has been proven that the first raids were conducted around 200 C.E. and they lasted until around approximately 1200 C.E. Largely I beleive this was due to the fact that the Roman Empire conquered most of Gaul and Britain. Thus thier former trading partners, and food supply suffered. By 476 C.E. The Roman Empire had basically fallen. Yet the damage had been done. The Romans beleived in a little strategy called "divide and conquer". It is entirely logical to think that if ones family and tribe is at stake, the society itself could not afford to take the risk of a "No, we wont trade with you". I honestly beleive that the raids were not out of maliciousness, and laziness, but rather were out of a terrible necessity. As for the "Blood-Eagle" That was a punishment for warriors and dangerous criminals who had commited a severe crime such as treason or collaberation. There was another type of price to be paid for treachery and deciet. It happened to a noble in France, He had hired the "Vikings" as mercinaries and refused to pay. So they seiged his stronghold and slit his nose from the nostril to the bone. Note they did not cut it off. This practice survived to the present day with the phrase "paying through the nose". To look on them and demonify them would be to look on history with a 20th century mind, and lose a lot of the reasons behind these "cruel" actions. In order