Violence was the Vikings most important export but that at home they were not particularly bloodthirsty in most cases local power games were acted out peacefully. The use of this naval technology as a way to penetrate deeply through the river systems into all these areas opens the door to the kinds of raiding that might have been difficult if not impossible before this era. Neil Price brings up new evidence that suggests there might have been volcanically induced climate change working on the Scandinavians during this era right reducing crop yields and things like that.