Beyond The Northlands The Vikings And Their World

1171 Beyond the Northlands: the Vikings and their World Eleanor Barraclough Word Count: 1941 Compare and contrast the Frankish annals AND the Irish annals as sources for Viking history. Considerable difference and similarity can be observed in the records of the Vikings and the different peoples that they interacted with. This largely has to do with geography, as the landscape of Viking Age Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were divided and rugged; this lead to various groups of people vying for power. When a person or group lost a power struggle, they would often use the waterways of the North Sea to gain access to potential raiding lands. The seafaring technological advances of previous centuries enabled interaction between the raiders of Sweden, Norway and Denmark and the peoples of Ireland and the Carolingian Empire. Because of the technological advances and geographical situation, the Viking raiders were able to interact with many different peoples but also come from the same fundamental background. This caused a multitude of similarities between the Viking activity in the Carolingian Empire and Ireland, but there were also many differences. Due to the fact that the Carolingian Empire and Ireland were both Christianized by the time of the Viking Age, both countries utilized writing to describe their interactions with the Vikings. While both countries annals have resemblances - such as raids and plundering leading to settlement - they also have considerable differences.