Just say you grieve on a daily basis, Graves, that should get you off the hook for now.
In Norway we are typically well aware of our industrial scale routine plundering of the British Isles, in particular Ireland, and we usually just giggle it off, "oh, we were so bad
"
Reality is, yes, we were. Not just "bad
" but absolutely horrifyingly gruesome. It would have been common to target smaller, helpless communities, that's the robber mentality - why attack someone who will make things difficult for you?
That said, when you're coming *specifically* to steal off women and children, there will be resistance, typically to the death. This would have to be dealt with swiftly.
Most people tend to envision the viking ships crossing the ocean, for them to just dart onto a coast, and start killing - but everything needs planning. A coastal raid would typically land nearby, on a neighboring beach if possible, or some nearby islands, just to stretch legs, get some food, piss and shit, and just go over some basic who-does-what. They would then return out to the open ocean, and then - for surprise effect, indeed dart straight onto the coast, usually scraping way onto land, like beaching orcas. From there on, there's nothing but lives shattered.
Valiant brothers, uncles, fathers, hell - maybe a mother or sister or two, who refuse to stand by, facing a force of destruction that give no warning and offer no compromise - would face these "barbaric brutes" as they've been described. A day starts one way, and ends another. Every single man who resists is put to the sword, in front of his family. Women and young girls are raped there and then. Material valuables are token bonuses, since the main prize is slaves, especially children, who will face a lifetime of slavery, and are more malleable than a more quarrelsome adult.
Once captured, slaves would find themselves transported across the ocean pretty much right away. Many became house-hold slaves for well off families, and many were
treated relatively well... I bet they were juuust thrilled! Others were ammassed and killed for sport, this was probably rare, since only one archaeological finding seems to suggest this. Makes sense it would be rare, since a slave tends to cost a bit of money. Probably some millionaire psycho who wanted to show off. I bet even neighbor local vikings were appalled at such behavior.
Other slaves became part of the larger trade network, and were sent off into eastern and southern Europe, some ending up as far as the Middle East or North Africa.
To this day, freckles and red hair are much more prevalent on the south-western Norwegian coast, than elsewhere in the country. A steady demand assured that raids were continous. At least untill Europe managed to wise up to the threat from the north, and begin meeting these raids with harsh resistance, but by then we had destroyed thousands - maybe hundreds of thousands - maybe over a million lives, and left who knows how many innocent fathers and brothers and uncles dead, slaughtered, rotting on beaches, in their hapless attempt at defending their absolute dearest.
LOL
Gives them the runs.
