page_title: History of Norway
section_title: Viking Age
hierarchical_section_title: History of Norway / Viking Age
context_page_description: The history of Norway has been influenced to an extraordinary degree by the terrain and the climate of the region. About 10,000 BC, following the retreat of the great inland ice sheets, the earliest inhabitants migrated north into the territory which is now Norway. They traveled steadily northwards along the coastal areas, warmed by the Gulf Stream, where life was more bearable. In order to survive they fished and hunted reindeer. Between 5,000 BC and 4,000 BC the earliest agricultural settlements appeared around the Oslofjord. Gradually, between 1500 BC and 500 BC, these agricultural settlements spread into the southern areas of Norway – whilst the inhabitants of the northern regions continued to hunt and fish.
  The Neolithic period started in 4000 BC. The Migration Period caused the first chieftains to take control and the first defenses to be made. From the last decades of the 8th century Norwegians started expanding across the seas to the British Isles and later Iceland and Greenland. The Viking Age also saw the unification of the country. Christianization took place during the 11th century and Nidaros became an archdiocese.
context_section_description: The Viking Age was a period of Scandinavian expansion through trade, colonization and raids. One of the first raids was against Lindisfarne in 793 and is considered the beginning of the Viking Age. This was possible because of the development of the longship, suitable for travel across the sea, and advanced navigation techniques.
  Vikings were well equipped, had chain mail armor, were well trained and had a psychological advantage over Christian counterparts since they believed that being killed in combat would result in them going to Valhalla. In addition to gold and silver, an important outcome from the raids were thralls, which were brought to the Norwegian farms as a slave workforce. While the men were out at sea, the management of the farm was under the control of the women.
  The lack of suitable farming land in Western Norway caused Norwegians to travel to the sparsely populated areas of Shetland, Orkney, the Faroe Islands and the Hebrides to colonize—the latter of which became the Kingdom of the Isles. Norwegian Vikings settled on the east coast of Ireland circa 800 and founded the island's first cities, including Dublin. Their arrival caused the petty Celtic kings to ally, and by 900 they had driven out the Norwegians.
  In the mid-9th century, the largest chieftains of the petty kingdoms started a major power struggle. Harald Fairhair started the process of unifying Norway when he entered an alliance with the Earls of Lade and was able to unify the country after the decisive Battle of Hafrsfjord (circa 870–900). He set up the very basics of a state administration with stewards in the most important former chieftain estates.
  Iceland, then uninhabited, was discovered by Norwegians during the late 9th century. By 930 the island had been divided among 400 Norse chieftains.
  Håkon the Good – the son of Harald Fairhair – assumed the crown in 930 and established two large things, assemblies in which the king met with the freemen to make decisions: Gulating for Western Norway and Frostating for Trøndelag. He also established the ledang, a conscription-based military. After his death in 960, war broke out between the Fairhair dynasty and the Earls of Lade in alliance with Danish kings.
  Led by Erik the Red, a Norwegian-born man, a group of Icelanders settled on Greenland in the 980s. Erik's son, Leif Ericson, discovered Newfoundland in ca. 1000, naming it Vinland. Unlike Greenland, no permanent settlement was established there.
caption: Petty kingdoms of Norway ca. 872
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