Do the Vikings Deserve Their Bad Reputation?
For thousands of years, Vikings have been known to be blood-thirsty raiders. It has been a long belief that they were malevolent barbarians. Vikings had truthfully, never acted like wild and dirty looking people. After thousands of year of being interpreted as bad people, Vikings deserve a better name. The Vikings absolutely did not deserve their bad reputation.
Vikings were naturally born raiders. In order to survive, the Vikings had to steal from others since they were unskilled in farming. Their homeland, Scandinavia, had poor farming land since the area was full of rocky and steep cliffs. The Vikings only raided for good purposes such as for food and supplies. The silver, gold and diamonds stolen from their victims were used to make beautiful and stunning jewellery while the food was to keep them nourished and alive.
Most sources of information, which the Vikings get their bad reputation from, are from biased primary sources. Records gathered today about were written from the victims who were attacked by the Vikings. The victims would have clearly tried to convince others about their tormentors and would have described the Vikings in the worst possible way.
Also, monks from Christian churches and monasteries, who wrote about the Vikings' savagery, did not tolerate polytheistic people. The Viking Age was a very religious time and anyone who was not Christian was considered barbaric. "The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets." This is description by monk called Alcuin. Clearly, this states that there are religious people slaughtered but it does not mention anywhere that the Vikings actually came only for the gold not for anything else.
The Vikings themselves did not write down what they did on their raids. Instead, the Vikings compose poetry, sagas and tales. These tales consisted of adventure and conquest and were not reliable to sources. These
Vikings were naturally born raiders. In order to survive, the Vikings had to steal from others since they were unskilled in farming. Their homeland, Scandinavia, had poor farming land since the area was full of rocky and steep cliffs. The Vikings only raided for good purposes such as for food and supplies. The silver, gold and diamonds stolen from their victims were used to make beautiful and stunning jewellery while the food was to keep them nourished and alive.
Most sources of information, which the Vikings get their bad reputation from, are from biased primary sources. Records gathered today about were written from the victims who were attacked by the Vikings. The victims would have clearly tried to convince others about their tormentors and would have described the Vikings in the worst possible way.
Also, monks from Christian churches and monasteries, who wrote about the Vikings' savagery, did not tolerate polytheistic people. The Viking Age was a very religious time and anyone who was not Christian was considered barbaric. "The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets." This is description by monk called Alcuin. Clearly, this states that there are religious people slaughtered but it does not mention anywhere that the Vikings actually came only for the gold not for anything else.
The Vikings themselves did not write down what they did on their raids. Instead, the Vikings compose poetry, sagas and tales. These tales consisted of adventure and conquest and were not reliable to sources. These