The Slavs knew them as the Rus (the men who row) and to the Byzantines who employed them as mercenaries they were the Varangians (sworn men). To the Franks they were Nortmann (north men) and to the Germans they were Ascomanni (ashmen, from the ash wood of their boats). To the Anglo-Saxons they were the Nordmenn or Dene (Norwegians or Danes), to the Irish they were Dubgaill and Finngaill (dark and fair foreigners). They sailed Europe and Asia’s seas and river systems to reach the great cities of London, Paris, Rome, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Constantinople, the glittering capital of the Byzantine Empire. Their advanced seafaring skills and longships extended their reach to Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, and helped establish settlements as far west as Greenland and North America. In Eastern Europe they gave their name to the lands of Russia and Belarus and in Western Europe to Normandy. Their descendants in their North Atlantic colonies make up the modern populations of Great Britain, Ireland, France and Iceland. From their Northern European homelands in today’s Norway, Denmark and Sweden they used the Norwegian and Baltic Seas to engage with the world as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries. The geographical range of Viking exploration between the 9th and 12th centuries AD was amazing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |