Viking | people | Britannica. Viking, also called Norseman or Northman, member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 1. European history. These pagan Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish warriors were probably prompted to undertake their raids by a combination of factors ranging from overpopulation at home to the relative helplessness of victims abroad. The Vikings were made up of landowning chieftains and clan heads, their retainers, freemen, and any energetic young clan members who sought adventure and booty overseas. At home these Scandinavians were independent farmers, but at sea they were raiders and pillagers. During the Viking period the Scandinavian countries seem to have possessed a practically inexhaustible surplus of manpower, and leaders of ability, who could organize groups of warriors into conquering bands and armies, were seldom lacking. These bands would negotiate the seas in their longships and mount hit- and- run raids at cities and towns along the coasts of Europe. Their burning, plundering, and killing earned them the name vikingr, meaning “pirate” in the early Scandinavian languages. Read More on This Topic. Norway: The Vikings. The name Viking at first (c. Vik, the huge bay that lies between Cape Lindesnes in Norway and the mouth of the Göta River in Sweden and that has been called Skagerrak since 1. The term Viking Age has come to denote those years from about 8. Scandinavians set out on innumerable plundering expeditions abroad. Surplus population, superior ships and.. READ MOREThe exact ethnic composition of the Viking armies is unknown in particular cases, but the Vikings’ expansion in the Baltic lands and in Russia can reasonably be attributed to the Swedes. Viking: Member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century and whose disruptive influence. Timeline of facts and information about the Stuart period for school projects - written especially for kids in easy to understand words. ![]() An online encyclopedia of British history for children. Date: Event: c.AD789 Viking raids on Britain begin. AD793 Vikings attack the monastery at Lindisfarne.On the other hand, the nonmilitary colonization of the Orkney Islands, Faroe Islands, and Iceland was clearly accomplished by the Norwegians. England. In England desultory raiding occurred in the late 8th century but began more earnestly in 8. Ragnar Lothbrok—Halfdan, Inwaer (Ivan the Boneless), and perhaps Hubba (Ubbe)—conquered the ancient kingdoms of East Anglia and Northumbria and reduced Mercia to a fraction of its former size. Yet it was unable to subdue the Wessex of Alfred the Great, with whom in 8. This recognized that much of England was in Danish hands. Although hard pressed by fresh armies of Vikings from 8. Alfred was finally victorious over them, and the spirit of Wessex was so little broken that his son Edward the Elder was able to commence the reconquest of Danish England. Before his death in 9. Danish states on old Mercian and East Anglian territory had fallen before him. The more remote Northumbria resisted longer, largely under Viking leaders from Ireland, but the Scandinavian power there was finally liquidated by Eadred in 9. Viking raids on England began again in 9. Canute. Nevertheless, the native house was peacefully restored in 1. Viking threat ended with the ineffective passes made by Canute II in the reign of William I. The Scandinavian conquests in England left deep marks on the areas affected—in social structure, dialect, place- names, and personal names. The western seas and Ireland. In the western seas, Scandinavian expansion touched practically every possible point. Settlers poured into Iceland from at least about 9. Iceland colonies were founded in Greenland and attempted in North America. The same period saw settlements arise in the Orkney, Faroe, and Shetland islands, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. Test Your Knowledge. Shakespearean Plays: Fact or Fiction? Scandinavian invasions of Ireland are recorded from 7. Rechru, an island not identified, was ravaged. Thenceforth fighting was incessant, and, although the natives often more than held their own, Scandinavian kingdoms arose at Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford. The kings of Dublin for a time felt strong enough for foreign adventure, and in the early 1. Dublin and Northumberland. The likelihood that Ireland would be unified under Scandinavian leadership passed with the Battle of Clontarf in 1. Irish Scandinavians, supported by the earl of Orkney and some native Irish, suffered disastrous defeat. Yet in the 1. 2th century the English invaders of Ireland found the Scandinavians still dominant (though Christianized) at Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Wexford, and Cork. The Carolingian empire and France. Viking settlement was never achieved in the well- defended Carolingian empire on the scale evidenced in the British Isles, and Scandinavian influence on continental languages and institutions is, outside Normandy, very slight. Sporadic raiding did occur, however, until the end of the Viking period; and, in the 1. Seine River became the germ of the duchy of Normandy, the only permanent Viking achievement in what had been the empire of Charlemagne (see. Norman). Farther south than France—in the Iberian Peninsula and on the Mediterranean coasts—the Vikings raided from time to time but accomplished little of permanence. Eastern Europe. The eastern Viking expansion was probably a less violent process than that on the Atlantic coasts. Although there was, no doubt, plenty of sporadic raiding in the Baltic and although “to go on the east- Viking” was an expression meaning to indulge in such activity, no Viking kingdom was founded with the sword in that area. The greatest eastern movement of the Scandinavians was that which carried them into the heart of Russia. The extent of this penetration is difficult to assess, for, although the Scandinavians were at one time dominant at Novgorod, Kiev, and other centres, they were rapidly absorbed by the Slavonic population, to which, however, they gave their name Rus, “Russians.” The Rus were clearly in the main traders, and two of their commercial treaties with the Greeks are preserved in the Primary Chronicle under 9. Rus signatories have indubitably Scandinavian names. Occasionally, however, the Rus attempted voyages of plunder like their kinsmen in the west. Their existence as a separate people did not continue past 1. Britannica Lists & Quizzes. The first half of the 1. Viking movement toward the east. A number of Swedish runic stones record the names of men who went with Yngvarr on his journeys. These journeys were to the east, but only legendary accounts of their precise direction and intention survive. A further activity of the Scandinavians in the east was service as mercenaries in Constantinople (Istanbul), where they formed the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor. After the 1. 1th century the Viking chief became a figure of the past. Norway and Sweden had no more force for external adventure, and Denmark became a conquering power, able to absorb the more unruly elements of its population into its own royal armies. Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway, before he became king in 1. Viking chief in the old independent tradition.
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