Nov 202016
Vikings might have started raiding because there was a shortage of single women
The theory in short: the rich guys in Norse society not only had weapons, warriors and bling, they also had all the wimmins. Due to the higher-ups in society marrying a number of women, there were fewer women available for the men in the lower levels of society. So, says the theory, some of the motivation for Viking raids was to:
- Kidnap some women from elsewhere to bring home
- Steal a bunch of stuff to come home rich so that the local women will find them marryable.
Good thing that that sort of thing was *then* and not now. Because if there were, say, 30,000,000 excess males in, oh, let’s say “China,” something unfortunate might result.