First, it is important to note that all Scandinavians was not plundering Vikings, most of them was in fact farmers, fishers and hunters. Furthermore, those that actually travelled was not only raiders, they were traders, explorers, colonizers and even mercenaries too. It is also important to know that it had not always been like this, and that (as all historical events) it did not happen at one moment, it was a continuous process that started around the late 8th century with small raids and which continuously developed with larger and more organized raids and travels. Now there is multiple reasons why they began, and I will refer you to this post I made earlier for those.

Now for answering your question. Why did these raids stop? Well firstly there is a multitude of reasons (who would have guessed?) and (again) it did not happen over a day. One of the main reasons for the decline of Viking raids was that the political situation in Europe had changed. When the raids began Europe, and especially the British Isles, was fractured and week. This meant that the Vikings easily could do their raids. By the 11th century this had changed a lot. The European countries had my then established systems to answer to and repel the Viking raids, doing raids therefore was no longer worthwhile based on the risk you did by attempting one.

In addition, the political system in Scandinavia had also changed. When the Viking age began Scandinavia was divided among many local rules and if you did not own large amounts of land it was hard to get rich. In the raids, the ordinary people found a way of getting money, as the same time as they won glory for their family, a concept that was very important in Scandinavia at the time. During the Viking age this changed, the Scandinavian countries united one after the other, and the kingdoms that we know from today took form. With them come another change of life for people, because now there was new ways of getting rich. You could now become a part of the hird. This way you could get both fame and riches from working and fighting for the king. Therefore, there were less of a reason to go on raids.

Another factor may be the change of thought in Scandinavia. Before the Viking age the Scandinavian society was a militaristic one where people were encouraged to always bring a weapon with you because you never knew if you met you brother’s murderer on the road and where the only way to Valhalla was to die in combat. With the travels in the Viking age came a lot of European ideas to Scandinavia, laws and punishment where put in the hand of the king instead of it being up to each person to issue his own justice, Christianity was introduced and the old gods removed. This would have led to a change in the way of thinking possibly going away from a more violent society to a society where the king and the laws where more important than fighting.

These is the main reason that the Viking age ended, and therefore, the main reason for the end of the Viking raids. Now this does not mean that the people of Scandinavia living in the 12th century thought the same way as today, nor that they would be any more sensible in the minds of us living today, but I think I answered your question of why the Scandinavians stopped doing their raids.

Thank you for reading and I am sorry for all my spelling mistakes, bad grammar, and terrible English in general, it is not my first language. If there is something that is hard to understand please ask and I hope it is mostly understandable.