Category: Viking History
Behold! My first attempt at a blog-style history course has been preserved in this sub-category! I’ve always preferred my history served like snacks. They might be a bit stale now, but perhaps you like that sort of thing? I won’t judge.
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Vikings in France: Rollo and Normandy
With Francia consumed by desperation, a Viking by the name of Rollo found his way into French royalty; Normandy, and an impressive genealogy to follow, was born. CONTENTS:I. The Treaty of Saint-ClairII. RolloIII. Normandy I. THE TREATY OF SAINT-CLAIR: The “Great Army” left Francia after a troublesome famine in 892. This was not the end of…
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Vikings in France: Messy Politics
If you think this year’s U.S. election is bad, let’s just talk about the messy politics of post-Charlemagne Francia (France) for a moment. CONTENTS:I. CharlemagneII. A Divided KingdomIII. The Great ArmyIV. Impact I. CHARLEMAGNE: Francia was, during this period, at its height during the reign of Charlemagne (768-814 CE). Under his reign, Francia experienced a great deal…
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Vikings Abroad
Originally, I had planned to immediately jump into the realm of raids by discussing France. However, There are some things that are worth noting before we get into the fine, lovely, and often messy details. The nature of this lesson is really to cover miscellaneous concerns, mostly in chronology, motivations, and level of organization. CHRONOLOGY…
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Viking Age Warfare
Prepare yourself, for our ships are nearly ready to sail west. In this lesson, we will be briefly discussing the foundations for future raiding: warfare. How did they fight? How organized were they? What was the scale? What advantages did they have? It would be foolish to assume that these northmen just washed ashore and…
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Viking Age Weaponry
I originally had included this together with “Viking Warfare,” but, upon writing up that lesson, I realized that they should be split. So, next week we will begin out prelude into the raids. For now, we will bridge our way from art to war with the art of their weapons. Although we will not be covering…
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Viking Age Crafts
I have mentioned craft and production quite a bit now, as we have talked about Viking towns and commerce. The Vikings did not only trade things they stole, nor did they only have raw materials to offer. If not already convinced by their ships, the Vikings were tremendously skilled when it came to their art…
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Viking Age Economics
We are about to wrap up the first half of this Crash Course (that is, the cultural and society portion), as we dwindle down to these tedious elements of trade and economics. After this, we shall only have Crafts, Art, and Weaponry to discuss before we enter the popular realm of raids abroad (starting with…
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Viking Age Art
We have already seen that “Vikings” were incredibly crafty, but now we shall focus on their actual art form. Their art was not like our standard for art today (though, that standard, in all honesty, can be rather low). By that, I mean to say that they did not simply “waste” their creation by sticking it on…
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Viking Age Settlements: Early Towns
Today we shall discuss the earliest major towns to develop in Scandinavia: Birka (Swedish – Sweden), Ribe (Danish – Denmark), Kaupang (Danish – Norway), and Hedeby (Danish – Germany). Of course, we will also begin by understanding how and why these towns finally came to be. In all, these towns each have very fascinating stories to tell. Some tells stories of early laws…
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Viking Age Settlements: Longhouses and Villages
For today’s lesson, we will be discussing the nature of settlements in Scandinavia during the Viking Age. This period actually represents one of change, as Scandinavia goes from a very rural, spread out place, to developing sophisticated trading towns. However, before the Viking Age really began to take off, settlement was rarely organized. Towns did…
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Viking Age Ships
We did all the of legwork last week, so let us enjoy the fruits of that labor and look at pretty pictures of beautiful ships. Contents: Oseburg By far one of the most stunning ships that the Viking Age has to offer. Better yet, it was used in a burial specifically for two women, making…
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Viking Age Seafaring
This lesson begins a two-part lesson on the impressive ships that allowed the Vikings to expand their presence in the medieval world. This portion of the lesson will be discussing the reasons for such advanced maritime development in Scandinavia, as well as their methods for construction and navigation. The second portion will provide many examples…
