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Wine was considered to be the most prestigious drink during the middle ages, and under the Normans our wine consumption increased. Although Daniel of Beccles would warn “Beware of drinking wine greedily like Bacchus”

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What did the Normans used to eat?

There is evidence the Norman invasion led to more controlled and standardised mass agricultural practices. Pork became a more popular choice and dairy products were used less. But on the whole, a diet dominated by vegetables, cereals, beef and mutton remained largely unchanged

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From around A.D. 800 to the 11th century, a vast number of Scandinavians left their homelands to seek their fortunes elsewhere. These seafaring warriors–known collectively as Vikings or Norsemen (“Northmen”)–began by raiding coastal sites, especially undefended monasteries, in the British Isles

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Vikings had so many pets,even crows

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The most common foods were:

Dairy products (milk, cheese, curds, whey)

Grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats)

Fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, crabapples, apples)

Nuts (hazelnuts and imported walnuts)

Vegetables (peas, beans, onions, cabbage, leeks, turnips)

Fish (as well as eels, squid, seals, and whales)

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What are some Viking words?

War And Violence

EnglishOld NorseMeaning
berserk | berserkr | lit. a “bear-shirt” a Viking warrior who entered battle wearing nothing for armor but an animal skin
club | klubba | a heavy, blunt weapon
gun | gunn | from the female name Gunnhildr: gunn (war) + hildr (battle)
ransack | rannsaka | to search a house

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15 Major Norse Gods, Goddesses, And Their Family Tree

1) Ymir – The Ancestor of Giants.

2) Odin – The King of the Aesir Gods.

3) Frigg – The Queen of the Aesir Gods.

4) Thor – The Loyal Defender of Asgard.

5) Balder – The God of Light and Purity.

6) Vidar – The Silent God of Vengeance.

7) Tyr – The God of War.

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The Vikings were a seafaring people from the late eighth to early 11th century who established a name for themselves as traders, explorers and warriors. They discovered the Americas long before Columbus and could be found as far east as the distant reaches of Russia

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What religion are Vikings?

The Vikings came into contact with Christianity through their raids, and when they settled in lands with a Christian population, they adopted Christianity quite quickly. This was true in Normandy, Ireland, and throughout the British Isles.

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The name Viking came from the Scandinavians themselves, from the Old Norse word "vik" (bay or creek) which formed the root of "vikingr" (pirate).

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Later Viking raids and rulers

However, the Viking raiding did not stop – different Viking bands made regular raiding voyages around the coasts of Britain for over 300 years after 793.

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Be Brave and Aggressive. Be direct • Grab all opportunities • Use varying methods of attack • Be versatile and agile • Attack one target at a time • Don't plan everything in detail • Use top quality weapons.

Be Prepared. ...

Be a Good Merchant. ...

Keep the Camp In Order.

this is all the viking rules

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Did the Vikings write books?

The Vikings themselves wrote short messages in runes on wood and stone. The Vikings did not write books themselves. ... It is also a picture that can be confirmed when the archaeological evidence is examined, including objects left behind by the Vikings, which we sometimes find today

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What land did the Vikings originally call home?

The Vikings originated from the area that became modern-day Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. They settled in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Greenland, North America, and parts of the European mainland, among other places.

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What volcano is in Vikings?

Within 100 years of Iceland's settlement by Vikings and Celts in the late 9th century, a devastating volcanic event wreaked havoc on the island. In a rare type of eruption known as a lava flood, Iceland's Eldgjá volcano belched up 7.7 square miles of lava and spewed out thick clouds of sulfuric gases

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Female names from the Viking Age

Astrid: beautiful, loved.

Bodil: penance and fight.

Frida: peace.

Gertrud: spear.

Gro: to grow.

Estrid: god and beautiful.

Hilda: the fighter.

Gudrun: god and rune.

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What was a very important sport to the Vikings?

We now believe that grappling was an important element in Viking-age combat, as discussed in the article on swords. It seems likely that these sport-wrestling competitions were also the means by which Viking-age fighters kept their fighting skills honed

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Does Loki cause earthquake?

Loki is married to Sigyn and they have a son, Narfi and/or Nari. ... The serpent drips venom from above him that Sigyn collects into a bowl; however, she must empty the bowl when it is full, and the venom that drips in the meantime causes Loki to writhe in pain, thereby causing earthquakes

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What were Viking games called?

Knattleikr (English: 'ball-game') was an ancient ball game played by the Vikings of Iceland. The term is also applied to a modern sport created by re-enactors, and now played at a few United States institutions as a college club sport, based on what is known about the historical game

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How many people can fit in a Viking house?

This was the main building in the community and would sometimes house up to 30 - 50 people. During this time, large family units lived together and multiple generations would share the same household.

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There are twelve main gods in Norse mythology: Odin, Thor, Balder, Vidar, Vale, Brage, Heimdall, Ty, Njord, Froy, Ull and Forsete, – where Njord and Froy are not Aesirs, but Vanirs living in Asgard. Sometimes, Age and Loki is also considered Aesirs.

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What are Viking shields called?

A Viking's primary defensive weapon was the shield. ... Because it was round, it was called rönd. Shields were about a yard across

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793 AD – 1066

Viking Age

Description

The Viking Age was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe, and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Germanic Iron Age

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What was the most popular Viking weapon?

spear

The spear was the most common weapon of the Viking warrior. They consisted of metal heads with a blade and a hollow shaft, mounted on wooden shafts of two to three metres in length, and was typically made from ash wood.

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What were Viking towns called?

Danelaw

The areas the Viking settled in were known as Danelaw. It covered an area roughly east of a line on a map joining London and Chester. The Saxons lived south of the line

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Arne: eagle.

Birger: keeper.

Bjørn: bear.

Bo: the resident.

Erik: absolute ruler.

Frode: wise and clever.

Gorm: he who worships god.

Halfdan: the half Danish.

up there is very commen viking names

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Meals Vikings ate

Stews, soup, fried pork, porridge and bread are some of the things that Vikings ate. The warriors were fond of barbecued meat. Abundant food and beer were expected at parties. Researchers are now working to find out more about this ancient food culture.

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793 AD – 1066 this is when the vikings started and died

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What did we get from the Vikings?

These included goods ranging from salt and dyes to spices which were collected in exchange for honey, fur and slaves taken from the Viking raid

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Excavations of Viking sites have turned up tweezers, razors, combs and ear cleaners made from animal bones and antlers. Vikings also bathed at least once a week—much more frequently than other Europeans of their day—and enjoyed dips in natural hot springs.

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Vikings engaged in running, swimming, tug-of-war called toga-honk and wrestling. Vikings also played a ball game with stick and ball. It wasn't uncommon for someone to get hurt or even killed, as Vikings played rough. Women did not participate in these games, but they would gather to watch the men

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The Vikings were great explorers and travellers. Viking ships reached Britain, France, Spain, Italy and North Africa.

Traders made long journeys overland through Russia, reaching as far south as Constantinople in modern-day Turkey. Some merchants travelled further east to Baghdad in Iraq.

A few daring explorers made voyages to Iceland and beyond, travelling across the Atlantic Ocean to North America.

What did the Vikings trade?
The Vikings traded all over Europe and as far east as Central Asia.
They bought goods and materials such as silver, silk, spices, wine, jewellery, glass and pottery.
In return, they sold items like honey, tin, wheat, wool, wood, iron, fur, leather, fish and walrus ivory. Everywhere they went, the Vikings bought and sold enslaved people too.
Viking traders carried a set of folding scales which they used to weigh coins to make sure they got a fair deal.

This is the kind of balance scale a Viking trader used. They put the little weights in one pan and the silver in the other.

Find out more about Viking trade

Click on each of the Vikings to find out how far they travelled and what they discovered.

Start activity

How did they find their way?
Vikings sailed close to the coast whenever possible, watching for land marks.
Out of sight of land, they looked for the sun: west (towards the sunset) meant they were headed for England; east (towards the sunrise) meant home to Denmark or Norway.
The Vikings invented a kind of sun compass to help find their way. At night they watched the skies and could use the position of the stars to determine which direction they were heading.
Seamen knew a lot about winds and sea currents. By watching birds or even the colour of the water, an experienced sailor could tell when land was close.

If Viking navigators could see birds in the sky, they knew that land was nearby

Find out below how the Vikings' skills as shipbuilders and sailors allowed them to travel so far from their homeland.

How do we know about longships?
Wood rots and metal rusts away after a thousand years or more in the ground, but some remains show what Viking ships were like.
Two Viking ships were found by archaeologists in Norway. The Gokstad ship was dug up on a farm in 1880. The Oseberg ship was found on another farm in 1904.
Both ships were buried in Viking funerals between AD800 and 900. The Gokstad ship is 23 metres long. It was big enough for 32 oarsmen and had 16 oars on each side.
These two ships are now in a museum in Oslo, Norway. In 1893, a copy of the Gokstad ship sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to America

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Lagertha. Thanks to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, we know of a legendary female Viking known as either Lagertha or Ladgerda. This incredible woman was part of a larger group of female warriors who volunteered to help renowned hero Ragnar Lothbrok avenge his grandfather's death.

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What did Viking traders do?

What did the Vikings trade? The Vikings traded all over Europe and as far east as Central Asia. They bought goods and materials such as silver, silk, spices, wine, jewellery, glass and pottery. In return, they sold items like honey, tin, wheat, wool, wood, iron, fur, leather, fish and walrus ivory

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from sophia

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Viking jewelry

Both men and women loved wearing jewellery. ... They wore rings, brooches, bracelets, and necklaces to show their status. The poor made their jewellery from bronze, pewter, or the bones of animals they ate for dinner, whereas the rich used precious silver and gold

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eople also ask

What kind of jobs did the Vikings have?

By the middle of the Viking age, you'd find not only Viking farmers, traders and blacksmiths, but armor and weapon makers, carpenters, stone carvers, jewelry makers, bead makers, bone and antler carvers, cup makers, potters, weavers, slave traders and amber dealers

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What is the Viking symbol for Thor?

In Norse religion, the disc/swastika became increasingly associated with Thor & was worn as an amulet & carved on tombstones as both a symbol of continuity & luck

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The main Viking alcoholic beverages were mead and beer. Like all meads, Viking mead was made from honey. The beer was ale made from barley, with hops sometimes being added for flavor

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Viking fruit

Wild fruit and berries grew abundantly in the Viking period. ... The Vikings could supply themselves with raspberries, bilberries, plums, wild apples and hazelnuts from the woods. Walnuts were also available in some areas. The Vikings knew about the health benefits of eating apples

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Freya is an important goddess in Norse mythology. Her name translates as The Lady and she is associated with fertility, love and beauty as well as gold and death. • She has two daughters who are named Hnoss and. Gersemi, and she has a brother named Freyr.

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Viking meat

A major benefit of the Viking diet was the fact that every level of society, from kings to common sailors, ate meat every day. Often this would have been pork, as hogs were easy to raise and quick to mature, but Vikings also ate beef, mutton and goats

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Odin. The supreme deity of Norse mythology and the greatest among the Norse gods was Odin, the Allfather of the Aesir. ...

Frigg. Odin's wife, Frigg, was an equally powerful figure. ...

Baldr. ...

Loki. ...

Thor. ...

Freya. ...

Freyr. ...

Njord.

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What were the Vikings homes made of?

Viking houses were built of wood, stone or blocks of turf - depending on local materials. The houses were long box-shapes with sloping thatched or turf roofs. The walls were made of wattle (woven sticks, covered with mud to keep out the wind and rain).

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2. Vikings were known for their excellent hygiene. ... Vikings also bathed at least once a week—much more frequently than other Europeans of their day—and enjoyed dips in natural hot springs.

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Game boards and playing pieces are common finds in grave goods. The game boards that have been found have playing surfaces ranging from 7x7 squares (right) up to 19x19 squares. Playing pieces have been found made from a wide variety of material: glass; bone (left); antler; amber; bronze; and wood. It's unclear whether dice (left), which are also found, are a part of this board game, or, more likely, a different game

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Children's toys in the Viking period

Wooden toys have been found: small ships, swords, dolls and animal figures. Most of these were probably made for children to play with. But some of the objects were also useful to train various skills, which the children could use as adults, in work or in conflict.

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People also ask

What are all the Viking symbols?

Top 10 Viking Symbols And Meanings

Thor's Hammer - Mjölnir.

Yggdrasil - Norse Tree Of Life.

Valknut – Viking Symbol For Death In A Battle.

The Helm Of Awe - Viking Symbol For Protection.

Huginn And Muninn – The Twin Ravens In Norse Mythology.

Web Of Wyrd (Skuld's Net) – Viking Matrix Of Fate.

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Viking armour and weapons

In battle Vikings fought on foot. They wore iron helmets, chain mail armour, and carried swords, axes, spears and wooden shields. Vikings were also skilled with bows and arrows. The weapons were made with iron, and often decorated with inlaid, or encrusted silver or copper. The sword was the most prized weapon

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The most common foods were:

Dairy products (milk, cheese, curds, whey)

Grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats)

Fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, crabapples, apples)

Nuts (hazelnuts and imported walnuts)

Vegetables (peas, beans, onions, cabbage, leeks, turnips)

Fish (as well as eels, squid, seals, and whales)

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Alfred the Great

In May of 878 Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Edington, and a treaty was agreed whereby the Vikings were able to remain in control of much of northern and eastern England

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4 viking leaders you should know

Olaf Tryggvason: Brought Christianity to Norway. ...

Leif Eriksson: Beat Columbus to the New World by 500 years. ...

Cnut the Great: England's Viking King. ...

Harald Hardrada: The Last Great Viking Leader

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Viking Sandals are made for comfort and the design really is unlike any other pair of sandals my husband has ever owned. The difference starts with the shock-absorbing cork sole. It offered great cushion but didn't have too much give so that his foot was still properly supported.

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around 36 m

The longest longship was discovered during the construction of the Museum Harbour for the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde in 1997, and bears the name Roskilde 6. This ship was built after AD 1025 and it had a length of around 36 m – the longest Viking ship so far discovered archaeologically.

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Each find is a small piece in the large jigsaw puzzle of Viking warfare. In the Viking Age a number of different types of weapons were used: swords, axes, bows and arrows, lances and spears. The Vikings also used various aids to protect themselves in combat: shields, helmets and chain mail.

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The Vikings were a seafaring people from the late eighth to early 11th century who established a name for themselves as traders, explorers and warriors. They discovered the Americas long before Columbus and could be found as far east as the distant reaches of Russia.

# data[].attributes.body
Each find is a small piece in the large jigsaw puzzle of Viking warfare. In the Viking Age a number of different types of weapons were used: swords, axes, bows and arrows, lances and spears. The Vikings also used various aids to protect themselves in combat: shields, helmets and chain mail.

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People also ask

Did Viking have castles?

What is a Viking castle called?

A Viking ring fortress, or Trelleborg-type fortress, is a type of circular fort of a special design, built in Scandinavia in the Viking Age. They are also known simply as trelleborgs. All trelleborgs have a strictly circular shape, with roads and gates pointing in the four cardinal directions

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ng

Viking clothes were made from wool, linen and animal skins. ... Women, with the help of children, made the wool into yarn and used natural dyes from plants to give it colour. Men wore tunics and trousers and women wore a long dress with a pinafore over it. Their clothes were fastened with belts and brooches.

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The vikings ships reached as far as greenland and the american continent

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Arne: eagle.

Birger: keeper.

Bjørn: bear.

Bo: the resident.

Erik: absolute ruler.

Frode: wise and clever.

Gorm: he who worships god.

Halfdan: the half Danish

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Where wood was scarce, as in Iceland, longhouses were made of turf and sod. Two rows of high posts supported the roof and ran down the entire length of the building, which could be up to 250 feet long. The floor of the Viking longhouse was pounded earth

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Unfortunately, no non-ship beds have been found from the Viking Age, but such from just post-Viking Age do not have angled headposts

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the vikings are some times mean but only mostly to get land and farms

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They certainly wore helmets but they would have been simple skullcaps, designed to protect the head from impact. Having a pair of horns on your head in battle would not have been helpful if warriors were striking at you with clubs, swords or axes

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Thor and Odin are still going strong 1000 years after the viking age.

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Viking Drinks

The main Viking alcoholic beverages were mead and beer. Like all meads, Viking mead was made from honey. The beer was ale made from barley, with hops sometimes being added for flavo

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The main Viking alcoholic beverages were mead and beer. Like all meads, Viking mead was made from honey. The beer was ale made from barley, with hops sometimes being added for flavor

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The bow and arrow was used for both hunting and warfare. They were made from yew, ash or elm

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The spear was the most commonly used weapon in the Viking age. During this time, spear heads took many forms. ... In chapter 8 of Króka-Refs saga, Refur made a spear for himself which could be used for cutting, thrusting, or hewing. Refur split Þorgils in two down to his shoulders with the spear.

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People also ask

What are Viking shields called?

A Viking's primary defensive weapon was the shield. ... Because it was round, it was called rönd. Shields were about a yard across.

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2 VIKING LEADERS YOU SHOULD KNOW...

Rollo: First ruler of normandy ...
Eric The Red: Founded Greenlands first norse settlement

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They were built as shells— thin-walled but strong, and much lighter than the Roman ships. ... With the addition of sails, the already light and speedy ships became nearly unbeatable. The Viking ship was born. Viking longships could soon carry as many as 100 Vikings to battle

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One particular advantage of the Viking ship is the comparatively low weight, making land transport and portage routine, as in crossing Jutland instead of rounding Skagen to enter or exit the Baltic Sea, and travel on the river networks of Eastern Europe.

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People also ask

What are Viking houses called?

longhouses

However, when the Vikings did settle in towns and farms for either short or long periods of time, they built homes often referred to as longhouses. This was the main building in the community and would sometimes house up to 30 - 50 people.

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Viking clothes were made from wool, linen and animal skins. The Vikings were skilful weavers and made their own clothes. Women, with the help of children, made the wool into yarn and used natural dyes from plants to give it colour. Men wore tunics and trousers and women wore a long dress with a pinafore over it

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Vikings drank ale, mead or buttermilk daily. Feasts would include the same foods—meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, wild greens, bread and fruit, but in a greater variety than usual meal and more of it. Vikings enjoyed drinking ale and mead at feasts. Mead is a strong, fermented drink made from honey.

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Vikings didn't wear horned helmets. ...

Vikings were known for their excellent hygiene. ...

Vikings used a unique liquid to start fires. ...

Vikings buried their dead in boats. ...

Vikings were active in the slave trade. ...

Viking women enjoyed some basic rights.

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bye bye everyone

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this is the boats the vikings use to sail across the seas to invade people

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Norwegian Lundehund or Puffin-Hound this is what vikings could there dogs

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bye bye

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bye! bye!

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How to make Viking stamps.
What you have to do is get a big bag of clay,and then using the clay make a circle or a square.Also using objects like the end of a glue stick,and push it into the clay. With that, use more objects to create a Viking pattern.When the clay dries, put paint on it and the things on the stamp will appear on the paper!

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A Viking Age depiction from the Tjängvide image stone, on Gotland.[1]

Part of a series on
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v t e

Vikings[a] is the modern name given to seafaring people primarily[3] from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),[4][5][6] who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe.[7][8][9] They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America. In some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a collective whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus'.[10]

Expert sailors and navigators aboard their characteristic longships, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, the Baltic coast, and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in what is now European Russia, Belarus[11] and Ukraine,[12] where they were also known as Varangians. The Normans, Norse-Gaels, Rus' people, Faroese and Icelanders emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings also voyaged to Constantinople, Iran,[13] and Arabia.[14] They were the first Europeans to reach North America, briefly settling in Newfoundland (Vinland). While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, profoundly influencing the genetic[15] and historical development of both. During the Viking Age the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The Vikings spoke Old Norse and made inscriptions in runes. For most of the period they followed the Old Norse religion, but later became Christians. The Vikings had their own laws, art and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of the Norsemen that emerges from archaeology and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as noble savages began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century Viking revival.[16][17] Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. These representations are rarely accurate—for example, there is no evidence that they wore horned helmets, a costume element that first appeared in Wagnerian opera.

Contents

1Etymology

1.1Other names

2History

2.1Viking Age

2.1.1Intermixing with the Slavs

2.2Expansion

2.2.1Motives

2.2.2Jomsborg

2.3End of the Viking Age

2.3.1Emergence of nation-states and monetary economies

2.3.2Assimilation into Christendom

3Culture

3.1Literature and language

3.1.1Runestones

3.1.2Runic alphabet usage in modern times

3.2Burial sites

3.3Ships

3.4Everyday life

3.4.1Social structure

3.4.2Status of women

3.4.3Appearances

3.4.4Farming and cuisine

3.4.5Sports

3.4.6Games and entertainment

3.4.7Experimental archaeology

3.4.8Cultural assimilation

4Weapons and warfare

5Trade

5.1Goods

6Legacy

6.1Medieval perceptions

6.2Post-medieval perceptions

6.2.1In 20th-century politics

6.3In modern popular culture

6.4Common misconceptions

6.4.1Horned helmets

6.4.2Barbarity

6.4.3Use of skulls as drinking vessels

7Genetic legacy

8See also

9Notes

10References

11Bibliography

12Further reading

13External links

Etymology

Runestone raised in memory of Tóki the Viking.[18]

The etymology of "Viking" is uncertain. In the Middle Ages it came to mean Scandinavian pirate or raider.[19][20][21] The Anglo-Saxons regarded the word wicing as synonymous with pirate and in several Old English sources wicing is translated into the Latin pirata. It was not seen as a reference to nationality, with other terms such as Norðmenn (Northmen) and Dene (Danes) being used for that. In Asser's Life of Alfred the Danes are referred to as pagani (pagans), but this is usually translated as 'Vikings', in modern English, which some regard as a mistranslation.[22] The earliest reference to wicing in English sources is from the Épinal-Erfurt glossary which dates to around 700,[23] whereas the first known attack by Viking raiders in England at Lindisfarne was in 793.[24] The origin of wicing is disputed, with some believing that it is a loan-word from Old Norse.[25]

The form occurs as a personal name on some Swedish runestones. The stone of Tóki víking (Sm 10) was raised in memory of a local man named Tóki who got the name Tóki víking (Toki the Viking), presumably because of his activities as a Viking.[26] The Gårdstånga Stone (DR 330) uses the phrase "Þeʀ drængaʀ waʀu wiða unesiʀ i wikingu" (These valiant men were widely renowned on viking raids),[27] referring to the stone's dedicatees as Vikings. The Västra Strö 1 Runestone has an inscription in memory of a Björn, who was killed when "on a viking raid".[28][29] In Sweden there is a locality known since the Middle Ages as Vikingstad. The Bro Stone (U 617) was raised in memory of Assur who is said to have protected the land from Vikings (Saʀ vaʀ vikinga vorðr með Gæiti).[30][31] There is little indication of any negative connotation in the term before the end of the Viking Age.

Other theories suggest that its origin is from the Old English wicing and Old Frisian wizing that are almost 300 years older, and probably derive from wic itself related to the Latin vicus "village, habitation".[25] Another less popular theory is that víking from the feminine vík, meaning "creek, inlet, small bay".[32]

Various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from the name of the historical Norwegian district of Víkin, meaning "a person from Víkin". There are a few major problems with this theory. People from the Viken area were not called "Viking" in Old Norse manuscripts, but are referred to as víkverir, ('Vík dwellers'). In addition, that explanation could explain only the masculine (víkingr) and not the feminine (víking), which is a serious problem because the masculine is easily derived from the feminine but hardly the other way around.[33][34][35]

Another etymology that gained support in the early twenty-first century, derives Viking from the same root as Old Norse vika, f. 'sea mile', originally 'the distance between two shifts of rowers', from the root *weik or *wîk, as in the Proto-Germanic verb *wîkan, 'to recede'.[36][37][38][39] This is found in the Proto-Nordic verb *wikan, 'to turn', similar to Old Icelandic víkja (ýkva, víkva) 'to move, to turn', with well-attested nautical usages.[40] Linguistically, this theory is better attested,[40] and the term most likely predates the use of the sail by the Germanic peoples of North-Western Europe, because the Old Frisian spelling Witsing or Wīsing shows that the word was pronounced with a palatal k and thus in all probability existed in North-Western Germanic before that palatalisation happened, that is, in the 5th century or before (in the western branch).[39][38][41]

The Stora Hammars I image stone, showing the saga of Hildr, under what may be the rite of blood eagle, and on the bottom a Viking ship.

In that case, the idea behind it seems to be that the tired rower moves aside for the rested rower on the thwart when he relieves him. The Old Norse feminine víking (as in the phrase fara í víking) may originally have been a sea journey characterised by the shifting of rowers, i.e. a long-distance sea journey, because in the pre-sail era, the shifting of rowers would distinguish long-distance sea journeys. A víkingr (the masculine) would then originally have been a participant on a sea journey characterised by the shifting of rowers. In that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas.[36]

In Old English, the word wicing appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, Widsith, which probably dates from the 9th century. In Old English, and in the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen written by Adam of Bremen in about 1070, the term generally referred to Scandinavian pirates or raiders. As in the Old Norse usages, the term is not employed as a name for any people or culture in general. The word does not occur in any preserved Middle English texts. One theory made by the Icelander Örnolfur Kristjansson is that the key to the origins of the word is "wicinga cynn" in Widsith, referring to the people or the race living in Jórvík (York, in the ninth century under control by Norsemen), Jór-Wicings (note, however, that this is not the origin of Jórvík).[42]

The word Viking was introduced into Modern English during the 18th-century Viking revival, at which point it acquired romanticised heroic overtones of "barbarian warrior" or noble savage. During the 20th century, the meaning of the term was expanded to refer to not only seaborne raiders from Scandinavia and other places settled by them (like Iceland and the Faroe Islands), but also any member of the culture that produced said raiders during the period from the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries, or more loosely from about 700 to as late as about 1100. As an adjective, the word is used to refer to ideas, phenomena, or artefacts connected with those people and their cultural life, producing expressions like Viking age, Viking culture, Viking art, Viking religion, Viking ship and so on.[42]

In Eastern Europe, of which parts were ruled by a Norse elite, víkingr came be perceived as a positive concept meaning "hero" in the Russian borrowed form vityaz' (витязь).[43]

Other names

Europe in 814. Roslagen is located along the coast of the northern tip of the pink area marked "Swedes and Goths".

The Vikings were known as Ascomanni ("ashmen") by the Germans for the ash wood of their boats,[44] Dubgail and Finngail ( "dark and fair foreigners") by the Irish,[45] Lochlannaich ("people from the land of lakes") by the Gaels,[46] Dene (Dane) by the Anglo-Saxons[47] and Northmonn by the Frisians.[41]

The scholarly consensus[48] is that the Rus' people originated in what is currently coastal eastern Sweden around the eighth century and that their name has the same origin as Roslagen in Sweden (with the older name being Roden).[49][50][51] According to the prevalent theory, the name Rus', like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden (*Ruotsi), is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" (rods-) as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen (Rus-law) or Roden, as it was known in earlier times.[52][53] The name Rus' would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi.[53][54]

The Slavs and the Byzantines also called them Varangians (Russian: варяги, from Old Norse Væringjar 'sworn men', from vàr- "confidence, vow of fealty", related to Old English wær "agreement, treaty, promise", Old High German wara "faithfulness"[55]). Scandinavian bodyguards of the Byzantine emperors were known as the Varangian Guard. The Rus' initially appeared in Serkland in the 9th century, traveling as merchants along the Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves, as well as luxury goods such as amber, Frankish swords, and walrus ivory.[26] These goods were mostly exchanged for Arabian silver coins, called dirhams. Hoards of 9th century Baghdad-minted silver coins have been found in Sweden, particularly in Gotland.

During and after the Viking raid on Seville in 844 CE the Muslim chroniclers of al-Andalus referred to the Vikings as Magians (Arabic: al-Majus مجوس), conflating them with Zoroastrians from Persia.[56] When Ahmad ibn Fadlan encountered Vikings on the Volga, he referred to them as Rus.[57][58][59]

The Franks normally called them Northmen or Danes, while for the English they were generally known as Danes or heathen and the Irish knew them as pagans or gentiles.[60]

Anglo-Scandinavian is an academic term referring to the people, and archaeological and historical periods during the 8th to 13th centuries in which there was migration to—and occupation of—the British Isles by Scandinavian peoples generally known in English as Vikings. It is used in distinction from Anglo-Saxon. Similar terms exist for other areas, such as Hiberno-Norse for Ireland and Scotland.

History

Viking Age

Main article: Viking Age

Sea-faring Norsemen depicted invading England. Illuminated illustration from the 12th century Miscellany on the Life of St. Edmund (Pierpont Morgan Library)

The Viking Age in Scandinavian history is taken to have been the period from the earliest recorded raids by Norsemen in 793 until the Norman conquest of England in 1066.[61] Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south.

The Normans were descendants of those Vikings who had been given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France, namely the Duchy of Normandy, in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors. Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, with Sweyn Forkbeard claiming the English throne in 1013 until 1014 and his son Cnut the Great being king of England between 1016 and 1035.[62][63][64][65][66]

Geographically, the Viking Age covered Scandinavian lands (modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden), as well as territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly the Danelaw, including Scandinavian York, the administrative centre of the remains of the Kingdom of Northumbria,[67] parts of Mercia, and East Anglia.[68] Viking navigators opened the road to new lands to the north, west and east, resulting in the foundation of independent settlements in the Shetland, Orkney, and Faroe Islands; Iceland; Greenland;[69] and L'Anse aux Meadows, a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland, circa 1000.[70] The Greenland settlement was established around 980, during the Medieval Warm Period, and its demise by the mid-15th century may have been partly due to climate change.[71] The Viking Rurik dynasty took control of territories in Slavic and Finnic-dominated areas of Eastern Europe; they annexed Kiev in 882 to serve as the capital of the Kievan Rus'.[72]

As early as 839, when Swedish emissaries are first known to have visited Byzantium, Scandinavians served as mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine Empire.[73] In the late 10th century, a new unit of the imperial bodyguard formed. Traditionally containing large numbers of Scandinavians, it was known as the Varangian Guard. The word Varangian may have originated in Old Norse, but in Slavic and Greek it could refer either to Scandinavians or Franks. In these years, Swedish men left to enlist in the Byzantine Varangian Guard in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law, Västgötalagen, from Västergötland declared no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the Byzantine Empire—to stop the emigration,[74] especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians:[75] Kievan Rus' c. 980–1060 and London 1018–1066 (the Þingalið).[75]

There is archaeological evidence that Vikings reached Baghdad, the centre of the Islamic Empire.[76] The Norse regularly plied the Volga with their trade goods: furs, tusks, seal fat for boat sealant, and slaves. Important trading ports during the period include Birka, Hedeby, Kaupang, Jorvik, Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod, and Kiev.

Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonization, and conquest. In this period, voyaging from their homelands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden the Norsemen settled in the present-day Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norse Greenland, Newfoundland, the Netherlands, Germany, Normandy, Italy, Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Estonia, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, as well as initiating the consolidation that resulted in the formation of the present day Scandinavian countries.

In the Viking Age, the present day nations of Norway, Sweden and Denmark did not exist, but were largely homogeneous and similar in culture and language, although somewhat distinct geographically. The names of Scandinavian kings are reliably known for only the later part of the Viking Age. After the end of the Viking Age the separate kingdoms gradually acquired distinct identities as nations, which went hand-in-hand with their Christianisation. Thus the end of the Viking Age for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages.

Intermixing with the Slavs

Slavic and Viking tribes were "closely linked, fighting one another, intermixing and trading".[77][78][79] In the Middle Ages, ware was transferred from Slavic areas to Scandinavia, and Denmark could be considered "a melting pot of Slavic and Scandinavian elements".[77] It is argued that the presence of Slavs in Scandinavia is "more significant than previously thought"[77] although "the Slavs and their interaction with Scandinavia have not been adequately investigated".[80]

A 10th-century grave of a warrior-woman in Denmark was long thought to belong to a Viking. However, new analyses suggest that the woman may have been a Slav from present-day Poland.[77] The first king of the Swedes, Eric, was married to Gunhild, of the Polish House of Piast.[81] Likewise, his son, Olof, fell in love with Edla, a Slavic woman, and took her as his frilla (concubine).[82] She bore him a son and a daughter: Emund the Old, King of Sweden, and Astrid, Queen of Norway. Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, England and Norway, was the son of a daughter of Mieszko I of Poland,[83] possibly the former Polish queen of Sweden, wife of Eric. Richeza of Poland, Queen of Sweden, married Magnus the Strong, and bore him several children, including Canute V, King of Denmark.[84] Catherine Jagiellon, of the House of Jagiellon, was married to John III, King of Sweden. She was the mother of Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland, King of Sweden, and Grand Duke of Finland.[85] Ragnvald Ulfsson, son of Jarl Ulf Tostesson and the Wendic Princess Ingeborg, had a Slavic name (Rogvolod, from Slavic Рогволод).[86]

Expansion

Main article: Viking expansion

Viking expeditions (blue line): depicting the immense breadth of their voyages through most of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Northern Africa, Asia Minor, the Arctic, and North America. Lower Normandy, depicted as a ″Viking territory in 911″, was not part of the lands granted by the king of the Franks to Rollo in 911, but Upper Normandy.

Guests from Overseas (1901) by Nicholas Roerich, depicting a Varangian raid

Colonization of Iceland by Norwegian Vikings began in the ninth century. The first source mentioning Iceland and Greenland is a papal letter of 1053. Twenty years later, they appear in the Gesta of Adam of Bremen. It was not until after 1130, when the islands had become Christianized, that accounts of the history of the islands were written from the point of view of the inhabitants in sagas and chronicles.[87] The Vikings explored the northern islands and coasts of the North Atlantic, ventured south to North Africa, east to Kievan Rus (now – Ukraine, Belarus), Constantinople, and the Middle East.[88]

They raided and pillaged, traded, acted as mercenaries and settled colonies over a wide area.[89] Early Vikings probably returned home after their raids. Later in their history, they began to settle in other lands.[90] Vikings under Leif Erikson, heir to Erik the Red, reached North America and set up short-lived settlements in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada. This expansion occurred during the Medieval Warm Period.[91]

Viking expansion into continental Europe was limited. Their realm was bordered by powerful tribes to the south. Early on, it was the Saxons who occupied Old Saxony, located in what is now Northern Germany. The Saxons were a fierce and powerful people and were often in conflict with the Vikings. To counter the Saxon aggression and solidify their own presence, the Danes constructed the huge defence fortification of Danevirke in and around Hedeby.[92]

The Vikings witnessed the violent subduing of the Saxons by Charlemagne, in the thirty-year Saxon Wars of 772–804. The Saxon defeat resulted in their forced christening and the absorption of Old Saxony into the Carolingian Empire. Fear of the Franks led the Vikings to further expand Danevirke, and the defence constructions remained in use throughout the Viking Age and even up until 1864.[93]

The south coast of the Baltic Sea was ruled by the Obotrites, a federation of Slavic tribes loyal to the Carolingians and later the Frankish empire. The Vikings—led by King Gudfred—destroyed the Obotrite city of Reric on the southern Baltic coast in 808 AD and transferred the merchants and traders to Hedeby.[94] This secured Viking supremacy in the Baltic Sea, which continued throughout the Viking Age.

Because of the expansion of the Vikings across Europe, a comparison of DNA and archeology undertaken by scientists at the University of Cambridge and University of Copenhagen suggested that the term "Viking" may have evolved to become "a job description, not a matter of heredity," at least in some Viking bands.[95]

Motives

The motives driving the Viking expansion are a topic of much debate in Nordic history.

Researchers have suggested that Vikings may have originally started sailing and raiding due to a need to seek out women from foreign lands.[96][97][98][99] The concept was expressed in the 11th century by historian Dudo of Saint-Quentin in his semi imaginary History of The Normans.[100] Rich and powerful Viking men tended to have many wives and concubines; these polygynous relationships may have led to a shortage of eligible women for the average Viking male. Due to this, the average Viking man could have been forced to perform riskier actions to gain wealth and power to be able to find suitable women.[101][102][103] Viking men would often buy or capture women and make them into their wives or concubines.[104][105] Polygynous marriage increases male-male competition in society because it creates a pool of unmarried men who are willing to engage in risky status-elevating and sex seeking behaviors.[106][107] The Annals of Ulster states that in 821 the Vikings plundered an Irish village and "carried off a great number of women into captivity".[108]

One common theory posits that Charlemagne "used force and terror to Christianise all pagans", leading to baptism, conversion or execution, and as a result, Vikings and other pagans resisted and wanted revenge.[109][110][111][112][113] Professor Rudolf Simek states that "it is not a coincidence if the early Viking activity occurred during the reign of Charlemagne".[109][114] The ascendance of Christianity in Scandinavia led to serious conflict, dividing Norway for almost a century. However, this time period did not commence until the 10th century, Norway was never subject to aggression by Charlemagne and the period of strife was due to successive Norwegian kings embracing Christianity after encountering it overseas.[115]

Viking-era towns of Scandinavia

Another explanation is that the Vikings exploited a moment of weakness in the surrounding regions. Contrary to Simek's assertion, Viking raids occurred sporadically long before the reign of Charlemagne; but exploded in frequency and size after his death, when his empire fragmented into multiple much weaker entities.[116] England suffered from internal divisions and was relatively easy prey given the proximity of many towns to the sea or to navigable rivers. Lack of organised naval opposition throughout Western Europe allowed Viking ships to travel freely, raiding or trading as opportunity permitted. The decline in the profitability of old trade routes could also have played a role. Trade between western Europe and the rest of Eurasia suffered a severe blow when the Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century.[117] The expansion of Islam in the 7th century had also affected trade with western Europe.[118]

Raids in Europe, including raids and settlements from Scandinavia, were not unprecedented and had occurred long before the Vikings arrived. The Jutes invaded the British Isles three centuries earlier, pouring out from Jutland during the Age of Migrations, before the Danes settled there. The Saxons and the Angles did the same, embarking from mainland Europe. The Viking raids were, however, the first to be documented in writing by eyewitnesses, and they were much larger in scale and frequency than in previous times.[116]

Vikings themselves were expanding; although their motives are unclear, historians believe that scarce resources or a lack of mating opportunities were a factor.[119]

The "Highway of Slaves" was a term for a route that the Vikings found to have a direct pathway from Scandinavia to Constantinople and Baghdad while traveling on the Baltic Sea. With the advancements of their ships during the ninth century, the Vikings were able to sail to Kievan Rus and some northern parts of Europe.[120]

Jomsborg

Curmsun Disc – obverse, Jomsborg, 980s

Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea (medieval Wendland, modern Pomerania), that existed between the 960s and 1043. Its inhabitants were known as Jomsvikings. Jomsborg's exact location, or its existence, has not yet been established, though it is often maintained that Jomsborg was somewhere on the islands of the Oder estuary.[121]

End of the Viking Age

While the Vikings were active beyond their Scandinavian homelands, Scandinavia was itself experiencing new influences and undergoing a variety of cultural changes.[122]

Emergence of nation-states and monetary economies

By the late 11th century, royal dynasties were legitimised by the Catholic Church (which had had little influence in Scandinavia 300 years earlier) which were asserting their power with increasing authority and ambition, with the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden taking shape. Towns appeared that functioned as secular and ecclesiastical administrative centres and market sites, and monetary economies began to emerge based on English and German models.[123] By this time the influx of Islamic silver from the East had been absent for more than a century, and the flow of English silver had come to an end in the mid-11th century.[124]

Assimilation into Christendom

Christianity had taken root in Denmark and Norway with the establishment of dioceses in the 11th century, and the new religion was beginning to organise and assert itself more effectively in Sweden. Foreign churchmen and native elites were energetic in furthering the interests of Christianity, which was now no longer operating only on a missionary footing, and old ideologies and lifestyles were transforming. By 1103, the first archbishopric was founded in Scandinavia, at Lund, Scania, then part of Denmark.

The assimilation of the nascent Scandinavian kingdoms into the cultural mainstream of European Christendom altered the aspirations of Scandinavian rulers and of Scandinavians able to travel overseas, and changed their relations with their neighbours.

One of the primary sources of profit for the Vikings had been slave-taking from other European peoples. The medieval Church held that Christians should not own fellow Christians as slaves, so chattel slavery diminished as a practice throughout northern Europe. This took much of the economic incentive out of raiding, though sporadic slaving activity continued into the 11th century. Scandinavian predation in Christian lands around the North and Irish Seas diminished markedly.

The kings of Norway continued to assert power in parts of northern Britain and Ireland, and raids continued into the 12th century, but the military ambitions of Scandinavian rulers were now directed toward new paths. In 1107, Sigurd I of Norway sailed for the eastern Mediterranean with Norwegian crusaders to fight for the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Danes and Swedes participated energetically in the Baltic Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries.[125]

Culture

A variety of sources illuminate the culture, activities, and beliefs of the Vikings. Although they were generally a non-literate culture that produced no literary legacy, they had an alphabet and described themselves and their world on runestones. Most contemporary literary and written sources on the Vikings come from other cultures that were in contact with them.[126] Since the mid-20th century, archaeological findings have built a more complete and balanced picture of the lives of the Vikings.[127][128] The archaeological record is particularly rich and varied, providing knowledge of their rural and urban settlement, crafts and production, ships and military equipment, trading networks, as well as their pagan and Christian religious artefacts and practices.

Literature and language

See also: Old Norse and The Norse Sagas

One of the few surviving manuscript leaves from the Heimskringla Sagas, written by Snorri Sturluson c. 1230. The leaf tells of King Ólafur.

The most important primary sources on the Vikings are contemporary texts from Scandinavia and regions where the Vikings were active.[129] Writing in Latin letters was introduced to Scandinavia with Christianity, so there are few native documentary sources from Scandinavia before the late 11th and early 12th centuries.[130] The Scandinavians did write inscriptions in runes, but these are usually very short and formulaic. Most contemporary documentary sources consist of texts written in Christian and Islamic communities outside Scandinavia, often by authors who had been negatively affected by Viking activity.

Later writings on the Vikings and the Viking Age can also be important for understanding them and their culture, although they need to be treated cautiously. After the consolidation of the church and the assimilation of Scandinavia and its colonies into the mainstream of medieval Christian culture in the 11th and 12th centuries, native written sources begin to appear in Latin and Old Norse. In the Viking colony of Iceland, an extraordinary vernacular literature blossomed in the 12th through 14th centuries, and many traditions connected with the Viking Age were written down for the first time in the Icelandic sagas. A literal interpretation of these medieval prose narratives about the Vikings and the Scandinavian past is doubtful, but many specific elements remain worthy of consideration, such as the great quantity of skaldic poetry attributed to court poets of the 10th and 11th centuries, the exposed family trees, the self images, the ethical values, that are contained in these literary writings.

Indirectly, the Vikings have also left a window open onto their language, culture and activities, through many Old Norse place names and words found in their former sphere of influence. Some of these place names and words are still in direct use today, almost unchanged, and shed light on where they settled and what specific places meant to them. Examples include place names like Egilsay (from Eigils ey meaning Eigil's Island), Ormskirk (from Ormr kirkja meaning Orms Church or Church of the Worm), Meols (from merl meaning Sand Dunes), Snaefell (Snow Fell), Ravenscar (Ravens Rock), Vinland (Land of Wine or Land of Winberry), Kaupanger (Market Harbour), Tórshavn (Thor's Harbour), and the religious centre of Odense, meaning a place where Odin was worshipped. Viking influence is also evident in concepts like the present-day parliamentary body of the Tynwald on the Isle of Man.

Common words in everyday English language, such as leg, skin, dirt, sky, egg, kid, anger, window, husband, knife, bag, gift, glove, guest, wing, birth, law, gate, scab, skirt, root, skull, reindeer, happy, wrong, ugly, low, weak, loose, want, give, take, get, smile, guess, seem, hit, kick, scare, crawl, call, lift, both, they, them, and their, stem from the Old Norse of the Vikings and give us an opportunity to understand their interactions with the people and cultures of the British Isles.[131] In the Northern Isles of Shetland and Orkney, Old Norse completely replaced the local languages and over time evolved into the now extinct Norn language. Some modern words and names only emerge and contribute to our understanding after a more intense research of linguistic sources from medieval or later records, such as York (Horse Bay), Swansea (Sveinn's Isle) or some of the place names in Normandy like Tocqueville (Toki's farm).[132]

Linguistic and etymological studies continue to provide a vital source of information on the Viking culture, their social structure and history and how they interacted with the people and cultures they met, traded, attacked or lived with in overseas settlements.[133][134] A lot of Old Norse connections are evident in the modern-day languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Faroese and Icelandic.[135] Old Norse did not exert any great influence on the Slavic languages in the Viking settlements of Eastern Europe. It has been speculated that the reason for this was the great differences between the two languages, combined with the Rus' Vikings more peaceful businesses in these areas and the fact that they were outnumbered. The Norse named some of the rapids on the Dnieper, but this can hardly be seen from the modern names.[136][137]

Runestones

Main article: Runestone

The Lingsberg Runestone in Sweden

Runic inscriptions of the larger of the Jelling Stones in Denmark

Two types of Norse runestones from the Viking Age

The Norse of the Viking Age could read and write and used a non-standardised alphabet, called runor, built upon sound values. While there are few remains of runic writing on paper from the Viking era, thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found where Vikings lived. They are usually in memory of the dead, though not necessarily placed at graves. The use of runor survived into the 15th century, used in parallel with the Latin alphabet.

The runestones are unevenly distributed in Scandinavia: Denmark has 250 runestones, Norway has 50 while Iceland has none.[138] Sweden has as many as between 1,700[138] and 2,500[139] depending on definition. The Swedish district of Uppland has the highest concentration with as many as 1,196 inscriptions in stone, whereas Södermanland is second with 391.[140][141]

The majority of runic inscriptions from the Viking period are found in Sweden. Many runestones in Scandinavia record the names of participants in Viking expeditions, such as the Kjula runestone that tells of extensive warfare in Western Europe and the Turinge Runestone, which tells of a war band in Eastern Europe.

Other runestones mention men who died on Viking expeditions. Among them include the England runestones (Swedish: Englandsstenarna) which is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece Runestones[142] and the 26 Ingvar Runestones, the latter referring to a Viking expedition to the Middle East.[143] They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark.[144]

Piraeus Lion drawing of curved lindworm. The runes on the lion tell of Swedish warriors, most likely Varangians, mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor.

The Jelling stones date from between 960 and 985. The older, smaller stone was raised by King Gorm the Old, the last pagan king of Denmark, as a memorial honouring Queen Thyre.[145] The larger stone was raised by his son, Harald Bluetooth, to celebrate the conquest of Denmark and Norway and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity. It has three sides: one with an animal image, one with an image of the crucified Jesus Christ, and a third bearing the following inscription:

King Haraldr ordered this monument made in memory of Gormr, his father, and in memory of Thyrvé, his mother; that Haraldr who won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.[146]

Runestones attest to voyages to locations such as Bath,[147] Greece (how the Vikings referred to the Byzantium territories generally),[148] Khwaresm,[149] Jerusalem,[150] Italy (as Langobardland),[151] Serkland (i.e. the Muslim world),[152][153] England[154] (including London[155]), and various places in Eastern Europe. Viking Age inscriptions have also been discovered on the Manx runestones on the Isle of Man.

Runic alphabet usage in modern times

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they normally went to war

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The Vikings kept dogs and cats as pets and both feature in Norse religious iconography and literature. The Norse also kept pet bears and birds, such as the falcon, hawk, and the peacock.
...
Hunting dog breeds were:

Norwegian Elkhound.

Swedish Elkhound.

Karelian Bear Dog.

Finnish Spitz Dog.

Danish bird Dog.

Norwegian Lundehund.

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How did they find their find there way home they follwed the west and north and whatever way has sun they go to they say the sun is normally west but not anymore because we are west wales an we have rain but now its normally north   that has snow and east has sun they come from denmark sweeden and norway but the last place nearly all the vikings setteled was britain
and they sailed for hours and hours untill they found the perfact strike to battle the river they normally travel on is river seven that used to be called river nor that was changed in 67 AD where was there favirout place to fight it was wales normally north wales because we had lots of gold andrich

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bye bye!

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More images

Viking dogs

The Norwegian Buhund (Buhund) is a member of the Herding Group and a typical northern breed of the spitz type, with prick ears and a tightly curled tail. Although their exact origin hasn't been identified, they were known in Scandinavia even before the days of the Vikings.

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Dear diary
I am a viking...Also,I killed 10000000000 Anglo Saxons I will go rading tomorow and getting gold I said''Ha ha ha I win lindesfarm...''

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If Viking navigators could see birds in the sky, they knew that land was nearby

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1. They came from Scandinavia

But they travelled as far as Baghdad and North America. Their descendants could be found across Europe – for instance, the Normans in northern France were Viking descendants.

2. Viking means “pirate raid”

The word comes from the Old Norse language that was spoken in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.

The Kingdom of the Franks was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe, ruled by the Franks during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. But how did it fare against Viking attacks?

LISTEN NOW

3. But they weren’t all pirates

The Vikings are infamous for their plundering ways. But many of them actually travelled to other countries to settle peacefully and farm or craft, or to trade goods to take back home.

4. They didn’t wear helmets with horns on

The iconic horned helmet that we know from popular culture was actually a fantastical creation dreamt up by costume designer Carl Emil Doepler for an 1876 production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen.

5. In fact, most may not have worn helmets at all

Only one complete Viking helmet has ever been found suggesting that many either fought without helmets or wore headwear made of leather rather than metal (which would have been less likely to survive the centuries).

6. A Viking landed on American shores long before Columbus

Although we commonly credit Christopher Columbus with being the European who discovered the land that would become known as the “New World”, Viking explorer Leif Erikson beat him to it by a whopping 500 years.

A crocheted horned helmet hat. Perfect as a present, or just as everyday wear – snug and rather cute.

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7. Leif’s father was the first Viking to set foot in Greenland

According to Icelandic sagas, Erik the Red journeyed to Greenland after being banished from Iceland for murdering several men. He went on to found the first Viking settlement in Greenland.

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This Viking leader, whose origins were either Danish or Norwegian, began conducting raids on France in the ninth century. In 911, under the Treaty of St. Claire-sur-Epte, Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, gave Rollo part of the area now called Normandy (for Northman’s land) in an effort to have him protect it from other Viking raiders. Rollo later expanded his control of the region, and around the time he died, in about 928, was succeeded by his son, William Longsword. In 1066, another one of Rollo’s descendants, William, duke of Normandy, led a successful invasion of England. William the Conqueror, as he became known, went on to serve as king of England until 1087. More than a thousand years after Rollo’s death, Allied troops during World War II landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s contro

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these are the Viking potatoes they don't look like our potatoes nowadays.

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Two Viking ships were found by archaeologists in Norway. The Gokstad ship was dug up on a farm in 1880. The Oseberg ship was found on another farm in 1904.

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Vikings is the modern name given to seafaring people primarily from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

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Before the beginning of time, there was Ginnungagap – a bottomless abyss, which separated the icy land of Niflheim and the fiery land of Muspelheim. These two realms rose in power and clashed; the burning frost turned into water drops and the water drops turned into life.

The first living being was Ymir, a hermaphroditic giant who was created from those life-giving drops of water and whose death was brought about by Odin and his brothers. Odin, Vili, and Vé, Ymir’s descendants, fashioned the Nordic mythological universe from his blood, bones, flesh, teeth, hair, eyelashes, brains and skull.

The Norse gods belong to two major clans: Æsir and Vanir. Odin, Frigg, Thor, Loki, Balder, Hod, Heimdall and Tyr are the most elevated representatives of Æsir and are known as the main gods. The second clan, Vanir, contains the fertility gods and count Njord, Freyr, and Freyja as their most notable members. Despite the antagonism between them, it was necessary for the two families to combine their powers and ideals for all to prosper.