Vikings
In AD 789, three strange ships arrived at Portland on the southern coast of England. The "Reeve" or representative of the King of Wessex rode out to meet these visitors. He took with him only a small group of men under the impression that the strangers were traders. The strangers slew them. According to Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, "the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne with plunder and slaughter" in June of the year 793. The Christian monastery communities of Jarrow and Iona, lying on Britain's exposed northern coasts, were looted immediately afterwards. In 795 raids were recorded near Dublin and in 799 on the coast of southwest France. As far as we know this was all the work of Vikings, otherwise known as Northmen or Norsemen, from Scandinavia in northern Europe. This was also the beginning of the period of history known to us as the Viking Age, dating around AD 800 - 1050, when Scandinavian people from the modern countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden influenced much of northern Europe and beyond. Vikings traveled further out in the globe than any European had ever gone before. They exploited the riches of the East and explored the uncharted waters of the North Atlantic. T
They served as mercenaries at the court of Byzatium. It was then cut off with a chisel to form the links. I ExpansionWhether as colonizers, traders or warriors, Vikings reached almost every part of the known world and discovered new lands. It could easily cleave through armor and still leave a mortal wound. The idea of having horns on Viking helms was probably introduced by English plays and parodies of the 19th century depicting Vikings. They had slender, tapering blades up to 50 centimeters long attached to a wooden shaft by a socket. Later on though, they used a little but of mailshirts, made by cutting thin strips of iron from a piece of sheet, or drawing iron wire through a draw-plate, and winding this around a cylindrical former. The links would then be compressed so that the ends overlapped. They were made by welding a sharp cutting edge onto a shaped block of iron. In the British Isles and the French parts of the Carolingian Empire, invasions were carried out in mostly the same manner. They were typically about 1 meter in diameter, and protected the body from shoulder to thigh. From the Baltic Sea they traveled up Russian rivers and waterways to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and all the way to Baghdad. The most fertile and easily worked areas in Northern lands had already been settled since prehistoric times. The butt end was then slotted over a wooden handle and wedged tight.
Common topics in this essay:
Germany England,
Carolingian Empire,
Equipment Invasions,
Viking Age,
Roman Empire,
Central Sweden,
North Atlantic,
Harald Hårfager,
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles,
Jarrow Iona,
ad 800,
northern europe,
reasons viking,
viking age,
carolingian empire,
anglo-saxon chronicles,
north atlantic,
deeply affected,
|