History for Kids: The Illustrated History of the Vikings by Charles River Editors

Author:Charles River Editors
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Charles River Editors
Published: 2013-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

A Viking trade ship.

The Vikings were very good at steering their ships. They could figure out directions by using a sun-shadow board. This board would float in a pan of water. When it was noon, the sun would make a shadow on the board. The Vikings could figure out their latitude that way. This helped them sail to Iceland and Greenland.

Chapter 4: The Vikings in Europe

England and Ireland

The Vikings liked to attack England a lot. They attacked England as early as 793. A Christian named Alcuin of York wrote about it. He said the Vikings killed priests and took the church’s goods. The Vikings came back and attacked in 794 and 800 too. Other English writers said they kept attacking churches. This is because churches had the most wealth in England.

The Vikings would attack places until it didn’t have a lot of goods left. Then they’d go somewhere else. After England, the Vikings attacked Scotland. They destroyed towns and took the people as slaves. By 850, the Vikings were in control of much of Scotland.

After Scotland, the Vikings started attacking Ireland. The Irish had been fighting each other. But they wouldn’t attack churches. This meant the churches still had a lot of goods. The Vikings attacked the churches. They also took people as slaves. Since the Vikings attacked churches, the Irish, Scottish and English thought they were evil. This is why we still think of Vikings as barbarians today.

The Vikings started making their own towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland. This made them more peaceful. Some Vikings also became Christians.

Europe

A king named Charlemagne had a big empire in Europe in the late 700s. But the Vikings attacked the empire a lot. They sailed to France in 799. They even made their own towns on the coast of France. Some of the Vikings in France started talking to the French. They made peace with the French rulers. Some of the Vikings in France also became Christians.

Some Vikings made peace. But this didn’t stop other Vikings from fighting in Europe. In 820, 13 Viking ships tried to attack France and were stopped. In 843, 67 Viking ships attacked the town of Nantes. And in 845, 120 Viking ships sailed up the Seine River to attack Paris. The French king had to give the Vikings money to save Paris. But that only worked for a short time. The Vikings attacked Paris in 885 and 911. This forced the French to hire other Vikings to protect their land.

The Vikings were attacking other places in Europe too. Viking ships attacked places near the Baltic Sea in the 800s. The Vikings were so strong that they even made it to Turkey in the Middle East. The Byzantine Empire was in power in Turkey. One Byzantine writer wrote about the Vikings. He said they had clean clothes and wore gold. He also said they liked to trade and were very nice to people.

Spain wasn’t any luckier than France. In 844, the Vikings attacked parts of Spain. These parts were ruled by Muslims who were called the Moors.

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