Scandinavian Pirates

The Vikings are often portrayed as a fearsome tribe that lived for blood and battle. Although they lived up to this image remarkably well, at the heart of the Vikings rested a love of trade, art and more importantly travel.

Many years ago around 330 B.C. a Greek explorer named Pytheas came across a land which he named 'Thule.' Close to the Arctic Circle, Thule was the home of a farming people with a rather large thirst for drinking and fighting. Pytheas had discovered a part of Scandinavia, what we know today as Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

It wasn't until around the 5th century A.D. that the ancestors of the Vikings became known to us and by 100 A.D., the people of Scandinavia had one dominant clan - the 'Suiones.' These fighting people lived for warfare. Battles were constantly being fought betweens tribes and chiefs and power and wealth ruled everything.

One of the Vikings ancestor's greatest possessions was the ship, which they actually began making as early as 350 B.C. Their main strength lay in their shipping fleets, but they had yet to make a boat that would sail the ocean. With their love of boats and their superb craftsmanship, it was just a matter of time, the Viking Age was coming.

By the end of the 8th century, the Viking ancestors were leaving Scandinavia on raiding expeditions, hence their name Vikingr, the Norse word for pirate. Their love of travel gave them trade links in eastern and western Europe, Byzantium, India and China. They even got as far as the continent of America! In fact, Leif Ericsson was the very first European to land in North America in around A.D. 992.

Ships changed over the years and were adapted as necessary. The Vikings had different ships for war and for cargo and they liked them big! One such ship, known as a longship, was called the Long Serpent. It belonged to King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway and stretched 120 feet. This was 44 foot longer than the average longship! We'll be looking more at Viking ships later.

With bigger and better ships being built, travelling and raiding quickly spread and soon they were attacking England. One of the first recorded attacks on our country happened in 793 A.D. at Lindisfarne. One priest was so horrified by it that he said -
"…never before has such terror appeared in Britain…"
The Viking Invasion had begun.

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