Did kingdoms raided by Vikings ever try to attack Viking homelands in retaliation?

by Nouseriously
y_sengaku

tl; dr: No, at least not by sea, but on land there might have been, though the exact relationship in regard with "in retaliation" could also be problematic.

While more can always be said, I compiled the links to some of my relevant posts before in: Why did the peoples the Vikings preyed upon for over 200 years never try to strike back at them in their own homelands?

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  • A number of the king of Franks/ East Francia/ Germany, such as King Henry the Fowler (d. 918-36) and Emperor Otto II, in fact tried to invaded Jutland Peninsula in the 10th century. The cited poem in the linked thread refers to the assistance of the protagonist of the poem (Jarl Håkon of Lade) to King Harald Bluetooth of the Danes by the battle between the Danes and the Saxons in 974. At least once the invaders [under the leadership of Henry the Fowler] won against the Danes and make their ruler named Gnupa baptized, according to a German chronicler, Widukind of Corvey. The defeated ruler of the Danes, however, was probably just one of several petty kings who competed each other in southern Denmark in the first half of the 10th century (If you are interested in this chaotic period, please also check Who were the ruling class of the Viking Age in Scandinavia? Were they chosen by merit, or born into powerful families?).
  • A few scholars also propose an hypothesis that King of the English [Æthelred II the Unready] allied with the second-in-line leader of the Viking fleet like Olaf Tryggvason, in order to divert the resource of the leader of the invading Viking fleet, King Sweyn Forkbeard, between their homeland and the invasion itself. I wonder if this kind of "hiring the Viking mercenary against other Vikings" attempt can also be counted as a counter-attack attempt in OP's definition.

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