Scandinavian Vikings Attacks and Settlement

Scandinavian Vikings Attacks and Settlement of Ireland The Vikings are renowned for their warrior nature the numerous stories that had been written about them are disclosing a long series of battles they conducted during their existence. The Vikings originate from the Scandinavian Peninsula. They had lived where Norway and Denmark are presently. Due to overpopulation during the 700s, several of the Vikings had found themselves in the situation of having to leave their country.

Being forced to find another place to settle in; the Vikings sailed across the North Sea with the help of the newly invented longboats. There, they attacked several countries, including Ireland. Among the first Vikings to appear near Irish shores had been the Norwegians and with their emergence they had been the first people approaching Ireland with the intention of conquering it since the early Celtic invasions from B.C.

Both the Norwegian Vikings attacking Ireland and the Danish ones attacking England had become known as the "Norsemen" in the area. During the year of 793 the Vikings had launched the first attacks on Great Britain and among their most important acts during their first raids had been the destruction of several monasteries in both England and Ireland. Due to the fact that the Vikings had not been acquainted with the concept of Christianity, they disregarded all Christian symbols.

During the 30 to 40-year period following the first attacks, the Vikings settled on making occasional raids during which they remained for no more than 5-6 days, robbing and plundering any valuables they could their hands on. After the looting, they used to sell the stolen treasures up in the North. The Vikings mainly concentrated on the looting of treasures and slaves because of the high demand in Scandinavia for both.

Next to attacking people's houses, the Norsemen (or the Ostmen as they called themselves) discovered that the monasteries possessed great riches and that the monks had made good slaves. Thus, the discovery led to the wave of monasteries looted and destroyed by the Vikings during the time. The Northerners proved to be extremely merciless towards their prisoners with the atrocities being performed at the time unimaginable today. The Irish people of the era told terrifying stories about the people that came from the North and pillaged their country.

In spite of the occurrences, the Irish did not panic and followed their daily program regardless to the attacks which did not happen more often than once every year. There are also accounts of the Vikings coming from the north having plundered the country of Wales, but, apparently, the Vikings had encountered serious resistance in the area, with the Celts proving to be fierce warriors.

The Vikings did not always find it easy to take their preys from foreign countries There are stories describing how the Northerners had been pushed back into their boats and having suffered great losses in the process. An example of such an event is that of 795's in England with the British uniting their powers against the Vikings that later went to Ireland in order to get a prey which would require less casualties.

Ireland did not stand back while the Vikings attacked their homes and there are several accounts which refer to Irishmen having defeated the looters during various occasions. Consequently, the Vikings improved their methods of fighting and instead of coming unprepared and with just a few men, they soon came back in larger bands. As they stole goods from the Irish, they brought them to the camp that had been established there as a military base.

The bands now coming to loot the British islands had been prepared to conduct warfare in their centers for several months. With the more advanced methods of fighting, the Vikings could now attack much more places and could go further inland. As a result, numerous monasteries, churches, farms and even several Irish fortresses inhabited by Irish Lords had been looted. The Vikings used this style of combat since 836 to 845 and devastated a lot of Ireland leaving its people petrified with horror.

The Irish kings at the time had been powerless when concerning their potential to initiate serious counter-attacks. After a period of being constantly pillaged, Ireland seemed to have lost all hope to resist in the face of the Northerners even with the Irish now being more trained to retaliate. Unpredictably, the Vikings stopped from appearing on the Irish coasts with the last considerable attack in the 9th century having been in 851. The Vikings now seemed to have felt more attracted to England where they intensified their looting.

Despite the fact that the raids had stopped, the Irish had to deal with the Viking communities that had formed in Ireland. Some of the settlements had turned into major towns and now had large numbers of inhabitants. The largest Viking community was that in the city of Dubhlinn and it had supplied the Scandinavian Peninsula with most of its slaves.

As the Irish could not live with the Norsemen inhabiting their country they had commenced several attacks and the Norse community in Dubhlinn had been destroyed with its people fleeing to the Isle of Man. Several other Norsemen communities in Ireland had later been destroyed and their people chased away. The situation remained calm for over half a century until the year of 914 when the Vikings had launched an attack of huge proportions. As a result, several towns, including Dubhlinn in 917, had been taken from the Irish.

Just a year after the incident, a new wave of Vikings had come to Ireland and reinforced those already settled in Ireland. Because of their numerous armies, the Norsemen had begun their pillaging deep inland, running into minor resistance. One of the most powerful kings of Ireland at the time, Niall Glundub, had decided to raise an army that would chase the Vikings from their country. Several Irish attacks of Dubhlinn had resulted in failure with the Niall Glundub himself being mortally wounded.

The Norsemen had later begun to continue their conquering campaigns inland where they founded new towns. Despite of their success in Ireland, the Vikings present there had not enjoyed it much for they had spent a lot of their resources in order to help the newly formed Viking kingdom in England named Danelaw. In 952 however, Dubhlinn had separated from Danelaw and the Vikings here had started their own dynasty of kings. The Irish Norsemen had stopped from looting around the 950s and had started to develop as traders.

The ones in England had also stopped from conducting warfare and instead became fishermen and farmers. In France, the Vikings had established the kingdom of Normandy on the northern coast. Apart from dealing with the constant attacks from the Vikings, Ireland had to cope with its internal wars for supremacy. The people of the Ui Neill had emerged as great conquerors regardless of the fact that they didn't had many chances of succeeding at first.

During the 700s and the 800s their power increased and they had now proved to be remarkable adversaries for the rest of the kingdoms in Ireland. Ui Neill had rose and presumably had the first High Kings of Ireland, but in their turn, they were having trouble due to the fighting between the royal families of the kingdom. Despite the fighting within the kingdom, the Ui Neill had managed to gather their forces and conquer nearly most of northern and eastern Ireland.

During the era in which the Vikings raided Ireland, the Irish had gone through hard times as they had.