Vikings fierce bloodthirsty ruthless warriors of the sea. There was no group as widely adventurous
as the Norse in history. They launched expeditions from Scandinavia beginning in the late 7th through
12th centuries which saw them travel the world throughout northern, eastern and western Europe
Africa the middle east and even the new world. So who exactly were the Vikings? Why were they
so feared? What made the Vikings explore the world and how far did they go? Hello i'm Colin
Heaton former soldier Marine Corps scout sniper history professor historian and book author
and we'll answer these questions and other issues on this segment of Forgotten History.
The Vikings were sea raiders of Norse culture with a historic
reputation as marauding barbarians uncouth uneducated ruthless and unbearable> However
despite their legendary prowess and conquest perhaps only 10 to 20 were full-time readers
as most were primarily farmers fishermen and traders. Most of the remaining fighters
joined raiding parties either after the planting or after the harvest. For example
when they went on raids they killed or enslaved entire populations and looted anything of value
such as the Viking assault in 793 against the Saxons on the island of Lindisfarne holy island
and the church of Saint Gothberg off the coast of Northumberland on the English east coast. Christian
Europe as a whole was shocked by the brutality and audacity of the attack but more was to come.
After the Lindisfarne raid just the sight of a square sail off the coast induced panic among the
Saxon people. Internecine wars harsh and long winters with a short growing season periodic
famines and a growing population required a response. The need for more farmland and a sense of
adventure drove many Vikings to seek opportunities elsewhere men like Eric Thorvaldsen the father
of Eric the Red settled in the Faroe Islands iceland and then young Eric discovered Greenland
creating the first settlements technically in North America. Over 300 years the Vikings fought
wars for conquest in Scotland England and Ireland. ironically Dublin was a Viking creation. They took
and settled Northern France modern-day Normandy under the Norwegian Viking Rolo in the 9th century.
Rollo was the great great-great grandfather of William Duke of Normandy who in October 1066
conquered Saxon England to become William I. During the times of Eric and Leif his son as
well as his brothers the small earldoms in norway were giving way to larger kingdoms so the politics
were changing. Another factor forcing thousands to migrate westward after the 9th century
was the growing influence of christianity forcing the hard pagan believers out.
Swedish Vikings or Goths settled modern-day Lithuania Estonia Latvia Poland Russia and Ukraine
and archaeological evidence proves they traded throughout the Middle East Western, Northern and
even eastern Africa. In fact it was the Swedes who provided the Varangian guard a mercenary
bodyguard to the court of Emperor Basil ii of Byzantium in Constantinople in the year 988
and Norwegians did the same for prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev in the 11th century which saw
the continued exposure of Christianity which these Vikings took back home. In fact future
Norwegian King Harald Hardrada followed the path of previous Norsemen in the 11th century when he
led expeditions into Ukraine the Crimea Sicily and was once a reluctant guest of Empress Zoe
at the byzantine court in Constantinople. Hardrada married into Christianity and converted himself
and when he became king began the transformation in Norway which forced many of the old believers
out. The Vikings navigated the Rhine Danube Volga the Dnieper Nile Tigris and Euphrates Rivers among
others trading and assimilating with all these cultures. They navigated the Mediterranean and
Black Seas from Portugal and Spain to Egypt and Turkey. Vikings were proven to have traveled into
the Mesopotamian regions of Iraq and the Arabian gulf coast. Ruins also proved that Norwegian or
Danish Vikings settled in Canada primarily Baffin Island Labrador New Brunswick Newfoundland Nova
Scotia and even in Maine in the northeastern United States. But did the Vikings stop there
or did they go even farther west given their adventurous nature and desire for arable land?
This is a viable possibility. It seems unlikely that such a collective would be satisfied with
not exploring new opportunities and their entrance into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence as well as Hudson
Bay should not be surprising. Maps drawn by the Vikings themselves during this period are fairly
clear evidence of these travels as well as the chronicles kept alive by oral history traditions.
Many of these were chronicled in the 14th century by Icelanders Snorri Sturluson
in the Heimskringla or Tales of the Norse Kings and the sagas of the Icelanders. One
of the greatest mysteries were the reports by Leif Eriksen son of Eric the Red who described a region
called Vinland. This area was similar to northern Europe and had large areas of wild berries grains
such as wheat grapes and excellent salmon as well as other fishing. This area fits perfectly
with the natural course of travel through the area into the mouth of the modern day
Nelson River leading to Lake Winnipeg. Although unlike the previous areas already mentioned
no Viking settlement has yet to be discovered beyond the northeast coast of North America
but it may only be a matter of time. But what about the Great Lakes regions?
The Vikings would have had no problem traversing these large bodies of water in their longships.
Their ships were shallow draft vessels sturdily built and could be moved over land to other
bodies of water making them a true amphibious force. Evidence seems to prove this theory
as large runestones have been found in Manitoba Canada Minnesota and along the Hudson Bay area.
French explorer Pierre Gaultier de la Berendre even found one runestone in North Dakota along
the route of the Missouri and Red Rivers in 1783 and sent it to France where it disappeared during
the Revolution. Pierre Gaultier de la Berendre reported his contact with the Mandan tribe in the region of the present
day regions of North and South Dakota. Following earlier reports from others in the early 1700s
these natives had fair skin and had red or blonde hair and blue or gray eyes and the women were
quite Nordic in appearance and could have been mistaken for white Europeans. French explorers Rene
Robier Cavallae and Samuel de la Champlain all encountered a few Native Americans with blue
eyes. On august 24 1784 the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser published an article that a new
tribe of white people had been discovered in the far west. It also claimed that they were acquainted
with the principles of the Christian religion and extremely courteous and civilized. Even Lewis and
Clark encountered the Mandan people and verified these descriptions in 1804. These facts would seem
to support the hypothesis that the Vikings did indeed push deeper into North America than was
previously believed. Another runestone was found in 1898 called the Kensington Runestone in modern-day
Alexandria Minnesota. Another runestone discovery in 1925 on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg
in Manitoba added to the mystery but this stone disappeared. However the greatest evidence are
the excavations of 15 Viking ships in Minnesota and North Dakota. Did the Vikings go even further?
The Spanish conquistadors also had their stories of meeting similar European-like Indians.
Francisco Pizarro's expedition in 1535 wrote about the cloud people in Peru who were taller
than the other Indians with lighter hair and blue eyes yet the legend of the blue-eyed
people of Peru dates back 2000 years according to their own mythology and to Inca history. But
could Vikings have made it there as well? Does the evidence clearly show that the Vikings traveled
farther and wider than we believed influencing other cultures? Does their bloodline still run
through many tribes of Native Americans? It would seem that the legacy of the Viking
raiders must now be connected to the history of the Vikings as not just explorers or raiders
but as ambassadors of cultural exchange. They were world travelers and bearers of Northern European
culture and possibly even bringing Christianity to the New World centuries before other Europeans.
It is amazing to contemplate and perhaps future archaeology will answer many of these questions.
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