The Vikings were good at “ransacking” during raids on Britain and other countries.
They gave us the word ransack, which started out meaning to search a house, legally or otherwise, for goods, stolen or otherwise.
Pillage and plunder are almost interchangeable, with pillage strictly referring to searching a home for booty, while plunder denotes removing what you find.
Whether your home has been searched by the police or a burglar, or a Viking, it’s bound to be a mess because it’s been ransacked.
