The viking raid over Lindisfaerne marked the beginning of a true terror campaign that spanned centuries over northern Europe, as Viking Drakkars or Dragon Ships began pouring raiders deep into Christian territory. It was very difficult to fight them because due to the characteristics of Norse naval technology, these ships could navigate enven in shallow waters unlike anything available at that time, and thus enter thorough river estuaries or approach beaches quite rapidly, before any alarms or warnings could be given.

That same technology allowed the Norse to explore and settle all over the North Atlantic: Iceland, Greenland, the British Isles, northern France and even northern Canada saw flourishing viking colonies; nevertheless, Vikings continued to attack the rest of Europe first because of a lack of resources in Scandinavia, and then because they developed a slave trade business with Arab nations and of course, they needed to capture slave sin the first place.

Much like mondern-day terrorists, they had the initiative and they decided where, when and how they would strike; so there was no real military solution to the problem despite the fact that Viking raiding parties were no match against heavily armed military units, especially cavalry. The problem was that most often than not the raiders departed with they bounty long before combat troops could be deployed by the defenders.

But the Church found a way to deal with them and in the process destroyed their culture; it was simple and pretty inexpensive despite the fact that it took time: they just converted raiders as they came and as the Norse began to accept Jesus Christ, they also began to lose the cultural factors that turned them into warriors. Slowly but steadily, their agressiveness and violence began to disappear and after a while they vanished compeltely.

It was a clever survival technique used with sights set in the long term, and the lessons could perhaps be applied to present-day disputes in which terrorism play a part.

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