4 ms·
Robust trade, or spoils of conquest/pillaging. In either case, it's not totally surprising that good from half a world away would end up in some viking longhous
by craftyguy 9y ago
Robust trade, or spoils of conquest/pillaging. In either case, it's not totally surprising that good from half a world away would end up in some viking longhouse.
- pilsetnieks 9y agoIt's doubtful they were especially more keen on raiding and pillaging than other cultures of the time. They were some of the last pagans of Europe and they didn't shy away from raiding churches and monasteries. Monks were almost the only people who could write about it, and their bias influences their accounts. It's not that vikings were especially nice and peaceable people but neither was anyone then.
- craftyguy 9y agodefinitely. but they seemed to be one of the most well-traveled (as an ethnicity), hence why they may have acquired objects from distant lands more easily than others. those things could have come into posession by visiting (either peacefully or forefully) less distant lands that traded with more distant lands for those objects.