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According to some research, they were indeed:
Women may have accompanied male Vikings in those early invasions of England, in much greater numbers than scholars earlier supposed, McLeod concludes. Rather than the ravaging rovers of legend, the Vikings arrived as marriage-minded colonists. "Although the results presented here cannot be used to determine the number of female settlers, they do suggest that the ratio of females to males may have been somewhere between a third to roughly equal," the study concludes.
Invasion of the Viking women unearthedI imagine that there were probably more blondes (percentage-wise) in the early Middle Ages in England and in Carolingian territory than today, but still....I can imagine this would have been a strange sight to see boatloads of wild, long-haired blonde men and women in ships traveling in packs, ready to raid your town!
The book I am reading right now makes the claim that the vast majority of Viking raiders were male and those that went to Russia were almost exclusively male. I cannot imagine a bunch of Vikings taking their womenfolk along on raids although they might. The Vikings do have the stories about warrior princesses after all. I also remember reading somewhere that Viking society was among the most egalitarian when it came to relationships between the sexes in the Medieval period.
Actually what you say about them being majority male makes more sense to me. Assuming a much higher birthrate than women today, I could see the average woman or marrying age being pregnant 10 times or so during her lifetime (presuming a higher infant mortality rate as well). These women would obviously not be candidates for raids. Also, since Viking raids were typically “summertime events”, the Viking hometowns would need to be tended by a sizable portion of the population, and women would be ideal candidates for this.
The Norman's that conquered Sicily and the Vikings those Norman's were descended from were essentially two different peoples. Two hundred years in France civilized the Normans to a great extent without diluting their desire for a good fight or challenge. Don't forget that one of thew Norman kings of Sicily was considered a heretic and possible witch.
The Norman's that conquered Sicily and the Vikings those Norman's were descended from were essentially two different peoples. Two hundred years in France civilized the Normans to a great extent without diluting their desire for a good fight or challenge. Don't forget that one of thew Norman kings of Sicily was considered a heretic and possible witch.
I had a professor who called the inhabitants of southern Italy "Vikings", and I internally took issue with such a characterization. While I would prefer to call them "Normans", I'm guessing that it is taught in some places that they were "Vikings".
The connection between the Normans and Vikings is almost always made prominent when speaking of anything to so with the Normans. The popular perception seems to be that Rollo and his followers maintained everything about their culture but their language when they settled in Normandy. This is not true but does not stop people from saying it and other, even lazier people from believing it.
