Did the Vikings do anything good?

[Gifu]

It seems like for about 200 years the Vikings just kept sailing to Britain and pillaging everything. I could understand it more if they wanted to conquer (which, I realise, they eventually did decide to do), but for most of those 200 years they were just plundering and murdering. They weren't even stealing from rich lords and noblemen, they were mostly just burning peasant villages and destroying monasteries and taking slaves. Every time anyone tried to create anything or learn anything or write anything or have any sort of peace for 200 years, the bloody Vikings would sail up, destroy everything, and then sail home again.

I’ve been reading a pop up book about this with my 7 year old. It seems lots of Viking’s lived alongside the natives and they lived happily showing each other different methods of doing things such as farming.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/watch/horrible-histories-song-vikings-and-garfunkel

They would have improved our gene pool. Not only in the superficial ways such as height and colouring but a genetically diversified community leads to a healthier population (opposite of inbreeding)

Slightly off topic but I think pillaging and raiding happened after the Vikings too; amongst different clans and tribes and from across the North Sea.

I remember reading the historical book, The Last Duel by Eric Jager which was set in the 16th century that one of the French Nobel men travelled to Scotland to drum support to raid and pillage north of England. Nobody could be bothered and it a bit of a disaster.

Thank you so much for this! I'll be sharing it with my Y7 History class.

They did become Normans (in NW France), who then invaded England, Wales and Ireland.

@Jaffapaffa it's one of my favourite Horrible Histories songs.

It was only in the early period that Vikings raided and then went home again. Later they settled and founded towns and cities, expanded trade routes, brought new art styles, types of shipbuilding, new precious metals from Asia etc.

I think where ever you’ve learnt history needs to review their teachings. It sounds like Vikings have been portrayed as ‘barbarians’ that destroyed everything vs the ‘good and nice’ English population….

First Vikings did settled in England. They established new towns, helped the development of others (like York) and introduced new trading routes towards Scandinavia.
They brought their language which we can still find in English today. Things like egg, knife or sky.
They introduced new technologies, from ship building to farming practices. As well as new cattle breeds.
They influenced the law system too, contributing to English law. Eg jury system and the concept of an assembly.

They brought some damn good knitting techniques. I appreciate that, skal for the knitting Vikings!

I’d recommend reading the Orkneyinga Saga - it shows the politics and conflicts of the time between what is now Scotland and Norway but the lines weren’t so clear cut back then.

Wishful thinking there, I’m afraid.

different methods of doing things included kidnap for the slave trade (at which they were acknowledged masters), ingenious methods of torture, scorched earth destruction.

They established shipbuilding on the west coast of Scotland and in the NE of England. I can trace my line back to the vikings on the west coast and my ancestors became shipbuilders, first on Skye then in Glasgow after the highland clearances.

Lots of settling and trading as well as the above - and their actions need to be considered in the context of their time when many if not all cultures had some involvement in warring, slaving and destruction (see Romans, Gauls, Huns… and so on.)

There were also many different people and cultures within the “Viking” tag, a lot of Norwegians settled in the west, in Cumbria where I am from a lot of place names have Norwegian/Viking routes, even the hardy Herdwick sheep breed was introduced by them.

They did a lot more trading and exploration than we initially realised - right into Russia and all the way down the Danube, across to the Americas. Listen to “Gone Medieval” podcast for some interesting 30 min snippets on dark age history, lots of them are about the Vikings. Dr Cat Jarman is great!

YES!!! Enabled me to watch a TV series about them with Lagartha in!

Yes
they started my ancestry which led to my mum and ultimately me!

Come to York and take a tour of the Jorvik centre, which shows you how the settled Vikings lived and worked. Certainly in York they set the street plan and ran a settled and vibrant society. They weren't just raiders, they were settlers too.

In Scotland we got some good words and place names from them.

And in England.

Loads of places near here have 'gate' as a road name for example.

Indeed. One of my favourites is ‘Borgue’ (Galloway). Not surprising that some good hoards have been unearthed in that neck of the woods.

Did they establish Dublin as a settlement when there were no other non-monastic settlements in Ireland?

Saxon women were said to prefer them because they ... Washed ...

I was watching "The Romans" with Mary Beard and she tells us that the Romans didn't take slaves.
No, they brought people back from their travels, taught them Latin and a skill then years later released them to live as Romans.
Perpetuating the myth that only the British captured and enslaved.

Same!!

Mmm lovely clean Scandinavian men. I could go with that. As long as they’ve abandoned the raping and pillaging thing.

Icelandic Viking culture was somewhat more woman respecting wasn’t it? I don’t know much about it though, I may be romanticising the sagas. Maybe someone here can enlighten me about that?