Shalz,
You provide no clue as to your age or the nature of the exam, whether
it is end-of-term in eighth grade or a university course...so it is
difficult to know at what level to pitch this comment.
However, given the very general nature of your question, I shall
assume you are relatively young, and not trained as an historian or an
archaelogist.
So here goes:
"Viking" is a Norwegian word derived from the word "vik", which means
"bay" or "inlet"; some link it to the geographical name "Viken" which
was the mediaeval name for what today is the Oslo Fjord.
In this context, "viking" originated either to denote one who came
from "Viken" or, more plausibly, someone who went from "vik" to "vik"
- referred to as "viking" in the same way as riding a surf is called
"surfing".
This was at a time around a 1000 to 1200 years ago, when lurching from
one bay to another was undertaken - mostly in summer - for purposes of
trade, visiting relatives or, more darkly, to raid a neigbouring
community.
From these beginnings, the term "viking" came to be applied to people
who were engaged in the outward expansion of the communities of
western Norway - towards England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and
greenland, and with important knock-on effects in France and even to
the mediterranean.
"Viking" also came to be applied to Danes and Swedes engaged in
similar adventures, though their destinations were different: the
Danes focussed much on England, the Swedes looked Eastwards.
So, to give you the short answer: "Vikings" were people (mostly men)
of Norse origin, engaged in territorial expansion, trade, and
settlement over large parts of Europe in the early middle ages.
They were much feared due to the ferocity of their fighting - perhaps
even more so as they possessed a technological advatage - the viking
long-ship - which enable them to move faster across the oceans and far
inland on rivers than anyone else, so they could appear with sudden
surprise, and get away with their booty (gold, silver, women,
armaments, food, children (for sale as slaves), works of art, monks &
priests and anything else that took their fancy).
Gradually, they acquired land and settled where they first raided and
began founding cities and states (Dublin and Musnter were established
by Vikings; Normandy is derived from the word for "northman" (to this
day Norwegians refer to themselves in their own language as
"Northmen") and built more permanent political structures which drew
them into European politics.
As a result of this, and a parallel consolidation of political
structures at home, the loose and uncontrolled viking raids gradually
gave way to the more ordinary state-to-state relationships - whether
peaceful or not - and a little by little the viking era came to an
end.
Why did all this happen? Why did people from a comparatively
resource-poor part of the world, localted at the edge of where people
could live, suddenly burst upon the European scene in this manner?
There have been many theoriies and it probably never will be entirely settled.
One theory is rooted in the nature of Western nature, where soil was
scarce, but where it was found was also extremely fertile. This meant
that those who owned fertile land became - as measured at the time -
extremely rich, whilst those who did not own land remained very poor.
As a consequence, their first opportunity to make a living was to be
in the service of a landowner. On the other hand, the landowners
didn't need that many labourers, so as an outled, these guys were
employed in enterprises which took them outside the local community,
and after that they never looked back. Essentially, the local
conditions favoured an "aristocratic" structure of the society, which
then employed that structure to enrich itself at the expense of
others.
Some web sites you might want to consult include:
viking.no/e/
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/
www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/
There are many, many others...
Good luck to you on your exam - don't copy and paste - do the research! |
