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.

Apparently Anglo saxon women were quite taken with the fact that viking men washed and gave their women more equality, so often ran off with them. Leading to much consternation among AS men.

-by is a viking suffix, think meaning settlement- hence Whitby.

Without them we'd never have had The Last Kingdom.

X post!

That would be my lot 🤣 there was one with a variant of my surname in William the Conqueror's retinue. He was a craftsman, I think making stirrups etc. No idea if Norman saddlery was better than what was here already 🤣

And of course, much of what we know of the vikings in this country was chronicled by the Saxons. I suspect Scandinavian children learn viking history a little differently. Just like in Wales, we're kind of indifferent to the vikings, because the saxons had already driven us East.

Not only did they wash but they also combed their hair, which the Anglo-Saxons regarded as absolutely unfair competition...

Combs made out of antler and bone are very common finds on Viking and Norse sites and in pagan times were buried with their owners (both male and female) as part of their grave goods. Anglo-Saxons did have combs too, but evidently didn't use them as much!

I learned a lot about the Vikings by playing computer games. I love that horrible histories song.

A brilliant series both on TV and to read.

Invented butter.

Yes re Russia, in fact the Rus’ people were originally Viking/Norse.

For anyone who can get to the British Museum, they currently have an exhibition on about the Silk Road and it’s really interesting seeing the trade connections that existed even at that time - the Vikings traded through the Rus’ up the Dnieper to Constantinople and onwards to Asia.

It depends where in the UK you are from.

On the eastern side of the country, there were many destructive Viking raids but also lot of settlement and over time, changes to society and language which people are proud of to this day.

In the south west (particularly Cornwall and bits of Devon) there was never any settlement or cultural exchange to speak of with vikings - our established cultural and trading links in the period were with France (particularly Brittany), Wales, Ireland and the Mediterranean basin. There were however lots of Viking raids that involved sailing into harbours, setting fire to everything flammable and taking as many slaves as possible.

To this day, you can still trace the approximate boundaries of how the UK was divided up in the Saxon period in our regional accents, place names, etc.

Good looks obvs

They introduced ginger cats to the British Isles so they can’t have been all bad.

Yep, they did a lot for the English gene pool.

Absolutely!

Vikings >> The Last Kingdom.

(although TLK is decent)

@Ifailed yes I have read that the Viking Rollo basically founded the Normans.
He was portrayed in the series Vikings which was originally a collaboration with the history channel.

Textiles & jewelry techniques (?)

They also can train dragons.
Apparently 😂

@PiggyPigalle Mary Beard has written many times about Roman slaves (a quick google confirms this) so would be incredibly surprised if she ever said they didn't have slaves.

I prefer the other Viking song

Although that's less for the history 🤣🤣🤣🥰

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/watch/horrible-histories-song-vikings-literally
@wholettheturnipsburn this one?
I'm gonna be honest and most of my historical knowledge comes from Horrible History songs !

Vikings invented many useful things.

Horned helmets.
Boats with heads on the front etc.

Also see "Mayor of Steel" from the film the Vikings. Basically a giant razor blade like a slide that could be used to cut people in half.

Yes and Cork and Waterford. I think most urban areas before that were inland on hills, they developed the costal towns and opened up trading by boat. As far as I know.

They are not seen as the bad guys here in Ireland, but the founder of many new cities and very much a part of our gene pool. There are lots of viking related tourist things to do especially in Dublin (or certainly used to be). We never really hear about them plundering or stealing, but then we had the English for that 😉

That's the one.

Me too, most of my historical knowledge comes from HH

Literally 😀