Vikings biography

Mythology describes how female valkyrie would greet fallen Viking warriors and lead the boldest to a glorious afterlife. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States. Your Profile. Email Updates. Table of Contents Who Were the Vikings? Who Were the Vikings? Early Viking Raids. Read more.

Valhalla: How Viking Belief in a Glorious Afterlife Empowered Warriors Mythology describes how female valkyrie would greet fallen Viking warriors and lead the boldest to a glorious afterlife. InNorthumbria became the northern kingdom of the coalescing Danelawafter its conquest by the Ragnarsson brothers, who installed an Englishman, Ecgberhtas a puppet king.

Aided by the Great Heathen Army which had already overrun much of England from its base in JorvikBagsecg's forces, and Halfdan's forces through an alliancethe combined Viking forces raided much of England untilwhen they planned an invasion of Wessex. On 8 JanuaryBagsecg 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 of Wessex managed to keep them out of his country.

Alfred and his successors continued to drive back the Viking frontier and take York. 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 Sweyn's son, Cnut the Greatwon the throne of England in through conquest. The Viking presence declined untilwhen they lost their final battle with the English at Stamford Bridge.

The death in the battle of King Harald Hardrada of Norway ended any hope of reviving Cnut's North Sea Empireand it is because of this, rather than the Norman conquest, that 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, 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 Insmall bands of Vikings began plundering monastic settlements along the coast of Gaelic Ireland. The Annals of Ulster state that in the Vikings plundered Howth and "carried off a great number of women into captivity".

The first were at Dublin and Linn Duachaill. The Vikings also briefly allied viking biography various Irish kings against their rivals. They were important trading hubs, and Viking Dublin was the biggest slave port in western Europe. 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.

Sigtrygg Silkbeard was "a viking biography of the arts, a benefactor of the church, and an economic innovator" who established Ireland's first mintin Dublin. After the battle of Clontarf, the Dublin Vikings could no longer "single-handedly threaten the power of the most powerful kings of Ireland". While few records are known, the Vikings are thought to have led their first raids in Scotland on the holy island of Iona inthe year following the raid on the other holy island of LindisfarneNorthumbria.

Ina large Norse fleet invaded via the River Tay and River Earnboth of which were highly navigable, and reached into the heart of the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu. 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 Dyfnwalwho 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 miles 20 km up the River Clyde to the vicinity of Govan and Partick within present-day Glasgowand became known as the Kingdom of Strathclydewhich persisted as a major regional political player for another years.

The land that now comprises most of the Scottish Lowlands had previously been the northernmost part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbriawhich 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 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 Albaand finally into the greater Kingdom of Scotland. The last vestiges of Norse power in the Scottish seas and islands were completely relinquished after another years.

The Norse settlers were to some extent integrating with the local Gaelic population see Norse-Gaels in the Hebrides and Man. These areas were ruled over by local Jarlsoriginally captains of ships or hersirs. The Jarl of Orkney and Shetland, however, claimed supremacy. 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.

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 King Harald. His grandson, Thorstein the Redand Sigurd the MightyJarl 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 forming a defensive pact with the Kings of Scotland and Strathclyde. 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, inThe kingdom was split into two. His kingdom was to develop latterly into the Lordship of the Isles. In eastern Aberdeenshirethe Danes invaded at least as far north as the area near Cruden Bay. The Jarls of Orkney continued to rule much of northern Scotland untilwhen Harald Maddadsson agreed to pay tribute to William the LionKing of Scots, for his territories on the mainland.

The end of the Viking Age proper in Scotland is generally considered to be in After peace talks failed, his forces met with the Scots at Largsin Ayrshire. The battle proved indecisive, but it did ensure that the Norse were not able to mount a further attack that year. Orkney and Shetland continued to be ruled as autonomous Jarldoms under Norway untilwhen 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, [ 67 ] and Charles II ratifying the pawning in the Orkney and Shetland Actexplicitly exempting them from any "dissolution of His Majesty's lands", [ 68 ] they are currently considered as being officially part of the United Kingdom.

Wales was not colonised by the Vikings as heavily as eastern England. The Vikings did, however, viking biography in the south around St. David 's, Haverfordwestand Goweramong other places. Place names such as Skokholm, Skomer, and Swansea remain as evidence of the Norse settlement. According to the Icelandic sagasIceland was discovered by Naddodda Viking from the Faroe Islands, after which it was settled by mostly Norwegians fleeing the oppressive rule of Harald Fairhair in CE.

While harsh, the land allowed for a pastoral farming life familiar to the Norse. According to the saga of Erik the Redwhen Erik was exiled from Iceland, he sailed west and pioneered Greenland. 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.

Kvenland, in that or close to that spelling, is also known from 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. During the Viking Age, Estonia was a Finnic area divided between two major cultural regions, a coastal and an inland one, corresponding to the historical cultural and linguistic division between Northern and Southern Estonian.

Some 16th-century Swedish chronicles attribute the Pillage of Sigtuna in to Estonian raiders. 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. 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.

The Curonians [ 78 ] were known as fierce warriors, excellent sailors and pirates. They were involved in several wars and alliances with SwedishDanishand Icelandic Vikings. According to some opinions, they took part in attacking Sweden's main city Sigtuna in 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 tradepiracyand mercenary activities, they roamed the river systems and portages of Gardarikireaching the Caspian Sea and Constantinople. 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 s, Scandinavian colonists were probably an element in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus' peopleand likely played a role in the formation of the Rus' Khaganate.

The text of the Primary Chronicle says that in —, 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.

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. The consensus among western scholars, disputed by Russian scholars, who believe them to be a Slavic tribe, [ 94 ] is that the Rus' people originated in what is currently coastal eastern Sweden around the 8th century, and that their name has the same origin as that of Roslagen in Sweden.

In modern times the name still exists as Roslagen, the name of the coastal area of Uppland province. The term "Varangian" became more common from the 11th century onwards. 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 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. Viking Age Scandinavian settlements were set up along the southern coast of the Baltic Seaprimarily for trade purposes. Their emergence appears to coincide with the settlement and consolidation of the coastal Slavic tribes in the respective areas.

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. 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.

Vikings biography

This region was progressively brought under Frankish control Frisian-Frankish warsbut 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 Frisiaas well as Rorik. The French region of Normandy takes its name from the Viking invaders who were called Normanniwhich means 'men of the North'. The first Viking raids began between and 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 — 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 Viking attackers sought to capture the treasures stored at monasterieseasy prey given the monks' lack of defensive capacity. In CE an expedition up the Seine reached Paris. The presence of Carolingian deniers of c. Robert's victory later paved way for the baptism, and settlement in Normandy, of Viking leader Rollo. In exchange, Rollo pledged vassalage to Charles inagreed to be baptisedand vowed to guard the estuaries of the Seine from further Viking attacks.

During Rollo's baptism Robert I of France stood as his godfather. The Scandinavian expansion included Danish and Norwegian as well as Swedish elements, all under the leadership of Rollo. The Normans conquered England and southern Italy in 11th century, and played a key role in the Crusades. The Vikings then moved another 60 miles down the Tuscan coast to the mouth of the Arnosacking Pisa and then, following the river upstream, also the hill-town of Fiesole above Florenceamong other victories around the Mediterranean including in Sicily and Nekor MoroccoNorth Africa.

Afterthe Vikings set up a permanent base at the mouth of the river Loire from whence they could strike as far as northern Spain. The southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, both sides of the Strait of Gibraltarand much of the Iberian viking biography were under Muslim rule when Vikings first entered the Mediterranean in the 9th century.

The first Viking attacks in al-Andalus in AD greatly affected the region. According to the Historia silense it had 60 ships. Gwyn Jones vikings biography that this Viking raid had occurred on 1 Octoberwhen most of the Iberian peninsula was controlled by the emirate. By the year 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.

The assailants sacked this important town, and according to the Arab sources, they attacked the fortress and burnt it to the ground. The ships were destroyed and their Viking crews killed. The Vikings made several incursions in the yearsandwith intentions more diplomatic than bellicose, although an invasion in was repelled when the Viking fleet was totally annihilated.

Ina Viking fleet entered the river Minho and sacked the episcopal city of Tui Galicia; no new bishop was appointed until Ina fleet of several dozen Viking longships viking biography square brown sails appeared in the Mar da Palha "Sea of Straw"i. 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.

The Viking-Age settlements in Greenland were established in the sheltered fjords of the southern and western coast. They settled in three separate areas along roughly km nmi ; mi of the western coast. While harsh, the microclimates 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 c.

They created a small settlement on the northern peninsula of present-day Newfoundlandnear 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 Vikings were among the most advanced of all societies of the time in their naval technology, and were noted in other technological works as well.

The Vikings were equipped with the technologically superior longships; for purposes of conducting trade however, another type of ship, the knarrwider 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. 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 hostiles 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. 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.

England was wealthy, and it developed a taxation system that was probably more sophisticated than any other in Europe, which was both a cause and a consequence of the raiding. The extortion came to an end inwhen Harald's son, Swein Forkbeard, decided to conquer England. InCnut became king of England, and after further campaigns in Scandinavia he could claim in to be 'king of the whole of England and Denmark and Norway and of parts of Sweden'.

Cnut was a strong and effective king. He introduced some Danish customs to England, but England also influenced Denmark. For instance, Cnut appointed several Englishmen as bishops in Denmark, and even today most of the ordinary Danish words of church organisation are English in origin. She was the daughter of the duke of Normandy, himself the descendant of Vikings or Northmen Normans.

When Edward died without children, it was natural that Emma's great-nephew, Duke William, should lay claim to the throne. It was just as natural that this claim should be resisted by Harold, the son of Godwin, Edward's most powerful noble. Even when he and his troops arrived, exhausted, at Hastings three weeks later to face William's Norman invaders, he nearly prevailed.

He has published a number of books and articles on early medieval France, including The Franks Blackwell, and is currently writing a book called Europe's Barbarians for Longman. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience.

Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets CSS if you are able to do so. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. Viking raids Raids by seaborne Scandinavian pirates on sites in Britain, especially largely undefended monastic sites, began at the end of the eighth century AD.

Their lasting legacy was the formation of the independent kingdoms of England and Scotland. The Vikings are broadly viewed as pagan plunderers, but they were quick to adopt Christianity alongside their own gods. Their sagas and chronicles tell us much about the Vikings, but runes, coins and even DNA can tell us plenty more. Search term:.

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