This is the story of a successful integration. That of dreaded looters who, after having set fire and blood to Western Europe for a century, made peace with the Franks (treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte in 911), mingled with the population and founded the Duchy of Normandy. If they left few archaeological vestiges, the Vikings transmitted living sparks in the French language, in particular the maritime vocabulary. It is from them that words come to us as familiar – and poetic – as the wave, the fleet or the creek...
However, these men who came from the sea did not remain peaceful settlers. In 1066, at Hastings, they conquered England – a ride immortalized by the Bayeux Tapestry – and later founded a motley kingdom in Sicily.
During a truce in the siege of Paris, a chronicler wrote:“The pagans and the Christians shared everything:house, bread, drink, roads, beds; each of the two peoples marveled at seeing themselves mingled with the other. The conversion of the Vikings to Christianity, necessary at the time to establish a lasting peace, was not accomplished in the blink of an eye. It was long and laborious. But it is because the Scandinavians lived in osmosis with the natives that all this was possible. If the balance of power never ceases in History, that does not prevent it from being shot through with moments of grace.