Vikings and there tribal raids and pilaging.?

Question

Ok?
This is the type of culture I would like even knowing that some would abuse it (like that doesnt happen in our society now) anyway the way It would run and survive is by stealing (Raiding) other nations or if have be raid other V Tribes to keep them selves alive.
A Clan would be made up of 6 or more families with each family providing the eldest to become a member of the clans leadership and also a man to be rughed up for War.
Clans then fall under the banner of there elected King who can rule for only a short piriod of time. A clan can make war with enemy clans or raid other peoples just as it is not of there own Kingdom.

OK here is the real Q, can a group of peoples organized right set up a culture like this and go about on to bring the Viking back, and Im not talking no bull about gangs I mean real Kingdoms.
What do you think.

Answer 1

I think you need to understand that "viking" was an activity that *some* (not all) of the Norse took part in. "Viking" comes from an Old Norse word meaning "detour" - it implies that is something one "turns aside" to do, not an everyday activity, and definately not the basis of a society - despite what continental Europeans who were raided by some of those who turned to viking may have thought.

The conditions that gave rise the viking age were also rather specific. The Medieval Warm Period had given Scandinavia decades of excellent harvests and raised the population. This created internal presures that were released by going viking.

Of course, not all of them were raiders. The Norse were also known as great explorers (establishing colonies in the Hebredies, Scotland, England, Ireland, France, around the Baltic, Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland - although the latter two didn't last), traders (with great trading centers like Birka and controlling a lucrative trade route down the Volga River in Russia), and soldiers (the Norse made up the Vangarian Guard in Byzantium).

The term "tribe" is used in some literature, but this is better understood as proto-national type groups than a more "primative" tribal structure that you describe. There were the Danes, who became ... the Danes; the Geats, who became the Swedes; the Rus, who gave their name to Russia; etc. I'm not aware of any time of Clan structure in Norse society. This is more a celtic thing, show up in Scotland and Ireland. The Norse were organized geographically under "Jarls", who owed allegiance only to their King, and even that was mitigated by the proto-democratic gathering called the "Althing"

Once the Medieval Warm Period cooled back into the Little Ice Age, once the "excess" population of Scandinavia had been resettled elsewhere (including Normandy in France, where their decendents became the Normans), and once Christianity had replaced the more hawkish deities of the Old Norse pantheon, the Viking Age came to an end.

So, for you to create (it would not be "re-create" since you have your facts wrong) a society like this would require a complex mix of elements, many of which you have no control over (like the weather). Beyond, experiements in social engineering (and that is what you are suggesting) rarely work. Just ask the Soviet Union ... oh wait, you can't.

Answer 2

1st not all Vikings were Norse. Many were Irish or Scots. For the Celts it was a form or entertainment and a legitimate means of making a living. Much of the same could be said for the Norse. Next not all clans were set up the way you described them to be. In the Celtic world (many Norse adopted this method) a Clan was a family-the Gaelic word Clanna means family and it is from that word that the modern word Clan comes from. Something along the lines of what you are talking about is happening in SCA-Society of Creative Anachronisms. These are people that seek to relive the middle ages and they have Norse, Scots, Irish and so forth and the various governments are set up similar to what you would find in that time period. The problem with doing this in the modern age is that the population is much higher, land areas held by nations is much larger and so forth. A nation set up this way is doomed to be invaded or destroyed. One way that this is being done is in my own Clan-I am a Donald (others would know us as the MacDonalds) we are sponsored by our Clan Chiefs and work with them for the good of the Clan. Some other Clan organizations also exist and work for the same purpose.