Viking History

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Viking history has many interesting aspects, from technology, conquests, and exploration, to social dynamics and religion. Among these, a few things stand out as being especially notable. The most obvious point of interest being that the popular images and portrayals of the Scandinavians known as the vikings are rather inaccurate. These views have skewed our interpretations on their social structures and religious views. They were not barbaric, uncivilized people with an insatiable thirst for blood. They were explorers, merchants, farmers, craftsman, and skilled laborers that raided as a way of supplementing their income and expanding. Knowing this opens the door to other surprising facts, and I will discuss what I found to be the most interesting things in this paper.

To expand upon what I had mentioned before, vikings organized raids as a way to supplement their income mainly because Scandinavia did not offer many resources. The soil was rocky and the weather was cold, making farming and raising livestock challenging. Raiding provided a good, easy source of income. Although they eventually did look to expand their lands, they were looking for profit when they raided the monasteries along the coastlines. Among the items they looted were typical valuables, but also slaves which could bring them in quite a bit of money. I found this to be particularly interesting because it forces you to think of them in a different light. Most of the things we do in this life are for some sort of profit, so one quickly realizes that they were not pillaging and plundering to cause terror and spread chaos. People in other parts of the world did not have to deal with the harsh conditions that they had to deal with in their homeland. They were simp...

... middle of paper ...

...ds are not acceptable by today's standards, it worked for them at that time. Pagan religions seem devilish and mysterious to us now, but compared to the Old Norse religions, Christianity is young. Reading about the vikings has made me realize that not everything has always worked the way that it does now, and that we should not become trapped in the mindset that it will always work as it currently does.

Works Cited

Larrington, Carolyne. The Poetic Edda (Oxford World's Classics). New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.

Sawyer, Peter. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.

Sturluson, Snorri and Jesse L. Byock.The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. Penguin Classics, 2006. Print.

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