Being a European in the Early Middle Ages was rough. “Barbarians,” such as the Franks and Vandals that destroyed the Roman Empire were settling into kingdoms in their own right. Dynasties like the Carolingians and Merovingiansdominated Western Europe. Diseases, poverty, and starvation were rampant. However, the Early Middle Ages had another looming threat: Vikings.
All over Europe, stories circulated of fearsome bands of raiders who would appear over the horizon, sail to Europe’s shores and pillage monasteries and towns. These raiders came from the Scandinavian countries, and were known at the time as Norsemen (literally men from the North). Their fighting prowess was the stuff of legend — so much so that the Byzantine Emperor all the way in Istanbul hired them as his closest bodyguards (Graffiti carved into the railings of the Hagia Sophia still bears the name of one of these Viking guards). These fierce warriors terrorized Europe for hundreds of years, and to Europeans it seemed as though nothing could stop the mysterious men from the North.
What did the Vikings have that allowed them to strike anywhere in Europe with impunity? What was it that made them so effective at attacking European coastal towns, raiding the local monasteries or villages, and fleeing before the king could rally his troops to fend off the raiders?
One reason is the unique and advanced vessels known as longships. The longship was the preferred warship of the Vikings. It was not armed, but it could easily carry 75 or more troops. The ship was advanced for its time for a number of reasons. First, it had a sail that allowed the ship to travel close to the wind direction, and maintain a heading even as winds shifted. It also had oars that allowed the ship to move even in the absence of wind. The Viking longship’s keel was shallow, and it only needed a meter of water to sail effectively. This allowed it sail to shore and disembark its raiders quickly. It also allowed the ships to sail up the mouths of rivers like the Danube and Volga.
The boat was able to bear the ferocious storms of the North Atlantic through some engineering that was ahead of its time. The longships’ construction intentionally included significant allowances, making the entire hull flexible. It could bend with the rock and pitch of the waves. Unlike rigid-hull ships, which risked coming apart under their own weight in a storm, the longship could easily handle the journey from Scandinavia to Italy or Constantinople. The final feature that made a longship so advanced was its long, narrow hull. The sleek design allowed it cut through waves. Viking longships could arrive at shore as little as 60 minutes after appearing on the horizon, leaving unready villagers at their mercy. Reconstructed longships have reached speeds of nearly 25 knots.
The Vikings were also cunning strategists, and their tactics exploited the military asymmetries of the day. The Carolingians’ armies were pre-feudal, meaning that the decentralized nature of the vassal system had not yet permeated the continent, and armies were still poorly trained and relied on mass. Small groups like the Vikings were able to hit targets and run off before the slow-moving bureaucracy of the kingdoms was able to react. The Vikings also relied on their fearsome reputation to keep them out of fights entirely.
Read the Remainder at War on the Rocks
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