SMC Vikings & Their Battles with The French from 882 to 886 Discussion

This week’s readings include a primary source. It tells us about the Vikings and their battles with the French from 882 – 886. What does it teach you?
need 700 words done by 3 hours

Example below.

To most people Vikings are well known for their ruthlessness and their extreme level of savageness. In this primary source, this is beyond evident in the way they burned and slaughtered people, destroyed buildings, and seized land through violence. The Northmen certainly showed a great degree of military capabilities and did in fact severely challenge the Frankish Kingdom. This is apparent in the many battles and military missions that took place since the Vikings had immense success. In this discussion post, I will briefly summarize the primary source which describes the fights given in the Eastern Frankish Kingdom, and then explain what I learned from studying it.
In the first war in 882 the Franks were successful, and the Vikings left Conde to go back to their ships, and in the process, they burned down monasteries and houses and did not spare anyone from death. In a way to take revenge, Hugo gathered an army, and alongside the King hunted the Vikings. However, they had to return back to their ships after taking a few losses.
Following the next year, in 883, Carloman (the king) positioned his army on the opposite side of Lavier. The Vikings arrived in Lavier with a great military force, and forced the King (and his army), to move back across the river Oise. Therefore, they took advantage of the situation and destroyed the land in Seine and Oise since no one was standing in their way. At this point, it is worth noting that the Vikings’ ruthlessness is easily apparent.
However, in 884 a counsel was set consisting of nobles from Compiegne. They sent out Dane Sigfried (a Christian and faithful to the king) to “bribe” the Vikings. He did so successfully, and for twelve thousand pounds of silver, both ends exchanged hostages and the Vikings retracted towards beyond river Oise. This way, the land of Amiens was able to enjoy a great extent of security.
However, the years 885 and 886 are crucial in the study of the Viking raids in France. In more detail, in 885 Carloman dies by accident, and Charles the Emperor takes control over his soldiers. Following that, a fight took place close to the Seine where the Vikings had fortified themselves. The Franks had followed them, and together with others from Neustria and Burgundy fought against the Vikings. They soon found out that Ragnold and a few others had died. Therefore, with this sad news, they decided to fall back without accomplishing anything. That must have been really disappointing for them and certainly brought down the soldiers’ psychology. The Franks decided to defend themselves by building castles that would deter the passage of Viking ships. However, once more again plans changed. The Vikings took over the castle built in Oise, by implementing their military ingeniousness (they cut off the castle’s water supply and eventually the people surrendered). In classic Viking destruction, they completely burned the castle. Uplifted by their victory they moved aggressively towards Paris in order to attack a tower. However, the Christians there fought a great and long-lasting battle, and eventually deterred the Vikings.
Lastly in 886 was an equally important, and perhaps even greater, year. Due to the river’s rise of water level, the Little Bridge had been washed away. As soon as the bishop heard about it, he sent people to rebuild it the next morning. To his surprise, the Vikings had found out about it beforehand, so they sent all of their forces to surround the tower. They resisted to surrender, and the Vikings set it on fire and proceeded to assault the city. The bishop immediately explored ways to find help, and unhappy with his negotiations he took his life. The people in the city were completely devasted by the hearing of the news. Odo (king at the time), decided to leave and get help from the kingdom’s nobles. Once more again the Vikings knew all about it and blocked his way back to the city. Odo, however, fought greatly by slashing his enemies as he moved towards his city’s gates. This fight brought great joy to his people who were in complete despair. The emperor (Charles) who had come to help, instead of fighting with his very large and strong army, finally agreed to certain terms and promised to pay a ransom. He also suggested to the Vikings to ravage Burgundy and not West France.
By studying these raids in Paris, one could come to a handful of conclusions. As I previously mentioned the Vikings, they were very merciless but undeniably very strong and great warriors. They employed a wide variety of military techniques throughout these raids to accomplish as they wanted. A great example would be when they cut the water supply in the castle of Oise in 885. Another fact I noticed was how “bribery” was a formal method of negotiating fights. Perhaps it may be that the Vikings were very susceptible to money since they were very often engaged in looting