Vikings

**Vikings** were Norse seafaring raiders, explorers, and traders who left an overpopulated and under-cultivated Scandinavia to explore new lands, establish colonies, and raid distant nations during the Viking Age of 793-1066. In the centuries following the end of the era of Viking expansion, the pagan "Viking" became an almost mythical figure, associated almost solely with raiding, pillaging, rape, and conquest. However, the Viking expansion left behind numerous cultural impacts such as the development of the English language, the birth of modern-day Norse nations such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland, and the unifications of England, Ireland, and Scotland as Christian nations (most Vikings adopted Christianity by the mid-11th century). The Viking Age came to an end with the Norman conquest of England in 1066, when the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada was killed his failed attempt to conquer England, and the Franco-Norse nobleman William the Conqueror brought an end to the Anglo-Saxon and Danish aristocracies of England and created Norman England. By that time, the political situation in Scandinavia had calmed as the kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden centralized royal authority and prevented rogue seafarers from launching further raiding expeditions.

## History

Many Norsemen left Scandinavia for the same reasons as the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes four centuries earlier; in Denmark, for example, much of the country was made up of sand or mountains, and what little arable land remained was difficult to farm and unable to sustain the country's growing population. In Norway, the incessant fighting of petty kingdoms and overpopulation motivated thousands of Northmen to try their luck elsewhere. The invention of the longship in the late 8th century AD enabled Norse seafarers to branch out from Scandinavia in a period known as the "Viking expansion", establishing new colonies in the Faroe Islands, the Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland, the Isle of Man, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, and several other regions beyond the North Sea. These Vikings came mostly as settlers, explorers, and traders, but Norse seamen seeking military adventure and riches often embarked on piratical expedition to foreign shores; the word *Wicing* means "pirate" in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. Starting with the Sack of Lindisfarne in 793, the Vikings began to launch several raids on the British Isles, eventually evolving into the Viking invasions of England with the arrival of the Great Heathen Army in England in 865. This new wave of Vikings sought to conquer new lands rather than just pillage them, and the Norse conquered large parts of the British Isles, including northern and western Scotland, northern and eastern England, the Isle of Man, and the east coast of Ireland. In England, the Viking army destroyed the Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and East Anglia, whose lands were colonized by Danish immigrants brought over on a second wave of ships, starting in 868. These immigrants settled in what became known as the "Danelaw", the region of England under Danish political and cultural influence. In 954, after decades of fierce fighting with the West Saxons in the south, the Danelaw was forced to submit to native English rule, but the Danish settlement of England left a lasting cultural and political impact on the country, with several Danes rising to be magnates or even kings and queens of a united England, especially under Canute's North Sea Empire of the early 11th century. Meanwhile, the Vikings of Ireland faced stiff resistance from the native Celts and were occasionally expelled from their strongholds of Dyflin, Vedrafjordr, and Veisafjordr, but the Norse maintained their independent enclaves until the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. The Norse settlers of Sudreyjar and Orkneyar in Scotland settled on the Scottish isles for centuries, and it was not until 1472 that the last Norse kingdom of Orkneyar was annexed by the Scots. In all three cases, the Norse left behind profound cultural impacts, including major contributions to the English language, toponyms, and genetics (by 2015, 11% of white British in southern and central England, 10.37% of people in the east Midlands, 10.10% of people in Yorkshire, and 9.37% of northern English were of known Danish descent). In Scotland, also as of 2015, 29.9% of Shetlanders and 25.2% of Orcadians were of Norwegian descent, and, by 2017, it was estimated that anywhere from 2 to 20% of Irish people had Norse DNA.

The Vikings also travelled far beyond the British Isles, raiding West Francia and establishing a colony in Normandy after Rollo converted to Christianity and was made Duke of Normandy by King Charles the Simple in 911. The Gallicisied Norsemen became known as "Normans", who would ultimately conquer England in 1066. These Normans established communities in northern Spain, southern Italy, Sicily, and Constantinople, and Norman names such as Richard (Ricardo), Hugh (Ugo), Jacques (Giacomo), William (Guglielmo), Reginaldo (Reinaldo), Robert (Roberto) have become common Italian names. Norsemen led by Rurik founded the Baltic principality of Novgorod and expanded south into other parts of eastern Europe, forming the Kievan Rus culture. These people became known as "Russians", who were of mixed Slavic and Norse ethnic and cultural origins. Many went on to serve the Byzantine emperors in the famed "Varangian Guard", which included mercenaries from Scandinavia, Normandy, and even Anglo-Saxons.

By the mid-11th century, the political situation in Scandinavia had calmed down as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden each became unified kingdoms, and the age of the raiding warlord had come to a close. Norse kings would occasionally launch Viking raids against Ireland or the Baltics during that time, but the defeat and death of Harald Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in England in 1066 is often said to have ended the Viking Age. Magnus Barelegs, the last great Viking king, led a raid on Scotland from 1098 to 1099 and was killed in battle in Ireland in 1103, ending the era of the sea king. Afterwards, Scandinavia was almost fully Christianized and modernized, adopting feudalism and bringing an end to the Viking Age and initiating the Norse High Middle Ages.