Life & Wessex King Essay Example for Free

Life Wessex King EssayLife in the past was characterized with lots of battles between rival territories. This resulted to the rise of powerful empires and the heartbeat of power during those days was through the number of warfares fought. Warriors of those days were cal take Vi male monarchs. A Viking also denotes a pirate, merchant or explorer. These Norsemen normally used long ships to travel in the sea to all the places of their interest and used the same vessels to fight their enemies. The Vikings are traced to have originated in the early 17th century in the German territory. The provoker of Vikings in the Iceland is Erik the red.He lived all his life ruling his people after which his son picked the mantle from him (Gwyn, J. 2000). SCANDINAVIA The term Scandinavia is both a historical a major(ip) geographical part in the world. There exist also a people who are identified as the Scandinavians. According to the geographical setting, Scandinavia is located in the Northern Europe, a place called Scandinavian Peninsula. The kingdoms that existed in the Scandinavian contribution include Finland, Norway and partly Denmark. A lot of research d 1 also intermit that Sweden and Iceland also form part of this robust history.All these regions put together are further referred to as Nordic region. The geographical orientation of Scandinavia is rather ambiguous. The region spreads from the Norwegian Fjords all the way to the low areas in Denmark through the Scandinavian Mountains and to the archipelagos of Sweden and Norway. This region has diverse group of people and for this reason, there exist more that one dialect. The languages that were spoken in these regions included Norway, Sweden and Denmark dialects. These people usually understood each other and thus had mutual understanding.DO THE VIKINGS RIGHTFULLY DESERVE THE REPUTATION THAT THEY WERE CRUEL, murderous BARBARIANS? WHY? WHY NOT? The Vikings performed most of their ventures through wars. It is evi dent that a normal way of dressing was to be attire that is characteristic of a warrior. The males had war uniforms all the time. From the first time that the Vikings entered a territory, war had to be fought. It is mandatory that people must die in the event of war. The death of people was so common to these northern tribes that any one could talk of them to be cruel and murderous.Other ventures like sea piracy and looting were associated with brutality and blood shed. The victims of such encounters were left counting their losses if they were not dead. Erik who is one of the founders of the Vikings movement was actually observed to murder many people in his native land until he was expelled to go to exile, the result which led to the discovery of Ice land. EXPLAIN THE ROLE OF WESSEX, IN REGARD TO THE VIKINGS IN ENGLAND. The Wessex territory was known for its great power during the grade 878. This territory had great potential that any attacker could admire.Te Wessex King of that time planed for a very efficient army that was to fight and defeat the Viking warriors. This king managed to resist the Vikings and with time became pronounced as Alfred the great. His territory was a centre for trade, commerce and administration. The Vikings however invaded this land and took loots from it as usual. The Wessex region acted as a touchable opposition to the advances of the Vikings. Every one feared the Vikings. The sight of these raiders approaching a region would send cold shivers down the guts of every king.King Alfred however managed to go them, even though he was later cornered. The Wessex region became a home of habitation to some Vikings although others separated from the settling camp and continued with invasion. Wessex became a vizor mark towards bringing an end to the Viking advances in war. HOW DID THE VIKINGS CONTRIBUTE TO THE BREAK-UP OF THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE? The Vikings were a major threat to the kings during the Viking age. The Vikings attached Ca rolingian empire in the stratum 885 and 886 leading to the defeat of their kings.In 845, the Viking warriors sailed to seine in France and attacked it. The end result of this was a defeat to the Carolingian empire and the kings that followed were just puppet rulers who were initiated by the Vikings. This led to the fall of this empire and it took along time to come up again. EXPLAIN THE VARIOUS PHASES INVOLVED IN VIKING RAIDS. Vikings mainly had 3 strains of raids. The very first phase said to have lasted from 790-840. The Vikings used very shallow draught long ships. They always used these ships because they were suitable majorly for surprise attacks in the coastal towns.The size of these vessels was so small so that the Vikings could rush and attack very fast. With this they attacked Frisia and Aquitane. The second level of attacks occurred between 841 and 875 and the number of raids increased. The Vikings attacked by killing or enslaving their victims. With this, the attacks pr oceeded to the Mediterranean Sea. 876 to 911 saw the establishment of the third phase. With this, the Vikings started to invade frnce and other parts of Europe. They also developed their own fleets that were used to attack distance empires.