Vikings

The impact of the Vikings was less enduring than might have been expected. In general, they showed a great capacity for becoming assimilated into local populations. They adopted the religion and practices of the countries in which they settled, Catholic Christianity in the West, but Islam also under Khazar influence at Kiev, before Orthodox Christianity was accepted there in 989. In some regions of Britain, especially in Cumbria and elsewhere when Norse settlements were established in previously underpopulated land, concentrations of Scandinavian placenames provide the most obvious mark of their presence. A century and a half after first settling in Normandy, their Franco-Viking descendants proved strong enough to conquer England (1066) and southern Italy and Sicily (1060-1090). The dynamism of the Normans, who also played a role in the First Crusade (1095-1099), probably owed much to their Viking ancestry. Danish and Norwegian settlers to the British Isles brought with them energetic art forms built around animal designs, new farming techniques, mercantile acumen, and a vigorous language. Scandinavian traces are still apparent in the dialects of Scotland and northern England, and street names in York such as Micklegate (“Great Street”) retain their Norse character. The Vikings introduced new forms of administration and justice, such as the jury system to England, and indeed the word “law” is derived from Old Norse. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Viking Age is to be found in the great treasury of Old Icelandic literature, which recorded traditions that were to be lost in their Scandinavian homelands.

In the Viking Age, Scandinavians had criss-crossed nearly half the known world in their open boats, sailing over great oceans and navigating major inland river and lake systems. In the process they extended the horizons of the European world. Despite their undoubted achievements, however, they had neither the manpower nor the staying power, neither the reserves of wealth nor the political experience, neither the social cohesion at home nor the confidence abroad, to master effectively the older, richer, and more stable states they sought to overrun. In time, their dynamism was exhausted and even their swift, clinker-built ships were superseded by ever larger and more prosaic merchant vessels better suited to carrying bulk cargoes.