Viking

 When Viking first appeared on a stage of history, Europe trembled with fear. However when these fighters of the sea disappeared, suddenly their story became a legend. Even people who were plagued by Viking started to make poems about them and told their story to the next generation. A possible reason is the contrast between their bad and beneficial behavior for although Vikings plundered and killed many people, they also established advanced shipbuilding techniques, long distance navigation, and a system of export and import.

 In 793, suddenly strangers from sea attacked Lindisfarne, a beautiful monastery in England, and killed the defenseless monks. This is traditionally regarded as the first of Viking raids. They ripped out everything in the church, and burnt everything. They were regarded as cold-blooded bandits. After this event, the Viking plundered England for 300 years. However some of the Viking became kings the most famous being Canute, a great king who simultaneously governed England, Norway, and Denmark.

One of the most important innovations of Viking was shipbuilding, especially the dragonhead. Because Scandinavian sea had good condition for sailing, Vikings could test and experiment with their new ship designs. The result was the drekar, the dragon headed ship. The structure of the drekar with its long thin sharp ship, allowed it to go through narrow river, and shallow waters. The ship’s innovative design meant nobody knew where they would appear next., and the Vikings came to be regarded as elusive fighters who appeared in unexpected places.

 

The need for long journey helped to develop their navigation system. As their ship provided a long-term trip, they needed to a good system of understanding directions to go anywhere they want. Numerous expeditions establish a knowledge of star-navigation, and those Vikings who had a good knowledge were well regarded. Much of the knowledge was written down and sailors including Columbus used their charts over the world for centuries.

The Viking also developed cities for their trade system. The Viking didn’t only import or export actual things, but also they brought and interested different cultures. The whole of Europe was their stage. One of the examples was Ribe in Denmark. Ribe started as a Viking market city and developed itself as a cross-cultural interchange. The dealers started living in the city and sold glass, jewelry, leather, ceramic or iron of Viking’s treasure. Also craft-men lived in the city to design things from the treasure, and many people could see their. The skills of the craft men were spread out from these kinds of cities.

What the Viking left made their legend. They left fear and treasure at the same time. Because of the contrast, the Viking were talked about by one generation to the next generation, and the romance of their stories grew. The romance of them has a lot of elements, not just about shipping but also about their lives such as their specific houses or way of ceremonial occasions for the coming of age, marriage, funeral and ancestral worship. They created great stories of adventure by themselves, and the result of their courage toward dangerous sea provided us new steps for developing our skills of shipping, navigation, and communication of different cultures.