Editing Longship (section)

==History==
The Viking longships were powerful naval weapons in their time and were highly valued possessions. Archaeological finds show that the Viking ships were not standardized. Ships varied from designer to designer and place to place and often had regional characteristics. For example, the choice of material was mostly dictated by the regional forests, such as pine from Norway and Sweden, and oak from Denmark. Moreover, each Viking longship had particular features adjusted to the natural conditions under which it was sailed.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Viking Ship|journal=Journal of Coastal Research|volume=13|issue=4|pages=1282–1289|language=en|jstor = 4298737|last1 = Bruun|first1 = Per|year=1997}}</ref>

They were owned by coastal farmers, and under the [[leidang]] system, every section in the king's realm was required to build warships and to provide men to crew them,<ref name="Chartrand et al 2016"/> allowing the king to quickly assemble a large and powerful war fleet. While longships were used by the Norse in warfare, they were mostly used as troop transports, not warships. Their main purpose was to swiftly carry as many warriors as possible to a scene of conflict.<ref name="Chartrand et al 2016"/> In the tenth century, longships would sometimes be tied together in offshore battles to form a steady platform for infantry warfare. During the ninth-century peak of the Viking expansion, large fleets set out to attack the degrading Frankish empire by attacking navigable rivers such as the Rhine, the Seine, the Loire and others. Rouen was sacked in 841, the year after the death of Louis the Pious, a son of Charlemagne. Quentovic, near modern [[Étaples]], was attacked in 842 and 600 Danish ships attacked Hamburg in 845. In the same year, 129 ships returned to attack the Seine.<ref>[[Magnus Magnusson]]. ''The Vikings''. p. 71, History Press. 2008, {{ISBN|978-0752426990}}</ref> They were called "dragon ships" by enemies such as the English<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mvVElGudyYC&dq=%22dragonships%22+vikings&pg=PA111|title=History of Engineering and Technology: Artful Methods|first=Ervan G.|last=Garrison|date=29 June 1998|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780849398100|access-date=14 December 2021|via=Google Books|archive-date=17 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417092041/https://books.google.com/books?id=5mvVElGudyYC&dq=%22dragonships%22+vikings&pg=PA111|url-status=live}}</ref> because some had a dragon-shaped decoration atop the bow beam. The Norse had a strong sense of naval architecture, and during the early medieval period, they were advanced for their time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://history-world.org/vikings.htm |title=Vikings |access-date=24 February 2012 |archive-date=22 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222191021/http://history-world.org/vikings.htm |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/viking-ships/|title=Secrets of Viking Ships|website=Pbs.org|date=9 May 2000 |access-date=14 December 2021|archive-date=14 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214233128/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/viking-ships/|url-status=live}}</ref>