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Maybe but the Viking’s modus operandi seemed like it was pillage/rape/kidnap the best looking women and then head out. I can only think of one settlement the Vi
by gremloni 5y ago
Maybe but the Viking’s modus operandi seemed like it was pillage/rape/kidnap the best looking women and then head out. I can only think of one settlement the Vikings set up in Gaul.
- vintermann 5y agoNot even close. For one thing, Leif was a Christian. For another, his father, who more lived up to the stereotype of the murderous psycho Viking, had been twice banished for murder already, which was why he found himself in Greenland in the first place. The Norse were never a lot like the rapey pagan party Vikings they're portrayed as in popular culture, and certainly not by 1021.
- HarryHirsch 5y agoNot really - they had a three-pronged business model based on ranching sheep, trading and, yes, raiding. Wasn't it Erik the Red who had two brothers, and their father asked all three what they were going to be when they had grown up. Says the first he is going to be a farmer and his sheepflock is going to be so large that he will have to dig another waterhole. Says the second he will go trading and he will have to build another barn to keep his wares in. Says Erik, who was the youngest, he is going to be a Viking and he is going to raid both of them.
- munk-a 5y agoThere were norse settlments all over the place - Russia, Normandy, Lower and Central Germany, England (the Danelaw was a thing for a while), Ireland and, famously, Byzantium. For settling uninhabited locales you've got Shetland, Mann, the Isles, Iceland and some seasonal settlements on Greenland.
- gremloni 5y agoByzantium? I would love some reading material on that.
- AnimalMuppet 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#Byzantine_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varangians#Byzantine_Empire It's not much, but it's a start.
- acjohnson55 5y agoHere's a short podcast series that talks about the Normans, including Bohemond, who set up a crusader state in Antioch, which had been Byzantine territory not long before: https://normancenturies.com/ https://normancenturies.com/ You might also check out the podcast History of Byzantium. Although you'll have to go many hours before encountering the Norse, in the form of the Varangians. And I also recommend the excellent book Children of Ash and Elm for a very recent overview of Viking history.
- gremloni 5y agoAwesome, thank you.
- acjohnson55 5y agoDon't forget Southern Italy and Sicily!
- munk-a 5y agoHrm - I'd avoided including those because the Normans were sooooorta not what you'd call Vikings at that point - but yup those Normans got everywhere.
- acjohnson55 5y agoI mentioned it because you said Norse, and while I'd agree that the Normans weren't vikings (the Viking Age is typically bookended by the Norman conquest of England in 1066), I would definitely consider them Norse.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago> I can only think of one settlement the Vikings set up in Gaul Are you calling Normandy one settlement? As they certainly spent most of the Viking age colonizing from Iceland to Sicily.
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- gremloni 5y agoMost of the “colonizing” happened in prehistory. It was also based out of Ukraine, don’t know if you can attribute that to the Vikings.
- acjohnson55 5y agoI think you may be misinformed. Viking was a lifestyle or temporary occupation, not a people. The people were the Norse, and they did a massive amount of settling in the Viking Age.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoThis is akin to saying "most of the pillaging in history happened by people besides vikings, so you can't really attribute that to them." Yes, others colonized the areas. The Vikings also did during the Viking age.