The Vikings maintain a fearsome and violent reputation to this day. This perspective on vikings was shaped by monastic chroniclers and dynastic propaganda. But are vikings the victims of history because their history has been written by their victims? Viking violence has been contextualised using comparative history but also as the result of a socialised warrior mentality. To church historians, vikings could explain the lack of memory in their own institutions; gaps in historical records are still attributed to viking devastation. Sometimes viewed as the instruments of God in the medieval period, now vikings are the instruments of history, either as convenient explanations or catalysts for change.