The
Viking Age (793–1066 AD) was the period during the
Middle Ages when
Norsemen known as
Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe, and reached North America.[sup]
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[6][/sup] It followed the
Migration Period and the
Germanic Iron Age.[sup]
[7][/sup] The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of
Scandinavia, but to any place significantly settled by
Scandinavians during the period.[sup]
[3][/sup] The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as
Vikings as well as
Norsemen, although few of them were Vikings in the technical sense.[sup]
[8][/sup]
Voyaging by sea from their homelands in
Denmark,
Norway and
Sweden, the Norse people settled in the
British Isles,
Ireland, the
Faroe Islands,
Iceland,
Greenland,
Normandy, the
Baltic coast, and along the
Dnieper and
Volga trade routes in eastern Europe, where they were also known as
Varangians. They also briefly
settled in Newfoundland, becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. The
Norse-Gaels,
Normans,
Rus' people,
Faroese and
Icelanders emerged from these Norse colonies. The Vikings founded several kingdoms and earldoms in Europe: the
kingdom of the Isles (
Suðreyjar),
Orkney (
Norðreyjar),
York (
Jórvík) and the
Danelaw (
Danalǫg),
Dublin (
Dyflin),
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.
Several things 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
forced conversion of the neighboring Saxons to Christianity may also have been a factor.[sup]
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[13][/sup] Sailing innovations had allowed the Vikings to sail further and longer to begin with.
Information about the Viking Age is drawn largely from
primary sources written by those the Vikings encountered, as well as archaeology, supplemented with
secondary sources such as the
Icelandic Sagas.
Contents
Historical context[
edit]In England, the Viking attack of 8 June 793 that destroyed the
abbey on
Lindisfarne, a centre of learning on an island off the northeast coast of England in
Northumberland, is regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age.[sup]
[14][/sup][sup]
[15][/sup][sup]
[16][/sup]
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.[sup]
[14][/sup]
In the Lindisfarne attack, monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as
slaves along with the church treasures, giving rise to the traditional (but unattested) prayer—
A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine, "Free us from the fury of the Northmen, Lord."[sup]
[17][/sup] 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".[sup]
[18][/sup] Vikings were portrayed as wholly violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. In medieval English chronicles, they are described as "wolves among sheep".
The first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a small readership in Britain. Linguistics traced the Viking Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas.
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
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 sagas 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.[sup]
[19][/sup]
Until recently, the history of the Viking Age had largely been based on Icelandic Sagas, the history of the
Danes written by
Saxo Grammaticus, the
Kievan Rus's Primary Chronicle, and
Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib. Today, most scholars take these texts as sources not to be understood literally and are relying more on concrete archaeological findings,
numismatics, and other direct scientific disciplines and methods.[sup]
[20][/sup][sup]
[21][/sup]
Historical background[
edit]
![[Image: 300px-Faroe_stamp_sheet_406-408_viking_voyages.jpg]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fb%2Fb1%2FFaroe_stamp_sheet_406-408_viking_voyages.jpg%2F300px-Faroe_stamp_sheet_406-408_viking_voyages.jpg)
Viking voyages in the North AtlanticThe 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 language,
Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of 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.
Probable causes of Norse expansion[
edit]Part of
a series on the
Norse people![[Image: 200px-Old_norse%2C_ca_900.PNG]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fa%2Fa2%2FOld_norse%252C_ca_900.PNG%2F200px-Old_norse%252C_ca_900.PNG)
Extent of
Norse language in AD 900:
Western Norse in red and
Eastern Norse in orange.
show
Historyshow
Old Norse religionshow
Cosmologyshow
Rituals and worshipshow
Societyshow
Eventsshow
Sources
WikiProject Norse history and culture
Main article:
Viking expansionMany 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
Scandes, was possibly influential (this theory regarding overpopulation is disputed).[sup]
[22][/sup] Technological advances like the use of iron and a shortage of women due to selective
female infanticide also likely had an impact.[sup]
[23][/sup] 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.[sup][
citation needed][/sup]
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.
![[Image: 300px-Viking_Expansion.svg.png]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F5%2F50%2FViking_Expansion.svg%2F300px-Viking_Expansion.svg.png)
Viking expansion in Europe between the eighth and 11th centuries: The yellow colour corresponds to the expansion of the Normans, only partly descending from the VikingsDebate 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.[sup]
[24][/sup]
Demographic modelThis model suggests that Scandinavia experienced a population boom just before the Viking Age began.[sup]
[25][/sup][sup]
[26][/sup] The agricultural capacity of the land was not enough to keep up with the increasing population.[sup]
[27][/sup] 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
the Baltic, and eventually into all of Europe.[sup]
[28][/sup]Economic modelThe 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.[sup]
[29][/sup] In Western Europe, proto-urban centres such as the
-wich towns of
Anglo-Saxon England began to boom during the prosperous era known as the "Long Eighth Century".[sup]
[30][/sup] 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 good insight to this phenomenon. Critics of this model argue that the earliest recorded Viking raids were in Western Norway and northern Britain, which were not highly economically integrated areas.[sup]
[24][/sup] Alternative versions of the economic model point to economic incentives that stemmed from youth bulges, as young men were driven to maritime activity due to limited economic alternatives.[sup]
[24][/sup]Ideological modelThis 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
Saxony. Bruno Dumézil theorises that the Viking attacks may have been in response to the spread of Christianity among pagan peoples.[sup]
[10][/sup][sup]
[11][/sup][sup]
[12][/sup][sup]
[13][/sup][sup]
[31][/sup] Because of the penetration of
Christianity in Scandinavia, serious conflict divided Norway for almost a century.[sup]
[32][/sup]Political modelThe 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 made for an attractive target for Viking raiders.[sup][
citation needed][/sup] The reasons for these weaknesses vary, but generally can be simplified into decentralized 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 centralization of power in the modern-day countries of Denmark, Sweden, and especially Norway. This centralization of power forced hundreds of chieftains from their lands, which were slowly being eaten up 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.[sup]
[33][/sup]Technological modelThis 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.[sup]
[34][/sup] 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.[sup]
[35][/sup][sup]
[26][/sup] Among these developments are included the use of larger sails, tacking practices, and 24-hour sailing.[sup]
[25][/sup]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 models.
The Viking colonization of islands in the North Atlantic has in part been attributed to a period of favorable climate (the Medieval Climactic Optimum), as the weather was relatively stable and predictable, with calm seas.[sup]
[36][/sup] Sea ice was rare, harvests were typically strong, and fishing conditions were good.[sup]
[36][/sup]
Historic overview[
edit]
![[Image: 300px-Viking_towns_of_Scandinavia_2.jpg]](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2Fc%2Fc6%2FViking_towns_of_Scandinavia_2.jpg%2F300px-Viking_towns_of_Scandinavia_2.jpg)
Viking-era towns of ScandinaviaThe earliest date given for a Viking raid is 789, when according to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a group of Danes sailed to the
Isle of Portland in
Dorset (it was wrongly recorded as 787). They were mistaken for merchants by a royal official. When asked to come to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods, they murdered the official.[sup]
[37][/sup] 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[sup]
[16][/sup]):
Quote: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.[sup][38][/sup]
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
Céli Dé Brethren, and burning the abbey to the ground.
The Vikings primarily targeted Ireland until 830, as England and the Carolingian Empire was able to fight the Vikings off.[sup]
[39][/sup] However, after 830, the Vikings had considerable success against England, Carolingian Empire and other parts of Western Europe.[sup]
[39][/sup] After 830, the Vikings exploited disunity within the Carolingian Empire, as well as pitt
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