On the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne, which is located between England and Scotland Irish monks had built a monastery; there they wrote many holy and beautiful books, called the Lindisfarne Gospels. These monks were peaceful people, wouldn't hurt a fly, pity they were chosen by the Vikings, on the 8th of June in 793 to be the first major victim of one of their raids. Their arrival was seen first far off, they could see dragon head carvings on their well crafted ships slowly coming closer and closer

The Vikings strong political system helped them control and please the people in the Viking culture. There were three different classes in the society, but they all looked upon as equals. This is what pleased the people and made them enjoy the Viking society. The three classes were thralldoms, freemen, and the aristocracy.

Laws kept the Vikings under control and in safe communities. The people knew the laws from the passing down of the them in the family. They came up with the laws from traditions and the opinions of the people. The people voted in men, called lawmen, who would memorize the laws and always be ready to explain them to the rulers. Laws were finally written down for everyone to read in 1100.

Ragnar Lodbrok, a legendary Viking hero and his army sailed up the Loire River and conquered Paris by defeating half of Charles the Bald's army. The other half were on the other side of the river and watched as Ragnar hung 111 of Charles's men as a sacrifice the another Viking god, Woden. The Vikings finally left after Charles gave them 7,000 pounds of silver. After a while paying the Vikings off was the best way to get rid them, but it ended up costing the Christian lands of Europe a lot of money after a while. (Oxenstierna, Eric, The Norsemen p. 49-74)

America came to be discovered by the Vikings in an interesting way, Bjarne Herjulfsson, a man looking for his father who had left with Eric the Red's fleet from Iceland on its way to Greenland. So Bjarn took his boat from a fleet of 26 on a mission to Greenland from Iceland all alone across previously untrammeled ocean. Bjarn knew few details about Greenland that he learned from what people had told him, so he and his faithful crew started off. On his third day at sea Bjarne's ship hit fog and he was driven off coarse. He kept going until, one day he struck land, but he immediately knew that it was not Greenland, no high hills and to many trees, this was probably what is now called the Baffin Islands, but since it was not what he was looking for Bjarne sailed away in search of his father. He floated around the area and found many islands but none of them were Greenland and he was not interested. By the fourth island they hit, Bjarn knew he found Greenland, it matched the description. He met with his father Herjulf, and lived with him until his death, and stayed even after.

When a baby is first born it was shown to its father and if it was deformed he could have it killed. If the baby lived then it was sprinkled with water, a custom in the Viking society. The father would also choose a name for the baby. The name would be of good luck, or be the name of a recently dead kinsman. The baby was given a gift because for naming the name. Once the baby got his first tooth it would receive another gift that would be a nickname.

Even though the Vikings were very good at offensive tactics, they still were good at defending themselves. In the late 10th century the Viking King of Denmark, Harald Bluetooth collected a lot of tax money, despite the fact that he was not well liked by the people, to build four similar well defended forts. These forts were protected by large barriers, or ramparts. All of these forts were divided in four parts with four longhouses in each division, all arranged in small squares. These longhouses were where man and their families lived, where weapons and tools were made, horse stables, and storage places. Viking coastal towns were also well protected, they built them right up on the coast using the ocean or lake as a barrier. Then they built floating buoy walls and spikes to cripple enemies ships as they ran along the coast.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 4882
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page double spaced)