Viking
THE VIKINGS IN IRELAND 795–1014 Part I
Few places suffered more at the hands of the Vikings than Ireland. For the best part of 200 years the Vikings systematically milked Ireland of its people to supply the slave trade, yet, for all their military success they failed to conquer and settle in any territory besides a few fortified coastal enclaves. This is the conundrum of Viking Age…
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Viking Raids Up-River I
THE VIKING WORLD The brown areas on this map are Viking settlements. From late in the 8th century, Vikings raided, traded, and explored far and wide. They discovered Iceland in 870 and sailed farther west to Greenland in about 985. Leif the Lucky was probably the first European to set…
Viking Raids Up-River II
RAIDING FRANCE This picture of a Viking ship is in a French manuscript from around 1100. Viking ships attacked French towns and monasteries all through the 9th century. One group of Vikings settled in the Seine region. Another band, under the chieftain Rollo, made their homes around Rouen. This area…
VIKING SHIPS
The Hedeby 1 and Hedeby 3 Viking ships. DRAWN BY SUNE VILLUM-NIELSEN. THE VIKING SHIP MUSEUM, DENMARK The region settled by the Vikings during the ninth to eleventh centuries consisted of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Jutland, the Danish archipelago, and islands in the Baltic and the North Atlantic as well…
The Viking Menace
A squadron of Viking warships passes by a rugged coastline on its way to raid European settlements. A factor in the growing strength and versatility of Scandinavian civilization was the emergence of more martial, or aggressive and warlike, elements of society. In this the Scandinavians got their cue, in a…
The Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire
George Majeska The Beginnings Relations between Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire centered at Constantinople (modern Istanbul) were not always friendly. Already in the early ninth century, Viking Rus’ had apparently pillaged the Byzantine city of Amastris on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor, and by the 830s the Byzantine…
German Medieval Warfare
Warfare was a dominant feature of medieval German history. After the late fourth century, Germanic tribes penetrated the western Roman Empire in force, bringing important changes to the military system. Roman discipline and organization gave way to badly organized forces with poor training, few arms, and almost no discipline. Military…