What were the impacts that the Vikings make?

Question

Hi all

I need to answer how Vikings made negative AND positive impacts on medieval European society.

As for negative, I know that they attacked and plundered villages, destroying / killing homes and people... etc.. but nothing else

As for positive, I know that they were leaders in shipbuilding and trading, but that's about it

can you guys help?
thanks in advance

sorry, spelling mistake. the question should say "What were the impacts that the Vikings made?"

Answer 1

Pros

Fierce Vikings

Viking warriors were very fierce and were often in battles. The term "viking" basically came from the term to "go a-viking" or raiding. There are different ideas on what the word actually meant. The warriors had to be prepared at all times for battle. The sight of a Viking ship pulling onto the shore was enough to strike terror into the most stout hearted person!
Viking Ships

One of the most important things in a Viking's life was his ship or the ship he sailed on. The Vikings were extraordinary sailors.

The sailed in open boats in all kinds of weather and on seas no one else had or would. They were able to raid and plunder like they did because they were able to sail in and out of almost anywhere.

The flat bottom boat they used allowed them to land on any beach and go up small rivers. Of course, this ability developed because of all the fjords or bays in their homeland.

The Vikings invented the true keel which made sailing much easier. The keel is the part of the boat that goes down into the water. it stops the ship from being blown about, and makes steering much easier.
Viking Technology

The Vikings had many skilled craftsmen. They had blacksmiths who made everything from swords to axes.

There were craftsmen skilled at making jewelry, combs and other fine things. The Viking men were very proud of their hair and beards!

The Vikings were probably the first to make and use skis and ski poles. They also skated using shin bones!

Viking Sagas

The Viking sagas were handed down word of mouth for many, many years. Sagas were stories told about their raids, lives and heroes. Their writing was limited even when they developed an alphabet called Fulthark for the first 8 letters. They wrote on huge stones which were very decorative. This is the Viking alphabet.

The letters were called runes and often written on stones which they also believed could tell the future if tossed and read by the right person.

This was one of the things they gave up when they became Christians.


Cons

Despite images of Viking marauders who live for plunder, the heart of Viking society was reciprocity, on both a personal, social level and on a broader political level. The Vikings lived in a time when numerous societies were engaged in many violent acts, and the doings of the Vikings put into context are not as savage as they seem. Others of the time period were much more savage than the Vikings, such as the Frankish king, Charlemagne, who cut off the heads of 4,500 Saxons (Bloody Verdict of Verden) in one day, partly because they would not accept the Christian faith. Most Vikings were traders, although some did plunder, often monasteries around Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England, as they had a lot of valuables in gold and silver. As monasteries were centers of learning & writing, their experiences were much more likely to enter the historical record. However, considerable literature in the monasteries would have been destroyed during the plunderings.

One of the Vikings' largest profit-centres was the slave trade; any group that acts as slave-takers is likely to be viewed with disdain by their victims. During the period of the Vikings, slavery was common throughout Northern Europe, and the fact that many slaves were captured persons was irrelevant in law. A person from Poland could be captured and later sold in England, for example. Slavery was common amongst the Scandinavians themselves, as well.

In the 300-year period where Vikings were most active, there were only approximately 347 attacks that spread from the British Isles to Morocco, Portugal, and Turkey. In Ireland, where the Vikings are most famous for attacking monasteries, there were only 430 known attacks during this 300-year period.

Answer 2

Actually the Vikings was farmers and traders. The stories that you have about killing and plundering, was something that happened very rarely.
If they were provoked they would certainly not go for diplomatic talking about things. If you cheated a Viking, you would pay for it by death.

Many of the stories were written by catholic monks from back then, and they are known to paint the pictures a little more...uhm... colorful than truth was.

If you really want to know about the life of vikings, you should contact the foremost experts on the field, which is the Viking museum in Roskilde, Denmark.

Answer 3

" ALL the great civilisations in their early stages are all based on success in war." Kenneth Clark, Civilisation

If you use today's morals to judge them, then the Vikings will always be the people who "attacked, plundered, destroyed/killed, etc." Which group of people in which civilization in the year 1000 CE did not attack, plunder, destroy, and kill? The European Crusaders? The Muslims?

Yes, they were also traders and shipbuilders, and they also populated Iceland and Greenland. Try reading the body of literature they left behind in the form of Sagas.

Answer 4

Through the years, the Vikings have had varying impacts on the NFC Central.