I thought the reading about the Vikings was the most intriguing this week. I thought that we knew a lot more about them than was presented. It was mostly just stories from other sources such as the monks or other victims of their raids. Their lifestyle is fascinating to me, they don't have much at home so they just sail around looking for something to do. They sound like teenagers that get into trouble doing the same thing. One of the most interesting parts of the raids that were mentioned was the part that they did not destroy the places they raided because they liked to come back and do it again. If they were just looking for money and riches that area would have been depleted mostly by the first raid. Plus it sounds like they were brutes and nothing really slowed them down, so why wouldn't they go to richer places, just look at the inventory of the royal estate we read, there was plenty to be had there. To me it sounds like they really were looking for something else and maybe that is why so many settled in the areas eventually.
The results of the raids and their travels left the Vikings scattered everywhere bringing their own culture to many different places across western Europe. That causes a mix of many ethnicities of people across the area. Now a days it is so hard to find out your ancestry in part because of things like this, for example you family could be from England but are you 100% English probably not... The neatest way I have seen to find your ethnic heritage is to do a DNA testing. National Geographic was doing this for people, you gave them a saliva sample and they could genetically tell you if you were of German or Japanese heritage (if you were having a hard time deciding).
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Reading about vikings this week cleared up a lot of misconceptions for me. I thought they pretty much all came from one county, turns out it was more than just one. I agree that maybe they were looking for something else like a new place to settle because home didn't offer much, so in the mean time they raided and pillaged to supply themselves. It seems though that they were only looking for easy targets, places that could taken and not much resistance offered. I think that's why they didn't move on to places with more money. It might have been too much for them to raid a place that was well guarded by a lords army than a smaller villages or monasteries at a river side.
As far as I have ever heard the vikings were brutal and rough, killing and destroying everything in their path, it's such a relief that this is not entirely true. I have always thought they were intriguing characters and I'm glad to learn they are a much gentler culture and group of people than they have really gotten their due credit for.
Also, National Geograpic - the chanel and the magazine - are the best. I love the experiments they do and the stories they tell and truth they provide, my favorite :)
I also learned a lot from the readings of the Vikings. Your right it's almost like they enjoyed the recreational aspect as much as the financial benefits. Again, I was amazed at how it was so widespread and they infiltrated many societies in Europe. I also wonder if various parts of the Vikings would compete with each other to see who could be the more ruthless and gain infamy. I definitely enjoyed the teenager analogy.
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