Fitzhugh On The Vikings Summary

One of the fascinating times in European history occurs during the age of the Vikings, which were between the 8th century and the 10th century. There are several different articles that possess different ideas on how the Vikings acted. For example, one article that views the Vikings as harsh and horrific human beings is titled Lindisfarne, which talks about how the Vikings raided a town in current-day England (Lindisfarne). Another example includes a NOVA interview with William Fitzhugh, an archeologist who argues that the idea of the Vikings being “brutal” people is a misrepresentation. The purpose of this interview with Fitzhugh is to make the audience really think about what the Vikings were really like during the end of the Carolingian era going into the Viking era. He uses several different disciplines, like archeology and literature, in supporting his evidence defending his claim. He uses archeology, literature, and history …show more content…
These pieces of evidence include information regarding the Vikings involvement in Iceland and England. In his interview, Fitzhugh was asked about the Iceland sagas historical content and how valuable it is to the Vikings studies. Fitzhugh states that the “documents are phenomenal,” but later questions on if they were fabricated or not. This is due to most of the documents being written hundreds of years later based on stories told from Viking ancestors. This goes for the same as in England. The stories of Lindisfarne were told about a hundred years later in church documents. This also could have been fabricated because the church was completely one-sided and bias toward the harsh interpretation of the Vikings. With this evidence supporting Fitzhugh’s argument, he can conclude that yes, these writings and sagas are useful for finding information on Vikings, but they can also be misrepresented because these were stories written hundreds of years