That may have driven the raids and ambitious exploration voyages for which Vikings are best known. Some scholars believe that the Vikings were a polygamous society that made it hard for non-elites to find brides. Price suspects that “slavery was a very significant motivator in raiding.” One key factor may have been a dire need for women. Others recorded that slaves from northern Europe were funneled from Scandinavia through Russia to Byzantium and Baghdad.

that extended across the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt. Ibn Hawqal, an Arab geographer, described a Viking slave trade in 977 A.D. The Annals of Ulster record “a great booty of women” taken in a raid near Dublin in 821 A.D., while the same account contends that 3,000 people were captured in a single attack a century later. at the Scottish monastery of Lindisfarne. The human bodies were left in the ruins rather than retrieved for burial.Īncient chronicles long mentioned that people, as well as precious objects, were a target of the Viking raids that began in 793 A.D. In 2009, archaeologist Frands Herschend at Uppsala detailed a burnt structure from this early era in which people and animals were immolated.

There is evidence of vast economic disparity as early as the first century A.D., with some people living with animals in barns while others live nearby in large, prosperous homes. Slavery in the region long predates the Vikings. The expression “to be held in thrall,” meaning to be under someone’s power, traces back to the Old Norse term for a slave: thrall. Scandinavian slavery still echoes in the English language today.

Viking conquest trade prices