How Did The Vikings Influence Their Society

Words: 966
Pages: 4

The Vikings lived in a vast land, where the weather was their ruler, and ultimate deciding factor in a grand amount of decisions the Vikings had to make, and the most important factor, at least to some, was how they governed their society. People in Scandinavia had to live near water for survival, since the climate was extreme there was very little game, therefore Vikings heavily depended on fishing for food. They were also scarcely spread out throughout Scandinavia because, besides the fact that they needed to live near water, a lot of the land was mountainous terrain, and a lot was also unlivable. The Vikings, at first, began to form their kingdoms, from 950-1050, the Scandinavians kings ruled over unified territories, and crossed the modern boundaries we know today, and these were very fluid until the 1200 AD. The government also reflects that …show more content…
The 10th century poem explains how Rig, or otherwise known as Heimdall god’s watchman and father of men, visited three different couples, which bore children that represented those different classes. It was also in their society, based on this poem, to judge people on the way they looked and what they wore. The Thralls, slaves, were described as ugly people who did not have much. The Jarls, free people, were describes as fairly good-looking people who had enough to live comfortably. Finally, the Karls, rulers, were described as beautiful people who had bountiful supplies. It is important to know this because it describes a lot about their society, not only in how they ran their government, but also to explains how important their religion was to every aspect of their lives, and how they used to explain and justify why thing were they way they