The history of the Vikings and Goths, what were they once brilliant for, and where did they originate?

The Vikings

Place of origin: Scandinavia

Splendor: Founding of the feudal state Kiev Russ (Kievan Rus'), also known as Ancient Rus' and the State of Rus'. They discovered Iceland in 860 AD and lived there.

History: The old Viking home was Norway, Sweden and Denmark. At one time they and their descendants controlled most of the Baltic coast, the interior of Russia, Normandy in France, England, Sicily, southern Italy and parts of Palestine. They discovered Iceland in 825 (Irish monks had already been there) and settled there in 875, and in 985 they colonized Greenland. There is strong evidence that they reached Newfoundland and explored parts of North America 500 years before Columbus discovered the New World.

In the sixth and seventh centuries AD, the Vikings began to make raids along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea before settling down. By the end of the eighth century, they were making long incursions down the river from present-day Russia, setting up fortresses for defense along the way. In the ninth century they ruled Kiev and in 907 attacked Constantinople with 2,000 ships and 80,000 men. But they were successfully bought off by the Byzantine emperor on the most favorable trade terms.

The first Viking attacks on the West were made in the late eighth century AD. The Danes attacked and plundered the famous island abbey on Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, and this attack and plundering began to become a trend. As the scale and number of raids on England, France and Germania increased, they gradually became invasions. They also established colonies as bases for further raids. The Viking colonies in northwestern France were known as Normandy (from the Norse name), and the people who lived there were called Normans.

In 865, a large Danish army invaded England and remained in control of most of it for two centuries. Until 1066, Canute was one of the last kings of England, ruling both Denmark and Norway. In 871, another large fleet traveled up the Seine River to attack Paris. They laid siege to the city for two years before they were finally bought off with huge cash rewards and allowed to be able to plunder the western part of France without resistance.

In 911, the king of France made the Viking chieftains of Normandy dukes in exchange for their conversion to Christianity and the cessation of invasions. Since the establishment of the duchies of Normandy, there has been a steady stream of remarkable warriors, including William I, who conquered England in 1066; Robert Giscard and his family, who captured Sicily from the Arabs between 1060 and 1091; and Baldwin I, king of the kingdom of Jerusalem, which was founded by crusaders.

From 780 AD, the Vikings were increasingly out and about. They needed more markets for trade and more venues for plunder. They stole mainly livestock and grain, and left no valuable treasure untouched. They struck quickly and left just as quickly after they got their hands on them. The neighborhood suffered greatly and viewed the Vikings as barbarians, cold-blooded warriors.?

In 789 AD, a band of Vikings sacked the county of Dorset, and England has suffered constant harassment ever since. The locals fought valiantly against the bandits, but more often than not, they paid a ransom, called a Danegeld (today's Danish endowment is called a Danegeld instead of a tax), to make the plague go away quickly. But money wasn't always the answer; there were several strands of pirates, and as this great king departed, another leader fluttered in. In areas where defenses were weak, the Vikings were rampant...?

While the great Alfred (kings were not emperors at that time, and were not entitled to claim several ages, so they had to crown their names with Great) ruled Wessex, he made a deal with the main Viking clans, allowing them to settle in an area of southeastern England known as the Danelaw (or Danelaw as it is known today in Danish law). Even so, the fragile peace was broken at times, as each side wanted more land...?

The multitude of pirate communities meant that the plundering never stopped, and even after Garnet, king of Norway and Denmark, conquered England, his domains were still often harassed by Swedish pirates. Unable to resist, this powerful monarch was also forced to pay ransom.

The only exception was in 1066, when William I the Conqueror set foot in England with his Norman soldiers, whose violence scared even the pirates, so the local people spent a relatively peaceful year under the lash of the foreigners instead.?

Scotland was much closer to northern Europe, with the Orkney Islands occupied by the Vikings in 795 AD, and then the coastlines of Scotland and Ireland in the hands of pirates. Here they established trade routes with Norway and used this as a landing point to move further west.?

Scotland was Norwegian and peaceful. Ireland was much more complicated, with the Norwegians, Danes and Irish pirates not being nice characters, and large-scale armed battles often broke out. It wasn't until 902 AD that the Norwegians left Ireland for a while, and I say for a while because they came back in 917 AD and took over Dublin as a trading port.?

It was in 1100 that Dublin was taken over by the Normans. But it is well known that the Normans were the very descendants of the Danish pirates left behind in France.?

The North Sea was certainly devastated, and the Vikings crossed Gibraltar and continued to wreak havoc on the Mediterranean coast. Doing business with powerful opponents made them thieves in the face of weakness.?

These outlaws even robbed monasteries, which always had large stores of food and treasure, and the monks did not fight back. The Vikings, who marched along Europe's coastlines, became a nightmare for the whole of Europe, with only Spain and France being spared.

Spain's Arab army organized a successful counter-landing at Candoba in 844 A.D. From then on, the Iberian Peninsula was quiet, with only peaceful Viking merchants to trade wine and slaves.?

French King Charles the Simple first paid the ransom honestly, and then, following the example of the British, made Rollo, the biggest pirate leader, Archduke of Normandy. Mind you, this fellow was the great-great-great-great-grandfather of William I the Conqueror, whose descendants finally became kings of England in 1066.?

The Norwegians left home and sailed farther west in search of a new home. They came to Iceland in 860 A.D., and the monks who had previously lived there fled under a wave of panic. In 920 A.D. they came to Greenland and began to settle, but the climate got colder every year and crops could not be grown there, and finally in 1500 all the Vikings left the frozen island.?

Subsequent generations have searched for evidence of Norse visits to the American continent, and a Norse stone carving allegedly unearthed in the United States in 1898 was later proven to be a 1958 forgery. A Viking nautical chart found in 1965, with detailed outlines of the American coast, was also later proven to be a forgery. It was not until 1969 that a stone arrowhead was finally found in a Danish sea pirate's tomb, which was later tested and confirmed to be a product of the Americas, and that the pirates had indeed traveled to North America.?

With the promotion of Christianity on the European continent, the Vikings gradually changed their beliefs under the money or sword, and religion finally made them give up the practice of making a living with their fists, and the wandering pirates settled down in various places. Where are their remnants today? Besides the Nordic countries, let's take a look at Ibn? Ibn Fadla, an Arabian traveler's account: ?

"The Rus lived on islands in the lake, plundering nearby Slavic villages and selling their captives to towns downstream on the Volga." ?

The original inhabitants of the Volga Valley were Slavs, and after years of constant fighting between the tribes, someone went to Scandinavia to bring in strong mercenaries and leaders. So the Varangians from Scandinavia put an end to the strife, and a massive influx of Viking settlers became known locally as Rus, the Rus people. It wasn't until 882 AD that Archduke Oleg founded the state of Rus and called the country they inhabited Rusland, today's Russia.

For many centuries the inhabitants of Scandinavia lived by herding, farming and fishing. In the sixth and seventh centuries A.D., they began to trade along the Baltic Sea and the great rivers deep into Russia and beyond. Driven by some unknown reason, they suddenly began to aggressively invade the coasts of Europe in the late eighth century AD. It may have been because they marveled at the riches they encountered while trading, or because they sensed the weaknesses of the southern races, or it may have been because of new navigational and shipbuilding technologies that allowed them to sail great distances or move swiftly.In 793, pagan Vikings attacked the great abbey of Lindisfarne, which had been founded by Irish monks on an island off the northeast coast of England.

Fast, shallow-draught Viking great warships allowed the Vikings to make quick attacks from the sea and rivers. Because roads were scarce in the ninth century, the Vikings were able to concentrate on wealthy towns or monasteries; they could land quickly and subdue any resistance, and carry off prisoners and plunder before any organized force could arrive. These invaders were feared by the people who lived on the coasts and rivers of Germania, France, and England. The central governments of these regions were mired in popular discontent because of their inability to defend themselves against such lightning invasions. People began to turn to the local nobility with their castles for refuge, a shift that strengthened the power of the nobility and weakened the authority of the king.

As the ninth century progressed, the Vikings became bolder. Larger groups of Vikings combined for actual invasions that went far beyond the raids of the past. They plundered important cities including Hamburg, Utrecht, and Rouen. They settled in the islands outside Britain, parts of Ireland (establishing Dublin), Iceland, and Greenland. The Danes occupied and ruled the eastern half of England for about a century. Others marched up the Seine and besieged Paris for two years, withdrawing only after collecting offerings and plunder. Another group ruled Russia from Kiev westward and attacked Constantinople from the Black Sea. They invaded Muslim Spain and penetrated as far as the Mediterranean.

In the 10th century, the French king bought peace from the Vikings by ceding part of his territory (Normandy, ruled by the ancient Norwegians or Normans). He bought peace from the Vikings and made their leaders dukes of France. The Normans converted to Christianity by agreement. The Normans became an extraordinary people in the Middle Ages, conquering England and establishing the first and largest European kingdom. Other Normans also conquered Sicily, most of Italy, and founded the Crusader kingdoms in Palestine.

The Viking invasions stopped at the end of the 10th century, partly because they became Christians and no longer heeded the warrior values of their pagan past. In addition, Scandinavia was divided into several kingdoms, and the new rulers focused their attention on managing the lands they already owned. In addition, the Viking colonists were assimilated into the cultures around them in Russia, France and Britain. But the European warrior culture that had developed in response to the Viking threat then found a new outlet in the Holy Land of the eastern Mediterranean.

The Goths

Origin: A group of European Germanic peoples who settled in the steppes of Scythia, Dacia, Trans-Pannonia, and the Ukraine on the north shore of the Black Sea from the 2nd century onward. between the 5th and 6th centuries, the river Dniester divided them into those to the east of the river known as the Ostrogoths, and those to the west of the river known as the Visigoths.

Glorious feats: were the first barbarian forces ever to plunder the city of Rome.

History: Since the first century AD, the Romans have been known to live in the DanubeRiver basin. It is also said that they were actually immigrants from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea (now in Sweden) who traveled south to Central Europe. In the fourth century A.D., the Gothic nation split from within. One group became the Visigoths, or WestGoths, who lived in present-day Romania. The other tribe became the Ostrogoths, or EastGoths, who migrated eastward as far as the lower Danube region, establishing towns near the BlackSea. When the Huns appeared, who launched a fierce attack on the EastGoths in 375 A.D., the EastGoths began to migrate westward, pressuring the WestGoths to move westward as well.

The Visigoths reached the plains of Wallachia in the region of the northern bank of the lower Danube. And then the Huns also pursued to this place. Under the pressure of the Huns, the Visigoths applied for a southward crossing of the Danube River into the territory of the empire to live in 376, and asked for refuge in the Roman Empire. With the purpose of solving the shortage of labor force in the Empire as well as for the expansion of the Imperial army, Roman Emperor Aarons agreed to the request of the Visigoths to move in and allowed them to cross the Danube River into the northern part of the Empire in the area of Mercia and Thrace. The rule of the Visigoths by the Eastern Romans was brutal; they imposed heavy taxes on the Visigoths and oppressed them at will, and some barbarians even had to pay the taxes by selling their sons and daughters. The Visigoths who entered the country could not bear the abuse and oppression of the Roman officials and soldiers, and finally, after an incident in which Roman soldiers mistreated and beat the Visigoths, a nationwide revolt was set off in 378 AD under the leadership of Fritigern. Supported by the Visigoths, slaves in Rome, and some Huns and Alans, the revolting Visigoths quickly took control of the Thracian region and pushed on to the Eastern Empire's capital city of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) near Fort Adrian (present-day Edirne, Turkey).

In August 378, Valens, a proud and arrogant man who was afraid of being robbed by other officers, led a Roman army of 60,000 men (mainly infantry) into the fortress of Adrian without waiting for the army to be assembled and attempted to defeat the Goths in one fell swoop. The Roman army was defeated, Emperor Valens himself and many of his generals were killed in battle, and the Roman army lost about 40,000 men and suffered a great loss of vitality; the Battle of Adrianople showed the great power of cavalry to surprise in a battle, and the traditional tactics of infantry squares and legions were declining. The Goths took firm control of the Thracian region of the Roman Empire and established a base for further expansion of their power.

Theodosius the Great, who then ascended to the throne, used guerrilla tactics against the Goths: lure them into battle, then ambush them with one force while the other swept up the women and children in the enemy's rear, a tactic that led to the surrender of the Goths in 382 and their incorporation into the auxiliary army by Theodosius. The death of the three leaders within the Visigoths had left the group without a leader, and Alaric, who had followed Theodosius the Great in his western campaigns and was more Romanized, was elected head.

After the death of Theodosius in 395, the barbarians in the Eastern Empire were ostracized by the government, and Alaric had to lead an auxiliary army westward.

Barbarians led by Alaric, the Visigothic leader, laid siege to Rome, the former capital of the Empire, three times in 410, and looted the city for three days before returning home. After this, the Visigoths continued their march westward, eventually establishing a kingdom mainly in Spain and southern Gaul. By the late fifth century A.D., Clovis the Great of the Franks drove the Visigoths from mainland France to the Spanish regions beyond the Pyrenees. With the death of Clovis, there was a split within the Frankish kingdom, allowing the Visigothic regime to survive.In 711, a new threat came from the south. The armies of the Moors (Muslims of North Africa) crossed the sea from North Africa and in only four years finally conquered the Visigothic Kingdom, whose territory included the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.

Meanwhile, the fate of the Visigoths was a history of boom and bust. They lived under the Huns for decades, and in 453 the Hun Empire fell into civil war after the death of Attila the Great, and in 454 the Hun Empire fell. The Ostrogoths escaped decades of Hun rule and established a new kingdom whose territory was presumably in the Roman province of Pannonia. The new kingdom had an uneasy diplomatic relationship with the Byzantine Empire, the descendant of the Eastern Roman Empire, and there were several wars and restorations of peace. 493 Theodoric was proclaimed King of Italy, and in 489 AD the Visigoths crossed the Alps and began an invasion of Italy, just as their brothers had done half a century earlier. This invasion was encouraged by the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, who appointed Theodoric, the leader of the Ostrogoths, as an imperial official to expel the usurper Emperor Odoacer in the west. Theodoric besieged Ravenna and failed to conquer it; he then made a pact with Odoacer, then ruler of the Italian peninsula, to govern Italy together.*** In 493 Theodoric killed Odoacer perfidiously during a banquet, collected the rest of his troops, and established the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths by the complete conquest of Italy in 493, with Ravenna as its capital. Its territory included the Italian peninsula, Sicily, Provence, Illyria, and Lower Germania with the old home of Pannonia.

Shortly after the death of Theodoric, a prominent leader of the Ostrogoths, however, in 535 A.D., the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I marched into Italy and defeated the Ostrogothic Kingdom once and for all in 554. Eventually, the Byzantine Empire restored the territories of the Ancient Roman Empire to the West, and the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths perished. When Italy was invaded by the newly arrived barbarians, the Lombards, in the later part of the sixth century A.D., the Ostrogoths were wiped out, and those who were spared collapsed into small groups.