Viking

The inhabitants of Scandinavia in the period 800–1100. They traded with, and raided, much of Europe, and often settled there. In their narrow, shallow-draught, highly manoeuvrable longships, the Vikings penetrated far inland along rivers. They plundered for gold and land, and were equally energetic as colonists – with colonies stretching from North America to central Russia – and as traders, with main trading posts at Birka (near Stockholm) and Hedeby (near Schleswig). The Vikings had a sophisticated literary culture, with sagas and runic inscriptions, and an organized system of government with an assembly (‘thing’). Their kings and chieftains were buried with their ships, together with their possessions.

In France the Vikings were given Normandy. Under Sweyn I they conquered England (where they were known as ‘Danes’) in 1013, and his son Canute was king of England as well as Denmark and Norway. In the east they established the first Russian state and founded Novgorod. They reached the Byzantine Empire in the south, and in the west sailed to Ireland, and Iceland; Greenland was visited by Eric the Red, and North America, by his son Leif Ericsson who named it ‘Vinland’. As ‘Normans’ they achieved a second conquest of England in 1066.