The Viking world of the 7th and 8th centuries was in a state of flux. Warrior clans fought for control of the best land. Land meant wealth and power, but there was too little to go around. 

 

In an early Norse poem, a mother says to her son, get thee a ship and go out on the seas, and kill men. They are lines which reflect a society where a man’s worth was defined by his skill with the sword.

 

What kind of a society did these Viking warlords inhabit?

 

Competition was actually the key element in this society--who would travel the furthest and who was the bravest in battle, who could eat the most and who drank the most.

 

What is the principle dynamic that’s driving them out of these fjords towards Ireland?

 

It was important for the local chieftains to be able to give good gifts to their followers, their friends or throw big parties. And there was not enough wealth in Norway. So I think one of the main reasons that they left for Ireland was just to plunder some Irish monasteries and churches and steal the goods. 

 

The Irish in popular memory tend to see the Vikings as rapists, pillagers and killers. Is that something you’d go along with?

 

Partly yes, but you have to look at the Vikings that they can actually change shapes over the night--one day they are actually killers, the next day they are actually traders, and on the 3rd day they are cattlemen, and the 4th day, they are settlers.