1. Most of the Viking invasions of the ninth and tenth century were written by clerics in a religious context, and the texts often denoted raids as a penalty for the Franks’ sins, which fulfilled biblical prophecy.
2. Frankish theology will be examined in order to define how Christians were to react toward Vikings invasions in three frameworks: the Vikings as punishers of Franks’ sin, the Vikings as pagan crusaders, and the Franks as loyal defenders of the church.
3. Secondary literature maintains three common themes concerning Viking raids: the Franks disobeyed God’s instruction, prophets cautioned the consequences of rebellion, and God sent Vikings to discipline Christians.
4. Frankish clerics often compared sin, both the sin of the people and
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Vikings stole and ruined relics and other precious treasures for their monetary value, not their sacred importance.
15. Vikings aimed to apprehend prisoners and nobles primarily for ransoming purposes, which downplays the notion that ‘monks were murdered for no very clear reason’ by pagans; but examples like Louis the German beheading 140 rebels exemplified the cheapness of life, which technically depreciated the significance of murder in the Medieval period.
16. Regardless of stories where pagans performed ritual sacrifices, Vikings rarely performed such horrific ceremonial murders during the invasion of Frankish territories.
17. When Franks formed alliances with Vikings, they did not necessarily renounce their faith and follow pagan practices, which indicates the Vikings did not force paganism upon whom they conquered.
18. Frankish clerical writings distinguished Vikings as pagans and dehumanized beings to justify a Christian’s moral obligation to resist conversion, thus permitting Franks to kill pagans without requiring penance.
19. Viking invasions prompted the need for the proper Christian response, which is defined in two groups: the Christian religious leaders and the Christian nobles and
The Vikings didn’t start their raids immediately, they started by “looting” for precious metals and goods to further advance their technology. After taking Northern Europe, they went south and east to take the Arabs and Byzantine empire. The end of Viking raids were taken down domestically and politically by countries such as Scandinavia, Sweden, and Denmark. Before this the Vikings created a rule for them to establish some places and “loot” others places. Historians during that time credit the rule, their momentum of building a nation in Europe.
During one night, one of the captives escaped, causing the Vikings to become eminently angry and sever the hands, feet, and noses of their captives and throwing them onto land, probably to die (Adam of Bremen qtd. In Tschan 1). Of
During Medieval times there was a civilization of raiders called Vikings that lasted from about 800-1100. They were barbaric raiders and destroyed the settlements of which they came across; this caused setbacks across many European Kingdoms. Small groups of Vikings ventured out from Northern Europe in search for land, food, and other civilizations. During one of the ventures The Vikings came upon The Western European civilizations. They killed almost everyone they came in contact with in order to steal the maximum amount of slaves, jewelry, food, and other resources.
-Why were western Europeans so scared of the Vikings? -What events/circumstances drew western Europeans back into cities? -What role did the Pope play in the middle ages? 1.
While some Viking age Scandinavians were berserkers and warriors the majority were traders and explorers with an extensive trade network that covered all of modern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Northern India, and even some parts of China. During the Viking age the economy of Europe was changed from a simple exchange of goods type system into a mercantile and market based system. The Viking raids in the 9th and 10th centuries took a heavy toll on the stability and political development of ancient Europe. The Scandinavian attackers caused much fear in the populations of Europe and historians at the time were usually priests who saw the pagan Scandinavians as marauders and murders, which they were largely in their primary interactions with the outside world. Additionally the Church, was an extremely rich and defenseless target for the raiders and may have been more frequently targeted than many other parts of European kingdoms.
Their religion was based on their desire for glory and that is prevalent in their culture and who they worship. The Vikings and the Geats had similarities with their worship. It is a glory based, meaning their gods all have incredible amounts of glory. All of their gods have had trials and fights and games where they have won their glory. Beowulf, like the norse gods started out powerful and clever but they both gained glory.
One such contradiction to this theory is Patrick Cockburn, who believes the Viking “atrocities were the equivalent of those carried out by SS divisions invading Poland 75 years ago”. Throughout his argument, Cockburn is incredibly biased towards the Anglo-Saxons, using emotive language such as, “the Anglo-Saxons fought back heroically”, which colours his entire argument. He believes “terrified accounts of what happened were set aside by experts as biased”. However, he doesn’t state that it isn’t wise to not consider bias when using sources, especially when a significant element of utilising a source is to consider the bias. Evidence for Cockburn’s argument is that the Vikings “killed in a sickenly gruesome Viking ritual known as the ‘blood-eagle’”,
“Were the Crusades successful in achieving their aim of reclaiming Jerusalem and maintaining the Christian presence in the Middle East (Anatolia) and the Crusader States, and how are the Crusades relevant/similar to recent events taking place in the Middle East such as America’s war on Terror and Jihadism.” The Crusades were a series of holy wars declared by the officials of the Catholic Church on the Muslim expansion and Seljuk Turks who had taken over the holy lands. Crusaders were sent off to Israel to reclaim these lands and strengthen the Christian presence in Anatolia however they were not successful in maintaining their holds and crusades following the first crusades can be considered failures. The First crusade was declared by Pope
“Had he been a Christian…”1 a popular lament in The Song of Roland as the characters look upon strong Muslim warriors and state that this man would make the perfect Christian. This case represents a viewing of ‘the other’ within the texts of The Song of Roland and Beowulf. Within each story there is the family of the ‘good guy’ or the Christian, and then there is the family of the other. The Song of Roland likes to draw parallels between these two families, giving them similar bonds and connections whereas Beowulf tries to separate the two, demonizing the family of the ‘villain’. Thesis
The misconception here is that the word Viking is not actually a noun but rather a verb; it is an action of pillaging and plundering by sea. The Norsemen are considered barbaric and uncivilized because whenever someone speaks of the Vikings who are almost always depicted killing and pillaging, they actually are talking about the Norsemen who did go viking but were also civilized. The Norsemen were considered uncivilized because their illegitimate counterpart, the Vikings, were depicted so cruel and
To What Extent Can the Vikings Be Considered More Than Just Raiders? The Vikings were a civilisation from Scandinavia that lived between the 8th and 11th centuries. Over time, the Vikings have gained a reputation as being bloodthirsty savages. But exactly how much of the stereotypes are true?
The collapse of the Frankish Empire, in terms of time, conspired with a new conqueror appearance in Europe. In the 8th century was started, but in the 9th and 10th centuries, the Viking Age reached its culmination. Vikings of the Norse origin traveled not only along the coasts of the British Isles, France, German and other coastlines, but also deeper inland, through the rivers. They brought misery and (infused/imbued)? horror in Western Europeans.
The region was harsh by definition. Cold winds, long winters and various predators all put strain on the population. As such, a very powerful image of light and dark, or ice and fire in a perpetual battle formed and became an integral area of belief. This struggle between harshness and kindness was what caused hope and the belief in divine deities for many of the Viking people. However, there was a potent sense of anxiety in Nordic society.
Ravagers, Pirates, pagans: These words sums up the Vikings for the people who lived in europe during medieval times. Although the Vikings are seen as barbaric fighters, they brought many important technological inventions and had many achievements that made a great impact on european culture. The Vikings had great achievements in technology on a wide range of things, one of which is their weapon crafting skills. They were able to craft swords, spears, javelins, battle-axes, knives, bows, arrows, shields, and body armor with intricate designs (Lamoureux).
Raids were a prominent feature of Viking contact and in Ireland most of the raiding was directed by Norwegians. This consisted of few sporadic attacks along the coast before becoming more frequent in 820. Characteristically, in 821 they raided Howth and according to a quote from the Annals ‘took great prey of women’. Many were kidnapped and held for ransom, or were used as slaves while the monasteries along the coast of Wexford were plundered