Viking historical achievements.

Edited by Hellios - 13-Oct-2006 at 06:52

Originally posted by Aelfgifu They founded Kiev.

Edited by Hellios - 13-Oct-2006 at 07:33

They also discovered Constantinople, I believe....

Well, a "Viking" treasure hoard was discovered just under the Kremlin, during repair work, in 1988.

http://www.viking.no/e/info-sheets/russia/e_kremlin_treasure.htm

The Vikings or Normans were probably the most dynamic European peoples between the 9th and the 12th century.

Normans had their hands into almost everything then: The exploration of Iceland, Greenland and America in the northwest, of riverways in the Russian steppe in the east. They were mounting attacks on Byzantines, Arabs and steppe peoples from everywhere. On the Byzantines from Russia, from Sicily and from the crusader states. On the Arabs at the Caspians Sea and the Umajjads in Spain. Also in Sicily, lower Italia and the North African coast. Their scope of thinking, planning and executing outdid most others in Europe and beyond.

What is less known is that the Normans were also quite adept at administrative and technological innovation. They made the kingdom of Sicily the first modern European state with an orderly administration, largely built on the Byzantine and Arab example.

Normans in the Normandy were also the first to built cathedrals in a proto-Gothic style, that is with flying buttresses, ripped groin vaults, etc.

They also were said to have primitive iron-clad ships with iron all along the waterline of the hull. For navigation they used a certain stone with which the position of sun can be determined even when the weather is overcast. Their long ships are anyway unrivalled in amphibious warfare and were perhaps even more important for their military superiority on the Russian streams than in the North Sea.

All in all, quite impressive folks. Lot of dynamism, courage, and optimism and diligent pupils, with a keen perception and always willing to learn something new.

Originally posted by pinguin Vikings, Normans or Norse were the most creative barbarians that ever hit the Western Civilization. That's for sure. The Gothic cathedrals, the iron reinforced longships are some of theirs achievements on technology. Now, for the sun stone topic, perhaps is a myth. However, they invented a "sun compass" which is quite remarkable. Take a look,   http://members.aol.com/jvlambert/Norman/SunCompass.htm   Pinguin

Edited by Hellios - 13-Oct-2006 at 19:48

Oooops!

None of the architectural elements which came together for the first time in St. Denis and became later know as Gothic style had been actually new. All had been already employed elsewhere, notably in the Romanesque style (groin vaults), in Burgundy (pointed arches) and in...the Normandy whose cathedrals already featured such important features as flying buttresses and ripped cross vaults. Norman Caen is also the first extant cathedral with a double tower facade.

The Gothic of the Ile de France did not invent anything new, they just put together an architectural puzzle which became called Gothic style. The Normans made an important contribution, in fact so important that many English historians of architecture still argue that the Gothic as distinctive style had first appeared in England, notably at the cathedral of Durham.

They sacked Constantinople once but their ships blew away in a storm so they had to abandon most of it. They tried again a couple decades later and had their fleet utterly destroyed by Greek fire. (Both times the emperor and army were off in Arabia putting down rebellions.)