What did Vikings invasions cause in Europe?

Answer 1

For one thing, there are those words that you use every day and that are Viking. Such as husband, knife, knee, scull, hair, nail, arm, leg, foot, boat, sail, mast, hand, finger, thing, bairn, swain, roundhouse, gate, and thousands more. In fact, there are so many Norse words in the English language that some people referr to it as Scandinavian. Which may not be to far off the mark. Because, since the Vikings didn't all go home, but instead opted to stay ... maybe you're one of them?

Answer 2

Traditionally, the answer has been 'massive bloodshed, destruction and large-scale robbery of mainly Church posessions". But we now know that these stories - almost always written by monks - were in most cases vastly exaggerated. The monks no doubt resented the fact that silver an gold Church posessions, easy as they usually were to carry away, were indeed often taken - and of course the Normans were heathens to boot, which also did not endear them to the monks who wrote about them. But of the towns reportedly burnt to the ground with all their inhabitants cruelly murdered we read in other sources that festive annual fairs were held there a couple of months later.

The Viking (or rather, "Norman" as they were always called at the time) invasions took the form of settlement in regions like eastern England, Ireland and Normandy (hence the name). They also settled in Sicily which they even came to rule with the blessing of the Pope and in Byzantium and southern Russia around the Black Sea. What did they 'cause' there? Mostly economic growth, protection of the Pope against several enemies, and a big upsurge in the trade from and to what is now called Russia.