Ten Viking Great Achievements, Besides Beheading the Enemies (Part 2)
In the previous blog post, five out of ten Viking achievements have been mentioned. They included: first settlement in North America in 900AD, great fort-building techniques, navigational skills, international trading route, and some of Viking kings who ruled England.
In this part 2, five more Viking great achievements will be revealed.
They built ships with flexibility and aestheticism
What made the Vikings different from other tribes of their time was their shipbuilding skills. Even the modern shipbuilders found it hard to build a ship without hi-tech when they tried to make the Viking ship replica. Back to the Viking Age, when technology was zero, they once built a ship and crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Oseberg ship one of the best preserved Viking ships ever. It is now currently on display in the museum.
The Vikings granted their women with basic rights
In the Viking Age, the women were treated with respect. Of course, we cannot make a comparison of the woman rights between the Viking community and ours today. Yet, compared with other tribes of the same period, the Vikings did honor their women more.
Viking women ran their house and farm when their husbands were away on a voyage. They could own lands and divorce their husband as long as they felt unhappy about their marriage. Of course, they had to pay some charge to free themselves of the unhappy marriage.
Back to the Viking Age, the women were granted with basic rights
No feudalism, the Vikings didn't have any concept of labour for nothing
The Vikings were not feudal countries. The land was not the property of any ruler. Instead, farmers and freemen could possess land and farm to produce on their own. The jarl or chieftain couldn't possess the land of his folks as the Vikings had the Althing court where they discussed and settled the dispute. One cool thing was the jarls or chieftains couldn't change the laws so they were likely to get punished like freemen.
The Vikings had a strong impact on the English language
When the Vikings travelled to raid and conquer new land, they unintentionally influenced their culture to the locals of the land they had conquered. For example, "husband" derived from a Viking word "húsbóndi" which is a compound word - "hus" meaning "house" and "bondi" meaning "occupier".
Rollo a Viking warrior founded Normandy in France
Normandy actually means "Norman" or "Northman" referring to men from Scandinavian lands. It was founded by a Viking warrior whose name was Rollo. This land was offered to Rollo, who at that time was a warband leader, by French King Charle the Simple. This later was seen as a wise political move because it helped protect the Franks (French name at that time) against the blade of the Vikings. In order to gain the land, Rollo had to get baptised and from that on he gave up his heathen belief and submitted himself to the cross.
The land that King Charles the Simple gave up to Rollo later was called Normandy. And Rollo became the Duke of Norman. One thing that has been remaining a mystery is that even though Rollo got baptised, when he died, he was believed to die as a pagan.
