Peter Foote The Viking Achievements Summary

Peter Foote and David Wilson, an archaeologist and professor respectively, wrote The Viking Achievement: A Story of the Society and Culture of Early Medieval Scandinavia to analyze the people and society of the northern region of Europe from the 9th to 13th centuries. They focused on the individual lives of the indigenous Scandinavian people, their roles and jobs in their community, and their trade with and conquest of other territories. Foote and Wilson describe the infamous achievements the Vikings accomplished and how they managed to leave their footprint in European history. The northern regions of Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden were filled with nomadic people who emphasized the importance of individuality and self-sufficiency. This being said, Scandinavian communities were “based on large family groups” which soon developed to “central monarchies” that played a significant role in how they ran their society (Foote and Wilson 27). The authors emphasized the influence war played on the Vikings and how their economy was based on “agriculture, fishing, and hunting” (65). Once the Vikings inhabited the land they took over, they “quickly became acclimatized to its political structure and with

During the 9th and 10th centuries, Christian missionaries tried to persuade the Vikings to adopt their religion and give up their destructive and barbarian ways but were mostly ignored. From 800 on, the Vikings mostly spoke German but soon split into different languages as more territory was conquered and the initial Viking group was split up. This made communication between different groups particularly difficult as it limited the spread of information thus hindering the spread of religion even