Vikings were not only raiders. In the Rhine-Meuse delta they sat in the very middle of the greatest trading centre of the Frankish realm – and one of them even ruled Frisia on behalf of the emperors. The other, quieter side of the Viking Age on the Lower Rhine.
Dorestad (near modern Wijk bij Duurstede) was the great Frankish trading emporium in the Rhine delta, made rich through connections reaching as far as Byzantium and the Islamic world – the North Sea rival of Danish Hedeby. It was precisely this wealth that drew the Vikings: in 834, 835, 836 and several more times Dorestad was plundered, and in 863 it was finally laid waste.
The Danish Viking Rorik of Dorestad received Dorestad and large parts of Frisia from the Franks as a fief and ruled there for roughly 841–873. The classic case of the poacher turned gamekeeper: a Viking lord who held Frisia for the realm in order to keep other Vikings out. After 882 a second „Viking duke“, the baptised Godfrid, held Frisia.
As early as 862 Vikings sailed up the Rhine for the first time and plundered Cologne; in 863 they took Utrecht and Nijmegen, and in 864 they raided the old Roman town of Xanten. Yet wherever they settled, trade flourished too: their superior ships carried goods against the strong Rhine current – and linked Ireland, England, the Rus and Scandinavia.
The bigger picture is set out in our overview of the Germanic peoples, Celts & Slavs.