Geography Denmark: . Small: never >5 miles from the sea so easy to centralise power with a navy · Most populous . Entrance to the Baltic = control of trade route from the middle east to Britain = richest Norway: . Tall: small communities linked by fjords, hard to farm . Infertile ground left over from Ice Age = Poor. In the north, nothing but hoboes hunting walrus and getting tribute from Sami, though there's a central justice thing in south . Often controlled by Denmark, esp Lade is thought of as Danish territory Sweden: · Few rivers; plateau with forests take 2 months to cross overland = hard to invade or rule centrally · Fur trade = rich Barrett, 'What caused the Viking Age?', may be worth citing elsewhere · Technology: no. Boats and signalling were remarkable, but they were remarkable a long time before the raids started. . Climate: no. The timing of the Medieval Warm Period and the settlements of the north atlantic don't line up: they settled it in the 10th cent, a century before the MWP made it hospitabler · Population pressure: Scandinavia did experience a population boom at the end of the first millennium along with the rest of Europe. But o Forest clearing didn't precede the Viking age as it would if they were running out of space. it varies between regions; in Norway mostly at the end of the period o the "wave of advance" model doesn't work because it can't be proven that there were settlements in Atlantic Scotland before Ireland and England . and fashions moved from Ireland to Scotland, such as ring money " and strontium analysis suggests the redistribution of population from around the Insular world not direct immigration from Scandinavia o There was a raiding phase before a settlement phase because portable wealth was easy to get but you only migrate your whole living situation if you have information that it's a place worth going to - 'leap-frog' model . A hypothetical meeting in the Faroes where Irish people told the Norse about the rich monasteries that are there · The marriage question A lot of insular wealth shows up in female graves so maybe that's what they needed it for o 'Youth bulge': wars usually occur in societies where there are too many sons competing for the same status roles o Preferential female infanticide could have caused this. Remains to be seen whether this particularly happened in the 8th cent and why · Economic stuffs o Presence and periodic slowing in supply of Eastern silver made the West Scandinavians wants some: gold rush mentality/'silver fever' (Duczko) . But the stuff they got in the west didn't fuel eastern trade. They could sell western slaves in western markets and get eastern slaves for eastern markets. o The wics were booming in the 8th cent becoming juicy targets, BUT they weren't targeted til like the 840s and more 9th cent sources talk about successful defence against pirates than