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Viking Age swords were common in battles and raids. They were used as a secondary weapon when fighting had fallen out of formation or their primary weapon was damaged. While there were many variations of swords, the Vikings used double-edged swords, often with blades 90 centimetres long and 15 centimetres wide. [2]
The warfare and violence of the Vikings were often motivated and fuelled by their beliefs in Norse religion, focusing on Thor and Odin, the gods of war and death. [215] [216] Violence was common in Viking Age Norway.
Vikings in Norway were more violent towards each other than previously thought, according to a new study that sheds more light on rules and their enforcement in these early European societies.
Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, c. 1300, mentions Viking attacks on the people of East Anglia wherein they are described as "wolves among sheep". [13] The first challenges to the many negative depictions of Vikings in Britain emerged in the 17th century.
The Viking raids in the Rhineland were part of a series of invasions of Francia by the Vikings that took place during the final decades of the 9th century. From the Rhineland, which can be regarded as the nucleus of Frankish culture, the Franks had previously conquered almost the whole of Central Europe and established a great empire.
They are generally referred to as Vikings, [1] [2] but some scholars debate whether the term Viking [a] represented all Scandinavian settlers or just those who used violence. [ 4 ] [ b ] At the start of the early medieval period, Scandinavian kingdoms had developed trade links reaching as far as southern Europe and the Mediterranean, giving ...
[d] In the Viking saga, Ragnar is said to have conducted a raid on Northumbria during the reign of King Ælla. The Vikings were defeated and Ragnar was captured by the Northumbrians. Ælla then had Ragnar executed by throwing him into a pit of venomous snakes. When the sons of Ragnar received news of their father's death, they decided to avenge ...
Vikings had been raiding Britain since the late eighth century. In 793, the monastery at Lindisfarne was sacked. [2] Iona Abbey was also repeatedly attacked by Vikings: In 802, the Annals of Ulster note that "Iona was burned by the heathens", in 806 it states that "the community of Iona, to the number of sixty-eight, was killed by the heathens" and in 825 the monk Blathmac was brutally killed ...