Being good and doing what you need to survive are not always the same. Sometimes people do things that they think they need to do to survive, but other people may think are bad things to do. Many people view the Vikings as bad because of the way the Vikings fought with other people to take what they had. This was not the view of the Vikings themselves because they believed that they were only doing what they needed to survive. In this paper I am going to address the reasons why the Vikings needed to take over different countries, and why they thought that this was OK, and why the people that the Vikings fought with thought they were bad.
The land that the Vikings lived on was not fertile and they did not have a lot of fishing. This made the life of a Viking extremely hard. The Vikings mainly relied on their cattle to survive, but if their cattle died in one of the winters then they would be in trouble. When there was not enough to live on in their region, the Vikings turned to fighting to get what they needed. This was a normal part of their culture. The Vikings even turned on the different Viking clans to get just what they needed to survive.
In most cultures, if there were not enough crops or goods to support the people, then the people would develop tools or ways to produce more things, or move to a region that could support them. The Vikings did not do this. Instead, their culture led them to fight to get what they needed. They started trying to make a boat that could cross the ocean to get to England where they could take more things from others. They did succeed in this act and headed for the monastery of Lindisfarne (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html). They killed everyone and took all of their possessions. Since the monks were unarmed, the Vikings were easily able to take care of them. Most people would think that fighting unarmed monks was very bad but the Vikings did not see this as bad at all. It was part of their way of life. The Vikings raided monasteries because the Vikings considered silver as the most valuable precious metal. The monasteries had a lot of silver because they would have glasses, silverware, and crosses all made out of silver (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html). The Vikings thought that stealing from monasteries was good because it was easy to defeat them, but most other cultures would believe that it is bad to fight with defenseless monks.
The Vikings showed little mercy to the people that they stole from and did not stand by any other value than taking what they wanted. They went through the English Aisles, conquering and plundering all through the countries that were there. They were so feared in Europe that when they were coming to Paris, the king of Paris agreed to pay them almost four tons of silver and gold just to leave them alone (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html). The Vikings did this for a while but then realized that Paris probably had a lot more silver and gold that they could steal. The Vikings went back and raided Paris again, even though they took the silver and gold that was given to them to not raid Paris. The Vikings saw this as a good thing because they got more gold and silver, but most cultures would see the Vikings as bad because they did not keep their word.
The Vikings were not a friendly people. Instead of building up their country from the inside, they were taught how to kill. Killing was so important to the Vikings that they had a special process for training called a berserker. A berserker was a part of the training to become a Viking warrior. They would dress the young warrior in the hide of an animal and then they would become the animal (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html)
It is not hard to see why the Vikings were hated and feared by the other countries of their time. They would steal from a country, kill most of the population, and then leave. Vikings saw this as the right way to support their way of life, but all of the other countries saw this as very bad. Even today, the things that the Vikings thought were good, like killing, stealing, and lying, are thought to be bad values by most of the countries of the world. This is a clear example of how doing what you thing you need to do to survive and being good are two very different things.
Citations: "Viking -." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking>.
"Medieval Sourcebook: Crisis, Recovery, Feudalism?" FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 19 Mar. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1i.html>.
Picture Citation: "File:Vikings Enluminure.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vikings_enluminure.jpg>.
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