1/31/2024 0 Comments Danish longphortThe community on Iona was so shaken up after being raided in 795 CE, burned in 802 CE, and seeing 68 of their community torn apart by Viking axes in 806 CE that they actually rehoused their treasures and some of their staff to a new monastery built inland at Kells. The appeal of the monasteries was obvious: housing more than just monks, fine metalwork was made here to embellish holy books as well as reliquaries and stored treasure was abundant too, making for easily transportable loot. Despite a few instances of successful local resistance, the Irish probably had an underdeveloped fleet, no coastal forts and an impractical 480 km of coastline to defend a bit of a hopeless job. These initial endeavours were carried out by no more than two to three ships at a time – hardly fleets stacked with countless Norsemen – in a hit-and-run fashion.īy 807 CE the Vikings had pushed around to the western bays, too, and most of the targets they picked – monasteries and small towns – were easy prey they had the elements of surprise and speed and generally stayed within 30 km of navigable water, which kept them highly mobile. Patrick’s Island just north of Dublin in 798 CE. In the years that followed, the Vikings took their ships into the Irish Sea, for instance burning St. They had come out of the blue, sweeping in and out and carrying off their treasures in likely fairly uncoordinated expeditions set up by independent warbands. Columba on the island of Iona were attacked by strangers. The Irish medieval annals, penned by monks and clerics that were among the eye-witnesses, record the first Viking raid in 795 CE when the island of Rathlin off the northeast coast of the mainland and the great monastery of St. Just like that, all the makings of a successful raiding expedition were there. What is more, the Scandinavians picked up the technical knowledge of sails – something they originally lacked – from western Europe, too, which allowed them to remodel their timid boats into quick and deadly vessels. When, from around the end of the 7th century CE, increased commercial contacts with western Europe brought the Scandinavians whispers of riches in Europe as well as stories of the kingdoms’ internal conflict, a pull factor neatly presented itself on a silver platter. It was the Norse who ended up on Irish shores. This seems to fit with the Norwegian Vikings beating their fellow Scandinavians to the punch in expanding westwards, reaching Orkney by the 7th century CE. In western Norway, where land that did not try to kill you or your crops was a bit scarce, a search for new land may have been a small push factor. What exactly motivated the Vikings to set sail for Ireland (or the British Isles in general), though, is subject to ongoing debate. The Vikings, although losing their autonomous power in the late 10th to early 11th century CE, had by then already integrated into Irish society through intermarriage and close contact with the locals, and left a lasting mark on both commerce and culture. From 795 CE onwards, monasteries and towns were looted or destroyed in persistent raids, followed by the building of forts and settlements which allowed these Norsemen to become wildcard players on the Irish political scene. With their menacing presence eventually stretching from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean all the way to North America, no land seemed safe – and it was early on in their globetrotting exercise that the Vikings zoned in on the appealing green shores of Ireland. In early Medieval Europe, a prime subject of frightening tales-come-true were the famously marauding and pillaging Vikings, spilling out of their dragon-headed longships in a state of bloodlust, thirsting for gold. What exactly motivated the Vikings to set sail for Ireland (or the British Isles in general) is subject to ongoing debate. Photo by John Rickne, Community Manager, Paradox Interactive, Wikimedia Commons Screenshot from a video game called War of the Vikings showing fighting Vikings, with some of their ships visible, too.
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