Who were the Vikings? Where did they come from? Why did the leave? I will .
answer these, and other questions about the Vikings in this essay.
The Vikings were more then just raiders and pillagers; they were also .
farmers, fisherman, travelers, and explorers. But the most common steriotype that .
we still have today is that they were the men that went around and warred, and .
lived in Iceland. While there is a lot of truth to this, there is also some faults and a lot .
more to it. While raiding cities may have been a quick way to get rich, it was not the .
only means by which Vikings supported themselves. For a majority of Vikings, the .
resources they needed to survive didnt come from pillaging, but from the seas and .
the forests around them. Based on archaeological finds such as sickles, picks, .
hoes and ploughshares such as the ones that we saw at the musium, we also know .
the Vikings were skilled craftsmen and farmers.
The Vikings were also explorers. Their ships were able to navigate shallow .
rivers and cross oceans. The journies of Norwegian Vikings lead them west to settle .
in Iceland and still further west to colonize Greenland. They also managed to set up .
at least one camp in North America, before Cristopher Columbous even came to .
America in 1492. .
But like the stereotypes say, they were a warring class, and a rather feared .
one at that. One paticular class of Vikings, were the beserkers. They were the front .
line in a battle, and they would take a drug before hand and become hyped-up and .
then run at the enemy, and strike terror into them with there fighting methods. Many .
were scared of the beserkers, and would run at there meer sight.
.
