Were the Vikings really that violent?

Vikings are often depicted as brutal, bloodthirsty warriors with battle axes and horned helmets. In popular culture, Vikings they are shown raiding, looting and killing anyone in their path and carrying out gruesome executions such as the infamous “blood eagle.”

But is the ruthless reputation of the Vikings justified?

“The question is not, ‘Were the Vikings violent?'” he said Daniel Mellenoassociate professor of medieval and premodern history at the University of Denver. “They were absolutely violent. It’s just a question, are they doing something that’s not normal?”

The Viking Age lasted for approx 793 to 1066 ADwhich coincides with Europe’s Middle Ages — an already violent period, Melleno said. In this era, wars, slavery and raiding were common, and the Vikings were no exception. With fast and mobile longships, the Vikings were experts at launching surprise attacks from the sea.

One of the first Viking raids was on a wealthy monastery in the British Isles Lindisfarne in AD 793. The Vikings frequently attacked the monasteries, which were poorly guarded and full of riches. Because the Vikings were originally pagans and their victims were Christians, their attacks were described as particularly disgusting and wicked.

“These are Christians writing and speaking about the attacks of these ‘pagans’ or ‘pagans.’ Caitlin Ellisassociate professor of medieval history at the University of Oslo, told Live Science. “Sometimes they even say it’s a punishment from God that their people sinned or weren’t good enough.”

Unlike their neighbors to the south, the Vikings were largely preliterate; them left only a few runes of their activities. Some of the only written evidence of their actions comes directly from their victims or from sagas written hundreds of years later by the Vikings’ descendants. Although the Vikings were also traders, farmers and fishermen, their victims were justifiably more focused on the violence committed against them, Melleno said. Over the years, tales of Viking brutality have also likely been embellished.

“Some of the sources that are most negative in how they describe the Vikings as particularly ferocious or barbaric are actually quite a bit later,” Ellis said, “from the 12th century, so a few hundred years after the start of the raid. So maybe there’s a little bit more exaggeration with time playing into the picture that we still have today.”

In addition, discrepancies in the writings of some sources cast doubt on their legitimacy, Melleno said. For example, an account by the chronicler Prudentius in AD 834 depicts the Vikings destroying everything in the city of Dorestad in what is now the Netherlands. But the following year, the village was still standing for the Vikings to “slay” it, wrote Prudentius. The Vikings returned in 836 to destroy the city again and then again in 837, he reported.

“If we look at the archaeological record, one of the things we don’t often see are mass graves or burn layers—signs of that destruction that we would expect to see if we read the sources and take them at face value.” Melleno told Live Science.

The Vikings were not the only group to raid and conquer cities in medieval Europe. Muslim raiders called “Saracens” frequently raided parts of what is now France, Switzerland and Italy. Magyars, a group from Hungary, attacked what is now Bavaria. And Charlemagneking of the Franks, waged a decades-long war against the Saxons that resulted in mass murder, hostage-taking, and looting in what is now Germany.

“What is the difference between Viking raids and French wars of conquest? Really, not that much,” Melleno said, adding that it boils down to state violence against stateless people who commit acts of violence. It is likely that because the Vikings were not part of an official kingdom, their victims saw them as more unpredictable and barbaric.

“Vikings come off as bad because they’re not a warring state,” he explained. “Vikings don’t have a country and they barely have a king… so they’re just a bunch of pirates.”

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Were the Vikings really that violent?

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