The Viking Raiders

An artist's impression of Viking Raiders

## Biographical information

### Marital status

Freydis and Thorvard are married with a son, Finnbogi and Helga Mordsdottir (not a viking raider) are married with a daughter

## Appearances

### Appears in

The book written by Jackie French, They came on Viking ships

## Overview

The Viking Raiders are a group of semi-fictional characters which appear in the book; 'They came on Viking ships', Written by an Australian author, Jackie French. The Viking Raiders are vicious and violent and could slaughter an entire village with ease. The Viking Raiders include main characters who are Freydis, Leif, Finnbogi and Thorvard.

## Description/ Appearance

The Viking Raiders are a group of Vikings who sailed from Norway and docked at Hekja's village. They came there to raid her village and kill any villagers that came in their way. They came in tall ships which held livestock and other valuables that they traded with the Norwegians.

They wielded weapons such as iron swords and some had shields. Some Vikings have long and bushy beards, and some don’t. Most of the Vikings have bright red or light brown hair, which is covered with a metal helmet usually worn for protection. In battle, Vikings wear armour which is mainly made from iron. The clothes that the Vikings wear mainly consist of soft cowhides or furs (depending on the weather).

## Influence

The Viking Raiders have a big influence on Hekja as they have taught her how to work on the ship and how to adapt to live in a completely different country, alone, and under the control of Freydis who is Hekja's mistress.

The Vikings Raiders have shown Hekja how to move on from the deaths of her loved relatives, such as her Ma. They also showed her how to be a strong young women and fight for her new country.

## Personality

The Viking Raiders are extremely violent; decimating a village with ease. They are true warriors for their country and are very talented at fighting. This makes them courageous and brave as they risk their lives when they raid other villages. They do not feel sympathy for the poor souls of the unfortunate villagers and ignored their cries for mercy.

During the raid, the Vikings treated the villagers as if they were threats to them, even though the villagers were completely innocent. When Finnbogi captured Hekja, he treated her as if she was a piece of rubbish, she was neglected and ignored by the Vikings.

When Finnbogi killed Hekja’s Ma and saw Hekja crying while embracing her mother, he did not feel any emotions for the life that he just ended. Later on the ship when Hekja was captured and made a slave, she saw Finnbogi and noticed that he still had the blood of her mother on his clothes and Finnbogi didn’t even care.

## Character Development

When the Viking Raiders landed on Hekja's village, they were malicious raiders and killers. Their first impressions to Hekja were horrendous and they treated her with no respect at all. Soon after, they captured Hekja and forced her to come on their ship as well as Snarf.

At first, they treated her as a slave and ignored her existence as they sailed to Greenland. During the windy and extremely cold nights, the Viking Raiders slept in their warm sleeping bags, forgetting the fact that Hekja was on the ship as well. The only Vikings on the ship that spoke to Hekja was Hikki, a runner on Greenland who is also a slave, and Freydis who was only nice to Hekja once because she gave her some cowhide to sleep with.

When they Vikings were sailing to Greenland, Snarf was able to sniff out icebergs, which greatly helped the Viking Raiders with avoiding them and not being hit. This resulted in the Vikings to get closer to Hekja and treat her with a little bit more respect. They gave her a sleeping bag to sleep in and let Snarf sniff out any more icebergs.