Already Tacitius, The Roman historian, mentioned the Suiones , and as the predominant trait of this people he named sea travelling. He also mentioned the rigorous military organisation that the kings forced upon their ship crews. We tend to regard a king as the head of a whole nation. In the Viking era this was also true, but a nation at that time was more like what we today would call a tribe. A number of families, many of them having blood ties to one another, would have the foremost man among them named king.
Rune stones are numerous in central Sweden.
Swedish Vikings sailed to the east. They crossed the Baltic Sea and started small settlements in Finland and Estonia. They went further inland to the great lake of Ladoga, and on the river Volchov to a big settlement that was to become known as Holmg rd, today s Novgorod in Russia. Further to the east and south, the Vikings sailed along the river Volchov until it was no longer possible. Here the famous ships with their dragon figureheads turned to the west and arrived in Constantinople, known to the Vikings as Miklag rd.