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{{Short description|Period of European history (about 800–1050)}}
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{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
[[File:Bildsten från Smiss, Gotland.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Viking Age [[picture stone]], [[Gotland]], Sweden.]]{{Scandinavia|History}}
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The '''Viking Age''' (about {{CE|800–1050}}) was the period during the [[Middle Ages]] when [[Norsemen]] known as [[Vikings]] undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America.<ref name="Mawer1913">{{cite book |last=Mawer |first=Allen |author-link=Allen Mawer |year=1913 |title=The Vikings |url=https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe/page/4/mode/2up 4 |isbn=095173394X |quote=The term 'Viking' is derived from the Old Norse ''vík'', a bay, and means 'one who haunts a bay, creek or fjord'. In the 9th and 10th centuries, it came to be used more especially of those warriors who left their homes in Scandinavia and made raids on the chief European countries. This is the narrow, and technically the only correct use of the term 'Viking', but in such expressions as 'Viking civilisation', 'the Viking Age', 'the Viking movement', 'Viking influence', the word has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity and influence of the Scandinavian peoples, at a particular period in their history...}}</ref><ref name="Sawyer_1995">{{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Peter H. |author-link=Peter Sawyer (historian) |year=1995 |title=Scandinavians and the English in the Viking Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |publisher=[[University of Cambridge]] |page=3 |isbn=095173394X |quote=The Viking period is, therefore, best defined as the period when Scandinavians played a large role in the British Isles and western Europe as raiders and conquerors. It is also the period in which Scandinavians settled in many of the areas they conquered, and in the Atlantic islands... |access-date=5 September 2019 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Jesch1991">{{cite book |last=Jesch |first=Judith |author-link=Judith Jesch |year=1991 |title=Women in the Viking Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xpNRpI9zFoC&pg=PA84 |publisher=[[Boydell & Brewer|Boydell & Brewer Ltd]] |page=84 |isbn=0851153607 |quote=International contact is the key to the Viking Age. In Scandinavian history, this period is distinct because large numbers of Scandinavian people left their homelands and voyaged abroad... The period is thus defined by the impact the Scandinavians had on the world around them.}}</ref> The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of [[Scandinavia]] but also to any place significantly settled by [[North Germanic peoples|Scandinavians]] during the period.<ref name="Jesch1991"/> Although few of the Scandinavians of the Viking Age  were Vikings in the sense of being engaged in piracy, they are often referred to as ''Vikings'' as well as ''Norsemen''.<ref name="All">{{*}}{{cite book |last=Haywood |first=John |year=1995 |title=The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings |url=https://archive.org/details/penguinhistorica00john |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/penguinhistorica00john/page/8 8] |isbn=0140513280 |quote=The term "Viking" has come to be applied to all Scandinavians of the period, but in the Viking Age itself the term ''víkingr'' applied only to someone who went ''í víking'', that is plundering. In this sense, most Viking-age Scandinavians were not Vikings at all, but peaceful farmers and craftsmen who stayed quietly at home all their lives." }}
<br />{{*}}{{cite book |last=Haywood |first=John |year=1999 |title=The Vikings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcwiAQAAIAAJ |publisher=[[The History Press|Sutton]] |page=37 |isbn=0750921943 |quote=The term 'Viking' has come in modern times to be applied to all early medieval Scandinavians and it is directly as a result of this that the controversy has arisen. As used originally in the Viking Age itself, the word was applied only to someone who went i viking, that is someone whose occupation was piracy. The earliest use of the word predates the Viking Age by some years and it was not even used exclusively to describe Scandinavian pirates. Most Viking Age Scandinavians were not Vikings at all in this original sense of the word but were simply peaceful farmers, craftsmen and merchants." |access-date=3 January 2020 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200126/https://books.google.com/books?id=BcwiAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}
<br />{{*}}{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=David M. |author-link=David M. Wilson |year=2008 |title=The Vikings in the Isle of Man |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MNMWAQAAIAAJ |publisher=[[Aarhus University Press]] |page=11 |isbn=978-8779343672 |quote=The word 'Viking' did not come into general use in the English language until the middle of the nineteenth Century—at about the same time that it was introduced into serious academic literature in Scandinavia—and has since then changed its meaning and been much abused. It must, however, be accepted that the term is today used throughout the world as a descriptor of the peoples of Scandinavia in the period from the late eighth Century until the mid-eleventh Century. |access-date=3 January 2020 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200137/https://books.google.com/books?id=MNMWAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}
<br />{{*}}{{cite book |date=2010 |chapter=Vikings |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195334036.001.0001/acref-9780195334036-e-0957?rskey=8P9rGR&result=3 |editor1-last=Rogers |editor1-first=Clifford J. |editor1-link=Clifford J. Rogers |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780195338423 |access-date=3 January 2020 |quote="Vikings" is the usual generic term given today to all Scandinavians of the Viking Age |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523112952/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195334036.001.0001/acref-9780195334036-e-0957?rskey=8P9rGR&result=3 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Voyaging by sea from their homelands in [[Denmark]], [[Norway]], and [[Sweden]], the Norse people settled in the [[Viking activity in the British Isles|British Isles]], [[History of Ireland (800–1169)|Ireland]], the [[Faroe Islands]], [[Settlement of Iceland|Iceland]], [[Norse settlements in Greenland|Greenland]], [[History of Normandy|Normandy]], and the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic coast]] and along the [[Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks|Dnieper]] and [[Volga trade route]]s in eastern Europe, where they were also known as [[Varangians]]. They also briefly [[Norse colonization of North America|settled in Newfoundland]], becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. The [[Norse-Gaels]], [[Normans]], [[Rus' people]], [[Faroe Islanders|Faroese]], and [[Icelanders]] emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings founded several kingdoms and earldoms in Europe: the [[Kingdom of the Isles]] (''Suðreyjar''), [[Earldom of Orkney|Orkney]] (''Norðreyjar''), [[Scandinavian York|York]] (''Jórvík'') and the [[Danelaw]] (''Danalǫg''), [[Kingdom of Dublin|Dublin]] (''Dyflin''), [[Duchy of Normandy|Normandy]], and [[Kievan Rus']] (''[[Garðaríki]]''). The Norse homelands were also unified into larger kingdoms during the Viking Age, and the short-lived [[North Sea Empire]] included large swathes of Scandinavia and Britain. In 1021, the Vikings achieved the feat of reaching North America—the date of which was not determined until a millennium later.<ref>{{cite web|last=Davies |first=Caroline |date=21 October 2021 |title=Solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm |access-date=21 October 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107012357/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm |archive-date=7 November 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Several factors drove this expansion. The Vikings were drawn by the growth of wealthy towns and monasteries overseas and weak kingdoms. They may also have been pushed to leave their homeland by overpopulation, lack of good farmland, and political strife arising from the [[unification of Norway]]. The aggressive expansion of the [[Carolingian Empire]] and [[Saxon Wars|forced conversion of the neighbouring Saxons]] to Christianity may also have been a factor.<ref name="Rudolf Simek 2005, p. 24–25">Simek, Rudolf (2005) "The Emergence of the Viking Age: Circumstances and Conditions", "The Vikings first Europeans VIII&nbsp;– XI century&nbsp;– The New Discoveries of Archaeology", other, pp. 24–25</ref> Sailing innovations had allowed the Vikings to sail farther and longer to begin with.

Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from [[primary source]]s written by those the Vikings encountered, as well as archaeology, supplemented with [[secondary source]]s such as the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic Sagas]].
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== Context ==
In England, the [[Sack of Lindisfarne|Viking attack of 8 June 793]] that destroyed the [[abbey]] on [[Lindisfarne]], a centre of learning on an island off the north-east coast of England in [[Northumberland]], is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age.<ref name="Jesch2015">{{Cite book|last=Jesch|first=Judith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTvLCQAAQBAJ |title=The Viking Diaspora |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-48253-6|pages=8–10}}</ref><ref name="English Heritage">{{cite web|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lindisfarne-priory/history/ |title=History of Lindisfarne Priory |publisher=English Heritage |access-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307112329/http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lindisfarne-priory/history/ |archive-date=7 March 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Swanton">Swanton, Michael (1998). ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. Psychology Press. {{ISBN|0-415-92129-5}}. p. 57, n. 15.</ref> [[Judith Jesch]] has argued that the start of the Viking Age can be pushed back to 700–750, as it was unlikely that the Lindisfarne attack was the first attack, and given archeological evidence that suggests contacts between [[Scandinavia]] and the British isles earlier in the century.<ref name="Jesch2015"/> The earliest raids were most likely small in scale, but expanded in scale during the 9th century.<ref name="BrinkPrice2008">{{cite book|author1=Stefan Brink|author2=Neil Price|title=The Viking World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuN-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA195|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-020341277-0|page=195}}</ref>

In the Lindisfarne attack, monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as [[slave]]s along with the church treasures, giving rise to the traditional (but unattested) prayer—''{{lang|la|A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine}}'', "Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord."<ref>Albert D'Haenens, ''Les Invasions Normandes en Belgique au IX Siecle'' (Louvain 1967) asserts that the phrase cannot be documented. It is asserted that the closest documented phrase is a sentence from an antiphon for churches dedicated to St. Vaast or St. Medard: ''Summa pia gratia nostra conservando corpora et cutodita, de gente fera Normannica nos libera, quae nostra vastat, Deus, regna'', "Our supreme and holy Grace, protecting us and ours, deliver us, God, from the savage race of Northmen which lays waste our realms." Magnus Magnusson, ''Vikings!'' (New York: E.P. Dutton 1980), {{ISBN|0-525-22892-6}}, p. 61.</ref> Three Viking ships had beached in [[Weymouth Bay]] four years earlier (although due to a scribal error the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' dates this event to 787 rather than 789), but that incursion may have been a trading expedition that went wrong rather than a piratical raid. Lindisfarne was different. The Viking devastation of [[Northumbria]]'s Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar [[Alcuin of York]], who wrote: "Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared".<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|1968|p=195}}. Simeon of Durham recorded the raid in these terms:
<blockquote>And they came to the church of Lindisfarne, laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted feet, dug up the altars, and seized all the treasures of the holy church. They killed some of the brothers; some they took away with them in fetters; many they drove out, naked and loaded with insults; and some they drowned in the sea."</blockquote>
Magnus Magnusson, ''Vikings!'', p. 32.</ref> Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. [[Robert of Gloucester (historian)|Robert of Gloucester]]'s Chronicle, c. 1300, mentions Viking attacks on the people of East Anglia wherein they are described as "wolves among sheep".<ref name="Battles2013">{{cite book |last1=Battles |first1=Dominique |title=Cultural Difference and Material Culture in Middle English Romance: Normans and Saxons |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-15662-5 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3RfeAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT168}}</ref>

The first challenges to the many negative depictions of Vikings in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached only a small readership there, while linguists traced the Viking Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries and grammars of the Old Icelandic language appeared, enabling more Victorian scholars to read the primary texts of the Icelandic Sagas.<ref name="Wawn2001">{{cite web |last1=Wawn |first1=Andrew |title=BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: The Viking Revival |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/revival_01.shtml |website=www.bbc.co.uk |access-date=4 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311051428/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/revival_01.shtml |archive-date=11 March 2008 |date=2001 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Scandinavia, the 17th-century Danish scholars [[Thomas Bartholin]] and [[Ole Worm]] and Swedish scholar [[Olaus Rudbeck]] were the first to use [[runic inscriptions]] and Icelandic Sagas as primary historical sources. During the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and Nordic Renaissance, historians such as the Icelandic-Norwegian [[Thormodus Torfæus]], Danish-Norwegian [[Ludvig Holberg]], and Swedish [[Olof von Dalin]] developed a more "rational" and "pragmatic" approach to historical scholarship.

By the latter half of the 18th century, while the [[Icelandic saga]]s were still used as important historical sources, the Viking Age had again come to be regarded as a barbaric and uncivilised period in the history of the Nordic countries. Scholars outside Scandinavia did not begin to extensively reassess the achievements of the Vikings until the 1890s, recognising their artistry, technological skills, and seamanship.<ref>{{cite book |title=Northern Shores: a history of the Baltic Sea and its peoples |last=Palmer |first=Alan Warwick |location=London |publisher=John Murray |year=2006 |page=21 |isbn=978-0-7195-6299-0 |oclc=63398802}}</ref>

== Background ==
[[File:Faroe stamp sheet 406-408 viking voyages.jpg|thumb|[[Faroe Islanders|Faroese]] stamps celebrating the Viking voyages in the North Atlantic]]
The Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were mainly pagans from the same area as present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They also settled in the [[Faroe Islands]], Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland ([[Caithness]], the [[Hebrides]] and the [[Northern Isles]]), Greenland, and Canada.

Their [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic language]], [[Old Norse]], became the precursor to present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a strong central authority appears to have been established in [[Jutland]], and the Danes were beginning to look beyond their own territory for land, trade, and plunder.

In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries. Communities remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in lowland Denmark. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway.

The sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. In the eighth century, Scandinavians began to build ships of war and send them on raiding expeditions which started the Viking Age. The [[North Sea]] rovers were traders, colonisers, explorers, and plunderers who were notorious in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and other places in Europe for being brutal.

== Probable causes ==
{{Norse people sidebar}}
{{Main|Viking expansion}}
Many theories are posited for the cause of the Viking invasions; the will to explore likely played a major role. At the time, England, Wales, and Ireland were vulnerable to attack, being divided into many different warring kingdoms in a state of internal disarray, while the Franks were well defended. Overpopulation, especially near the [[Scandinavian Mountains|Scandes]], was a possible reason, although some disagree with this theory.<ref>[https://www.ragweedforge.com/ODIN.html#over Arne Emil Christensen] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100440/https://www.ragweedforge.com/ODIN.html#over |date=4 March 2016 }}, ''The Vikings''.</ref> Technological advances like the use of iron and a shortage of women due to selective [[female infanticide]] also likely had an impact.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/808691 |title=Selective female infanticide as partial explanation for dearth of women in Viking Age Scandinavia |date=1998 |publisher=Boydell press |isbn=978-0-85115-713-9 |location=Woodbridge |pages=205–221 |last1=Wicker |first1=Nancy |editor1-last=Hallsal |editor1-first=Guy |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200127/https://www.academia.edu/808691 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tensions caused by Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia, and their subsequent attacks upon the Viking peoples, may have also played a role in Viking pillaging.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}} [[Harald I of Norway]] ("Harald Fairhair") had united Norway around this time and displaced many peoples. As a result, these people sought for new bases to launch counter-raids against Harald.

[[File:Viking Expansion.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Viking expansion in Europe between the 8th and 11th centuries: The yellow colour includes expansions of the [[Normans]]]]
Debate among scholars is ongoing as to why the Scandinavians began to expand from the eighth through 11th centuries. Various factors have been highlighted: demographic, economic, ideological, political, technological, and environmental models.<ref name="Lund & Sindbæk">{{Cite journal|last1=Lund |first1=Julie |last2=Sindbæk |first2=Søren M. |date=15 May 2021 |title=Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=172 |language=en |doi=10.1007/s10814-021-09163-3 |issn=1573-7756 |doi-access=free|hdl=10852/89013 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

===Demographic models===
Barrett considers that prior scholarship having examined causes of the Viking Age in terms of demographic determinism, the resulting explanations have generated a "wide variety of possible models". While admitting that Scandinavia did share in the general European population and settlement expansion at the end of the first millennium, he dismisses 'population pressure' as a realistic cause of the Viking Age.<ref name="Barrett2008">{{cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=James H. |title=What caused the Viking Age? |journal=Antiquity |date=1 September 2008 |volume=82 |issue=317 |pages=672–673 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00097301}}</ref> Bagge alludes to the  evidence of demographic growth at the time, manifested in an increase of new settlements, but he declares that a warlike people do not require population pressure to resort to plundering abroad. He grants that although population increase was a factor in this expansion, it was not the incentive for such expeditions.<ref name="Bagge2014">{{cite book |last1=Bagge |first1=Sverre |title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation |year=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5 |pages=24–25 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25}}</ref> According to Ferguson, the proliferation of the use of iron in Scandinavia at the time increased agricultural yields, allowing for demographic growth that strained the limited capacity of the land.<ref name="Ferguson2009 p. 47">{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Robert |title=The Vikings: A History |year=2009 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-15142-6 |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HY_klT7NjvAC&pg=PT47}}</ref> As a result, many Scandinavians found themselves with no property and no status. To remedy this, these landless men took to piracy to obtain material wealth. The population continued to grow, and the pirates looked further and further beyond the borders of [[Baltic Sea|the Baltic]], and eventually into all of Europe.<ref>Fletcher, Richard. ''Roman–Britain and Anglo–Saxon England 55 BC–AD 1066''. Mechanicsburg, 2002, 177</ref> Historian [[Anders Winroth]] has also challenged the "overpopulation" thesis, arguing that scholars are "simply repeating an ancient cliché that has no basis in fact."<ref name="Winroth2016">{{cite book |last1=Winroth |first1=Anders |title=The Age of the Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16929-3 |pages=51–52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E26YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51}}</ref>

===Economic model===
The economic model states that the Viking Age was the result of growing urbanism and trade throughout mainland Europe. As the Islamic world grew, so did its trade routes, and the wealth which moved along them was pushed further and further north.<ref>Ferguson, Robert. ''The Vikings: A History''. New York: Viking, 2009. Print., 48 {{ISBN?}}</ref> In Western Europe, proto-urban centres such as those with names ending in ''wich'', the so-called [[-wich town]]s of [[Anglo-Saxon England]], began to boom during the prosperous era known as the "Long Eighth Century".<ref>Hansen, I.L & C. Wickham. ''The Long Eighth Century: Production, Distribution, and Demand.'' Leiden: Brill, 2000. {{ISBN?}}</ref> The Scandinavians, like many other Europeans, were drawn to these wealthier "urban" centres, which soon became frequent targets of Viking raids. The connection of the Scandinavians to larger and richer trade networks lured the Vikings into Western Europe, and soon the rest of Europe and parts of the Middle East. In England, hoards of Viking silver, such as the [[Cuerdale Hoard]] and the [[Vale of York Hoard]], offer insight into this phenomenon. Barrett rejects this model, arguing that the earliest recorded Viking raids were in Western Norway and northern Britain, which were not highly economically integrated areas. He proposes a version of the economic model that points to new economic incentives stemming from a "bulge" in the population of young Scandinavian men, impelling them to engage in maritime activity due to limited economic alternatives.<ref name="Lund & Sindbæk"/>

===Ideological model===
This era coincided with the [[Medieval Warm Period]] (800–1300) and stopped with the start of the [[Little Ice Age]] (about 1250–1850). The start of the Viking Age, with the sack of Lindisfarne, also coincided with [[Charlemagne]]'s [[Saxon Wars]], or Christian wars with pagans in [[Old Saxony|Saxony]]. Bruno Dumézil theorises that the Viking attacks may have been in response to the spread of Christianity among pagan peoples.<ref name="Bruno Dumézil 2005">Bruno Dumézil, master of Conference at Paris X–Nanterre, Normalien, aggregated history, author of conversion and freedom in the barbarian kingdoms. 5th&nbsp;– 8th centuries (Fayard, 2005)</ref><ref name="annals R.20">"Franques Royal Annals" cited in Sawyer, Peter (2001) ''The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings''. {{ISBN|0-19-285434-8}}. p. 20</ref><ref name="Decaux 1981 pp. 184">Decaux, Alain and Castelot, André (1981) ''Dictionnaire d'histoire de France''. Perrin. {{ISBN|2-7242-3080-9}}. pp. 184–185</ref><ref name="Boyer, R. 2008 p. 96">Boyer, R. (2008) ''Les Vikings: histoire, mythes, dictionnaire''. R. Laffont. {{ISBN|978-2-221-10631-0}}. p. 96</ref><ref>[[François-Xavier Dillmann]], "Viking civilisation and culture. A bibliography of French-language", Caen, Centre for research on the countries of the North and Northwest, University of Caen, 1975, p. 19, and" Les Vikings&nbsp;– the Scandinavian and European 800–1200 ", 22nd exhibition of art from the Council of Europe, 1992, p. 26</ref> Because of the penetration of [[Christianization of Scandinavia|Christianity in Scandinavia]], serious conflict divided Norway for almost a century.

===Political model===
The first of two main components to the political model is the external "pull" factor, which suggests that the weak political bodies of Britain and Western Europe, especially after the death in January 814 of [[Charlemagne]], made them attractive targets for Viking raiders.{{Citation needed|date=March 2018}} The reasons for these weaknesses vary, but generally can be simplified into decentralised polities, or religious sites. As a result, Viking raiders found it easy to sack and then retreat from these areas which were thus frequently raided. The second case is the internal "push" factor, which coincides with a period just before the Viking Age in which Scandinavia was undergoing a mass centralisation of power in the modern-day countries of Denmark, Sweden, and especially Norway. This centralisation of power forced hundreds of chieftains from their lands, which were slowly being appropriated by the kings and dynasties that began to emerge. As a result, many of these chiefs sought refuge elsewhere, and began harrying the coasts of the British Isles and Western Europe.<ref>Barrett, James H. "What Caused the Viking Age?" ''Antiquity'' 82.317 (2008): 671–685 [678–679]</ref> Anders Winroth argues that purposeful choices by warlords "propelled the Viking Age movement of people from Scandinavia."<ref name="Winroth2016"/>

===Technological model===
This model suggests that the Viking Age occurred as a result of technological innovations that allowed the Vikings to go on their raids in the first place.<ref>Ferguson, Robert. ''The Vikings: A History''. New York: Viking, 2009. p. 58</ref> There is no doubt that piracy existed in the Baltic before the Viking Age, but developments in sailing technology and practice made it possible for early Viking raiders to attack lands farther away.<ref>Pearson, Andrew. ''Piracy in Late Roman Britain: A Perspective from the Viking Age''. Britannia 37 (2006): Web.</ref><ref name="Bagge2014"/> Among these developments are included the use of larger sails, tacking practices, and 24-hour sailing.<ref name="Barrett2008"/> Anders Winroth writes, "If early medieval Scandinavians had not become exquisite shipwrights, there would have been no Vikings and no Viking Age."<ref name="Winroth2016 72">{{cite book |last1=Winroth |first1=Anders |title=The Age of the Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16929-3 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E26YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72}}</ref>

These models constitute much of what is known about the motivations for and the causes of the Viking Age. In all likelihood, the beginning of this age was the result of some combination of the aforementioned hypotheses.

The Viking colonisation of islands in the North Atlantic has in part been attributed to a period of favourable climate (the Medieval Climactic Optimum), as the weather was relatively stable and predictable, with calm seas.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Price |first=T. Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYBJCAAAQBAJ |title=Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-023199-6 |pages=321–322 |language=en |access-date=25 July 2021 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200130/https://books.google.com/books?id=gYBJCAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Sea ice]] was rare, harvests were typically strong, and fishing conditions were good.<ref name=":1" />

== Overview ==
[[File:Viking towns of Scandinavia 2.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|Viking-era towns of [[Scandinavia]]]]
The earliest date given for the coming of Vikings to England is 789 during the reign of King [[Beorhtric of Wessex]]. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' three Norwegian boats from [[Hordaland]] (Old Norse: ''Hǫrðalandi'') landed at the [[Isle of Portland]] off the coast of Dorset. They apparently were mistaken for merchants by a royal official, Beaduhard,<ref name="Carroll2014">{{cite book |last1=Carroll |first1=Jayne |editor1-last=Allard |editor1-first=Joe |editor2-last=North |editor2-first=Richard |title=Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86041-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b05pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT348 |chapter=Viking wars and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle}}</ref> a king's [[Reeve (England)|reeve]] who attempted to force them to come to the king's manor, whereupon they killed the reeve and his men.<ref name="Loyn1995">{{cite book |last1=Loyn |first1=Henry |title=The Vikings in Britain |year=1995 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-631-18711-0 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlkmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref> The beginning of the Viking Age in the [[British Isles]] is often set at 793. It was recorded in the ''Anglo–Saxon Chronicle'' that the Northmen raided the important island monastery of [[Lindisfarne]] (the generally accepted date is actually 8 June, not January<ref name="Swanton" />):

{{blockquote |A.D. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island ''(Lindisfarne)'', by rapine and slaughter. |''Anglo Saxon Chronicle''.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://mcllibrary.org/Anglo/part2.html |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Part 2 |publisher= Medieval and Classical Literature Library |access-date = 7 June 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180413124643/http://mcllibrary.org/Anglo/part2.html |archive-date = 13 April 2018 |url-status=live |df = dmy-all }}</ref>}}

In 794, according to the ''[[Annals of Ulster]]'', a serious attack was made on Lindisfarne's mother-house of [[Iona]], which was followed in 795 by raids upon the northern coast of Ireland. From bases there, the Norsemen attacked Iona again in 802, causing great slaughter amongst the ''[[Culdee|Céli Dé]]'' Brethren, and burning the abbey to the ground.

The Vikings primarily targeted Ireland until 830, as England and the Carolingian Empire were able to fight the Vikings off.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Bagge |first=Sverre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ |title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5 |pages=21–22 |language=en |access-date=25 July 2021 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120140/https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, after {{CE|830}}, the Vikings had considerable success against England, the Carolingian Empire, and other parts of Western Europe.<ref name=":3" /> After 830, the Vikings exploited disunity within the Carolingian Empire, as well as pitting the English kingdoms against each other.<ref name=":3" />
[[File:Vikings-Voyages.png|thumb|upright=1.35|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]].]]

The Kingdom of the [[Franks]] under Charlemagne was particularly devastated by these raiders, who could sail up the [[Seine]] with near impunity. Near the end of Charlemagne's reign (and throughout the reigns of his sons and grandsons), a string of Norse raids began, culminating in a gradual Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as [[Scandinavian invasions of Normandy|Normandy]] in 911. Frankish King [[Charles the Simple]] granted the Duchy of Normandy to Viking warleader [[Rollo of Normandy|Rollo]] (a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish origins)<ref>The material suggesting a Norwegian origin identifies him with [[Rollo|Hrolf the Ganger]], also known as "Rolf the Walker"</ref> in order to stave off attacks by other Vikings.<ref name=":3" /> Charles gave Rollo the title of duke. In return, Rollo swore [[fealty]] to Charles, converted to Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers not only identified themselves as Norman, but also carried the [[Norman language]] (either a French dialect or a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon), and their Norman culture, into England in 1066. With the [[Norman Conquest]], they became the ruling aristocracy of [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo–Saxon England]].

The [[clinker (boat building)|clinker]]-built [[longship]]s used by the Scandinavians were uniquely suited to both deep and shallow waters. They extended the reach of Norse raiders, traders, and settlers along coastlines and along the major river valleys of north-western Europe. [[Rurik]] also expanded to the east, and in 859 became ruler either by conquest or invitation by local people of the city of [[Novgorod]] (which means "new city") on the [[Volkhov River]]. [[Rurik Dynasty|His successors]] moved further, founding the early East Slavic state of [[Kievan Rus']] with the capital in [[Kiev]]. This persisted until 1240, when the [[Mongol invasion of Rus'|Mongols invaded Kievan Rus']].

Other Norse people continued south to the [[Black Sea]] and then on to [[Constantinople]]. The eastern connections of these "[[Varangians]]" brought [[Byzantine silk]], a [[cowrie shell]] from the Red Sea, and even coins from [[Samarkand]], to [[Jorvik|Viking York]].

In 884, an army of Danish Vikings was defeated at the [[Battle of Norditi]] (also called the Battle of Hilgenried Bay) on the Germanic [[North Sea]] coast by a [[Frisians|Frisian]] army under Archbishop [[Rimbert]] of Bremen-Hamburg, which precipitated the complete and permanent withdrawal of the Vikings from [[East Frisia]]. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Saxons and Slavs began to use trained mobile cavalry successfully against Viking foot soldiers, making it hard for Viking invaders to fight inland.<ref name="Howard">{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzXp1yYjq94C|title=Swein Forkbeard's Invasions and the Danish Conquest of England, 991–1017|publisher=Boydell Press|year=2003|isbn=0-85115-928-1|location=Woodbridge|page=26|access-date=16 October 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414015622/https://books.google.com/books?id=jzXp1yYjq94C|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Scandinavia, the Viking Age is considered by some scholars to have ended with the establishment of royal authority and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion.<ref name="Winroth2016 143">{{cite book |last1=Winroth |first1=Anders |title=The Age of the Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16929-3 |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E26YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA143}}</ref> Scholars have proposed different end dates for the Viking Age, but many argue it ended in the 11th century. The year 1000 is sometimes used, as that was the year in which Iceland converted to Christianity, marking the conversion of all of Scandinavia to Christianity. The death of Harthacnut, the Danish King of England, in 1042 has also been used as an end date.<ref name="Jesch2015"/> History does not often allow such clear-cut separation between arbitrary "ages", and it is not easy to pin down a single date that applies to all the Viking world. The Viking Age was not a "monolithic chronological period" across three or four hundred years, but was characterised by various distinct phases of Viking activity. It is unlikely that the Viking Age could be so neatly assigned a terminal event.<ref name="Somerville&McDonald2019">{{cite book |editor1-last=Somerville |editor1-first=Angus A. |editor2-last=McDonald |editor2-first=R. Andrew |title=The Viking Age: A Reader |edition=3rd |date=2019 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-7047-7 |page=451 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oBK_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA451 |chapter=The End of the Viking Age}}</ref> The end of the Viking era in Norway is marked by the [[Battle of Stiklestad]] in 1030, in which Óláfr Haraldsson (later known as [[Olaf II of Norway|Olav the Holy]]), a fervent Christianiser who dealt harshly with those suspected of clinging to pagan cult, was killed.<ref name="Bagge2012">{{cite book |last1=Bagge |first1=Sverre |title=From Viking Stronghold to Christian Kingdom: State Formation in Norway, c. 900–1350 |year=2012 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=978-87-635-0791-2 |pages=29–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCarBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29}}</ref> Although Óláfr's army lost the battle, Christianity continued to spread, and after his death he became one of the subjects of the three miracle stories given in the [[Manx Chronicle]].<ref name="McDonald2020">{{cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=R. Andrew |title=The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles c. 1066–1275 |year=2020 |publisher=Birlinn Ltd |isbn=978-1-78885-148-0 |page=221 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnjnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT221}}</ref> In Sweden, the reign of king [[Olof Skötkonung]] ({{circa|995–1020}}) is considered to be the transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, and he is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted until the 12th century; Olof was the last king in Scandinavia to adopt Christianity.

The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by the failed invasion attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III ([[Harald Hardrada|Haraldr Harðráði]]), who was defeated by Saxon King [[Harold Godwinson]] in 1066 at the [[Battle of Stamford Bridge]];<ref name="Jesch2015"/> in Ireland, the capture of [[Dublin]] by [[Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Strongbow]] and his [[Normans in Ireland|Hiberno-Norman]] forces in 1171; and 1263 in Scotland by the defeat of King [[Haakon IV of Norway|Hákon Hákonarson]] at the [[Battle of Largs]] by troops loyal to [[Alexander III of Scotland|Alexander III]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2015}} Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, [[William I of England|William]], Duke of [[Normandy]]. Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the [[Norsemen|Norse]] between the 13th and the 15th centuries; the [[Western Isles]] and the [[Isle of Man]] remained under Scandinavian authority until 1266. [[Orkney]] and [[Shetland]] belonged to the king of Norway as late as 1469. Consequently, a "long Viking Age" may stretch into the 15th century.<ref name="Jesch2015"/>

{{Timeline of the Viking Age}}

== Northern Europe ==
{{See also|Viking activity in the British Isles|Viking expansion#Britain and Ireland |Invasions of the British Isles#Viking raids and invasions}}

=== England ===
[[File:Viking weight combined only reflection.jpg|thumb|Anglo-Saxon-Viking coin weight, used for trading [[bullion]] and [[hacksilver]]: Material is [[lead (metal)|lead]] and weighs around {{convert|36|g|abbr=on}}. It is embedded with an Anglo-Saxon [[sceat]] (Series K type 32a) dating to 720–750 and minted in Kent. It is edged in a dotted triangle pattern. Origin is the Danelaw region and dates to 870–930.]]

According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicles'', Viking raiders struck England in 793 and raided Lindisfarne, the monastery that held [[Saint Cuthbert]]'s relics, killing the monks and capturing the valuables. The raid marked the beginning of the "Viking Age of Invasion". Great but sporadic violence continued on England's northern and eastern shores, with raids continuing on a small scale across coastal England. While the initial raiding groups were small, a great amount of planning is believed to have been involved. The Vikings raided during the winter of 840–841, rather than the usual summer, having waited on an island off Ireland.{{sfn|Hall|2010|p=13}}

In 850, the Vikings overwintered for the first time in England, on the [[Isle of Thanet|island of Thanet]], [[Kent]]. In 854, a raiding party overwintered a second time, at the [[Isle of Sheppey]] in the Thames estuary. In 864, they reverted to Thanet for their winter encampment.{{sfn|Hall|2010|p=13}}

The following year, the [[Great Heathen Army]], led by brothers [[Ivar the Boneless]], [[Halfdan Ragnarsson|Halfdan]] and [[Ubba]], and also by another Viking [[Guthrum]], arrived in East Anglia. They proceeded to cross England into Northumbria and captured York, establishing a Viking community in [[Jorvik]], where some settled as farmers and craftsmen. Most of the English kingdoms, being in turmoil, could not stand against the Vikings. In 867, Northumbria became the northern kingdom of the coalescing [[Danelaw]], after its conquest by the Ragnarsson brothers, who installed an Englishman, [[Ecgberht I of Northumbria|Ecgberht]], as a puppet king. By 870, the "Great Summer Army" arrived in England, led by a Viking leader called [[Bagsecg]] and his five [[earl]]s. Aided by the Great Heathen Army (which had already overrun much of England from its base in Jorvik), Bagsecg's forces, and Halfdan's forces (through an alliance), the combined Viking forces raided much of England until 871, when they planned an invasion of Wessex. On 8 January 871, Bagsecg was killed at the [[Battle of Ashdown]] along with his earls. As a result, many of the Vikings returned to northern England, where Jorvic had become the centre of the Viking kingdom, but [[Alfred the Great|Alfred of Wessex]] managed to keep them out of his country. Alfred and his successors continued to drive back the Viking frontier and take York. A new wave of Vikings appeared in England in 947, when [[Eric Bloodaxe]] captured York.

In 1003, the Danish King [[Sweyn Forkbeard]] started a series of raids against England to avenge the [[St. Brice's Day massacre]] of England's Danish inhabitants, culminating in a full-scale invasion that led to Sweyn being crowned king of England in 1013.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheAnglo-Saxonkings/Sweyn.aspx |publisher=The Official Website Of The British Monarchy |title=Sweyn (r. 1013–1014) |access-date=16 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129012256/http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheAnglo-Saxonkings/Sweyn.aspx |archive-date=29 November 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Badsey et al.">Badsey, S. Nicolle, D, Turnbull, S (1999). "The Timechart of Military History". Worth Press Ltd, {{ISBN|1-903025-00-1}}.</ref> Sweyn was also king of Denmark and parts of Norway at this time.<ref name="Lund">Lund, Niels (2001). "The Danish Empire and the End of the Viking Age", pp. 167–181 in ''The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings''. Ed. P.H. Sawyer. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-285434-8}}.</ref> The throne of England passed to [[Edmund Ironside]] of Wessex after Sweyn's death in 1014. Sweyn's son, [[Cnut the Great]], won the throne of England in 1016 through conquest. When Cnut the Great died in 1035 he was a king of Denmark, England, Norway, and parts of Sweden.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheAnglo-Saxonkings/CanutetheGreat.aspx |publisher=The Official Website Of The British Monarchy |title=Canute 'The Great' (r. 1016–1035) |access-date=16 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129012257/http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensofEngland/TheAnglo-Saxonkings/CanutetheGreat.aspx |archive-date=29 November 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Lawson">Lawson, M.K. (2004). "Cnut: England's Viking King 1016–35". The History Press Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-582-05970-2}}.</ref> [[Harold Harefoot]] became king of England after Cnut's death, and Viking rule of England ceased.{{clarify|date=April 2020}}

The Viking presence declined until 1066, when they lost their final battle with the English at [[Battle of Stamford Bridge|Stamford Bridge]]. The death in the battle of King [[Harald Hardrada]] of Norway ended any hope of reviving Cnut's [[North Sea Empire]], and it is because of this, rather than the Norman conquest, that 1066 is often taken as the end of the Viking Age. Nineteen days later, a large army containing and led by senior Normans, themselves mostly male-line descendants of Norsemen, [[Norman conquest of England|invaded England]] and defeated the weakened English army at the [[Battle of Hastings]]. The army invited others from across Norman gentry and ecclesiastical society to join them. There were several unsuccessful attempts by Scandinavian kings to regain control of England, the last of which took place in 1086.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bagge|first=Sverre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5|page=39|language=en|access-date=25 July 2021|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120140/https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1152, [[Eystein II of Norway]] led a plundering raid down the east coast of Britain.{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=216}}

=== Ireland ===
{{main|History of Ireland (800–1169)|Early Scandinavian Dublin|Norse-Gaels}}
[[File:Vikings 841 at Dublin.jpg|thumb|"Irishmen oppose the landing of the Viking fleet", a painting in [[Dublin City Hall]] by James Ward ({{circa|1914}}).]]

In 795, small bands of Vikings began plundering monastic settlements along the coast of [[Gaelic Ireland]]. The [[Annals of Ulster]] state that in 821 the Vikings plundered [[Howth]] and "carried off a great number of women into captivity".<ref name="DolfiniCrellin20182">{{cite book|author1=Andrea Dolfini|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8e1lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA349|title=Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches|author2=Rachel J. Crellin|author3=Christian Horn|author4=Marion Uckelmann|publisher=Springer|year=2018|isbn=978-3-319-78828-9|page=349|access-date=30 April 2020|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414031027/https://books.google.com/books?id=8e1lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA349|url-status=live}}</ref> From 840 the Vikings began building fortified encampments, ''[[longphort]]s'', on the coast and overwintering in Ireland. The first were at [[History of Dublin to 795|Dublin]] and [[Linn Duachaill]].<ref>Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (2001), "The Vikings in Ireland", in Larsen, Anne-Christine (ed.), ''The Vikings in Ireland''. The Viking Ship Museum, p. 19</ref> Their attacks became bigger and reached further inland, striking larger monastic settlements such as [[Armagh]], [[Clonmacnoise]], [[Glendalough]], [[Abbey of Kells|Kells]], and [[Kildare]], and also plundering the ancient tombs of [[Brú na Bóinne]].<ref>Ó Cróinín, Dáibhí. ''Early Medieval Ireland 400–1200''. Taylor & Francis, 2016. p. 267</ref> Viking chief [[Thorgest]] is said to have raided the whole midlands of Ireland until he was killed by [[Máel Sechnaill mac Máele Ruanaid|Máel Sechnaill I]] in 845.

In 853, Viking leader [[Amlaíb Conung|Amlaíb]] (Olaf) became the first [[Kingdom of Dublin|king of Dublin]]. He ruled along with his brothers [[Ímar]] (possibly [[Ivar the Boneless]]) and [[Auisle]].<ref>Ó Corráin, "The Vikings in Ireland", pp. 28–29.</ref> Over the following decades, there was regular warfare between the Vikings and the Irish, and between two groups of Vikings: the [[Dubgaill and Finngaill]] (dark and fair foreigners). The Vikings also briefly allied with various Irish kings against their rivals. In 866, [[Áed Findliath]] burnt all Viking longphorts in the north, and they never managed to establish permanent settlements in that region.<ref>Ó Corráin, "The Vikings in Ireland", p. 20.</ref> The Vikings were driven from Dublin in 902.<ref>{{cite book |last=Downham |first=Clare |year=2007 |title=Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014 |publisher=[[Dunedin Academic Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-sWAQAAIAAJ |isbn=978-1-903765-89-0 |page=26 |access-date=19 May 2020 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202171918/https://books.google.com/books?id=j-sWAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

They returned in 914, now led by the [[Uí Ímair]] (House of Ivar).<ref>Ó Corráin, "The Vikings in Ireland", p. 22.</ref> During the next eight years the Vikings won decisive battles against the Irish, [[Battle of Confey|regained control]] of Dublin, and founded settlements at [[Waterford]], [[Wexford]], [[Cork (city)|Cork]], and [[Limerick]], which became Ireland's first large towns. They were important trading hubs, and Viking Dublin was the biggest slave port in western Europe.<ref>Gorski, Richard. ''Roles of the Sea in Medieval England''. Boydell Press, 2012. p. 149</ref>

These Viking territories became part of the patchwork of kingdoms in Ireland. Vikings intermarried with the Irish and adopted elements of Irish culture, becoming the [[Norse-Gaels]]. Some Viking kings of Dublin also ruled the [[kingdom of the Isles]] and [[Scandinavian York|York]]; such as [[Sitric Cáech]], [[Gofraid ua Ímair]], [[Olaf Guthfrithson]], and [[Olaf Cuaran]]. [[Sigtrygg Silkbeard]] was "a patron of the arts, a benefactor of the church, and an economic innovator" who established Ireland's first [[mint (coin)|mint]], in Dublin.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |id=25545 |title=Sihtric (Sigtryggr Óláfsson, Sigtryggr Silkiskegg) (died 1042) |first=Benjamin T. |last=Hudson}}</ref>

In {{CE|980}}, [[Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill|Máel Sechnaill Mór]] [[Battle of Tara (Ireland)|defeated]] the Dublin Vikings and forced them into submission.<ref>Downham, ''Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland'', pp. 51–52</ref> Over the following thirty years, [[Brian Boru]] subdued the Viking territories and made himself [[High King of Ireland]]. The Dublin Vikings, together with [[Kingdom of Leinster|Leinster]], twice rebelled against him, but they were defeated in the battles of [[Battle of Glenmama|Glenmama]] ({{CE|999}}) and [[Battle of Clontarf|Clontarf]] ({{CE|1014}}). After the battle of Clontarf, the Dublin Vikings could no longer "single-handedly threaten the power of the most powerful kings of Ireland".<ref>Downham, ''Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland'', p. 61</ref> Brian's rise to power and conflict with the Vikings is chronicled in ''[[Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib]]'' ("The War of the Irish with the Foreigners").

=== Scotland ===
{{Main|Scandinavian Scotland}}
While few records are known, the Vikings are thought to have led their first raids in [[Scotland]] on the holy island of [[Iona]] in 794, the year following the raid on the other holy island of [[Lindisfarne]], Northumbria.

In 839, a large Norse fleet invaded via the [[River Tay]] and [[River Earn]], both of which were highly navigable, and reached into the heart of the [[Picts|Pictish kingdom]] of [[Fortriu]]. They defeated [[Uen of the Picts|Eogán mac Óengusa]], king of the Picts, his brother Bran, and the king of the Scots of [[Dál Riata]], [[Áed mac Boanta]], along with many members of the Pictish aristocracy in battle. The sophisticated kingdom that had been built fell apart, as did the Pictish leadership, which had been stable for more than 100 years since the time of [[Óengus I of the Picts|Óengus mac Fergusa]] (The accession of [[Kenneth I of Scotland|Cináed mac Ailpín]] as king of both Picts and Scots can be attributed to the aftermath of this event).

In 870, the [[Hen Ogledd|Britons of the Old North]] around the [[Firth of Clyde]] came under Viking attack as well. The fortress atop [[Alt Clut]] ("Rock of the Clyde", the [[Brittonic languages|Brythonic]] name for [[Dumbarton Rock]], which had become the [[metonym]] for their kingdom) was besieged by the Viking kings [[Amlaíb]] and [[Ímar]]. After four months, its water supply failed, and the fortress fell. The Vikings are recorded to have transported a vast prey of British, Pictish, and English captives back to Ireland. These prisoners may have included the ruling family of Alt Clut including the king [[Arthgal ap Dyfnwal]], who was slain the following year under uncertain circumstances. The fall of Alt Clut marked a watershed in the history of the realm. Afterwards, the capital of the restructured kingdom was relocated about 12{{nbsp}}miles (20{{nbsp}}km) up the River Clyde to the vicinity of [[Govan]] and [[Partick]] (within present-day [[Glasgow]]), and became known as the [[Kingdom of Strathclyde]], which persisted as a major regional political player for another 150 years.

The land that now comprises most of the [[Scottish Lowlands]] had previously been the northernmost part of the Anglo-Saxon [[kingdom of Northumbria]], which fell apart with its Viking conquest; these lands were never regained by the Anglo-Saxons, or England. The upheaval and pressure of Viking raiding, occupation, conquest and settlement resulted in alliances among the formerly enemy peoples that comprised what would become present-day Scotland. Over the subsequent 300 years, this Viking upheaval and pressure led to the unification of the previously contending Gaelic, Pictish, British, and English kingdoms, first into the [[Kingdom of Alba]], and finally into the greater [[Kingdom of Scotland]].<ref>''The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels and Vikings'', by Tim Clarkson, Birlinn Ltd, Edinburgh, 2013."</ref> The Viking Age in Scotland came to an end after another 100 years. The last vestiges of Norse power in the Scottish seas and islands were completely relinquished after another 200 years.

==== Earldom of Orkney ====
By the mid-9th century, the Norsemen had settled in Shetland, Orkney (the Nordreys- ''[[Norðreyjar]]''), the Hebrides and Isle of Man, (the Sudreys- ''[[Kingdom of the Isles|Suðreyjar]]''—this survives in the [[Diocese of Sodor and Man]]) and parts of mainland Scotland. The Norse settlers were to some extent integrating with the local [[Gael]]ic population (see [[Norse-Gaels]]) in the Hebrides and Man. These areas were ruled over by local [[Jarl (title)|Jarls]], originally captains of ships or ''[[hersir]]s''. [[Earl of Orkney|The Jarl of Orkney]] and Shetland, however, claimed supremacy.

In 875, King Harald Fairhair led a fleet from Norway to Scotland. In his attempt to unite Norway, he found that many of those opposed to his rise to power had taken refuge in the Isles. From here, they were raiding not only foreign lands but were also attacking Norway itself. After organising a fleet, Harald was able to subdue the rebels, and in doing so brought the independent Jarls under his control, many of the rebels having fled to Iceland. He found himself ruling not only Norway, but also the Isles, Man, and parts of Scotland.

==== Kings of the Isles ====
{{Main|Kingdom of the Isles}}
In 876, the Norse-Gaels of Mann and the Hebrides rebelled against Harald. A fleet was sent against them led by [[Ketil Flatnose]] to regain control. On his success, Ketil was to rule the Sudreys as a vassal of [[Harald Fairhair|King Harald]]. His grandson, [[Thorstein the Red]], and [[Sigurd Eysteinsson|Sigurd the Mighty]], Jarl of Orkney, invaded Scotland and were able to exact tribute from nearly half the kingdom until their deaths in battle. Ketil declared himself King of the Isles. Ketil was eventually outlawed and, fearing the bounty on his head, fled to Iceland.

The Norse-Gaelic Kings of the Isles continued to act semi independently, in 973 forming a defensive pact with the Kings of Scotland and [[Kingdom of Strathclyde|Strathclyde]]. In 1095, the [[King of Mann and the Isles]] [[Godred Crovan]] was killed by [[Magnus Barelegs]], King of Norway. Magnus and King [[Edgar of Scotland]] agreed on a treaty. The islands would be controlled by Norway, but mainland territories would go to Scotland. The King of Norway nominally continued to be king of the Isles and Man. However, in 1156, The kingdom was split into two. The Western Isles and Man continued as to be called the "Kingdom of Man and the Isles", but the [[Inner Hebrides]] came under the influence of [[Somerled]], a [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] speaker, who was styled 'King of the Hebrides'. His kingdom was to develop latterly into the [[Lord of the Isles|Lordship of the Isles]].

In eastern [[Aberdeenshire]], the Danes invaded at least as far north as the area near [[Cruden Bay]].<ref>Hogan, C. Michael (2008) [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/11227/catto.html#fieldnotes "Catto Long Barrow fieldnotes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118120409/http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/11227/catto.html#fieldnotes |date=18 January 2009 }}. ''The Modern Antiquarian''</ref>

The Jarls of Orkney continued to rule much of northern Scotland until 1196, when [[Harald Maddadsson]] agreed to pay tribute to [[William the Lion]], King of Scots, for his territories on the [[mainland]].

The end of the Viking Age ''proper'' in Scotland is generally considered to be in 1266. In 1263, King Haakon IV of Norway, in retaliation for a Scots expedition to [[Skye]], arrived on the west coast with a fleet from Norway and Orkney. His fleet linked up with those of [[Magnus Olafsson|King Magnus of Man]] and [[Dubhghall mac Ruaidhri|King Dougal of the Hebrides]]. After peace talks failed, his forces met with the Scots at [[Battle of Largs|Largs]], in Ayrshire. The battle proved indecisive, but it did ensure that the Norse were not able to mount a further attack that year. Haakon died overwintering in Orkney, and by 1266, his son [[Magnus VI of Norway|Magnus the Law-Mender]] ceded the Kingdom of Man and the Isles, with all territories on mainland Scotland to Alexander III, through the [[Treaty of Perth]].

Orkney and Shetland continued to be ruled as autonomous Jarldoms under Norway until 1468, when King [[Christian I]] pledged them as security on the [[dowry]] of his daughter, who was betrothed to [[James III of Scotland]]. Although attempts were made during the 17th and 18th centuries to redeem Shetland, without success,<ref>[http://universitas.uio.no/Arkiv/1996/16okt96/norsk.htm "Norsken som døde"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724185409/http://universitas.uio.no/Arkiv/1996/16okt96/norsk.htm |date=24 July 2011 }}. ''Universitas&nbsp;– Kultur onsdag''. 9 October 1996</ref> and [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] ratifying the pawning in the [[Orkney and Shetland Act 1669]], explicitly exempting them from any "dissolution of His Majesty's lands",<ref>[http://www.udallaw.com/1669%20Act%20of%20Annexation.htm 1669 Act for annexation of Orkney and Shetland to the Crown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110518075141/http://www.udallaw.com/1669%20Act%20of%20Annexation.htm |date=18 May 2011 }}. Shetland & Orkney Udal Law group</ref> they are currently considered as being officially part of the United Kingdom.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111002065507/http://www.shetlandtourism.com/pages/history_%26_heritage.htm History and Heritage]. Shetland Tourism</ref><ref>[http://www.shetland.gov.uk/ports/ "Shetland Islands Council – Ports and Harbours"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914213156/http://www.shetland.gov.uk/ports/ |date=14 September 2010 }}. ''shetland.gov.uk''.</ref>

=== Wales ===
Incursions in Wales were decisively reversed at the [[Battle of Buttington]] in Powys, in 893, when a combined Welsh and Mercian army under [[Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians]], defeated a Danish band.

Wales was not colonised by the Vikings as heavily as eastern England. The Vikings did, however, settle in the south around [[St. David]]'s, [[Haverfordwest]], and [[Gower Peninsula|Gower]], among other places. Place names such as Skokholm, Skomer, and Swansea remain as evidence of the Norse settlement.<ref>Williams, John Garnons. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060220020051/http://www.gwp.enta.net/walhist.html Wales at the Time of the Treaty of Montgomery in 1267]. Mapping Medieval Wales. gwp.enta.net</ref> The Vikings, however, did not subdue the Welsh mountain kingdoms.

=== Iceland ===
According to the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic sagas]], Iceland was discovered by [[Naddodd]], a Viking from the Faroe Islands, after which it was settled by mostly Norwegians fleeing the oppressive rule of Harald Fairhair in {{CE|985}}. While harsh, the land allowed for a pastoral farming life familiar to the Norse. According to the saga of [[Erik the Red]], when Erik was exiled from Iceland, he sailed west and pioneered Greenland.

=== Kvenland ===
{{Main|Kvenland}}
Kvenland, known as Cwenland, Kænland, and similar terms in medieval sources, is an ancient name for an area in Scandinavia and [[Fennoscandia]]. A contemporary reference to Kvenland is provided in an [[Old English]] account written in the 9th century. It used the information provided by the Norwegian adventurer and traveller named [[Ohthere of Hålogaland|Ohthere]]. Kvenland, in that or close to that spelling, is also known from [[Nordic countries|Nordic]] sources, primarily Icelandic, but also one that was possibly written in the modern-day area of Norway.

All the remaining Nordic sources discussing Kvenland, using that or close to that spelling, date to the 12th and 13th centuries, but some of them—in part at least—are believed to be rewrites of older texts. Other references and possible references to Kvenland by other names or spellings are discussed in the main article of [[Kvenland]].

=== Estonia ===
[[File:Iru Fort, Estonia, 1924.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Iru hillfort]] in Northern [[Estonia]]]]

{{Main|Viking Age in Estonia}}

During the Viking Age, Estonia was a [[Baltic Finnic peoples|Finnic]] area divided between two major cultural regions, a coastal and an inland one, corresponding to the historical cultural and linguistic division between [[North Estonian|Northern]] and [[South Estonian|Southern Estonian]].{{sfn|Tvauri|2012|pp=321–322, 325–326}} These two areas were further divided between loosely allied regions.{{sfn|Frucht|2004}} [[Viking Age in Estonia|The Viking Age in Estonia]] is considered to be part of the Iron Age period which started around {{CE|400}} and ended {{circa}} {{CE|1200}}. Some 16th-century Swedish chronicles attribute the [[Pillage of Sigtuna]] in 1187 to Estonian raiders.<ref name="Tarvel2007" />

The society, economy, settlement and culture of the territory of what is in the present-day the country of Estonia is studied mainly through archaeological sources. The era is seen to have been a period of rapid change. The Estonian peasant culture came into existence by the end of the Viking Age. The overall understanding of the Viking Age in Estonia is deemed to be fragmentary and superficial, because of the limited amount of surviving source material. The main sources for understanding the period are remains of the farms and fortresses of the era, cemeteries and a large amount of excavated objects.{{sfn|Tvauri|2012}}

The landscape of Ancient Estonia featured numerous hillforts, some later hillforts on [[Saaremaa]] heavily fortified during the Viking Age and on to the 12th century.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} There were a number of late prehistoric or medieval harbour sites on the coast of Saaremaa, but none have been found that are large enough to be international trade centres.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} The Estonian islands also have a number of graves from the Viking Age, both individual and collective, with weapons and jewellery.{{sfn|Mägi|2015|pp=45–46}} Weapons found in Estonian Viking Age graves are common to types found throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia.{{sfn|Martens|2004|pp=132–135}}

=== Curonians ===

{{Main|Curonians}}

The Curonians<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/800/index.html |title=Euratlas Periodis Web – Map of Europe in Year 800 |website=Euratlas.net |access-date=24 November 2018 |archive-date=2 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181202231438/http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/800/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> were known as fierce warriors, excellent sailors and pirates. They were involved in several wars and alliances with [[Sweden|Swedish]], [[Denmark|Danish]], and [[Iceland]]ic [[Vikings]].<ref>Matthews, W. K. "Medieval Baltic Tribes". American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Apr. 1949), pp. 126–136.</ref>

In {{circa|750}}, according to [[Norna-Gests þáttr]] [[saga]] from {{circa|1157}}, [[Sigurd Hring]] ("ring"), a legendary king of Denmark and Sweden, fought against the invading Curonians and [[Kvenland|Kvens]] (Kvænir) in the southern part of what today is Sweden:

:''"Sigurd Ring (Sigurðr) was not there, since he had to defend his land, Sweden (Svíþjóð), since Curonians (Kúrir) and Kvænir were raiding there."''<ref>Norna-Gests þáttr, c. 1157, Níkulás Bergsson, Iceland.</ref>

Curonians are mentioned among other participants of the [[Battle of Brávellir]].

[[Grobin]] (Grobiņa) was the main centre of the Curonians during the [[Vendel Age]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/700/entity_15194.html|title=Euratlas Periodis Web – Map of Grobina in Year 700|website=Euratlas.net|access-date=24 November 2018|archive-date=6 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106133041/http://www.euratlas.net/history/europe/700/entity_15194.html|url-status=live}}</ref> From the 10th to 13th century, [[Palanga]] served as an important economical, political and cultural centre for the Curonians.<ref>Mickevičius, Artūras (2018). ''[https://www.knygos.lt/lt/knygos/vikingai-lietuvos-istorijoje/ Vikingai Lietuvos istorijoje] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805114415/https://www.knygos.lt/lt/knygos/vikingai-lietuvos-istorijoje/ |date=5 August 2023 }}'' [''Vikings in the History of Lithuania''] (in Lithuanian). Versus. ISBN 978-9955829195.</ref> Chapter 46 of [[Egils Saga]] describes one Viking expedition by the Vikings Thorolf and [[Egill Skallagrímsson]] in Courland. According to some opinions, they took part in attacking Sweden's main city [[Sigtuna]] in 1187.<ref name="Tarvel2007">[[Enn Tarvel]] (2007). [http://haridus.opleht.ee/Arhiiv/7_82007/38-41.pdf ''Sigtuna hukkumine'']. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171011191449/http://haridus.opleht.ee/Arhiiv/7_82007/38-41.pdf |date=11 October 2017}} Haridus, 2007 (7–8), p 38–41</ref> Curonians established temporary settlements near [[Riga]] and in overseas regions including eastern [[Sweden]] and the islands of [[Gotland]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nikitenka |first1=Denisas |title=Pilsoto žemės pilys |publisher=Mažosios Lietuvos istorijos muziejus |date=2018 |isbn=978-9986315056 |language=LT}}</ref> and [[Bornholm]].

Scandinavian settlements existed along the southeastern Baltic coast in [[Truso]] and [[Mokhovoye, Kaliningrad Oblast|Kaup]] ([[Prussia (region)|Old Prussia]]), [[Palanga]]<ref>Butrimas, Adomas. [https://etalpykla.lituanistika.lt/object/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2003~1593455293623/J.04~2003~1593455293623.pdf ''Lietuva iki Mindaugo''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806103215/https://etalpykla.lituanistika.lt/object/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2003~1593455293623/J.04~2003~1593455293623.pdf |date=6 August 2023 }} [''Lithuania Before Mindaugas''] (in Lithuanian). 2003, p. 136. [[:lt:Specialus:Knygų šaltiniai/9986571898|ISBN 9986571898]].</ref> ([[Samogitia]], Lithuania) as well as Grobin ([[Courland]], Latvia).

== Eastern Europe ==
The [[Varangians]] or ''Varyagi'' were Scandinavians, often Swedes, who migrated eastwards and southwards through what is now Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine, mainly in the 9th and 10th centuries. Engaging in [[trade]], [[piracy]], and [[mercenary]] activities, they roamed the river systems and portages of ''[[Gardariki]]'', reaching the Caspian Sea and Constantinople.<ref>[[Carl L. Thunberg|Thunberg, Carl L.]] (2011). ''Särkland och dess källmaterial'' [''Serkland and its Source Material'']. Göteborgs universitet. {{ISBN|978-91-637-5727-3}}.</ref>
Contemporary English publications also use the name "[[Viking]]" for early Varangians in some contexts.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057004/Oleg |title=Oleg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011214926/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9057004/Oleg |archive-date=11 October 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064445/Rurik |title=Rurik |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930012920/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064445/Rurik |archive-date=30 September 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The term ''Varangian'' remained in usage in the Byzantine Empire until the 13th century, largely disconnected from its Scandinavian roots by then. Having settled [[Aldeigja]] (Ladoga) in the 750s, Scandinavian colonists were probably an element in the early ethnogenesis of the [[Rus' people]], and likely played a role in the formation of the [[Rus' Khaganate]].<ref>[http://natmus.dk/en/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/expeditions-and-raids/land-of-the-rus-viking-expeditions-to-the-east/ Land of the Rus – Viking expeditions to the east] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228152434/http://natmus.dk/en/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/expeditions-and-raids/land-of-the-rus-viking-expeditions-to-the-east/ |date=28 February 2014 }} National Museum of Denmark</ref><ref>[http://natmus.dk/en/historisk-viden/danmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/expeditions-and-raids/dangerous-journeys-to-eastern-europe-and-russia/ Dangerous journeys to Eastern Europe and Russia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140228145322/http://natmus.dk/en/historisk-viden/danmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/expeditions-and-raids/dangerous-journeys-to-eastern-europe-and-russia/ |date=28 February 2014 }} National Museum of Denmark</ref> The Varangians are first mentioned by the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' as having exacted tribute from the Slavic and Finnic tribes in {{CE|859}}.<ref name="Noonan2001">{{cite book |last1=Noonan |first1=Thomas S. |editor1-last=Sawyer |editor1-first=P.H. |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-285434-6 |page=138 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJqf8e1vHFgC&pg=PA138 |chapter=Scandinavians in European Russia}}</ref> It was the time of rapid expansion of the Vikings in Northern Europe; England began to pay [[Danegeld]] in {{CE|859}}, and the [[Curonian people|Curonians]] of [[Grobin]] faced an invasion by the Swedes at about the same date.

[[File:Bildsten med skepp 800-1099 Tjängvide, Gotland.jpg|thumb|[[Longship]] on [[Tjängvide image stone]], [[Sweden]] {{CE|800–1099}}.]]
The text of the Primary Chronicle says that in 860–862, the Finnic and Slavic tribes rebelled against the Varangian Rus', driving them  back to Scandinavia, but soon started to conflict with each other. The disorder prompted the tribes to invite back the Varangian Rus' to "Come and rule and reign over us" and bring peace to the region. This was a somewhat bilateral relation with the Varangians defending the cities that they ruled. Led by [[Rurik]] and his brothers [[Truvor and Sineus]], the Varangians settled around the town of [[Veliky_Novgorod#Early_developments|Novgorod]] (Holmgarðr).<ref name="Mägi2018 p. 206">{{cite book |last1=Mägi |first1=Marika |title=In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea |year=2018 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-36381-6 |pages=206–207|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA207}}</ref>

In the 9th century, the Rus' operated the [[Volga trade route]], which connected northern Russia (''Gardariki'') with the Middle East (''[[Serkland]]''). As the Volga route declined by the end of the century, the [[trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks]] rapidly overtook it in popularity. Apart from Ladoga and Novgorod, [[Gnezdovo]] and [[Gotland]] were major centres for Varangian trade.<ref name="Bjerg et al 2013">{{cite book |last1=Bjerg |first1=Line |last2=Lind |first2=John H. |last3=Sindbæk |first3=Søren Michael |editor1-last=Bjerg |editor1-first=Line |editor2-last=Lind |editor2-first=John H. |editor3-last=Sindbæk |editor3-first=Søren Michael |title=From Goths to Varangians: Communication and Cultural Exchange between the Baltic and the Black Sea |year=2013 |publisher=Aarhus Universitetsforlag |isbn=978-87-7124-425-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sNYKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |pages=7–8}}</ref><ref>A massive majority (40,000) of all Viking Age Arabian coins found in Scandinavia were found in Gotland. In Skåne, Öland and Uppland together, about 12,000 coins were found. Other Scandinavian areas have only scattered finds: 1,000 from Denmark and some 500 from Norway. [[Byzantine]] coins have been found almost exclusively in Gotland, some 400.<br />See: {{cite book |last=Burenhult |first=Göran |date=1999 |title=Arkeologi i Norden 2 |trans-title=Archeology in the Nordic countries, part 2 |language=sv |location=Stockholm |publisher=[[Natur & Kultur]] |isbn=978-91-27-13478-2}}<br />See also: {{cite book |last=Gardell |first=Carl Johan |date=1987 |title=Gotlands historia i fickformat |publisher=Immenco |trans-title=The pocket history of Gotland |language=sv |isbn=978-91-7810-885-5}}</ref>

The consensus among western scholars, disputed by some Russian scholars, who believe them to be a Slavic tribe,<ref name="Białobłocki2009">{{cite web |last1=Białobłocki |first1=Tomasz |title=The research on the origin of Russians and Ukrainians as the indicator of politicization of Russian national minority in Ukraine |url=http://jcee.wsgk.com.pl/wp-content/uploads/archive_2018/Bia%C5%82ob%C5%82ocki%20T.%2010-2018.pdf |date=2018 |publisher=Wyższej Szkoły Gospodarki Krajowej w Kutnie (University of National Economy in Kutno) |access-date=5 August 2024 |pages=85–86}}</ref> is that the [[Rus' people]] originated in what is currently coastal [[East Middle Sweden|eastern Sweden]] around the 8th century, and that their name has the same origin as that of [[Roslagen]] in [[Sweden]].<ref>[[Carl L. Thunberg|Thunberg, Carl L.]] (2012). ''Att tolka Svitjod'' [''To interpret Svitjod'']. Göteborgs universitet. {{ISBN|978-91-981859-4-2}}.</ref> The maritime districts of East Götland and Uppland were known in earlier times as Roþer or Roþin, and later as Roslagen.<ref name="Blöndal2007">{{cite book |last1=Blöndal |first1=Sigfús |title=The Varangians of Byzantium |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-03552-1 |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFRug14ui7gC&pg=PA1}}</ref> According to [[Thorsten Andersson]], the Russian folk name ''Rus''' ultimately derives from the noun roþer ('rowing'), a word also used in naval campaigns in the leþunger (Old Norse: [[Leidang|''leiðangr'']]) system of organizing a coastal fleet. The [[Old Swedish]] place name Roþrin, in the older iteration ''Roþer'', contains the word ''roþer'' and is still used in the form of [[Roden, Sweden|Roden]] as a historical name for the coastal areas of [[Svealand]]. In modern times the name still exists as Roslagen, the name of the coastal area of [[Uppland]] province.<ref name="Andersson2007">{{cite journal |last1=Andersson |first1=Thorsten |title=Rus' und Wikinger |journal=Arkiv för nordisk filologi |date=2007 |volume=122 |pages=5–9 |url=https://journals.lub.lu.se/anf/article/view/11758/10446 |language=de |issn=0066-7668}}</ref> According to Stefan Brink, the name ''Rus''{{'}} derives from the words ''ro'' (row) and ''rodd'' (a rowing session).<ref name="Brink2008 p. 7">{{cite book|author1-last=Brink|author1-first=Stefan |editor1-last=Brink |editor1-first=Stefan |editor2-last=Price|editor2-first=Neil |title=The Viking World|chapter=Who were the Vikings? |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuN-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-020341277-0|page=7}}</ref>

The term "Varangian" became more common from the 11th century onwards.<ref name="Jakobsson2020">{{cite book |last1=Jakobsson |first1=Sverrir |title=The Varangians: In God's Holy Fire |year=2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-53797-5 |page=73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ji0DEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA73}}</ref> In these years, [[Swedish people|Swedish]] men left to enlist in the Byzantine [[Varangian Guard]] in such numbers that a medieval Swedish law, [[Västgötalagen]], used in the province [[Västergötland]], declared that no one could inherit while staying in "Greece"—the then Scandinavian term for the [[Byzantine Empire]]—to stop the emigration,{{sfn|Jansson|1980|p=22}} especially as two other European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians:{{sfn|Pritsak|1981|p=386}} [[Kievan Rus']] {{circa|980–1060}} and [[London]] 1018–1066 (the [[Þingalið]]).{{sfn|Pritsak|1981|p=386}}

In contrast to the notable Scandinavian influence in Normandy and the British Isles, Varangian culture did not survive to a great extent in the East. Instead, the Varangian ruling classes of the two powerful city-states of [[Novgorod Republic|Novgorod]] and Kiev were thoroughly [[Slavicised]] by the beginning of the 11th century. Some evidence suggests that Old Norse may have been spoken amongst the Rus' later, however. [[Old East Norse]] was probably still spoken in [[Kievan Rus']] at Novgorod until the 13th century, according to the ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (Swedish National Encyclopedia).<ref name="Nationalencyklopedin">{{citation| title = Nordiska språk| at = § ''Historia'', §§ ''Omkring 800–1100''| work = [[Nationalencyklopedin]]| language = sv | year = 1994}}</ref>

== Central Europe ==
{{further|Pomerania during the Early Middle Ages}}
[[File:WalMenz.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Stone ship]]s at [[Altes Lager Menzlin]]]]

Viking Age Scandinavian settlements were set up along the southern coast of the [[Baltic Sea]], primarily for trade purposes. Their emergence appears to coincide with the settlement and consolidation of the coastal Slavic tribes in the respective areas.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=17}} The archaeological record indicates that substantial cultural exchange between Scandinavian and Slavic traditions and technologies occurred.<ref name="Jöns & Kowalska 2020">{{cite book |last1=Jöns |first1=Hauke |last2=Kowalska |first2=Anna |editor1-last=Aannestad |editor1-first=Hanne Lovise |editor2-last=Pedersen |editor2-first=Unn |editor3-last=Moen |editor3-first=Marianne |editor4-last=Naumann |editor4-first=Elise |editor5-last=Berg |editor5-first=Heidi Lund |title=Vikings Across Boundaries: Viking-Age Transformations – Volume II |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-20470-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sg8HEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA43 |chapter=Scandinavians on the Southern Baltic Coast |page=43}}</ref> It is known that Slavic and Scandinavian craftsmen had different processes in crafts and productions. In the lagoons and delta of the eastern and southern Baltic there is evidence of Slavic boatbuilding practices somewhat divergent from the Viking tradition, and of a fusion of the two in a shipyard site from the Viking Age on the island of Falster in Denmark.<ref name="Hinkkanen & Kirby 2013">{{cite book |last1=Hinkkanen |first1=Merja-Liisa |last2=Kirby |first2=David |title=The Baltic and the North Seas |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-16954-0 |page=88 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bm9c02nBqOcC&pg=PA88 |chapter=Boats and Ships}}</ref>

Slavic-Scandinavian settlements on the [[Mecklenburg]]ian coast include the maritime trading center [[Reric]] ([[Groß Strömkendorf]]) on the eastern coast of [[Wismar Bay]],{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} and the multi-ethnic trade emporium [[Dierkow]] (near [[Rostock]]).{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Reric was set up around the year 700,{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} but following later warfare between [[Obodrites]] and [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Danes]], the inhabitants, who were subject to the Danish king, were resettled to [[Haithabu]] by him.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Dierkow apparently belongs to the late 8th to the early 9th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=15}}

Scandinavian settlements on the [[Pomerania]]n coast include [[Wolin (town)|Wolin]] (on the isle of [[Wolin]]), [[Ralswiek]] (on the isle of [[Rügen]]), [[Altes Lager Menzlin]] (on the lower [[Peene]] river),<ref name="Herrmann, pp.237ff,244ff">Herrmann, Joachim (1985) ''Die Slawen in Deutschland''. Akademie-Verlag Berlin. pp. 237ff, 244ff</ref> and [[Bardy-Świelubie]] near modern [[Kołobrzeg]].{{sfn|Kempke|2001|pp=15–16}} Menzlin was set up in the mid-8th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=12}} Wolin and Ralswiek began to prosper in the course of the 9th century.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} A merchants' settlement has also been suggested near [[Cape Arkona|Arkona]], but no archeological evidence supports this theory.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=13}} Menzlin and Bardy-Świelubie were vacated in the late 9th century,{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=16}} Ralswiek survived into the new millennium, but by the time written chronicles reported news of the island of Rügen in the 12th century, it had lost all its importance.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}} Wolin, thought to be identical with the legendary [[Vineta]] and the semilegendary [[Jomsborg]],<ref name="Lübke2022">{{cite book |last1=Lübke |first1=Christian |author1-link=Christian Lübke |editor1-last=Raffensperger |editor1-first=Christian |title=Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe |year=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-54834-1 |page=260 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-RXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT260 |chapter=Adam of Bremen's View at the Polabian Slavs}}</ref> base of the [[Jomsvikings]], was destroyed in 1043 by Dano-Norwegian king [[Magnus the Good]],<ref name="Chartrand et al">{{cite book |last1=Chartrand |first1=René |last2=Durham |first2=Keith |last3=Harrison |first3=Mark |last4=Heath |first4=Ian |title=The Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4728-1322-0 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mxizDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA51}}</ref> according to the ''[[Heimskringla]]''.<ref name="Sturlason2011">{{cite book |last1=Sturlason |first1=Snorre |title=Heimskringla – The Norse King Sagas |year=2011 |publisher=Read Books Ltd |isbn=978-1-4465-4805-9 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dFZ8CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT153}}</ref> Castle building by the Slavs seems to have reached a high level on the southern Baltic coast in the 8th and 9th centuries, possibly explained by a threat coming from the sea or from the trade emporiums, as Scandinavian arrowheads found in the area indicate advances penetrating as far as the lake chains in the Mecklenburgian and Pomeranian hinterlands.{{sfn|Kempke|2001|p=18}}

{{Baltic emporia}}

== Western Europe ==
=== Frisia ===
{{main|Viking raids in the Rhineland}}

Frisia was a region which spanned from around modern-day Bruges to the islands on the west coast of Jutland—including large parts of the [[Low Countries]]. This region was progressively brought under Frankish control ([[Frisian-Frankish wars]]), but the [[Christianization]] of the local population and cultural assimilation was a slow process. However, several Frisian towns, most notably [[Dorestad]] were raided by Vikings. [[Rorik of Dorestad]] was a famous Viking raider in Frisia. On [[Wieringen]] the Vikings most likely had a base of operations. Viking leaders took an active role in Frisian politics, such as [[Godfrid, Duke of Frisia]], as well as Rorik.

=== France ===
{{See also|Siege of Paris (845)|Siege of Paris (885–886)|Viking incursions into Gascony|History of Normandy}}

The French region of Normandy takes its name from the Viking invaders who were called ''Normanni'', which means 'men of the North'.

The first Viking raids began between 790 and 800 along the coasts of western France. They were carried out primarily in the summer, as the Vikings wintered in Scandinavia. Several coastal areas were lost to [[Francia]] during the reign of [[Louis the Pious]] (814–840). But the Vikings took advantage of the quarrels in the royal family caused after the death of Louis the Pious to settle their first colony in the south-west ([[Gascony]]) of the kingdom of Francia, which was more or less abandoned by the Frankish kings after their two defeats at [[Roncevaux]]. The incursions in {{CE|841}} caused severe damage to [[Rouen]] and [[Jumièges]]. The Viking attackers sought to capture the treasures stored at [[Monastery|monasteries]], easy prey given the monks' lack of defensive capacity. In {{CE|845}} an expedition up the Seine reached [[Paris]]. The presence of [[French denier|Carolingian ''deniers'']] of {{circa|847}}, found in 1871 among a hoard at Mullaghboden, County Limerick, where coins were neither minted nor normally used in trade, probably represents booty from the raids of 843–846.{{sfn|Hall|2010|p=17}}

However, from 885 to 886, [[Odo of France|Odo of Paris]] (Eudes de Paris) [[Siege of Paris (885–886)|succeeded in defending Paris]] against Viking raiders.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mark |first1=Joshua J. |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Odo_of_West_Francia/|title=Odo of West Francia|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|date=27 November 2018 |access-date=23 April 2021|archive-date=16 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416200224/https://www.worldhistory.org/Odo_of_West_Francia/|url-status=live}}</ref> His military success allowed him to replace the Carolingians.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/news/globetrotting-vikings-to-the-gates-of-paris |title=Globetrotting Vikings: To the Gates of Paris |website=History Channel |date=4 September 2018 |access-date=29 February 2020 |archive-date=20 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620164201/https://www.history.com/news/globetrotting-vikings-to-the-gates-of-paris |url-status=live }}</ref> In 911, a band of Viking warriors attempted to siege Chartres but was defeated by [[Robert I of France]]. Robert's victory later paved way for the baptism, and settlement in Normandy, of Viking leader Rollo.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-I-king-of-France|title=Robert I of France|website=Encyclopaedia Britannica|access-date=29 February 2020|archive-date=20 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620160754/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-I-king-of-France|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Rollo]] reached an agreement with Charles the Simple to sign the [[Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte]], under which Charles gave Rouen and the area of present-day [[Upper Normandy]] to Rollo, establishing the [[Duchy of Normandy]]. In exchange, Rollo pledged vassalage to Charles in 940, agreed to be [[baptism|baptised]], and vowed to guard the [[estuaries]] of the Seine from further Viking attacks. During Rollo's baptism Robert I of France stood as his godfather.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-I-king-of-France|title=Robert 1 of France|website=Britannica Encyclopaedia|access-date=29 February 2020|archive-date=20 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200620160754/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-I-king-of-France|url-status=live}}</ref> The Duchy of Normandy also annexed further areas in Northern France, expanding the territory which was originally negotiated.

The Scandinavian expansion included Danish and Norwegian as well as Swedish elements, all under the leadership of [[Rollo]]. By the end of the reign of [[Richard I of Normandy]] in 996 (aka Richard the Fearless / Richard sans Peur), all descendants of Vikings became, according to Cambridge Medieval History (Volume 5, Chapter XV), 'not only Christians but in all essentials Frenchmen'.<ref>{{Cite book |first1=J.R. |last1=Tanner |first2=C.W. |last2=Previte-Orton |first3=Z.N. |last3=Brook |title=Cambridge Medieval History (Volume 5, Chapter XV). |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=inXIHJ2zOIUC&q=%22not+only+Christians+but+in+all+essentials+Frenchmen%22&pg=PT2234 |access-date=22 November 2020 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200708/https://books.google.com/books?id=inXIHJ2zOIUC&q=%22not+only+Christians+but+in+all+essentials+Frenchmen%22&pg=PT2234#v=snippet&q=%22not%20only%20Christians%20but%20in%20all%20essentials%20Frenchmen%22&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> During the Middle Ages, the Normans created one of the most powerful [[feudal states]] of [[Western Europe]]. The Normans [[Norman conquest of England|conquered England]] and [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|southern Italy]] in 11th century, and played a key role in the [[Crusades]].

== Southern Europe ==

=== Italy ===
In 959, a major long-distance Viking expedition, under the command of two famed Vikings, [[Björn Ironside]] and [[Hásteinn]], set out for Spain from their base on the Loire with the objective of sacking the city of Rome. They tried to land at Galicia and were driven off. Then they sailed down the west coast of the peninsula and burned the mosque at Seville, but were repelled by a large Muslim force there before entering the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar and burning the mosque at Algeciras, following which they headed south to Nekor on the coast of Morocco, plundered the city and defeated a Muslim force that attempted to stop them.<ref name="Price2008">{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=Neil |editor1-last=Brink |editor1-first=Stefan |editor2-last=Price |editor2-first=Neil |title=The Viking World |year=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-31826-1 |pages=465–466 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuN-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA465 |chapter=Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean}}</ref><ref name="Logan2013">{{cite book |last1=Logan |first1=F. Donald |title=The Vikings in History |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-52716-6 |page=110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_TD-AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA110}}</ref>

According to an account by the Norman monk [[Dudo of Saint-Quentin]], a Viking fleet under Björn Ironside and Hásteinn landed at the Ligurian port of [[Luni, Italy|Luni]] and sacked the city. The Vikings then moved another 60 miles down the Tuscan coast to the mouth of the [[Arno]], sacking [[Pisa]] and then, following the river upstream, also the hill-town of [[Fiesole]] above [[Florence]].<ref name="Haywood2016">{{cite book |last1=Haywood |first1=John |title=Northmen: The Viking Saga, 793–1241 AD |year=2016 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-250-10615-5 |pages=138–139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Og2zCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT138}}</ref><ref name="Logan2013"/>

Many Anglo-Danish and Varangian mercenaries fought in Southern Italy, including [[Harald III of Norway|Harald Hardrada]] and [[William Iron Arm|William de Hauteville]] who conquered parts of Sicily between 1038 and 1040,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carr |first1=John |title=Fighting Emperors of Byzantium |date=30 April 2015 |publisher=Pen and Sword |page=177}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hill |first1=Paul |title=The Norman Commanders: Masters of Warfare 911–1135 |date=2015 |publisher=Pen and Sword |page=18}}</ref> and [[Edgar the Ætheling]] who fought in the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy]].<ref name="Florence of Worcester">''Anglo-Saxon Chronicles'', p. 217; Florence of Worcester, p. 145</ref> [[Italy runestones|Runestones]] were raised in Sweden in memory of warriors who died in Langbarðaland ([[Langobardia Minor|Land of the Lombards]]), the Old Norse name for southern Italy.<ref>[http://www.lansmuseum.a.se/runriket/taby.html ''2. Runriket – Täby Kyrka''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080604203505/http://www.lansmuseum.a.se/runriket/taby.html |date=4 June 2008 }}, an online article at Stockholm County Museum, retrieved 1 July 2007.</ref>

Several Anglo-Danish and Norwegian nobles participated in the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy]], like [[Edgar the Ætheling]], who left England in 1086,<ref name="Florence of Worcester"/> and Jarl [[Erling Skakke]], who won his nickname ''("Skakke", meaning bent head)'' after a battle against Arabs in Sicily.<ref>Orkneyinga Saga, Anderson, Joseph, (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1873), FHL microfilm 253063, pp. 134, 139, 144–145, 149–151, 163, 193.</ref> On the other hand, many Anglo-Danish rebels fleeing [[William the Conqueror]], joined the Byzantines in their struggle against the [[Robert Guiscard]], [[duke of Apulia]], in Southern Italy.<ref>Translation based on Chibnall (ed.), ''Ecclesiastical History'', vol. ii, pp. 203, 205</ref>

=== Spain ===
{{further|Vikings in Iberia}}
[[File:Catoira 060905 033.JPG|thumb|upright|Statue in [[Catoira]], [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], commemorating the Viking invasions]]

After 842, the Vikings set up a permanent base at the mouth of the river [[Loire]] from whence they could strike as far as northern Spain.{{sfn|Forte|Oram|Pedersen|2005|p=60}} These Vikings were Hispanicised in all the Christian kingdoms, while they kept their ethnic identity and culture in [[al-Andalus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rodin.uca.es:8081/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/7881/18385953.pdf?sequence=1 |title=Los vikingos en Al-Andalus (abstract available in English) |publisher=Jesús Riosalido |year=1997 |access-date=11 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718171837/http://rodin.uca.es:8081/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/7881/18385953.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=18 July 2011 }}</ref>

The southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, both sides of the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], and much of the Iberian peninsula were under Muslim rule when Vikings first entered the Mediterranean in the 9th century. The Vikings launched their campaigns from their strongholds in [[Francia]] into this realm of Muslim influence; following the coastline of the [[Kingdom of Asturias]] they sailed through the Gibraltar strait (known to them as ''Nǫrvasund'', the 'Narrow Sound') into what they called ''Miðjarðarhaf'', literally 'Middle of the earth' sea,<ref name="Price2023">{{cite journal |last1=Price |first1=Neil |editor1-last=Price |editor1-first=Neil |editor2-last=Eriksen |editor2-first=Marianne Hem |editor3-last=Jahnke |editor3-first=Carsten |title=From Nǫrvasund to Grikkland: The Vikings in the Middle Sea |journal=Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens |volume=14 |page=11 |url=https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3131290/Vikings%20in%20the%20Mediterranean.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}}</ref> with the same meaning as the [[Late Latin]] ''Mare Mediterrāneum''.<ref name="Seirinidou2017">{{cite book |last1=Seirinidou |first1=Vaso |editor1-last=Mishkova |editor1-first=Diana |editor2-last=Trencsényi |editor2-first=Balázs |title=European Regions and Boundaries: A Conceptual History |year=2017 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78533-585-3 |page=80 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c53vDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |chapter=The Mediterranean}}</ref>

The first Viking attacks in al-Andalus in 844 CE greatly affected the region.<ref name="Fabricius1882">{{cite book |last1=Fabricius |first1=Adam |title=Forbindelserne mellem Norden og den spanske halvø i ældre tider |year=1882 |publisher=G. E. C. Gad |page=36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDYLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA36 |language=da |quote=Denne begivenhed fandt sted i året 230 (der begyndte den 18de septbr. 844), og Andalus blev befriet fra deres ødelæggelser. Abdurrahman besøgte selv de steder, hvor de vare trængte ind, oprettede skaden, de havde gjort, og ved at forstærke besætningerne sikrede han egnen mod fremtidige indfald af disse barbarer." English: This event took place in the year 230 (which began on 18 September 844), and Andalusia was freed from their ravages. Abdurrahman himself visited the places they had invaded, surveyed the damage they had caused, and, by reinforcing the garrisons, secured the region against future incursions by these barbarians.}}</ref> Medieval texts such as the ''Chronicon albeldense'' and the ''[[Annales Bertiniani]]'' tell of a Viking fleet that left [[Toulouse]] and made raids in Asturias and Galicia. According to the ''[[Historia silense]]'' it had 60 ships. Being repulsed in Galicia (''Ghilīsīa''), the fleet sailed southward around the peninsula, raiding coastal towns along the way.<ref name="García-Losquiño2023">{{cite journal |last1=García Losquiño |first1=Irene |editor1-last=Price |editor1-first=Neil |editor2-last=Eriksen |editor2-first=Marianne Hem |editor3-last=Jahnke |editor3-first=Carsten |title=Responses to Viking threat: Building defences, population displacement, and folklore development {{!}} Responses to the attack on Seville, AD 844 |journal=Papers and Monographs from the Norwegian Institute at Athens |date=2019 |volume=14 |pages=67–70 |url=https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3131290/Vikings%20in%20the%20Mediterranean.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}}</ref>

In Irene García Losquiño's telling, these Vikings navigated their boats up the river [[Guadalquivir]] towards ''Išbīliya'' ([[History of Seville#Muslim al-Andalus|Seville]]) and destroyed ''Qawra'' (Coria del Río), a small town about 15&nbsp;km south of the city. Then they took ''Išbīliya'', from which they controlled the region for several weeks.<ref name="García-Losquiño2023"/> Their attack on the city forced its inhabitants to flee to ''[[History of Carmona, Spain#Muslim Qarmūnâ|Qarmūnâ]]'' (Carmona), a fortified city. The [[Emirate of Córdoba|Emirate of Qurṭuba]] made great exertions to recover ''Išbīliya'', and succeeded with the assistance of ''Qurṭuba'' ([[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]]) and the [[Banu Qasi]], who ruled over a semi-autonomous state in the [[Upper March]] of the [[Ebro Valley]].<ref name="Kennedy2014">{{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Hugh |title=Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-87041-8 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFfJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA58}}</ref> Consequently, defensive walls were built at ''Išbīliya'', and the emir [[Abd ar-Rahman II|Abd al-Raḥmān II]] invested in the construction of a large fleet of ships to protect the entrance of the Guadalquivir and the coast of southern al-Andalus, after which Viking fleets had difficulties battling the Andalusī armada.<ref name="García-Losquiño2023"/>

[[Gwyn Jones (author)|Gwyn Jones]] writes that this Viking raid had occurred on 1 October 844, when most of the Iberian peninsula was controlled by the emirate. His account says a [[flotilla]] of about 80 Viking ships, after attacking Asturias, Galicia and Lisbon, had ascended the Guadalquivir to ''Išbīliya'', and [[Viking raid on Seville (844)|besieged it for seven days]], inflicting many casualties and taking numerous hostages with the intent to ransom them. Another group of Vikings had gone to ''Qādis'' ([[Cádiz]]) to plunder while those in ''Išbīliya'' waited on ''Qubtil'' (''Isla Menor''), an island in the river, for the ransom money to arrive.<ref name="Jones2001">{{cite book|author=Gwyn Jones|title=A History of the Vikings|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofvikings00jone_0|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-019280134-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofvikings00jone_0/page/214 214]}}</ref> Meantime, the emir of Qurṭuba, [[Abd ar-Rahman II]], prepared a military contingent to meet them, and on 11 November a pitched battle ensued on the grounds of ''Talayata'' (Tablada).<ref name="Dreyer1996">{{cite journal|last=Dreyer (Firm)|journal=The Norseman|title=Norsk jul i bokform|date=November 1996|volume=36|issue=6|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivBhAAAAIAAJ|access-date=5 January 2014|publisher=Nordmanns-forbundet}}</ref> The Vikings held their ground, but the results were catastrophic for the invaders, who suffered a thousand casualties; four hundred were captured and executed, some thirty ships were destroyed.<ref name="BrinkPrice2008 p. 464">{{cite book|author1=Stefan Brink|author2=Neil Price|title=The Viking World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wuN-AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA464|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-020341277-0|page=464}}</ref> It was not a total victory for the emir's forces, but the Viking survivors had to negotiate a peace to leave the area, surrendering their plunder and the hostages they had taken to sell as slaves, in exchange for food and clothing. According to the Arabist [[Évariste Lévi-Provençal|Lévi-Provençal]], over time, the few Norse survivors converted to Islam and settled as farmers in the area of ''Qawra'', ''Qarmūnâ'', and ''[[Morón de la Frontera|Moron]]'', where they engaged in animal husbandry and made dairy products (reputedly the origin of Sevillian cheese).<ref name="Lévi-Provençal1950">{{cite book |last1=Lévi-Provençal |first1=Evariste |title=Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane |date=1950 |publisher=G. P. Maisonneuve |page=224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OrgJAQAAIAAJ |language=fr}}</ref><ref name="al-Qūṭīyah2009">{{cite book|author=Muḥammad ibn ʻUmar Ibn al-Qūṭīyah|title=Early Islamic Spain: The History of Ibn Al-Qūṭīya : a Study of the Unique Arabic Manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a Translation, Notes, and Comments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CrA2CaUZGAC&pg=PA127|year=2009|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0415475525|page=127}}</ref> Knutson and Caitlin write that Lévi-Provençal offered no sources for the proposition of conversion to Islam by northern Europeans in al-Andalus and thus it "remains unsubstantiated".<ref name="KnutsonEllis2021">{{cite journal |last1=Knutson |first1=Sara Ann |last2=Ellis |first2=Caitlin |title='Conversion' to Islam in Early Medieval Europe: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on Arab and Northern Eurasian Interactions |journal=Religions |date=16 July 2021 |volume=12 |issue=7 |page=551 |doi=10.3390/rel12070544 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

By the year 859 a large Viking force again invaded al-Andalus, beginning a campaign along the coast of the Iberian Peninsula with smaller groups that assaulted various locations. They attacked Išbīliya (Seville), but were driven off and they returned down the Guadalquivir to the Strait of Gibraltar. The Vikings then sailed round Cape Gata and followed the coastline to the [[Kura (al-Andalus)#Kūra of Tudmir|''Kūra'' (cora) of Tudmir]], raiding various settlements, as mentioned by the 10th-century historian [[Ibn Hayyan|Ibn Hayyān]]. They finally ventured inland, entering the mouth of the river Segura and sailing towards ''ḥiṣn Ūriyūla'' ([[Orihuela]]), whose inhabitants had fled. The assailants sacked this important town, and according to the Arab sources, they attacked the fortress and burnt it to the ground. There is only brief mention in the historical record of this Viking army's attacks on south-eastern al-Andalus, including at ''al-Jazīra al-Khadrā'' ([[Algeciras]]), ''Ūriyūla'', and the ''Juzur al-Balyār'' (جزُر البليار) ([[Balearic Islands]]).<ref name="García-Losquiño2023"/>

Ibn Hayyān wrote about the Viking campaign of 859–861 in al-Andalus, perhaps relying on the account given by  Muslim historian [[Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Musa al-Razi|Aḥmad al-Rāzī]], who tells of a Viking fleet of sixty-two ships that sailed up to Išbīliya and occupied ''al-Jazīra al-Khadrā''. The Muslims seized two of their ships, laden with goods and coins, off the coast of ''Shidūnah'' ([[Medina-Sidonia|Sidonia]]). The ships were destroyed and their Viking crews killed. The remaining vessels continued up the Atlantic coast and landed near ([[Pamplona|Pampeluna]]), called ''Banbalūna'' in Arabic,<ref name="Lévi-Provençal1936">{{cite book |last1=Lévi-Provençal |first1=Évariste |title=in Encyclopaedia of Islam First Edition |year=1913–1936 |chapter-url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EI1O/SIM-3594.xml |chapter=Pampeluna|doi=10.1163/2214-871X_ei1_SIM_3594}}</ref> where they took their emir Gharsīa ibn Wanaqu ([[García Íñiguez|García Iñiquez]]) prisoner until in 861 he was ransomed for 70,000 [[Dinar#History|dinar]]s.<ref name="Christys2015">{{cite book |last1=Christys |first1=Ann |title=Vikings in the South: Voyages to Iberia and the Mediterranean |year=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4742-1377-6 |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tXfuBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT71}}</ref>

According to the ''Annales Bertiniani'', Danish Vikings embarked on a long voyage in 859, sailing eastward through the Strait of Gibraltar then up the river [[Rhône]], where they raided monasteries and towns and established a base in the [[Camargue]].<ref name="Aguirre2113">{{cite journal |last1=Aguirre |first1=Víctor Emanuel |title=The Viking Expeditions to Spain During the 9th Century |journal=Mindre Skrifter |date=2013 |volume=30 |issue=30 |url=https://www.sdu.dk/-/media/files/om_sdu/institutter/iks/arkiv/ihks/projekter/middelalderstudier/viking+expeditions.pdf |publisher=Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Southern Denmark |page=11}}</ref> Afterwards they raided [[Emirate of Nekor|Nakūr]] in what is now Morocco, kidnapped women of the royal family, and returned them when the emir of Córdoba paid their ransoms.<ref name="Nelson2001">{{cite book |last1=Nelson |first1=Jinty |editor1-last=Sawyer |editor1-first=P.H. |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter=Franks Divided, Vikings Ascendant |isbn=978-0-19-285434-6 |page=29 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJqf8e1vHFgC&pg=PA29}}</ref>

The Vikings made several incursions in the years 859, 966 and 971, with intentions more diplomatic than bellicose, although an invasion in 971 was repelled when the Viking fleet was totally annihilated.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Riosalido |first=Jesús |title=Los vikingos en al-Andalus |journal=Al-Andalus Magreb |year=1997 |volume=5 |pages=335–344 |url=http://rodin.uca.es:8081/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/7881/18385953.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=11 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718171837/http://rodin.uca.es:8081/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/7881/18385953.pdf?sequence=1 |archive-date=18 July 2011 }}</ref> Vikings attacked Talayata again in 889 at the instigation of Kurayb ibn Khaldun of Išbīliya. In 1015, a Viking fleet entered the [[Minho River|river Minho]] and sacked the episcopal city of [[Tui, Pontevedra|Tui]] Galicia; no new bishop was appointed until 1070.<ref>[[Richard A. Fletcher|Fletcher, Richard A.]] (1997) ''The conversion of Europe: from paganism to Christianity 371–1386 AD''. HarperCollins. {{ISBN|0-00-255203-5}}. p. 370</ref>

=== Portugal ===
In 844, a fleet of several dozen Viking [[longship]]s with square brown sails appeared in the ''Mar da Palha'' ("Sea of Straw"), i.e., the mouth of the river [[Tagus]].<ref name="Ferguson2009">{{cite book |last1=Ferguson |first1=Robert |title=The Vikings: A History |year=2009 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-101-15142-6 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HY_klT7NjvAC&pg=PT218}}</ref> At the time, the city later called [[Lisbon]] was under Muslim rule and known in Arabic as ''al-Us̲h̲būna'' or ''al-ʾIšbūnah'' (الأشبونة).<ref name="JoaquínGómez1989">{{cite book|author1-last=Vallvé Bermejo |author1-first=Joaquín |author2-last=García Gómez|author2-first=Emilio |title=Nuevas ideas sobre la conquista árabe de España: toponimia y onomástica : discurso leído en el acto de su recepción pública|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2QCW_bAINd4C&pg=PA188|year=1989|publisher=Real Academia de la Historia|page=188|id=GGKEY:WJYGZ815TEG}}</ref><ref name="Logan2013" />{{rp|108–109}} After a thirteen-day siege in which they plundered the surrounding countryside, the Vikings conquered ''al-Us̲h̲būna'', but eventually retreated in the face of continued resistance by the townspeople led by their governor, Wahb Allah ibn Hazm.<ref name="Romero2004">{{cite book|author=Eduardo Morales Romero|title=Historia de los vikingos en España: ataques e incursiones contra los reinos cristianos y musulmanes de la Península Ibérica en los siglos IX–XI|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3s4pAQAAMAAJ&q=%22ibn%20Hazm%22|date= 2004|publisher=Miraguano Ediciones|isbn=978-84-7813-270-6|page=130}}</ref><ref name="LeguayMarques1993">{{cite book|author1=Jean-Pierre Leguay|author2=António Henrique R. de Oliveira Marques|author3=Maria Ângela V. da Rocha Beirante|title=Portugal das invasões germânicas à "reconquista"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2gIrAQAAMAAJ&q=%22os%20vikings%22|year=1993|publisher=Editorial Presença|page=125|isbn=9789722317191}}</ref><ref name="JayyusiMarín1992">{{cite book|author1=Salma Khadra Jayyusi|author2=Manuela Marín|title=The Legacy of Muslim Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbfORLWv1HkC&pg=PA10|year=1992|publisher=Brill|isbn=90-04-09599-3|page=10}}</ref>

The chronicler Ibn Hayyān, who wrote the most reliable early history of al-Andalus, in his ''Kitāb almuqtabis'', quoted the Muslim historian Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Rāzī:{{blockquote|At the end of the year 229/844, the ships of the Norsemen [ al-Urdumaniyin ], who were known in al-Andalus as majus, appeared off the western coast of al-Andalus, landing at Lisbon, their first point of entry to the forbidden lands. It was a Wednesday, the first day of Dhu al-Hijjah [20 August] in that year, and they remained there thirteen days, during which time they engaged in three battles with the Muslims.<ref name="Fadlan2012">{{cite book |last1=Fadlan |first1=Ibn |translator1-last=Lunde |translator1-first=Paul |translator2-last=Stone |translator2-first=Caroline |title=Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-197504-7 |page=100 |url=https://archive.org/details/IbnFadlanAndTheLandOfDarknessArabTravellersInTheFarNorthPenguinClassicsCopie/page/n99/mode/2up}}</ref>}}

== North America ==
=== Greenland ===
[[File:Hvalsey Church.jpg|thumb|The last written records of the [[Norsemen|Norse]] Greenlanders are from a 1408 marriage in the [[Church of Hvalsey]].]]
The Viking-Age settlements in Greenland were established in the sheltered [[fjord]]s of the southern and western coast. They settled in three separate areas along roughly {{convert|650|km|nmi smi|abbr=on|lk=out}} of the western coast. While harsh, the [[microclimate]]s along some fjords allowed for a pastoral lifestyle similar to that of Iceland, until the climate changed for the worse with the [[Little Ice Age#Dating|Little Ice Age]] {{circa|1400}}.<ref>See also [[History of Greenland#Norse failure]].</ref>
* The [[Eastern Settlement]]: The remains of about 450 farms have been found here. Erik the Red settled at [[Brattahlid]] on Ericsfjord.
* The [[Middle Settlement]], near modern [[Ivigtut]], consisted of about 20 farms.
* The [[Western Settlement]] at modern [[Godthåbsfjord]], was established before the 12th century. It has been extensively excavated by archaeologists.

=== Mainland North America ===
{{Main|L'Anse aux Meadows}}
According to carbon-dating of excavated remains, between 990 and 1050 CE Vikings established a small settlement on the northern peninsula of present-day [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], near [[L'Anse aux Meadows]]. Conflict with indigenous peoples and lack of support from Greenland brought the Vinland colony to an end within a few years. The archaeological remains are now a [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]].<ref>UNESCO World Heritage Centre. [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/4 "L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060616164041/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/4 |date=16 June 2006 }}. ''unesco.org''.</ref>

== Technology ==
[[File:Vikingship.jpg|thumb|Modern replica of a Viking [[longship]]]]

{{further|Longship|Viking Age arms and armour}}
Viking naval technology was among the most advanced in all societies of the time; their other technological works were also well-regarded. The Vikings were equipped with the technologically superior longships; for purposes of conducting trade however, another type of ship, the ''[[knarr]]'', wider and deeper in draft, were customarily used. The Vikings were competent sailors, adept in land warfare as well as at sea, and they often struck at accessible and poorly defended targets, usually with near impunity. The effectiveness of these tactics earned Vikings a formidable reputation as raiders and pirates.

The Vikings used their longships to travel vast distances and attain certain tactical advantages in battle. They could perform highly efficient hit-and-run attacks, in which they quickly approached a target, then left as rapidly as possible before a counter-offensive could be launched. Because of the ships' negligible draft, the Vikings could sail in shallow waters, allowing them to invade far inland along rivers. The ships were agile, and light enough to be carried over land from one river system to another. "Under sail, the same boats could tackle open water and cross the unexplored wastes of the North Atlantic."<ref>Tignor, Robert; Adelman, Jeremy; Brown, Peter; Elman, Benjamin; Kotkin, Stephen; Prakash, Gyan; Shaw, Brent; Aron, Stephen; Liu, Xinru; Marchand, Suzanne; Pittman, Holly; Tsin, Michael. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World: Beginnings Through the Fifteenth Century (4th ed.) (Vol. 1) (p. 352). W.W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.</ref> The ships' speed was also prodigious for the time, estimated at a maximum of {{convert|14|-|15|kn|km/h}}. The use of the longships ended when technology changed, and ships began to be constructed using saws instead of axes, resulting in inferior vessels.

While battles at sea were rare, they would occasionally occur when Viking ships attempted to board European merchant vessels in Scandinavian waters. When larger scale battles ensued, Viking crews would rope together all nearby ships and slowly proceed towards the enemy targets. While advancing, the warriors hurled spears, arrows, and other projectiles at the opponents. When the ships were sufficiently close, melee combat would ensue using axes, swords, and spears until the enemy ship could be easily boarded. The roping technique allowed Viking crews to remain strong in numbers and act as a unit, but this uniformity also created problems. A Viking ship in the line could not retreat or pursue hostile ships without breaking the formation and cutting the ropes, which weakened the overall Viking fleet and was a burdensome task to perform in the heat of battle. In general, these tactics enabled Vikings to quickly destroy the meagre opposition posted during raids.<ref>Foote, P. and Wilson, D.M. (1970)''The Viking Achievement''. Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd. {{ISBN|0-283-35499-2}}. pp. 282–285.</ref>

Together with an increasing centralisation of government in the Scandinavian countries, the old system of ''[[leidang]]''—a fleet mobilisation system, where every ''skipreide'' (ship community) had to maintain one ship and a crew—was discontinued as a purely military institution, as the duty to build and man a ship soon was converted into a tax. The Norwegian leidang was called under Haakon Haakonson for his 1263 expedition to Scotland during the Scottish–Norwegian War, and the last recorded calling of it was in 1603. However, already by the 11th and 12th centuries, perhaps in response to the longships, European fighting ships were built with raised platforms fore and aft, from which archers could shoot down into the relatively low longships. This led to the defeat of longship navies in most subsequent naval engagements—e.g., with the Hanseatic League.

The Vikings were also said to have fine weapons. Generally, Vikings used axes as weapons due to the lessened amount of iron required for their creations; swords were typically seen as a mark of wealth. Spears were also a common weapon among Vikings. Great amounts of time and artistry were expended in the creation of Viking weapons; ornamentation is commonly seen among them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kerkhof |first=Maup van de |date=23 June 2023 |title=Viking Weapons: From Farm Tools to War Weaponry {{!}} History Cooperative |url=https://historycooperative.org/viking-weapons/ |access-date=10 November 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> Scandinavian architecture during the Viking Age most often involved wood, due to the abundance of the material. [[Longhouse]]s, a form of home, often featuring ornamentation, are commonly seen as the defining building of the Viking Age.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Viking homes |url=https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/the-people/viking-homes/ |access-date=10 November 2023 |website=National Museum of Denmark |language=en}}</ref>

Exactly how the Vikings navigated the open seas with such success is unclear. A study published by the Royal Society in its journal, ''Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences'', suggests that the Vikings made use of an optical compass as a navigation aid, using the light-splitting and polarisation-filtering properties of [[Iceland spar]] to find the location of the sun when it was not directly visible.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gG9Zg8qGn6p_Q1uGYEkURed9ctUw?docId=CNG.4d3e3192983c9038907dfe85d0f868e0.01 |title=AFP: Viking 'sunstone' more than a myth |date=1 November 2011 |access-date=15 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620185825/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gG9Zg8qGn6p_Q1uGYEkURed9ctUw?docId=CNG.4d3e3192983c9038907dfe85d0f868e0.01 |archive-date=20 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While some evidence points to such use of [[Sunstone (medieval)|calcite "sunstones"]] to find the sun's location, modern reproductions of Viking "sky-polarimetric" navigation have found these sun compasses to be highly inaccurate, and not usable in cloudy or foggy weather.<ref>Horvàth, G. et al. (2011). 'On the trail of Vikings with polarized skylight: experimental study of the atmospheric optical prerequisites allowing polarimetric navigation by Viking seafarers' Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B (2011) 366, 772–782 {{doi|10.1098/rstb.2010.0194}}</ref>

The archaeological find known as the [[Visby lenses]] from the Swedish island of Gotland may be components of a [[telescope]]. It appears to date from long before the invention of the telescope in the 17th century.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/702478.stm Did the Vikings make a telescope?]  BBC. 5 April 2000</ref>

== Religion ==
{{See also|Norse paganism|Norse mythology}}For most of the Viking Age, Scandinavian society generally followed Norse paganism. The traditions of this faith, including [[Valhalla]] and the [[Æsir]], are sometimes cited as a factor in the creation of Viking warrior culture.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aesir {{!}} Norse gods, Asgard, Odin {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aesir |access-date=10 November 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> However, Scandinavia was eventually Christianised towards the later Viking Age, with early centres of Christianity especially in Denmark.

== Trade ==
[[File:Model of viking age Aarhus 02.JPG|alt=|thumb|A typical fortified Viking town. This is a model of the town of ''Aros'' {{circa|950}}. The town is now known as [[Aarhus]]]]
[[File:Model of viking age Aarhus 05.JPG|alt=|thumb|Model of the fortified Viking Age town of Aros]]
Some of the most important trading ports founded by the Norse during the period include both existing and former cities such as [[Aarhus]] (Denmark), [[Ribe]] (Denmark), Hedeby (Germany), Vineta (Pomerania), Truso (Poland), [[Bjørgvin]] (Norway), [[Kaupang]] (Norway), [[Skiringssal]] (Norway), [[Birka]] (Sweden), [[Bordeaux]] (France), [[Jorvik|York]] (England), Dublin (Ireland) and [[Staraya Ladoga|Aldeigjuborg]] (Russia).<ref name="Birnbaum2023">{{cite book |last1=Birnbaum |first1=Henrik |editor1-last=Birnbaum |editor1-first=Henrik |editor2-last=Eekman |editor2-first=Thomas |editor3-last=McLean |editor3-first=Hugh |editor4-last=Riasanovsky |editor4-first=Nicholas V. |title=California Slavic Studies, Vol. XIV |year=2023 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-34307-8 |page=7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVDhEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |chapter=Medieval Novgorod}}</ref>

As Viking ships carried cargo and trade goods throughout the Baltic area and beyond, their active trading centres grew into thriving towns.<ref name="Price2015">{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=Theron Douglas |title=Ancient Scandinavia: An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-023197-2 |page=336 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dbC6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA336}}</ref> One important centre of trade was at [[Hedeby]]. Close to the border with the Franks, it was effectively a crossroads between the cultures, until its eventual destruction by the Norwegians in an internecine dispute around 1050. [[York]] was the centre of the kingdom of [[Jórvík]] from 866, and discoveries there (e.g., a silk cap, a counterfeit of a coin from Samarkand, and a cowry shell from the [[Red Sea]] or the [[Persian Gulf]]) suggest that Scandinavian trade connections in the 10th century reached beyond [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]]. However, those items could also have been Byzantine imports, and there is no reason to assume that the [[Varangian]]s travelled significantly beyond Byzantium and the [[Caspian Sea]].

Viking trade routes extended far beyond Scandinavia. As Scandinavian ships penetrated southward on the rivers of Eastern Europe to acquire financial capital, they encountered the nomad peoples of the steppes, leading to the beginning of a trading system that connected Russia and Scandinavia with the northern routes of the Eurasian [[Silk Road]] network.<ref name="Katona2022">{{cite book |last1=Katona |first1=Csete |title=Vikings of the Steppe: Scandinavians, Rus', and the Turkic World (c. 750–1050) |year=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-68517-6 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDyFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT79}}</ref> During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Volga trade route]] connected [[Northern Europe]] and Northwestern Russia with the [[Caspian Sea]], via the [[Volga River]]. The international trade routes that enabled the passage of goods by ship from Scandinavia to the east were mentioned in early medieval literature as the ''Austrrvegr'' passing through the eastern Baltic region. Ships headed to the river Volga sailed through the [[Gulf of Finland]], while those destined for Byzantium might take one of several routes through present-day north-eastern Poland or the Baltic lands.<ref name="Mägi2018">{{cite book |last1=Mägi |first1=Marika |title=In Austrvegr: The Role of the Eastern Baltic in Viking Age Communication across the Baltic Sea |year=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-36381-6 |pages=97–100 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CGdjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97}}</ref>

The Vikings catered to the demand for slaves in the southern slave markets in the Orthodox Eastern Roman Empire and the Muslim [[Umayyad Caliphate]], both of whom desired slaves of a religion different from their own.<ref name="Korpela2018">{{cite book |last1=Korpela |first1=Jukka Jari |title=Slaves from the North: Finns and Karelians in the East European Slave Trade, 900–1600 |year=2018 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-38173-5 |pages=241–242 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIN1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA241}}</ref> The [[trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks]] connected [[Scandinavia]], [[Kievan Rus']] and the [[Eastern Roman Empire]]. The [[Rus' people|Rus']] were of note as merchants who supplied honey, wax, and slaves to Constantinople.<ref name="Duczko2004">{{cite book |last1=Duczko |first1=Wladyslaw |title=Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe |date=2004 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-13874-2 |page=215 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA215}}</ref> The Varangians served as mercenaries of Russian princes, then of the Swedish princes who founded and ruled Norse kingdoms in Eastern Europe such as at Kiev and Novgorod.<ref name="Blöndal2007 7">{{cite book |last1=Blöndal |first1=Sigfús |title=The Varangians of Byzantium |date=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-03552-1 |pages=7–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFRug14ui7gC&pg=PA7}}</ref>

== Culture ==
The Viking Age saw many of the earliest Scandinavian cultural developments. The traditional [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic Sagas]], still often read today, are seen as characteristic literary works of Northern Europe. [[Old English]] works such as ''[[Beowulf]]'', written in the tradition of [[Germanic heroic legend]], show Viking influences; in ''Beowulf'', this influence is seen in the language and setting of the poem. Another example of Viking Age cultural influence is the [[Old Norse]] influence in the [[English language]]; this influence is primarily a legacy of the various Viking invasions of England.<ref name="Herring et al 2001">{{cite book |last1=Herring |first1=Susan C. |last2=Reenen |first2=Pieter van |last3=Schøsler |first3=Lene |editor1-last=Herring |editor1-first=Susan C. |editor2-last=Reenen |editor2-first=Pieter van |editor3-last=Schøsler |editor3-first=Lene |title=Textual Parameters in Older Languages |year=2001 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=978-90-272-9960-4 |page=22 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZc9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |chapter=On Textual Parameters and Older Languages}}</ref>

=== Women in Viking society ===
According to archaeologist Liv Helga Dommasnes writing in 1998, although archaeological sources pertinent to the study of women's roles in Scandinavia were most plentiful from the Viking Age compared to other historical eras, not many archaeologists took advantage of the opportunities they represented. She alludes to the fact that the picture commonly presented of Viking society during the Viking Age was of a society of men engaged in their various occupations or positions, with scant mention of the women and children who were also part of it.<ref name="Dommasnes1998">{{cite book |last1=Dommasnes |first1=Liv Helga |editor1-last=Hays-Gilpin |editor1-first=Kelley |editor2-last=Whitley |editor2-first=David S. |title=Reader in Gender Archaeology |year=1998 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-17359-9 |pages=337–338 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5VlIHNvt5EC&pg=PA337 |chapter=Women, Kinship, and the Basis of Power in the Norwegian Viking Age}}</ref>

In her reckoning, given this basic flaw in the modern image of Viking society, how knowledge of the past is organised must be considered. Accordingly, language is an essential part of this organisation of knowledge, and the concepts of modern languages are tools for understanding the realities of the past and for organising that knowledge, even though they are artefacts of our own time and perceived reality. Written sources, although scarce, appear to have been prioritised, even though it is understood that these written sources are biased. Almost all of them originate from other cultures, as literature from Viking societies is sparse. Since it unambiguously transmits meaning in literary terms, it is fairly clear that this meaning is not derived from the ideology of Viking Age people, but rather from that of early northern Christianity. [[Medieval studies]] scholar [[Gro Steinsland]] argues that the transformation from heathen to Christian religion in Viking society was a "radical break" rather than a gradual transition, and Dommasnes says this should have bearing on consideration of the transformation of late Viking Age traditions before they were recorded in 12th- or 13th-century literature. By this reasoning, changing cultural values necessarily greatly affected perceptions of women particularly and of gender roles generally.<ref name="Dommasnes1998"/>

[[Judith Jesch]], professor of Viking Age studies at the [[University of Nottingham]], suggests in her ''Women in the Viking Age'' that "If historians' emphasis on vikings as warriors made invisible the women in the background, then it is not always clear where the more visible female counterparts of the new urban vikings have come from." She says it is impossible to study the Vikings without a conception of the entire historical period they lived in, of the culture that produced them, and of other cultures they influenced. By her lights, not accounting for the doings of half the population would be ludicrous.<ref name="Jesch1991 3">{{cite book |last1=Jesch |first1=Judith |title=Women in the Viking Age |year=1991 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-0-85115-360-5 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xpNRpI9zFoC&pg=PA3}}</ref>

Published in 1991, ''Women in the Viking Age'' develops Jesch's thesis that the texts of the [[Sagas of Icelanders|Icelandic sagas]] (''Íslendingasögur'') are recordings of mythological narratives preserved in the forms in which they were written by 13th-century [[antiquarian|antiquaries]] in Iceland. They cannot be interpreted literally as the "authentic voice of Vikings", embodying as they do the preconceptions of those medieval Icelanders. These sagas, formerly believed to have been based on actual historical traditions, are now commonly regarded as imaginative creations. With their origins in oral traditions, there is little confidence in them as historical truth, but they express what they tell more directly than "the dry bones of archaeology" or the brief messages on runestones. The modern view of the Viking Age is completely entwined with knowledge imparted by the sagas, and they are the main source of a broadly held belief that women in the Viking Age were independent, assertive, and had [[Agency (sociology)|agency]].<ref name="Jesch1991"/>

Jesch describes the content of [[runic inscriptions]] as connecting people who live in modern times with women of the Viking Age similarly to archaeological evidence, often telling more about the lives of women than the [[Material culture#Archaeology|material remains]] revealed in [[archaeological excavations]]. She considers these inscriptions as contemporary evidence originating within the culture instead of from the incomplete or prejudiced viewpoint of the cultural outsider, and sees most of them as narratives in a narrow sense that supply details illuminating the overall picture derived from archaeological sources. They allow actual persons to be identified and reveal information about them such as their family relationships, their names, and perhaps facts concerning their individual lives.<ref name="Jesch1991 42">{{cite book |last1=Jesch |first1=Judith |title=Women in the Viking Age |year=1991 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-0-85115-360-5 |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xpNRpI9zFoC&pg=PA42}}</ref>

[[Birgit Sawyer]] says her book ''The Viking-age Rune-stones'' aims to show that the corpus of runestones considered as a whole is a fruitful source of knowledge about the religious, political, social, and economic history of Scandinavia in the 10th and 11th centuries. Using data from her database she finds that runestones cast light on settlement patterns, communications, kinship and naming customs, and the evolution of language and poetry. Systematically researching the material leads to her hypothesis that runic inscriptions mirrored inheritance customs entailing not only lands or goods, but also rights, obligations, and rank in society.<ref name="Sawyer2000">{{cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Birgit |title=The Viking-age Rune-stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820643-9 |pages=1–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMFisCY78DYC&pg=PA1}}</ref> Although women in Viking society, like men, had tombstones over their graves, runestones were raised primarily to memorialise men, with the lives of few women being commemorated by runestones (Sawyer says only 7 per cent), and half of those were with men. Because there was a much larger per centage of women's graves with rich appointments in the Iron Age, the comparatively smaller number of runestones memorialising women indicates that the trend reflects changes in burial customs and religion only in part. Most of those honoured with runestones were men, and the emphasis was on those who sponsored the monuments. Typical medieval grave monuments name only the deceased, but Viking Age runestones prioritise the sponsors, first and foremost; therefore, they "are monuments to the ''living'' as much as to the ''dead''".<ref name="Sawyer2000 20">{{cite book |last1=Sawyer |first1=Birgit |title=The Viking-age Rune-stones: Custom and Commemoration in Early Medieval Scandinavia |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820643-9 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMFisCY78DYC&pg=PA20}}</ref>

=== Language ===
The 12th-century [[Iceland]]ic ''[[Gray Goose Laws]]'' ({{langx|is|grágás}}) state that Swedes, Norwegians, Icelanders, and Danes spoke the same language, {{lang|non|dǫnsk tunga}} ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said ''{{Lang|non|dansk tunga}}''). Another term was {{lang|non|norrœnt mál}} ("northern speech"). Old Norse has developed into the modern [[North Germanic languages]]: [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Faroese language|Faroese]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain [[North Germanic languages#Mutual intelligibility|considerable mutual intelligibility]] while Icelandic remains the closest to Old Norse. In present-day Iceland schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling).<ref name="Sanders2021">{{cite book |last1=Sanders |first1=Ruth H. |title=The Languages of Scandinavia: Seven Sisters of the North |year=2021 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-75975-3 |pages=63–64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EL4lEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63}}</ref>

Written sources of Old Norse from the Viking Age are rare: there are [[rune stones]], but the inscriptions are mostly short. A good deal of the vocabulary, [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], and [[phonology]] of the runic inscriptions (little is known definitely about their syntax) "can be shown to develop regularly into Viking-Age, medieval and modern Scandinavian [[Reflex (linguistics)|reflexes]]", says Michael Barnes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnes |first1=Michael |editor1-last=McTurk |editor1-first=Rory |title=A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture |year=2008 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4051-3738-6 |pages=173–174 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Exp50zxE0FwC&pg=PA173 |chapter=Language}}</ref>

According to David Arter, Old Norse was for a while during the Viking Age a ''lingua franca'' spoken not just in Scandinavia but also in the courts of the Scandinavian rulers in Ireland, Scotland, England, France and Russia. The Norse origin of some words used today is obvious, as in the word ''haar'' referring to the cold sea mist on the east coast of Scotland and England;<ref name="Sullivan2020">{{cite book |last1=Sullivan |first1=Eric |title=Marine Encyclopaedic Dictionary |year=2020 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-28815-5 |page=498 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=upwFEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT498}}</ref> it derives from the Old Norse ''haárr''.<ref name="Arter1999">{{cite book |last1=Arter |first1=David |title=Scandinavian Politics Today |year=1999 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-5133-3 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EeMS8B0oOKkC&pg=PA9}}</ref>

=== Old Norse influence on other languages ===
The long-term linguistic effects of the Viking settlements in England were threefold: [[List of English words of Old Norse origin|over a thousand Old Norse words]] eventually became part of [[Standard English]]; numerous places in the East and North-east of England have Danish names, and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin.<ref name="Crystal">Crystal, David, ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language'', CUP, 2001 edition, {{ISBN|0-521-59655-6}}, pp. 25–26.</ref> Scandinavian words that entered the English language included ''landing, score, beck, fellow, take, busting'', and ''steersman''.<ref name="Crystal" /> The vast majority of loan words did not appear in documents until the early 12th century; these included many modern words which used ''sk-'' sounds, such as ''skirt, sky,'' and ''skin''; other words appearing in written sources at this time included ''again, awkward, birth, cake, dregs, fog, freckles, gasp, law, moss, neck, ransack, root, scowl, sister, seat, sly, smile, want, weak'' and ''window'' from Old Norse meaning "wind-eye".<ref name="Crystal" /> Some of the words that came into use are among the most common in English, such as ''to go, to come, to sit, to listen, to eat, both, same, get'' and ''give''. The system of personal pronouns was affected, with ''they, them'' and ''their'' replacing the earlier forms. Old Norse influenced the verb ''to be''; the replacement of ''sindon'' by ''are'' is almost certainly Scandinavian in origin, as is the third-person-singular ending ''-s'' in the present tense of verbs.<ref name="Crystal" />

There are more than 1,500 Scandinavian place names in England, mainly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (within the former boundaries of the ''Danelaw''): over 600 end in ''-by'', the Scandinavian word for "village"—for example ''Grimsby, Naseby'', and ''Whitby'';<ref>"The ''-by'' ending is almost entirely confined to the area of the Danelaw, supporting a theory of Scandinavian origin, despite the existence of the word ''by'' "dwelling" in Old English." Crystal, p. 25.</ref> many others end in ''-thorpe'' ("farm"), ''-thwaite'' ("clearing"), and ''-toft'' ("homestead").<ref name="Crystal" />

According to an analysis of names ending in ''-son'', the distribution of family names showing Scandinavian influence is still concentrated in the north and east, corresponding to areas of former Viking settlement. Early medieval records indicate that over 60% of personal names in Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire showed Scandinavian influence.<ref name="Crystal" />

==Genetics==
A [[genetic analysis|genetic study]] published at [[bioRxiv]] in July 2019 and in ''Nature'' in September 2020 examined the population genomics of the Viking Age. The remains of four hundred forty-two ancient humans from across [[Europe]] and the [[North Atlantic]] were surveyed, stretching from the [[Bronze Age]] to the [[early modern period]]. In terms of Y-DNA composition, Viking individuals were similar to present-day Scandinavians. The most common Y-DNA haplogroup in the study was [[Haplogroup I1|I1]] (95 samples), [[Haplogroup R1b|R1b]] (84 samples) and [[Haplogroup R1a|R1a]], especially (but not exclusively) of the Scandinavian R1a-Z284 subclade (61 samples). It was found that there was a notable foreign gene flow into Scandinavia in the years preceding the Viking Age and during the Viking Age itself. This gene flow entered [[Denmark]] and eastern [[Sweden]], from which it spread into the rest of Scandinavia. The Y-DNA of Viking Age samples suggests that this may partly have been descendants of the Germanic tribes from the Migration Period returning to Scandinavia. The study also found that despite close cultural similarities, there were distinct genetic differences between regional populations in the Viking Age. These differences have persisted into modern times. Inland areas were found to be more genetically homogenous than coastal areas and islands such as [[Öland]] and [[Gotland]]. These islands were probably important trade settlements. Consistent with historical records, the study found evidence of a major influx of Danish Viking ancestry into England, a Swedish influx into Estonia and Finland; and Norwegian influx into Ireland, Iceland and Greenland during the Viking Age. The Vikings were found to have left a profound genetic imprint in the areas they settled, which has persisted into modern times with, e.g., the contemporary population of the United Kingdom having up to 6% Viking DNA. The study also showed that some local people of Scotland were buried as Vikings and may have taken on Viking identities.

Margaryan et al. 2020 examined the skeletal remains of 42 individuals from the [[Salme ships|Salme ship burials]] in Estonia. The skeletal remains belonged to warriors killed in battle who were later buried together with numerous valuable weapons and armour. DNA testing and isotope analysis revealed that the men came from central Sweden.

Margaryan et al. 2020 examined an elite warrior burial from [[Bodzia Cemetery|Bodzia]] (Poland) dated to 1010–1020. The cemetery in Bodzia is exceptional in terms of Scandinavian and Kievian Rus links. The Bodzia man (sample VK157, or burial E864/I) was not a simple warrior from the princely retinue, but he belonged to the princely family himself. His burial is the richest one in the whole cemetery; moreover, strontium analysis of his teeth enamel shows he was not local. It is assumed that he came to Poland with the Prince of Kiev, [[Sviatopolk I of Kiev|Sviatopolk the Accursed]], and met a violent death in combat. This corresponds to the events of 1018 when Sviatopolk himself disappeared after having retreated from Kiev to Poland. It cannot be excluded that the Bodzia man was Sviatopolk himself, as the genealogy of the Rurikids at this period is extremely dubious, and the dates of birth of many princes of this dynasty may be quite approximative. The Bodzia man carried haplogroup I1-[[Haplogroup I-Z63|S2077]] and had both Scandinavian ancestry and Russian admixture.<ref name="Margaryan 2019"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Sample from Homo sapiens – BioSample – NCBI |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/biosample/?term=SAMEA6799933 |access-date=22 January 2021 |website=www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409154748/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/biosample/?term=SAMEA6799933 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Duczko |first=Wladyslaw |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC |title=Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe |date= 2004 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-13874-2 |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414031019/https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC |url-status=live }}</ref>

The genetic data from these areas affirmed conclusions previously drawn from historical and archaeological evidence.<ref name="Margaryan 2019"/><ref>{{cite news |title=World's largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren't all Scandinavian |url=https://phys.org/news/2020-09-world-largest-dna-sequencing-viking.html |access-date=9 October 2020 |work=phys.org |language=en |archive-date=3 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003053100/https://phys.org/news/2020-09-world-largest-dna-sequencing-viking.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Settlements outside Scandinavia ==
=== Atlantic ===
* [[Faroe Islands]]
* [[Iceland]]
* [[Greenland]]

=== Baltic ===
* [[Grobiņa|Seeburg]] (Latvia)
* [[Palanga|Polange]] (Lithuania)

=== British Isles ===
==== England ====
* [[Danelaw]]
* [[Jórvík]] ([[York]])
* [[Cumbria]]

==== Ireland ====
* [[Arklow]]
* [[Early Scandinavian Dublin|Dyflin]] ([[Dublin]])
* Hlymrekr ([[Limerick]])
* [[History of Waterford|Veðrafjǫrðr]] ([[Waterford]])
* Víkingr-ló ([[Wicklow]])<ref>Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names</ref>
* Veisafjǫrðr ([[Wexford]])

==== Isle of Man ====
* [[Isle of Man|Mann]]

==== Scotland ====
* [[Caithness]]
* [[Galloway]]
* [[Kintyre]]
* [[Norðreyjar]] ([[Orkney]] and [[Shetland]])
* [[Ross, Scotland|Ross]]
* [[Suðreyjar]] ([[Hebrides]])
* [[Sutherland]]

=== Eastern Europe ===
* [[Garðaríki]]

=== Western Europe ===
* [[Normandy]]

=== North America ===
* [[Norse colonisation of the Americas]]
* [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] (and possibly a larger area called [[Vinland]])

== Notes ==
<references>
<ref name="Margaryan 2019">{{cite bioRxiv |last1=Margaryan |first1=Ashot |display-authors=etal |date=17 July 2019 |title=Population genomics of the Viking world |biorxiv=10.1101/703405}} [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334525855_Population_genomics_of_the_Viking_world Preprint via ResearchGate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202105124/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334525855_Population_genomics_of_the_Viking_world |date=2 February 2021 }}
<br />{{*}}{{cite journal |last1=Margaryan |first1=Ashot |display-authors=etal |title=Population genomics of the Viking world |journal=Nature |date=September 2020 |volume=585 |issue=7825 |pages=390–396 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8 |pmid=32939067 |bibcode=2020Natur.585..390M |issn=1476-4687 |hdl=10852/83989 |s2cid=221769227 |url=http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-86727 |hdl-access=free |access-date=25 July 2021 |archive-date=4 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231004200642/https://www.duo.uio.no/handle/10852/83989 |url-status=live }}</ref> <!--ALL AUTHORS: Ashot Margaryan, Daniel Lawson, Martin Sikora, Fernando Racimo, Simon Rasmussen, Ida Moltke, Lara Cassidy, Emil Jørsboe, Andrés Ingason, Mikkel Pedersen, Thorfinn Korneliussen, Helene Wilhelmson, Magdalena Buś, Peter de Barros Damgaard, Rui Martiniano, Gabriel Renaud, Claude Bhérer, J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar, Anna Fotakis, Marie Allen, Martyna Molak, Enrico Cappellini, Gabriele Scorrano, Alexandra Buzhilova, Allison Fox, Anders Albrechtsen, Berit Schütz, Birgitte Skar, Caroline Arcini, Ceri Falys, Charlotte Hedenstierna Jonson, Dariusz Błaszczyk, Denis Pezhemsky, Gordon Turner-Walker, Hildur Gestsdóttir, Inge Lundstrøm, Ingrid Gustin, Ingrid Mainland, Inna Potekhina, Italo Muntoni, Jade Cheng, Jesper Stenderup, Jilong Ma, Julie Gibson, Jüri Peets, Jörgen Gustafsson, Katrine Iversen, Linzi Simpson, Lisa Strand, Louise Loe, Maeve Sikora, Marek Florek, Maria Vretemark, Mark Redknap, Monika Bajka, Tamara Pushkina, Morten Søvsø, Natalia Grigoreva, Tom Christensen, Ole Kastholm, Otto Uldum, Pasquale Favia, Per Holck, Raili Allmäe, Sabine Sten, Símun Arge, Sturla Ellingvåg, Vayacheslav Moiseyev, Wiesław Bogdanowicz, Yvonne Magnusson, Ludovic Orlando, Daniel Bradley, Marie Louise Jørkov, Jette Arneborg, Niels Lynnerup, Neil Price, M. Thomas Gilbert, Morten Allentoft, Jan Bill, Søren Sindbæk, Lotte Hedeager, Kristian Kristiansen, Rasmus Nielsen, Thomas Werge, Eske Willerslev-->
</references>

== Cited sources ==
* {{cite book|last1=Forte |first1=Angelo |last2=Oram |first2=Richard |last3=Pedersen |first3=Frederik |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vEd859jvk0C |title=Viking Empires |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-521-82992-2}}
* {{Citation|last=Frucht |first=R. |year=2004 |title=Eastern Europe: an introduction to the people, lands, and culture. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara }}
* {{cite book|last=Hall |first=Richard |title=Viking Age Archaeology |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7478-0063-7 |publisher=Shire Publications}}
* {{cite book |editor2-link=Christian Lübke |last1=Kempke |first1=Torsten |editor1-last=Harck |editor1-first=Ole |editor2-last=Lübke |editor2-first=Christian |title=Zwischen Reric und Bornhöved: die Beziehungen zwischen den Dänen und ihren slawischen Nachbarn vom 9. bis ins 13. Jahrhundert : Beiträge einer internationalen Konferenz, Leipzig, 4.–6. Dezember 1997 |date=2001 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |isbn=978-3-515-07671-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhgBPRVKHB4C |language=de |chapter=Skandinavisch-slawische Kontakte an der südlichen Ostseeküste}}
* {{cite book | last=Jansson | first=Sven B. F. | title=Runstenar | publisher=Svenska turistföreningen | publication-place=Stockholm | date=1980 | isbn=91-7156-015-7 | oclc=7837892 }}
* {{cite book|last=Jones |first=Gwyn |title=A History of the Vikings |year=1968 |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=581030305 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofvikings0000unse |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |last=Mägi |first=Marika |editor-last1=Barrett |editor-first1=James H. |editor-last2=Gibbon |editor-first2=Sarah Jane |title=Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World |publisher=Maney Publishing |date=2015 |pages=41–46 |chapter=Chapter 4. Bound for the Eastern Baltic: Trade and Centres AD 800–1200 |isbn=978-1-909662-79-7}}
* {{Citation |last=Martens |first=Irmelin |year=2004 |title=Indigenous and imported Viking Age weapons in Norway – a problem with European implications |journal= Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science |volume=14 |pages=125–137 |url= https://www.archaeology.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.138785.1371480692!/menu/standard/file/martens.pdf |access-date=8 October 2018}}
* {{cite book | last=Pritsak | first=Omeljan | title=The origin of Rus' | publisher=Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute | publication-place=Cambridge, Mass. | date=1981 | isbn=0-674-64465-4 | oclc=8424246}}
* {{cite book |last1=Tvauri |first1=Andres |date=2012 |title=The migration period, pre-viking age, and viking age in Estonia |publisher=Tartu University Press |url=https://www.academia.edu/2237217 |isbn=9789949199365 |archive-date=27 March 2022 |access-date=2 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327120736/https://www.academia.edu/2237217 |url-status=dead }}

== Further reading ==
=== Background ===
* Graham-Campbell, J. (2001), ''The Viking World'', London. {{ISBN|978-0-7112-3468-0}}

=== General surveys ===
* Ahola, Joonas & Frog with Clive Tolley (eds.) (2014). ''Fibula, Fabula, Fact – The Viking Age in Finland''. Studia Fennica Historica 18. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
* Anker, P. (1970). ''The Art of Scandinavia'', Volume I, London and New York {{ISBN|9780600100065}}
* Fuglesang, S.H. (1996). "Viking Art", in Turner, J. (ed.), ''The Grove Dictionary of Art'', Volume 32, London and New York, pp.&nbsp;514–527, 531–532.
* Graham-Campbell, J. (1980). ''Viking Artefacts: A Select Catalogue'', British Museum Publications: London. {{ISBN|978-0-7141-1354-8}}
* Graham-Campbell, James (2013). ''Viking Art'', Thames & Hudson. {{ISBN|978-0-500-20419-1}}
* Roesdahl, E. and Wilson, D.M. (eds) (1992). ''From Viking to Crusader: Scandinavia and Europe 800–1200'', Copenhagen and New York. [exhibition catalogue]. {{ISBN|978-0-8478-1625-5}}
* Williams, G., Pentz, P. and Wemhoff, M. (eds), ''Vikings: Life and Legend'', British Museum Press: London, 2014. [exhibition catalogue]. {{ISBN|978-0-7141-2336-3}}
* Wilson, D.M. & Klindt-Jensen, O. (1980). ''Viking Art'', 2nd ed., George Allen and Unwin, 1980. {{ISBN|978-0-04-709018-9}}
* Carey, Brian Todd. "Technical marvels, Viking longships sailed seas and rivers, or served as floating battlefields", ''Military History'' 19, no. 6 (2003): 70–72.
* Downham, Clare. ''Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland: The Dynasty of Ívarr to A.D. 1014''. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2007
* [[Benjamin Hudson|Hudson, Benjamin]]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fH0mL0m95fsC Viking Pirates and Christian Princes: Dynasty, Religion, and Empire in the North Atlantic]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|0-19-516237-4}}.
* Logan, F. Donald [https://books.google.com/books?id=XldSYkGIeLwC&q=The+Vikings+in+History ''The Vikings in History''] (London: Hutchison & Co. 1983) {{ISBN|0-415-08396-6}}.
* [[Bernhard Maier (religious studies professor)|Maier, Bernhard]]. ''The Celts: A history from earliest times to the present''. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{portal|Oceans}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/ Vikings] – BBC History (collection of short articles under the headings Overview, Raiders and Settlers, Viking Culture, Evidence)
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/ Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214155157/http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/ |date=14 February 2016 }} – Smithsonian website for travelling exhibition, 2000–2003
* [http://www.denmark.net/denmark-guide/danish-vikings.html The Danish Viking Age]
* [http://www.heimskringla.no/ Old Norse literature] from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway
* [http://sciencenordic.com/how-vikings-navigated-world ScienceNordic's article on "How Vikings navigated the world"]

{{Timeline of Prehistoric Scandinavia}}
{{Norway topics}}
{{Viking}}
{{Germanic peoples}}
{{Denmark topics}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{Middle Ages}}

[[Category:Viking Age| ]]
[[Category:History of Scandinavia]]
[[Category:Iron Age cultures of Europe]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Sweden]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Denmark]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Norway]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Estonia]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in England]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Scotland]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Ireland]]
[[Category:Archaeological cultures in France]]
[[Category:Early Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Historical eras]]
[[Category:Vikings|*]]