The History of Vikings - Essay Example

Simpson (1967, p11) propounds, "In medieval Scandinavian languages, a Viking is a pirate, a freebooter who seeks wealth either by ship-borne raids on foreign coasts or by waylaying more peaceful seafarers in home waters. There is also an abstract noun Viking, meaning 'the act of going raiding overseas’”. This definition hints at the historic approach of delineating the term Viking by referring to them as the looters and raiders of the lands of Scandinavia. It takes one to an era in history when Europe was under constant attack by these raiders often referred to as Vikings. These people were pirates by nature and looted the wealth of most of the British coastal lands including England, Scotland, Ireland Netherlands, etc. However, this approach does not identify all of the people from Scandinavia as the Vikings, rather it points to certain activities such as raiding, pirating, and plundering to identify them. Hence, a Viking according to this definition is a person engaged in brutal attacks at the foreign lands by the seaways in the quest for wealth contained in those areas.

Gibson (1987, pp11-15) also relates to the word ‘Viking’ as those pirates who were born to fight, made to break, and fostered for bloodshed. Hence, he refers to the era when a great part of Europe was under the raid of the Vikings coming mainly from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. He says, “The Vikings are a mighty nation with huge bodies and great courage. They do not know the meaning of the word defeat, they never turn their backs on their enemies, but slay or are slain”.

This definition is a bit closer to the one presented at first and only different in the sense that it ties the term not with individuals but with a nation or a race of people about the historical event during 750 and 1066 C.E. Gibson (1987) signifies the term Viking with those sturdy people of Scandinavia who were fearless and stood bravely in the face of war and death. They considered warfare as a symbol of courageousness and even associated these feats with their religious faiths. The connection between these two definitions is that both relate to the history and illuminate the term in its specific context. The same people and the same individuals indulged in raiding Europe in retrospect. Whatever might be their objectives, circumstances, and consequences; they were driven by the availability of wealth in specific areas of Europe leading them to brutal invasions.

After having learned the basic definition of the word Viking or assessing the idea encompassed with its usage, one also comes across some contradictory views on its illustration. Goldsmith (2004) illuminates that the word ‘Viking’ is misunderstood many times owing to the history that encompasses the word. She says that some might associate the term with violence, brutality, and savagery, while in the linguistic sense it means simply a ‘merchant or a warrior’. Therefore, the term ‘Viking’ simply means someone who travels or is an alien. In other words, she attempts to state that the word does not necessarily indicate someone brutally or vicious. 

            It simply signifies that if the term ‘Viking’ is to be taken in pure linguistic form, irrespective of the history associated, it refers to a traveler rather than a brutal tribesman or a raider of the North.

Conclusion

All the above-mentioned definitions and approaches concerning the term Viking, apart from its linguistic sense, refer to the tribesmen of the North who were mainly raiders and plunderers fond of violence and bloodshed. However, if Viking is to be considered in terms of language, it means a traveler, who is not necessarily violent or brutal. In this essay, we are concerned with the best definition of the term ‘Viking’ in the expression of history. Therefore, in the light of the above discussion, Vikings can be defined as a rigorous individual, who is violent and courageous enough to raid a foreign land to loot them of their wealth.