority of the cities (such Dublin), as in Great Britain, in particular with York, it is in Normandy and Russia that their company best succeeded, since she knows perenniality until our days.

Navigators except par, the Vikings were initially tradesmen with the long course. But, more than with the Moorish assumption (the installation of the Moors in Spain, starting from 711, would have cut to them the road of the the Mediterranean), it is probably with the military weakness of the old Carolingian Empire with died of Charlemagne and of the territories located at the north and the east of this one which one owes particular attraction that the coasts of the north of the Europe exerted on these sailors.

With its weak draft (sometimes increased by a stone ballast) and its raised prow, sailing as well with the veil as with the force delivered by two rows of oarsmen, the Boat Viking, named knörr , snekkar or langskip , has remarkable marine qualities. Embarked on its board, the Vikings carried out raids of a frightening effectiveness, until the interior of the grounds by going up the rivers, even while carrying it to back of men from one river to another.

Viking Viking

The word Viking designate the warrior, explorer and Scandinavian plunderer of origin . The term is of rather recent use (18th century and 19th century) out of the Scandinavian world. Its etymology is very discussed. It probably comes from the terms vik , bay , it handle (that one finds in Reykjavík), and ing coming from , or of the term vicus / wik which indicated, during the Early middle ages, commercial agglomerations.

Other researchers evoke, like possible origin of the term Viking , manner of living people of Viken, in bay of Oslo or the Scandinavian substantive vig meaning fights .

The known uses oldest come from Anglo-Saxon texts from, with the mention of various terms ( uuicingsceadan , uuicingsceadae , saewicingas ) which refers all to the maritime activities, and in particular with the Piraterie. The contemporary Scandinavian texts at the period Viking make them it distinction between a female term, víking , which indicates the activity ( will fara í víkingu , those which leave in forwarding ) and a male term, víkingr or vikingar , which returns to the Vikings as individuals. Out of the Scandinavian world, the franques or Anglo-Saxon chronicles more frequently use the terms Norman , Dane or pagan to designate the Vikings, while the Irish speak more simply about foreigners ( gaills ). Some named the Norwegian Vikings them White Vikings and Danes them Black Vikings . In the East, they are called Rus or Varègues . Among Arabs the Madjus , bab el indicating Madju the door of the pagan ones (Straits of Gibraltar).

According to Pierre Bauduin (2004), the connotation of the term would be rather positive in the runic and negative inscriptions in the poems scaldic.

Hypothetical causes of the phenomenon

The writings norrois of this time limiting itself to some epitaph S Runique S, the analysis of the historians is based primarily on testimonys of the victims, often largely posterior with the events, influenced and deformed. The Archéologie brings determining explanations however.

Sociological origin

The Vikings represented only one small percentage of the population norrois E of the time. Initially, the men who became it did not have many of other choices. The rules norroises as regards heritage were favorable only to elder and probably threw on the roads many juniors by family. Combined at one period of population growth and the internal war (like the fight between the king Haraldr with the Beautiful Hair and the unsubdued chiefs of the South), this phenomenon developed. Moreover, the clannish right pronounced, like supreme punishment for the most serious faults, the banishment. The first forwardings were surely the work of avid renegades of recognition. Their successes were quickly recovered by the chiefs who organized them for their own account. The religious and cultural values Scandinavian of bravery of the warrior mixed with the lure of gain.

Lure of gain

At the present time, the invasions Vikings are analyzed through the prism worked out by Lucien Musset. This last divides the invasions Vikings into France in three phases:

between 800 and 850, the Vikings are avid plunderers of the richnesses of the monasteries;
between 850 and 900, the Vikings discover the weakness of franques defenses and organize true military operations from islands located on the frank rivers;
of 900 with 950, it is the time of colonization: the Francs unable to put an end to the invasions by the force authorize the Vikings to be installed on their terres.

The search for a shopping street with the the Mediterranean

This analysis is seriously called into question by Joel Supéry, author of the Secret of the Vikings . According to this last, the Vikings (Danes of Vik in particular), would have sought to join the Mediterranean, centers international business. They do it while skirting the franques coasts as of before the invasions: that explains their presence with the Asturies in 795, with Noirmoutier in 799, in front of Narbonne in 812, to Pampelune in 816 and to Mundaka in Biscay in 823 and 825.

On this coastal road, they encounter a problem: the skirting of the Iberian peninsula is long and dangerous and the Straits of Gibraltar is jealously supervised by the tradesmen Sarrasins. This is why the Danes would have decided to join the Mediterranean through the continent. Since Mundaka, then since Bayonne starting from 842, they join Pampelune, then descend the Ebre until Tortosa, main market with the slaves of the Western Mediterranean.

The creation of this concurrent trade route of the axis the Rhine-Rhone would be the true objective of the kings of the seas which launch the invasions. This objective is achieved as of 863.

After this date, the invasions change nature somewhat: the kings of the Danish seas will try to reproduce the success of Björn, wire of Ragnar, in Gascogne. They will seek to found their kingdoms in Plank, in England, in Aquitaine, on the Loire, in Neustrie (which will become Normandy) and in Brittany. Of all these attempts, the only one which reached one political maturity is Normandy. As for Gascogne, the fatherland of Biarn , it will remain under Scandinavian domination 140 years between 840 and 982. -->

Political reasons

It is possible that the invasions of the Danish Vikings, by far most, have political reasons. Certain historians affirm that the invasions coincide with the internal wars of the Danish Vikings. The raids in Europe would have made it possible to finance the wars between clans and to increase the prestige of the candidates to the capacity. This would also explain why the Vikings of Norway and the Vikings Swedish would have been in general more tradesmen why plunderers.

Religious resistance

In addition to the factors previously quoted, the first Strandhögg Vikings could also originate in resistance to forced christianization, in particular with persecutions of Charlemagne against the pagan people , which were to accept conversion or the massacre .

Montesquieu in Of the spirit of the laws , explained thus the cause of plunderings Vikings against the goods of the Church: The Vikings attribuoient with the ecclesiastics the destruction of their idols, and all violences of Charlemagne, which had obliged them the ones after the others to take refuge in north.

Geographic origins and surfaces of expansion

The territory of origin of the Vikings strongly influenced the distribution of their surfaces of expansion.

Vikings originating in current the Sweden, named soon Varègues , extended their domination to the east of the the Baltic. Living Commerce, piracy and plundering, and being offered like Mercenaire S, they foam the river system (the Volga in particular) of what will be later the Ukraine and the Russia. They reach then the sea Caspienne, Constantinople and even Baghdad. In the Years 1040, a forwarding varègue directed by Ingvar reaches even the Afghanistan. Invited to pacify the area by the Slavic tribe S and Finnois be, Varègues ( Russian Varyags in ), called Russ ( oarsmen ) by the Slavic ones, arrive about the middle of beyond the Baltique, carried out by Rurik and his/her brothers. After their installation around the town of Novgorod (perhaps founded by Varègues), a true Swedish colonization, Aldeigjuborg, are established around the Lac Ladoga. These Swedish Vikings install, starting from a whole of forts and stations of exchanges, the first Russian State.

The Danish launched out in first against the Jutland occupied by the Francs, by terrestrial forwarding since their strengthened border, the Danevirke (built by the king Gudfridr). After some successes, the Francs opposed a military solid defense which obliged the Vikings to seek the ways of incursions by the sea. The death of Charlemagne in 814 marked the one long period beginning of brittleness of the Frank Empire of which they could benefit. They directed their conquests and their plunderings along the coasts of the the North Sea and the Manche. They gained the coasts of England, and went up the course of the English rivers (the Humber and the the Thames). In the north of the Germany, Netherlands and Belgium, they based a transitory state on the medieval Frise. Lastly, in France, where they carried out a series of raids by going up the the Seine, the the Loire, the the Garonne and the small coastal rivers, they gained the name of Norman before being established durably in the area which bears today the name of Normandy. Their many wars of conquest coincided with the Danish wars of succession: it is also extremely probable which the Vikings of Denmark left in raid to bring back what to finance their internal wars and to halo prestige of the conqueror.

As for the Vikings originating in the Western coasts of Scandinavia (current the Norway), their raids and their conquests related to mainly the Scotland, the Ireland, the Faroe Islands, the Iceland and the Greenland. They carried out raids of exploration until the Vinland, where a small outpost was created, from which they practiced the coastal traffic along the American coasts .

The consequences of their forwardings were made feel beyond continental Europe, on trade route which existed with the East: one thus found a Scandinavian coin in a tomb Indian. On the other hand, one discovered a Bouddha Jade in a tomb Norwegian.

Some dates

Éphéméride

These dates are identical to those presented above. They are proposed in this article in order to make it possible to the readers to easily reach information which they could need.

753 : foundation of the first Swedish colony in Russia: Aldeigjuborg (today Staraya Ladoga);

Russian meant Swede in old Finnish. One finds this root in the name Ruotsi indicating the Sweden and not the Russia in Finnish;

782 : the Saxon king Widukind, which flees forced christianization and persecutions of Charlemagne, finds refuge at the Dane Godfried and asks him its assistance to avenge its people;
789 : first known raid. It takes place on the Île of Portland cement in the south of the England, (according to the Anglo-Saxon chronic '') by three boats come from Norway. It will cost the life the intendant of the king Beaduheard and his men.

793 : destruction of the abbey of Lindisfarne to avenge persecutions for the Saxon ones;

795 : the Vikings reach the Ireland;

799 : First incursion on the Aquitanian coast of , first attack of the frank Empire. In answer, Charlemagne makes hold in permanent alarm of the ships of intervention in all the ports of the Atlantic coast. This expensive measurement is not maintained after its death

802: the Vikings beat the Écossais and seize the the Orkneys, the Shetland and Hébrides;

813 : the island of Bouin is taken and burned;

820 : attacks victorious Vikings of Norway against Ireland, they settle there like with the island of Man; fallen through attempts at unloading in Flanders and Bay of the Seine.

833 : the Swedish Vikings continue to explore the Russian sea routes and to establish counters;

834 : the Vikings Danish invade the Frise and withdraw themselves after plundering, the Swedish Vikings (Varangien) shorten the shopping street towards the Black Sea by the Russia;

835 : the Danish Vikings attack England of the West successfully, they are established in the east of England; they plunder Noirmoutier

838: catch of Amboise

839: the Byzantine emperor founds the Garde varangienne (its private army Vikings), the Vikings crush a revolt of the Irishmen; attempt against Noirmoutier

841: first raid on Rouen; destruction of the abbeys of Jumièges and Saint-Wandrille; the Danish Vikings are on the island of Walcheren to the mouth of the the Scheldt; the Danish Vikings devastate the Lindsey, the East Anglia and the Kent in England;

842 : plundering and destruction of Quentovic (it would be into 840 or 844 for certain sources);

843 : the Norman ones take Nantes, dead of the bishop Saint Gohard in its cathedral: the Irishmen revolt against Thorgils and drive out the Norwegian Vikings except for some coastal stations;

844 : one 1st raid Viking on Corogne then on Seville in Spain is pushed back by Ramire I {{er}} and by 'Abd Al-Rahman II; a 2nd raid 13ans after (see 857,858) carried out by Danish Vikings big bosses, Halsteinn and Björn Jarnsida with the head of 62 ships pass the Straits of Gibraltar. Algeciras is put at bag. The Moroccan coast, the Murcie, the Balearic Islands and the Roussillon are plundered. continuation in 859…

845: first raid against Paris by Ragnar Lodbrok; plundering of Holy by the Charente; catch of Tarbes; first tribute poured by Charles the Bald person; catch of Ancenis, Angers, Saumur, Chinon, failure in front of Turns

846: the Norman ones are installed on the island of Noirmoutier in Bottom Poitou;

848 : Victorious night forwarding against Bordeaux; plundering of the Ile de Ré, Miss, Blaye, Holy, Angouleme

849: plundering of Périgueux, Fronsac, Holy-Foy, Agen, Montauban; failure in front of Tarbes

850: the Vikings settle with the mouths of the the Seine and the the Loire; beginning of the fight between Danish and Norwegian Vikings for the control of the coasts of Ireland (they found, fine 853: majority of the Irish cities, of which Dublin, Cork and Limerick);

851 : the Vikings devastate the abbey of Fécamp; plundering of Blois and Orleans; setting with bag of Beauvais and first franque ground wintering;

852 : plundering of Angers and Turns

853: they go up the Loire until Amboise; bag of Nantes, Angers and Turns;

854 : battle of the Island Bethia . on the Loire, the Vikings install a base in the estuary of the Loire; set fire to Luçon;

856 : the Vikings plunder the monasteries in Normandy and the Île-de-France; catch of Orleans on August 18th; second attack of Paris, in winter;

857 : systematic plundering of Touraine; Poitiers is held to ransom

858: various attacks against the coasts of the Iberian peninsula: Corogne, Oporto, Lisbon (13 days of plundering), Seville, Cordoue, Cadiz, Algeciras, Malaga, Alméria, Aguilas, Nacor in Africa and the Balearic Islands

859: bag of Amiens by the Somme; plundering of Narbonne, Agde, Tarragone, Barcelona, Arles, Marseilles and of some Italian cities (of which Luna);

860 : first attack Viking against Constantinople; the Vikings attack Valence and Romans by the Rhone and the Isere, they are stopped by the count Girard;

861 : the Danish Vikings seize Winchester; the capital of the king Aetelbert de Wessex; third attack of Paris; sit of the island Oscellus ;

862 : the Swedish Vikings under Riourik (Rörek) seize Novgorod; foundation of the first Russian State by the Swedish Vikings;

863 : the Norman ones go up the the Rhine while plundering; bag of Angouleme, the count of Angouleme Turpion is killed, forwardings until Limoges, Périgueux, Poitiers (held to ransom);

864 : increase of the Garonne

865: England pays the first tributes with the Vikings (of the Swedes ordered by Skoglar Toste); fourth attack of Paris; plundering of Orleans (February), the abbey of Fleury, Poitiers. Attempt on Mans, but the Vikings are beaten by the Francs

866: France pays tributes with the Vikings; the Vikings are beaten by the Francs at the time of the Bataille of Brissarthe; the chief Viking Hasting withdraws himself but Robert the Fort is killed; plundering of Mans

869: a revolt of the peasants between the Seine and the Loire against Norman is crushed by the franque cavalry; Charles the Bald person builds bridges strengthened to bar the rivers (with the Bridge-of-C on the the Loire after Bridge-with-the Arche and Tribardon on the Seine)

872: sit of Angers occupied by the Vikings, by the army of Charles the Bald person, itself beaten by the Breton ones, who force the Vikings to capitulate by diverting the Maine river; massive arrival of Danish Vikings in Flanders, plunderings since Rheims until Cambric;

874 : Ingólfr Arnarson first colonist Norwegian of Iceland settles the site of Reykjavik;

879 : the Swedish Vikings seize Kiev; Carloman beats the chief Viking Hasting

881: victory of Louis III against the Vikings with Saucourt-in-Vimeu;

882 : Hasting agrees to become count of Chartres

885: the Vikings occupy Rouen and besiege Paris (fifth attack), France pours to them a tribute of 350 kg money;

886 : the count Eudes, ancestor of the Capétiens, resists to the Vikings at the time of the head office of Paris which lasted almost 90 days;

888 : raids against Dijon and Beaune;

889 : sit of Saint-Lo and massacres population;

898 : Ottar describes with the English the sea route of the Norway towards the Russia by the Northern Cape and the White Mer;

890 : vain seat of Amiens occupied by the Vikings by the king Eudes;

898 : Richard the Dispenser of justice pushes back forwarding Viking in Burgundy;

900 : the Danish Vikings are established on the coast of Neustrie (northern of France), many raids Vikings on the Mediterranean coast;

901 : Gunnbjorn sees the Greenland;

907 : second attack Viking against Constantinople;

909 : with the Council of Trosly close to Rheims, an assembly of bishop S proposes to concede a territory with the Vikings;

911 : after its victory in front of Chartres, Charles III sign the Treated Saint-Clearly-on-Epte which concedes indeed most of current and from now on named Normandy with Hrólfr which consequently becomes Rollon first duke of Normandy, count de Rouen, Jarl, the Vikings of this area are consequently named Normands by the historians; third attack Viking against Constantinople;

919 : catch of Nantes by Rögnvaldr (Ragenold); sit of the town of Guérande;

921 : the Duc Robert in vain tries to take again Nantes;

924 : the king Raoul yields the Hiémois and the Bessin to Rollon;

927 : new failure of the Nantes head office (occupied by the Vikings);

933 : compulsory cession of the Avranchin and the Cotentin to Norman by the king Raoul;

939 : end of the occupation of the Brittany;

941, 945 and 971: attacks Vikings against Constantinople;

942 : assassination of Guillaume Long-Sword, second duke of Normandy, by king Raoul;

945 : defeat of Louis d' Outremer on the Divine, Richard Ier of Normandy reign without division;

968 : attacks against the coasts of Galicia and died of Sisenand, bishop of Saint-Jacob de Compostelle;

970 : the Vikings besiege Saint-Jacob de Compostelle and threaten Lugo and Tuy in Galicia;

982 : Erik the Red approaches the Greenland, it settles there a few years later;

986 : Bjarni Herjólfsson sees the coast of the American continent;

991 : Battle of Maldon and first Danegeld English with the Vikings;

1000 : Leif Erikson discovers the Newfoundland;

1002 : November 13rd Massacre of the Saint-Brice by the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelred II, Brian Boru becomes king d' Irlande;

1013 : the Danish Vikings under the king Svend I {{er}} finish the conquest of England; Raid in the estuary of the Loire by Olaf Haraldson (future Holy Olaf).

1017 : last raid Viking on the coasts of France, with Saint-Michel-in-the Herm

1014: Brian Boru stops the Vikings with Clontarf: in Ireland; forwarding of the king Olaf against Galicia and captures of the bishop of Tuy;

1015 : the Vikings give up the Vinland (Newfoundland), their colony in North America; for nine months, the Norman ones devastate the areas close to the mouth of Duero in Spain;

1032 : the Norman ones lend hand-strong to the count Rodrigo Romániz against of Vascons in Galicia (Spain);

1043 : the Norman ones beat the Byzantine armies in Apulie, Italy of the South and seize the area, last attacks Viking against Constantinople;

1050 : to face the incursions Normans, the bishop of Saint-Jacob de Compostelle, Cresconius, the city strengthens and builds a castle with the mouth of the Ulla river;

1059 : the Norman ones confirm the sovereignty of the Pape on Italy and the Sicily and are established to with it with its support in the South and on the island;

1061 : the Norman ones ordered by Robert Guiscard demolish the Musulman S with Messine and settle in Sicily;

1066 : Harald III of Norway to the head of 300 ships and 9000 men tries to invade England but east demolishes with the Bataille of Stamford Bridge;

1066 : William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, invades England after having gained the Bataille of Hastings two weeks after the defeat of Harald;

1072 : the Norman ones under the orders of Robert Guiscard seize the majority of Byzantine Italy;

1081 : the Norman conduits by Robert Guiscard invade the Balkans;

1185 : the Norman ones launch, starting from their base of Sicily, a victorious forwarding in Balkans and on Thessalonique;

1203 : Philippe Auguste attacks Castle-Strapping man and appendix the Normandy which reinstates the royal Domaine;

1204 : the Garde varangienne which protected Constantinople is dissolved after the catch of the city by the Fourth crusade;

Some famous Vikings

Rollon, is the first jarl (prince) of Normandy, granted the Vikings, following the Traité Saint-Clearly-on-Epte in 911. It is at the origin of the Duché of Normandy. The granting of this territory to the invaders generated to them progressive Christianisation.

Eric the Red is the first Viking to take foot with the Greenland, in 982.

Leif Erikson sailed until Helluland, the country of the stone punt (Baffin Island, Newfoundland or the Labrador), the Markland (Labrador, Nova Scotia?) and the Vinland (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and can be even the Maine). It founded a village with the Handle with the Jellyfishes in what the saga of Leif Erikson calls 1000 the Vinland, which makes of him the discoverer for the Européens of the America, towards the year. It is supposed that the surging relations with the autochtones as well as the little of women (the saga mentions 15 woman for 135 men) are not foreign with the evacuation of the village, a few years later.

Saint Olaf is the owner of the Norway but before christianizing his country, this king prevailed like pirate and/or mercenary in a great number of regions of approximately 1007 to 1016.

The heritage Viking

If christianization marked the end of the movement and the beginning of the assimilation of the Scandinavian people, one keeps them, still today the Toponymie Norman, many linguistic legacies in English, German, French, the patois of the West of France, of technology and the marine traditions, as well as geographical discoveries.

Russia owes them its identity unification, its patronymic system, and part of its linguistic structure.

The myth

The Occident owes them a cultural and legendary heritage which inspired the literature and imaginary European. The Scandinavian countries use of this attraction for their tourist promotion. And the always subjective image of the Scandinavians of today is still tinted of admiration (and perhaps interfered fear) and one still lends qualities of their ancestors to them, namely: bravery, audacity, curiosity, ingeniousness… The myth was in addition responsible for false ideas.

False ideas on the Vikings

The Vikings are not people: they never constituted of nation, but the term appoints the navigators Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Greenlandic, and by extension the Scandinavian people to which these sailors belonged.

The Vikings did not carry helmets to horns. They primarily carried helmets at the time them proposals to show their richness, and at the time of the great ceremonies. This myth was created in Sweden towards the end of the 19th century, then popularized by cartoons like Astérix or Hägar Dünor and of many other fictions. On the other hand their helmet has nasal (iron stem in front of the nose, as attests it the Tapisserie of Bayeux) which gives him an air of Greek helmet.

The name of drakkar under which the ships Vikings are commonly known, whatever they are, is a erroneous Barbarisme built at the 19th century, inspired of the modern Swedish term drake (dragon) - and not dreki in norrois - to which a double K was added to accentuate the exotic aspect of it. However the Vikings indicated their boats, according to their form and their tonnage, under the names of knörr (plural: to knerrir ), snekkja or langskip : one will prefer, in French, the term of esnèque .

Characters of fiction borrowed from the myth Viking

Hägar Dünor
Prince Vaillant
Thorgal
the Vic Viking

Agricultural world

Types of cultures

As in the major part of medieval Europe, the great majority of the inhabitants of medieval Scandinavia were farmers. Surfaces ideal with the agricultural activities and pastoral not being however legions in these countries, of many peasants were to have recourse to fishing and hunting to ensure their survival. A coarse schematization would show mainly fishing Norwegians and of the Swedes and the Danes mainly farmers and stockbreeders. This reality is however to moderate according to the various areas from each country. In all the cases, bönder, i.e. the farmers independent forming the majority of the Scandinavian population of the time, were true general-purpose workers and were well obliged to devote itself as well to fishing as with the breeding and the culture.

The breeding (in particular bovine, sheep, pigs and poultry) were extremely important and it was practiced even beyond the polar circle. It is probable also that it is research new pastures which pushed many Scandinavians to be established in Iceland, with the Faroe Islands or the Greenland. The cultivated plants consisted, them, mainly in Seigle, Orge, oats, Pois, Haricot S and Choux. The culture of rye, and in particular that of the rye of winter, knew one period of expansion during the age Viking.

Among the food specialities, one can quote the Thorrablot, preserved in a way very edulcorated by the Normands in the Tripes at the mode of Caen, the Andouillette S, cheese with the milk believed and of many culinary specialities in the strong taste. Famous the smalahove of Voss, speciality of head of lamb calcined and smoke accompanied by Swedish turnips could also go back to the age Viking. Side of drinks, the Scandinavians were large consumers of beer to not hopped barley, and drink malt of the type Hydromel.

Rural settlement

The south of Scandinavia knows a relatively early grouped habitat. In the Västergötland and the Uppland, this type of habitat is set up at the end of the period Viking. On the other hand, in the remainder of Scandinavia (other parts of Sweden, Norway, Iceland after colonization), there is rather business with a dispersed habitat.

Archeology made it possible to put at the day of the remainders of rural settlement of this period. The example the best known one is that of Vorbasse, in the Jutland.

Tools

The use of the Araire seems to have been dominating in all Scandinavia Viking, but the Charrue was also known. The water mill is an exception, but it is attested all the same as of.

Reasons of Norman military success in France with

France with was the target many attacks Vikings, of which most known is undoubtedly the head office of Paris which started towards the end of the month of November 885. If French resistance should start to organize in a more serious way after this seat, it does not remain about it less than the incursions Vikings had been of a frightening effectiveness throughout the century. This success is initially explained by the quality of the military Norman, effective and innovative machine, and by the audacity of its actions in French territory. In addition, the political situation in France after the death of Charlemagne, in 814, perhaps facilitated the task with the Vikings because the successors of the large Carolingian are often occupied quarreling between them or miss simply initiative, with the result that principal resistance vis-a-vis the Vikings does not come from the leaders but from the direct victims of the raids.

Norman military assets

The first raids Vikings were especially directed towards targets located near the shore and especially consisted in plundering the villages or the monasteries with few means, in order to be able to regain the broad one with quickly gained richnesses. But as of 830, one can note an evolution in the modus operandi Vikings: those profit from now on from a larger fleet and attack targets (especially churches or monasteries), located inside the country. They employ scouts or spies to know the provisions of their targets and are delayed even sometimes in French territory. Perhaps Noirmoutier, located at the mouth of the Loire, appears among the first as a basis places to have been used fixed to the Vikings. There gradually, the Vikings will undertake to conquer territories in order to be able to cultivate the ground. This change of objective will require a military evolution: to assume their conquests, the Vikings will need a larger and better organized army. Through this evolution, one notices that the French did not know to defend themselves against the invader: one of the reasons would be probably the lack of marine. Indeed, the coastal villages could only be organized summarily to face an enemy who struck quickly and who set out again also quickly, without being intercepted by an enemy fleet. For this purpose, Charlemagne would have built a fleet but would not have known to establish effective defense system inside the river system of France, however strongly exploited by the Vikings after his death. It is relevant to add that the Vikings at the century are not pirates: they do not fight at sea and their fleet is useful only for transport; that carries to believe that better organized France, provided with a true fleet, could have competed against a very mobile enemy like the Vikings.

Their boats were adapted to displacements in not very deep water, thanks to a hull more punt, and thus they could circulate through small rivers. The Vikings could also trail their fleet at a good distance: during the head office of Paris, they would have even trailed it out of the Seine to further give it to water two thousand feet, upstream of the Seine. The Vikings gradually adopted a cavalry, but made use of it only for transport because the latter preferred to fight with foot. The Norman warriors were generally armed with large heavy swords, lances, axes of arcs and javelins. They also had shields which could be used to form tortoises , which gave them a good defense. But it is the tactical element of the Vikings and not their weapons which guaranteed their effectiveness with the combat. The main feature of their tactic remains the effect of surprise. They used the blackness of the night to surprise the adversary and to be able to withdraw itself if the exit of the combat were dubious. Informed about the provision of their adversaries, that is to say thanks to spies or by the corruption of the enemy, they often succeed in surprising it. Their tricks are numerous: strategic traps, folds and pretenses are often used. They were also inclined to change religion like pair of shoes and this provision seems to have played in favor of the moral one of the troops to some recoveries. At the time of a raid, the Vikings did not save anybody, not even the children or the old men: this way of doing the war rises especially from the need for terrorizing the adversary in order to remove any taste of resistance to him, method impossible to circumvent insofar as the Vikings are sometimes very few and yet very advanced inside the country, therefore vulnerable. This aspect of their tactic, which consists in spreading the fear and terror at the time of the attacks, is a weapon of frightening dissuasion of which the effects on the adversary, though nonquantifiable, surely played a big role in the success of the incursions Normans in France.

Lack of effectiveness of France in front of the invader

Put aside lack of navy, French, whose capacity was not centralized enough because of the internal competitions which characterize the period which follows the death of Charlemagne into 814, did not know to join together their forces to drive out the invader definitively. A certain lack of initiative as well as the divergence of the interests of the main actors in France made it possible to the Vikings to benefit from an internal situation of weakness to put at fire and blood cities, monasteries or even of the Churches and to draw considerable spoils from it. For example, in 879, there would have been competitions between Louis the Young person, king de Germanie and the two wire of Louis the Stammerer, Louis III and Carloman. These competitions prevailed at the time when the Vikings obtained a “large army”, organized for conquests more ambitious than before. It is an economic situation which does not help of anything efficiently to organize a defense on a country scale. Also, of the tributes are versed on several occasions by the French in order to buy a provisional peace, as into 866, when Charles the Bald person buys peace with the Vikings for 4000 pounds. In 877, the successor of Charles the Bald person, Louis the stammerer, incited by the archbishop of Rheims, also buys a peace with the Vikings for 5000 pounds. Finally, at the time of the head office of Paris, Charles the Large one, finally made on the spot with an army, following the pressures made by the assembly of Metz, buys the departure of the Vikings for a certain number of books and even authorizes them to plunder Burgundy. Even if this last example is out of the commun run, one can understand that with such an attitude, the French contributed to nourish the appetite of the Vikings with regard to the fruit of plunderings and the tributes. There however was more and more resistance on behalf of the French towards the end of, but this one comes, in a general way, the people himself and local warriors. The king himself delays the Norman problem by the payment of tributes, which will be obviously assumed by the people.

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