Vikings: The Rise and Fall

Episode 1

The Road to Lindisfarne

Fri, Jun 24, 2022

Vikings is a term applying to the Nordic Germanic people who lived in and sailed from Scandinavia, but specifically for the macho 'way of life' of their fearless, fierce, feared warriors. As excellent sailors, who developed superior rowing ships and learned to add a sail, they became redoubtable raider-pirates. Although raiding was common in the chaotic feudal early Middle Ages, the barren land kept them struggling worst for subsistence, so the climate worsening practically forced them to raid far more. Their reach increased, and plundering weak Christians for treasure and slaves proved far more profitable then trade, which they almost abandoned. England, divided in rivaling Anglosaxon kingdoms, proved the ideal prey, especially the rich monasteries by the coast. The first recorded strike, on island Lindisfarne in AD 793, was such a triumph they returned there and all over the British isles for two centuries. Yet later they learned the land and people enough to start conquering territory and settling.