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Initially, the Vikings limited their attacks to "hit-and-run" raids. However, they soon expanded their operations. In the years 814–820, Danish Vikings repeatedly sacked the regions of Northwestern France via the Seine River and also repeatedly sacked monasteries in the Bay of Biscay via the Loire River. Eventually, the Vikings settled in ...
As a result, the Vikings set all the buildings of the monastery on fire. The abbey burned down to the ground, "since there was no one left alive to fight the fire" . [ 14 ] Among the monastery's greatest treasures was one of the most precious relics of Western Christianity , the Sandals of Christ , which were carried to safety before the Viking ...
Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries CE, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] but some scholars debate whether the term Viking [ a ] represented all Scandinavian settlers ...
The Viking world was as much populated by missionary kings, bishops and saints as it was by raiders, gods and giants.
The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the Vikings as "heathen men". [15] Monasteries and minster churches were popular targets as they were wealthy and had valuable, portable objects. [ 16 ]
Medieval monasteries and abbeys were frequently the target of Viking raids because they were wealthy landowners, [3] and stored vast amounts of gold and other precious materials. Vikings plundered abbeys, like Iona Abbey, for riches, food, and even their holy texts—which were, at the time, often inscribed with gold leaf.
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries.
The first monastery to be raided was in 793 at Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast, and the first recorded raid being at Portland, Dorset in 789; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle described the Vikings as heathen men. [13] Monasteries and minster churches were popular targets as they were wealthy and had valuable objects that were portable. [14]