What made the Vikings so much better at war than their peers?

What made the Vikings so much better at war than their peers?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aclea
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Basing
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marton
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brissarthe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brunanburh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cathair_Cuan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cynwit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Englefield
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edington
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glenmama
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leuven_(891)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885–86)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_raid_on_Seville
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus'–Byzantine_War_(860)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweyn_Forkbeard#Invasions_of_England
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Assandun
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(845)
no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaget_ved_Lyrskogshede
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885–886)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Islandbridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maldon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fulford
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindisfarne#Vikings
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tara_(Ireland)
twitter.com/AnonBabble

They figured out how to raid by sea pretty early on, I always figured the Vikings were to blame for the reason why Scandinavia was full of beautiful women and England was full of Uggos. I mean if you were a viking raping and pillaging in the English Isles, are you gonna bring the uggos back home?

>Vikings
>in Finland

they raped in egypt too?

>pic related
top fucking kek!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aclea - Vikings beat by Englishmen
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Basing - English withdrew, but the battle was indecisive
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marton - Follow up to the previous battle, Vikings lost
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brissarthe - After murdering woman and children and then attempting to loot a church, the Christians slaughter the Vikings
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Brunanburh - England kills 5 viking kings and a prince, Vikings utterly crushed
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cathair_Cuan - Norse defeated by Catholic Irish, driven out of Ireland
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cynwit - Wrecked by the Saxons again
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Englefield - Saxons won
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edington - Great Heathen army destroyed
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Glenmama - Irishmen annihilate Norse invaders that had settled there
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leuven_(891) - Franks destroy Nords that were planning on looting churches and killing woman and children (as they do). Vikings stop murdering villagers in France for a while because they're scared of the French!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885–86) - Hailed as being successful by the Viking scum, in reality they raided an undefended Paris and then fled with their tails between their legs once Charles the Fat arrived
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge - Englishmen defeat the Vikings yet again
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_raid_on_Seville - Vikings raid undefended village and get BTFO by Muslim response
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus'–Byzantine_War_(860) - Murdered many woman and children before fleeing in fear at the sight of the returning Greeks

They really weren't great at actual war. They were good at fighting. Most of the fighting the Vikings did was relatively small scale. They did a lot of hit and run, catching a village or town by surpirse with a numerically superior force of fighting men, fucking their shit up, and then heading back to their coastal base where they could sail away if need be. If you're asking what made them good fighters on an individual basis, probably the fact that they practiced a religion where fighting and dying in battle was the highest honor one could achieve. Their culture was more geared toward fighting, and they were generally known to be larger in stature than other people.

Norse raiders?

>that one battle where an entire Viking fleet got burned by 15 Byzantine ships

Most viking battles go like this: attack undefended village and kill the unarmed civilians, then run away. If you're victorious, it's because no army intercepted you. If you're defeated, it's because you got caught and had to fight armed soldiers.

>300 years of constant warfare disproved by 10 battles
VIKINGS BTFO

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweyn_Forkbeard#Invasions_of_England - First Viking conquest of England
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Assandun - Second Viking conquest of England
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(845) - Vikings paid over 2 tons of silver after burning down Paris
no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaget_ved_Lyrskogshede - 15.000 Wends slain
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885–886) - French """victory"""", Vikings got tired of the French hiding behind their walls so they left to ravage Burgundy instead. Resulted in Normandy being ceded to Rollo when the French king saw how ferocious the Vikings were
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Islandbridge - 6 Irish kings left dead
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Maldon - Anglos forced to pay the Vikings over 3 tons of silver, Anglos so devastated they made a poem of the battle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fulford - Dead Anglos

there are tons of smaller battles won by the vikings but my points is that there is no point in cherrypicking smaller battles, especially when the vikings conquered england twice. simplifying shit to this degree is frankly disrespectful in memory of the people that actually had to fight these rowing rapists

After being raped by the Ummayads in Seville the vikings virtually stopped raiding in the area, if we're talking raiding here, Barbary pirates were more successful, from the barbary coast they raided every nook in the mediterranean, Europe including the English channel and even Iceland, most western coasts of Africa south of the Saharas and even fucking South America..

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885–86)
>After a long siege most vikings gets bored and leaves for easier takings
>Charles the fat arrives and literally pays the remaining vikings to fuck off as the Parisians even though he could've easily fought them

What did the Barbary pirates accomplish? I know nothing about them.

asymetric warfare, i.e. pillage and get out fast to next location

They preyed on weak and defenseless monastaries/villages.

That's what makes them so "great" at "war".

They were shit at war. They were good at raiding unprotected settlements and retreating before they faced resistance.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindisfarne#Vikings
This is why we can't have nice things.

>driven out of Ireland
No they were driven out by en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf but really they were on a losing streak to the Irish at that point and Clontarf was the culmination of years of setbacks for the Norse.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tara_(Ireland) was probably the most humiliating loss for them in Ireland.

>the vikings conquered england twice
?

What made this map so more shit than its peers ?