Past Way Of Life Essay

Life in the past was characterized with lots of battles between rival territories. This resulted to the rise of powerful empires and the measure of power during those days was through the number of wars fought. Warriors of those days were called Vikings. Erik the red is one of the renowned warriors of those days. He was born in Norway and participated in wars for his mother country. A Viking also denotes a pirate, merchant or explorer. These Norsemen normally used long ships to travel in the sea to all the places of their interest and used the same vessels to fight their enemies. The Vikings are traced to have originated in the early 17th century in the German territory. The initiator of Vikings in the Iceland is Erik the red. He lived all his life ruling his people after which his son picked the mantle from him (Gwyn, J. 2000). Erik the red left a legacy during his time because he is known as the founder of the Greenland territory. He was an explorer for a long time and moved with his people to many places in the sea. After having been exiled for three years from his native home in the Iceland, Erik decided to explore the neighboring regions in the sea and finally came across the green land. His sets of Vikings were mainly explorers but they had to fight some ballets whenever they met opposition. The team led by Erik sailed further to the north Atlantic territories and finally to North America. Their main activities were looting, exploration, colonization and living a mercenary’s kind of life. The Vikings had very strict leadership and way of life. In the beginning, Erik was the leader and at some point he was referred as the chief of the land. This was mainly in green land. He actually used his cunning nature to name the land. The word green was a very strategic name so that he could attract more people into his territory. These people were mainly farmers who planted yams and corn. Under the ruler ship of Erik, the Vikings could sometimes go for attacking expeditions in the sea and they as a result came back with commodities like ivory from tucks and even sea whales. More people later got attracted into the Greenland and they formed a territory in this island. Their population however increased that they sometimes lacked food and other commodities. CHANGES THAT HAVE OCCURRED Erik the red later died and left his ruler ship to his son Seif. They later discovered that attacking were more risky and less profitable. The incoming of Christianity further played a big part in eliminating the Vikings kind of life and they later adopted romanticism culture. The Nazi people are also a fruit of the cultural setting of the Vikings. This started in the 18th century when a myth was created to enable Sweden take up Finland to their side. This came at a time when Finland had been lost between Sweden and Russia (Tomasi, M 1999). Various authors have produced publications on the subject of Vikings and this was done with intent to revive the Nordic culture in the Iceland. Many territories in the region today have taken up after the Erik the red’s kind of ruler ship. Norwegians for example have a lot of symbolism to the Viking governance. An example of this is the Norwegian fascist party. This shows that Vikings policies are still operational in the political arena of the world today. The German people are also in the same train of following closely to the Viking culture. This they do even though they claim that they have no links to the Viking settlers. THE PRESENT SETTINGS AND COMPARISON TO THE PAST The ancient Vikings culture has been written in many books today. These trace all the happenings and activities of the people. The Vikings culture has been embraced by many people in this current generation. Norway and Germany are among the countries that practice various aspects of this culture. The Norway for example embraces its political arena organized in a Viking setting. Many political leaders have also taken the way of the Vikings ruler ship and with time are applying the skills in addressing various issues. Vikings always participated in wars in order to obtain food and other supplies for their territories. They did this through sea looting and piracy. These were accepted ways of life during those days but are not accepted in the day today. References Tomasi, M (1999). World history. Oxford: Oxford publishers. Gwyn, J. (2000). A history of Vikings. Oxford: Oxford publishers