Vikings as Raiders: Strategy, Brutality, and Conquest

The Vikings as Feared Raiders

The Vikings were feared raiders for roughly three centuries, from approximately 790 AD to 1065 AD. They took slaves, pillaged, raped, looted, burned, and leveled villages. Later they began to winter over in the regions they conquered, and in England they even acquired their own kingdom known as the Danelaw. These raiders were fierce, and accounts from Christian monks at the time reveal how absolutely brutal the situation must have been. One monk writing in 860 AD reported on the terror of seeing Viking ships approaching: "The number of ships grows: the endless stream of Vikings never ceases to increase. Everywhere the Christians are the victims of massacres, burnings, plundering. The Vikings conquer all in their path and nothing resists them: They seize Bordeaux, Perigeux, Limoges, Angouleme, and Toulouse. Angiers, Tours, and Orleans are annihilated and an innumerable fleet sails up the Seine…."

Another monk, writing in 884, recorded: "The Norsemen continued to kill and take Christian people captive, destroy churches, tear down fortifications and burn towns. Along all the roads lay the bodies of clergy and laity, nobles and commoners, women, children and infants. There was no highway or village where the dead did not lie, and all were filled with torment and grief to see the devastation of the Christian people, driven to the point of extermination."

In short, the Vikings were not just traders, merchants, and farmers — they were also terrifying raiders who for nearly three centuries terrorized the coastal regions of England and northern Europe, meeting little to no resistance due to the political disorganization of the times. Thanks to their size, brute strength, disregard for social norms, mastery of naval warfare, the element of surprise, and a thirst for conquest, the Vikings were masterful raiders for centuries until finally driven back to Scandinavia.

Origins of the Viking Raiding Tradition

The very name "Viking" is said to have derived from the Old Norse word vikingr, which meant pirate — and like pirates of later eras, the Vikings attacked primarily for the purpose of plundering. Their mode of existence depended on their ability to take from others what they themselves lacked. However, raiding was really only one aspect of Viking life; they also contributed to the development of societies and cultures as they penetrated, took over, and eventually settled the regions they had raided in previous generations.

The Scandinavian region that gave birth to the Vikings was in a mode of expansion at the end of the 8th century, and that expansion continued for several generations. Europe itself had fallen into the Dark Ages and was only beginning to emerge from them under the leadership of men like Charlemagne. During this period of political fragmentation, the Vikings found ample opportunity to strike.

In the 800s, Vikings used European rivers to launch raids on Christian communities; in this manner they attacked Paris and other French towns, often targeting monasteries and churches because of the stores of wealth those places held. Christian communities had long-standing traditions of giving alms and gifts of great value to churches and monasteries, and the Vikings recognized these institutions as prime targets.

Ahmad ibn Fadlan's Eyewitness Account

One writer from the Viking Age who actually journeyed to the land of the Norsemen was Ahmad ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveler from Arabia. His story has been depicted in both literature and film — in Michael Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead and in the film The 13th Warrior, directed by John McTiernan. In the film, Fadlan is portrayed as a poet who encountered the Vikings after they defended his party from a Tatar attack. In reality, Fadlan was primarily interested in the Scandinavian merchants who had settled along the Volga River.

He described the Vikings as a barbarous people, quite distinct from the culture he knew: the Norse he encountered were to him "the filthiest of all Allah's creatures: they do not purify themselves after excreting or urinating or wash themselves when in a state of ritual impurity after coitus and do not even wash their hands after food." Yet there was clearly admiration alongside the revulsion. Fadlan describes the Vikings as fearsome to behold:

"I saw how the Northmen had arrived with their wares, and pitched their camp beside the Volga. Never did I see people so gigantic; they are tall as palm trees, and florid and ruddy of complexion. They wear neither camisoles nor caftans, but the men among them wear a garment of rough cloth, which is thrown over one side, so that one hand remains free. Every one carries an axe, a dagger, and a sword, and without these weapons they are never seen."

Fadlan goes on to describe how these Vikings built large wooden houses along the Volga in which ten or twenty men would live together. He would find these men sitting upon couches with the women they were offering for sale: "They come from their own country, anchor their ships in the Volga, which is a great river, and build large wooden houses on its banks. In every such house there live ten or twenty, more or fewer. Each man has a couch, where he sits with the beautiful girls he has for sale. Here he is as likely as not to enjoy one of them while a friend looks on. At times several of them will be thus engaged at the same moment, each in full view of the others. Now and again a merchant will resort to a house to purchase a girl, and find her master thus embracing her, and not giving over until he has fully had his will."

Vikings had little use for restraint or manners. Wine was so often found in their hands that Fadlan described many of them as dying while still holding a cup.

Conclusion: Three Centuries of Terror

The Vikings were a strong, fierce people who used stealth attacks, brutality, and intelligence to wreak havoc upon Christian Europe for approximately three centuries — from roughly the time of Charlemagne to the time of the Crusades. They targeted churches and monasteries because of the wealth those institutions stored. As they pushed south from present-day Scandinavia into Europe, they began to envision a new future for themselves on the Continent and started wintering in the regions they had sacked. The Vikings would eventually be driven out once European powers managed to unite against them, but for nearly three hundred years the Vikings were the bane of the Christian West.

Bibliography

"5 Reasons the Vikings were So Successful at Raiding European Villages." Medium, 2021.

Cook, Albert. "Ibn Fadlan's Account of Scandinavian Merchants on the Volga." Journal of English and German Philology, 22.1 (1923), 54–67.

Jakobsen, Hanne. "Old Arabic Texts Describe Dirty Vikings." Science Norway, 2022. https://sciencenorway.no/archaeology-history-art-and-literature-forskningno/old-arabic-texts-describe-dirty-vikings/1388613

Lula, Muneera. "The Vikings: Raiders or Settlers?" Manchester Historian, 2015. https://manchesterhistorian.com/2015/the-vikings-raiders-or-settlers/

"Vikings as Raiders." History on the Net, n.d. https://www.historyonthenet.com/vikings-as-raiders