Why were the Viking raids so successful?

AncientPages.com - At the height of their success Viking covered the British Isles, modern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, North India, China and North America. read more

Now, we have to remember that a Viking raid nearly always came as a total surprise. The Vikings were very skilled navigators with excellent knowledge of the coasts of Europe and they planned their raids very carefully. read more

However, they were also successful because they were smart. They chose not to attack large, well guarded settlements, or villages with barely anything to plunder; they instead decided to attack churches and monasteries, or rich but lowly defended towns, or decided to attack during war, when the armies were off fighting and could not defend their own land. read more