PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

I'm Crap: Aug 15, 2001

Plucky Brit posted:

So the attack on Lindisfarne was a retaliation for all those Northumbrian raids on the Danes?

The Vikings were such good seafarers they were able to sail backwards in time 10 years, to take revenge for some conquered Saxons, whom they hated anyway, on some Anglo-Saxon monks, rather than the Frankish empire that was threatening Denmark. Get it straight.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2016 02:58

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 16, 2024 01:14

I'm Crap: Aug 15, 2001

hard counter posted:

I know most historians date the start of the Viking Age to Lindisfarne 793 but that wasn't the first bit of Viking activity ever, it wasn't even the first bit of Viking activity in the British Isles since lesser records exist of Norwegians showing up in the Isle of Portland in 789 (perhaps just on a trading expedition that went badly sour) and Mercia already had a charter for organizing defenses against pagan seamen in 792, albeit that could be referring to Frisian pirates. Anyway the Norse had been raiding the coasts of western and northern Frankia concurrent to these events, possibly even starting there though the records left behind aren't nearly as good or as famous as the correspondence between Alcuin and the Lindisfarne priests that form the best information available re: the early Viking raids. Ultimately, like the first post says, the theory is just that Charlemagne's anti-pagan activities snagged some Norsemen and provoked revenge raids that also taught the Vikings that Christian churches, in general, were rich & easy pickings and so the Norse went on a medieval gold rush to wherever men prayed under a cross.

That isn't so much a theory as it is a load of more or less unfounded speculation. I would also add that it seems from a distance like a cheesy attempt to shoehorn history into a simple-minded and unhelpful framework about EVIL EMPIRES and FREEDOM FIGHTERS, regardless of the facts.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2016 16:13

I'm Crap: Aug 15, 2001

Dude, he literally said that the reason that Danes started going a-robbing and a-reaving is because they were provoked by Charlemagne's imperialism and religious persecution.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2016 20:31

I'm Crap: Aug 15, 2001

hard counter posted:

I think you, I'm Crap, are the only one reading it like that.

You're right, I'm crazy. How could this post have possibly led me to believe that you were putting forward some kind of cockamamie theory that Charlemagne's aggressive Christianizing of Europe was what led to the Viking Age?

hard counter posted:

Speaking of Charlemagne there's a theory with some traction that his aggressive Christianizing of Europe led to the Viking Age. Some Franks high on zeal burn down some Norse temples in lower Denmark and the local Vikings go on a revenge raid or two and figure out that Christian churches are both rich and easy pickings, thus leading to a medieval gold-rush of sorts. At the very least Charlemagne's proselytizing by sword would have raised tensions contributing to Norse aggression.

Pretty much any empire maker in history has been a massive asshat, short of the dudes pulling together a community of other oppressed people maybe.

Nope, not seeing it. Let's look at that first sentence again.

hard counter posted:

Speaking of Charlemagne there's a theory with some traction that his aggressive Christianizing of Europe led to the Viking Age.

What can I have been thinking?

Do you have any kind of sources about when and how this supposed burning of Norse temples by Franks in Denmark took place, by the way?

# ¿ Jan 6, 2016 21:14

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)