Juvenilia ✔/ a Nonfiction Undergraduate University Collection

The Context Behind Viking Raid Locations

HISTORY 3040

The Viking World

April 1st, 2020

The Context Behind Viking Raid Locations

There is a distinct pattern of geographical tendencies to plunder certain types of places in the Viking age. There are many factors that may have influenced plunder locations, and to assume only one or a couple of them seems both insufficient and illogical. In addition, many Vikings could have had different motives about the reason they were raiding, and to lump them all together in a static way also seems to be doing a disservice. 

There were obvious economic and political reasons to raid, but there is also evidence of religious, technological, cultural, and geographical reasons too. In light of this, certain factors need to be considered contextually to understand why raiding began in the first place, as these factors influenced where the Vikings went in a major way. 

These evolving factors also demonstrate why, ultimately, raiding ended. Further, Eastern Vikings, or The Rūs, and Western Vikings had blatantly different goals, and were quite separate. Western Vikings can further be distinguished because Norwegians could have potentially had land shortage, which is a different reason to raid than the Danes, which was with the aim of accumulating wealth.

There are essential contextual things to consider: raiding was not exclusively Scandinavian, nor were they the first raiders to come to England. From a religious perspective, there is a possibility that the Christians did, in fact, bring a little of the raids on themselves. 

In 700, well before the start of the Viking Age, missionaries were sent to Scandinavia with the intent to convert Pagans into Christians. Emperor Charlemagne of Frankia himself led expeditions to Scandinavia to remove Paganism, and was successful in Saxony; in addition, his son, Louis the Pious, interfered with Danish politics consistently. 

Alcuin, a scholar consistently writing in this period, had a political agenda as he was living in Frankia at the court, and no doubt had political and religious reasons for painting the Vikings out to be worse than they truly were.

Norway could have had a land shortage because the law did not give land to the eldest but divided the father's wealth evenly among all sons. This could have truly spread wealth very thin causing young men to seek wealth out elsewhere. The implications of this law cause issues concerning geography and economic instability. 

In addition, in literature there is evidence of selective female infanticide in Scandinavia, though there is not much archaeological evidence to support this. A potential repercussion of this is that bride-wealth could have been too expensive for young men as there could have been a shortage of potential wives, and thus they went raiding to afford a wife and land to start a family. 

Technologically, the perfection of Viking Long ship allowed raiding to happen because it was a well manufactured boat. It was light, fast, shallow, and maneuverable, which allowed for swift attacks with little chance of provocation should they make it back to the boats. The boats could as easily sail in the ocean as in narrow, winding rivers. 

 Culturally, there are several important factors that could have caused raiding to occur. The first is the increase of global trade around Scandinavia and increased contact of Norse aristocracy with well-travelled people. 

Only the rich would have had any boats to begin with, so the Earls would take warriors and go on expeditions to these new lands. Upon their return with wealth, stories, and glory, more and more people would want a piece of that action. Young men would be the first to take up the offer to go as they have no responsibilities with little land, little wealth, no wife, or dependants.