Learnings: Why Leave Scandinavia?

To be a landowner was to have high status in Norse society; the wealthiest Scandinavians controlled vast estates. Land could increase both a person's power and their wealth; this made it very desirable.
It was also very hard to get.
There wasn't very much land in Scandinavia that was arable, or good for growing crops.
Furthermore, Norse land ownership was complicated. It was believed that a person's forebears continued to inhabit their othal, or ancestral territory, beyond death. Because a family's ancestors lived on in the land, it could not be divided. When a parent passed away, their land could not be split among their children; it could only be possessed by one family member at a time. That left many people uable to inherit land, and many people tempted to leave Scandinavia and seek it elsewhere.
Category:Discovery Tour: Viking Age