Viking Age
Norway exerted the greatest influence on European history during the Viking Age, that is, Normans engaged in maritime and coastal robbery. Striving for the development of trade, the tense political situation and the growing agricultural population have inspired many restless Norwegians to look for new opportunities outside the country. The name "viking” comes from the word vik, which now means narrow bay in Norwegian, and in Old Norwegian it defined the bay in general (this is the modern meaning of the word in Icelandic). It probably referred to the anchorages of Viking ships during the invasions.
Presumably, the beginning of the Viking expeditions was influenced by the overpopulation in the western part of present-day Norway. The polygamous system led to this, that too many male descendants were born into the world, that there would be enough land for them to divide. The fields were divided into smaller and smaller pieces, these, in turn, did not support the family. That is why many young Normans began to travel abroad in search of possessions or simply prey that would allow them to survive..
In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under 787 r. noticed, that three ships from Hordaland had arrived in Britain (Inheritance); the sailors were referred to as people from the North, Normans. However, there is no mention of this, that their actions were hostile. Around the same time, Norman boatbuilders built relatively fast and agile boats, equipped with a heavy keel, do 16 oars and a large square sail. Those long boats were strong enough, to cross the ocean in them. Farmers who came from the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula settled in the Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands already approx.. 780 r., probably in a peaceful manner. Generally, the year is taken as the beginning of the Viking Age 793, in which sea robbers plundered the monastery of St.. Kutbert on the island of Lindisfarne off the coast of Northumbria in Britain.
After the first attack, it will take place a year later! next – splądrowanie Jarrow, also in Northumbria. However, the real plague of the Viking invasions began the following year, when grouping 100 Viking boats set themselves the goal of conquering South Wales. The local king Maredydd successfully stopped the Vikings, so they concentrated on Ireland. The numerous monasteries of the Emerald Isle were an easy target for them and a source of much valuable loot.
The Vikings apparently had no qualms about pillage of religious communities. In fact, many of them were careful, that Christian monasteries, they encountered on their way, posed a threat to their pantheistic religion. In the weak, in regions of Britain and Ireland deprived of central leadership, the Vikings crushed Christian settlements and slaughtered monks, who could only wonder, for what sins such a divine indulgence falls upon them.