TOEFL Reading practice: The Vikings

One of the most remarkable peoples to emerge in the Europe of the first millennium of the Common Era were the Vikings. Originating in Scandanavia, these fearsome seaborne warriors were the scourge of northern Europe for more than two centuries. They attacked the coasts of England, Scotland, Ireland and France with terrible regularity and in time came to establish their own kingdoms in each of these countries.

Although recent historians have tried to rehabilitate the reputation of the Vikings and portray them as great navigators and traders, it is hard to think of them this way as a thousand years of European folklore and collective memories have left an enduring image of ferocious, bloodthirsty warriors burning churches and villages and slaughtering their inhabits wherever the Viking longships landed. Indeed, the names of some Viking leaders seem to indicate that they were more than just peaceful businessmen. Could Eric Bloodaxe or Thorfin Skullsplitter have been anything other than warriors?

What made the Vikings so dangerous was the mobility that their famous longships (also known as dragon ships, or draakars) gave them. The Viking longships were the most technologically advanced seagoing vessels of their age. They were long, graceful, light and fast. Their special construction created a vessel both strong and flexible and this allowed them to sail in even very rough oceanic conditions. They also had a very shallow draught, in other words the part of the ship that was under the water was quite small, and this made them ideal for raiding purposes. The Vikings could sail their ships very close to the shore and very far up rivers, thus enabling the warriors to strike not only the coasts of their enemies but also deep inland. The longships were propelled by sail and by oar, with the former being the main method of propulsion and the latter an auxiliary method used when on narrow inland waters or on calm days.

What is astonishing about the longships is the sheer length of some of the voyages they made. Sailing across the North Sea from Scandanavia to Britain or Ireland was commonplace, but some Vikings made extraordinary journeys. They established settlements in Iceland, Greenland and even North America, and in 860 attacked Constantinople in present-day Turkey. That they were able to make such long voyages in open-decked ships that had no protection from the weather only underlines the strength of the longships and the endurance of their crews.