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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brian Stout, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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THE VIKINGS
Many people have thought that Vikings were nothing more than raiders and barbaric killers. Recently though researchers have discovered they had glass windows. Glass windows were usually only associated with medieval churches and castles. Norsemen of the upper social standings sat in rooms lit up by spaces with glass. The glass panes can now be proven too exist long before the churches and castles of the Middle Ages, where the first glazed windows were thought to have been. Vikings had windows with glass panes between 800 and 1100. The Viking Age is considered to be from 793 to 1066. Which is a long time before the Middle Ages. The glass windows were for the upper classes of society and religious use, as was the example’s in the rest of Europe. There may have been glass windows in the Vikings’ vast halls. They were not large nor transparent windows as we have today, but most likely smaller windows, made of flat pane glass in different shades of green and brown. To create a colorful inflow of light into the building and not to be able to see out. We don’t know if the Vikings made the glass or if they picked up the glass through trade.” The Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquests and trading throughout Europe. They also reached North America where they left evidence that they were all across North America. Viking elite enjoyed a royal power that equaled for example, of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. But for some reason the Vikings have been portrayed throughout time as nothing more than mean cruel people. They traded eastward into Russia and south as far as the Arab lands, even reaching Baghdad. They traded the riches of the north – timber, iron, furs, amber, whale and walrus ivory, and animal skins – for silver and gold, jewels, glass, wine, salt, and slaves. Trading routes were more complex than purely export-import in two directions. They met traders from the eastern routes and brought back silk and spices from far-off Asia. They travelled on rivers and lakes, carrying their boats across land when they had to, or forging on by horse, camel, and on foot. In the 9th and 10th centuries Norwegian Vikings reached the Faroe Islands north of Scotland and went on to discover Iceland and Greenland. They formed settlements and colonies that lasted hundreds of years. During the Viking era their patchwork of principalities and fiefdoms consolidated into three kingdoms, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Hit and run raiders became large armies with strategies and engineering works, and they changed from pagan to Christian. Vikings also established a "bullion economy" in which weighed silver, and to a smaller extent gold, was used as a means of exchange. The Viking economy and trade network also effectively helped rebuild the European economy after the fall of the Roman Empire. Raiding was a part time occupation, practiced by a small percentage of the population. Few Vikings were professional soldiers, although like all men in this era, they were familiar with the use of weapons. These people were farmers first and needed to take care of the farm chores most of the year. They were entrepreneurs: business men who saw raiding as a means of acquiring capital that could be invested in a ship, in a farm, or in a business. Others may have been on the lookout for land on which they could settle. Raiding was thought to be desirable for a young man, but a more mature man was expected to settle down on the farm and raise a family. Then times changed again, there was a social change with a few becoming rich, owning most of the land, and leaders while the remaining Vikings stayed on the small farms r become tenants paying rent to the higher ones in social status Then another change came, as the few who were rich gathered armies, build fortress and stopped the raiding practices. Along with the on set of the Christians where raiding was not in step with so –called Christian beliefs. In short raiding was not profitable any longer so the Vikings stopped the practice. Happy Halloween!!! Tammy
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