Tom Lovell
Alexander the Great Refusing Water in the Desert

VIKING RAIDS! What were they really like?

There were three primary reasons for a raid: one, resources such as treasure and slaves, as mentioned in the literary sources and two, a semi-initiation rite for young men (which I believe goes back to the Indo-European koryos). Finally, human nature -- of course some people just want to take what someone else has for their own gain.

We know that raids would have been conducted primarily by young men in their teens or early twenties, and the Saga of Magnus the Good even mentions a raid conducted by an 11 year old boy.

In the Egil's Saga we learn of Egil, who in his teens with his brother Thorolf, led a raid at night where they tried to sneak into the village but failed and had to escape from their imprisonment. Moreover, the Vatnsdæla Saga mentions a group of young men going to raid a Sámi village in which they sneak into the fortress at night and sneak out with the treasure. They somehow alerted the guards and had to run back to the ship with the treasure they could carry as they were being chased.

During wartime however, raids were also conducted to provoke the enemy. In the Saga of Olaf Tryggvasson we learn of Håkon Jarl raiding land owned by Harald Bluetooth because Harald Bluetooth had betrayed Håkon.

Could Viking raids get very, very violent? Yes, in the Orkneyinga Saga we learn of a Viking called Harald Longleg who killed everyone in a village, looted everything and then burned the whole village down. He was banished from the country by his own father Harald Fairhair because of this, and then fled to the Orkney Islands. He then proceeded to do the same thing there and met his end at the hands of another Jarl, Einarr Rognvaldarsson who blood-eagled him in revenge. In the early Viking Age, Scotland was known to be home to some of the worst kind of Norse raiders, but Harald Fairhair eventually put an end to it when he annexed the land under his rule (which we learn of in Harald's Saga Háfagra).

Contrary to popular belief, England didn't get raided so much as other places in Northern Europe. Most Viking raids were stopped by the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum in 886 AD. The relation England had with Denmark and Norway in the middle to late Viking Age was quite friendly. In Ireland however, Vikings were known to raid old villages and even tombs, as mentioned in the Irish source Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib. We also know that Dublin was founded by the Norse as the biggest slave port in Northern Europe, and lots of Icelandic Vikings stole Irish women which is reflected in the DNA of Icelandic people today who have Irish ancestry.

France by far received the worst of Viking raids. In 845 AD, Paris was sieged by Vikings who were paid to leave. This was a trend with Vikings in France, as we know the Viking Rollo eventually settled in Normandy after a series of Danegeld ('Dane tribute') and became its ruler. Lots of other Vikings returned to France and raided into the Rhine region year after year in order to receive more tribute from the French.