We view the 1066 Battle of Hastings, where the Norman descendants of Vikings defeated the Anglo-Saxons and established their own king (William I) in England, as the end of the age of the seafaring Vikings. The Vikings were actually just looking for better places to live and preferred not to kill or be killed for it. Compared to Charlemagne’s armies, the Vikings were amateurs. In fact, they were violent, but no more than anyone else at the time. We see the attack through the eyes of the victims, who spread the word that the Vikings were bloody and violent. Alcuin, a great educator in Charlemagne’s court, was a particularly influential person who wrote about it. The 793 raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne on the northeast coast of England was the first Viking attack that was written about, and it was a big shock to all of Europe. Why does the Age of the Vikings start in 793 and end in 1066 ? YaleNews spoke with Winroth recently about some of the issues raised in his “On Point” interview. His forthcoming volume, “A New History of the Viking Age,” will be published by Princeton University Press in 2014. His most recently published book is “The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe” (Yale University Press, 2011). Winroth is professor and director of graduate studies in history. As a lead-up to the forthcoming History Channel series “Vikings,” Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s “On Point,” talked with a foremost authority on the subject - Yale’s Anders Winroth - to de-mystify the legendary raiders of the North.
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