Norse Pirates - Q and A
Expert navigators, the pirates planned their attacks in advance and usually succeeded in surprising their prey. No one else had ships as fast as theirs. Speed and mobility were the key elements of a Norse raid, which made them difficult to prevent.
How accurate were the holy scribes in their depictions of Norse pirates? While pillage was the norm when people fought one another, viking pirates violated a sacrosanct rule. They dared to attack sacred places. This coupled with the fact that the Norse weren't Christians make such accounts suspect.
Norse pirates didn't attack monasteries because they didn't believe in God. They attacked them because monasteries possessed a prime source of precious metals and gems that adorned holy books and reliquaries, all of which were portable treasures. These pirates employed a favored tactic of pirates of all ages - fear and intimidation. The more terrified the prey, the less likely they resisted.
Without writings such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles or the Annals of Ulster, we would know little about the Viking Age because the Norse didn't have a written language. They preferred to recount their deeds orally. These sagas weren't recorded until many years later and have a biased slant because the poet's intent was to glorify the participants and instruct the listeners.
How did the Norse impact history? Although the Viking Age lasted only about three hundred years, the Norse left their mark wherever they went. Many place names, particularly in the British Isles, have Norse origins. The Norse destroyed the existing powers in the British Isles, which eventually led to the establishment of the separate nations of Scotland and England. They established the first towns in Ireland. They accelerated the demise of the Carolingians and established the seeds upon which the Normans gained power. They settled Iceland and were among the first to reach Greenland and North America.
Did Norse women become pirates? Perhaps, but there are no historical facts to prove they did. Nanna Damsholt, a historian who studies medieval Danish women - cautions that 'People in the Middle Ages did not distinguish as we do between myth and history.'
Saxo Grammaticus included the tale of Alwida (aka Alfhild, Alvilda) - who dressed in male attire and became a pirate rather than marry the King of Denmark's son - in his history of the Danes. Only after Prince Alf captured her
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