Editing Viking Age (section)

== Overview ==
[[File:Viking towns of Scandinavia 2.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|Viking-era towns of [[Scandinavia]]]]
The earliest date given for the coming of Vikings to England is 789 during the reign of King [[Beorhtric of Wessex]]. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' three Norwegian boats from [[Hordaland]] (Old Norse: ''Hǫrðalandi'') landed at the [[Isle of Portland]] off the coast of Dorset. They apparently were mistaken for merchants by a royal official, Beaduhard,<ref name="Carroll2014">{{cite book |last1=Carroll |first1=Jayne |editor1-last=Allard |editor1-first=Joe |editor2-last=North |editor2-first=Richard |title=Beowulf and Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-86041-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b05pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT348 |chapter=Viking wars and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle}}</ref> a king's [[Reeve (England)|reeve]] who attempted to force them to come to the king's manor, whereupon they killed the reeve and his men.<ref name="Loyn1995">{{cite book |last1=Loyn |first1=Henry |title=The Vikings in Britain |year=1995 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-631-18711-0 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlkmEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref> The beginning of the Viking Age in the [[British Isles]] is often set at 793. It was recorded in the ''Anglo–Saxon Chronicle'' that the Northmen raided the important island monastery of [[Lindisfarne]] (the generally accepted date is actually 8 June, not January<ref name="Swanton" />):

{{blockquote |A.D. 793. This year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island ''(Lindisfarne)'', by rapine and slaughter. |''Anglo Saxon Chronicle''.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://mcllibrary.org/Anglo/part2.html |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: Part 2 |publisher= Medieval and Classical Literature Library |access-date = 7 June 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180413124643/http://mcllibrary.org/Anglo/part2.html |archive-date = 13 April 2018 |url-status=live |df = dmy-all }}</ref>}}

In 794, according to the ''[[Annals of Ulster]]'', a serious attack was made on Lindisfarne's mother-house of [[Iona]], which was followed in 795 by raids upon the northern coast of Ireland. From bases there, the Norsemen attacked Iona again in 802, causing great slaughter amongst the ''[[Culdee|Céli Dé]]'' Brethren, and burning the abbey to the ground.

The Vikings primarily targeted Ireland until 830, as England and the Carolingian Empire were able to fight the Vikings off.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Bagge |first=Sverre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ |title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation |date=2014 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5 |pages=21–22 |language=en |access-date=25 July 2021 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120140/https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, after {{CE|830}}, the Vikings had considerable success against England, the Carolingian Empire, and other parts of Western Europe.<ref name=":3" /> After 830, the Vikings exploited disunity within the Carolingian Empire, as well as pitting the English kingdoms against each other.<ref name=":3" />
[[File:Vikings-Voyages.png|thumb|upright=1.35|Viking expeditions (blue line): depicting the immense breadth of their voyages through most of [[Europe]], the [[Mediterranean Sea]], Northern [[Africa]], [[Asia Minor]], the [[Arctic]], and [[North America]]. [[Lower Normandy]], depicted as a "Viking territory in 911", was not part of the lands granted by the king of the Franks to [[Rollo]] in 911, but [[Upper Normandy]].]]

The Kingdom of the [[Franks]] under Charlemagne was particularly devastated by these raiders, who could sail up the [[Seine]] with near impunity. Near the end of Charlemagne's reign (and throughout the reigns of his sons and grandsons), a string of Norse raids began, culminating in a gradual Scandinavian conquest and settlement of the region now known as [[Scandinavian invasions of Normandy|Normandy]] in 911. Frankish King [[Charles the Simple]] granted the Duchy of Normandy to Viking warleader [[Rollo of Normandy|Rollo]] (a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish origins)<ref>The material suggesting a Norwegian origin identifies him with [[Rollo|Hrolf the Ganger]], also known as "Rolf the Walker"</ref> in order to stave off attacks by other Vikings.<ref name=":3" /> Charles gave Rollo the title of duke. In return, Rollo swore [[fealty]] to Charles, converted to Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against the incursions of other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman descendants of these Viking settlers not only identified themselves as Norman, but also carried the [[Norman language]] (either a French dialect or a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon), and their Norman culture, into England in 1066. With the [[Norman Conquest]], they became the ruling aristocracy of [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo–Saxon England]].

The [[clinker (boat building)|clinker]]-built [[longship]]s used by the Scandinavians were uniquely suited to both deep and shallow waters. They extended the reach of Norse raiders, traders, and settlers along coastlines and along the major river valleys of north-western Europe. [[Rurik]] also expanded to the east, and in 859 became ruler either by conquest or invitation by local people of the city of [[Novgorod]] (which means "new city") on the [[Volkhov River]]. [[Rurik Dynasty|His successors]] moved further, founding the early East Slavic state of [[Kievan Rus']] with the capital in [[Kiev]]. This persisted until 1240, when the [[Mongol invasion of Rus'|Mongols invaded Kievan Rus']].

Other Norse people continued south to the [[Black Sea]] and then on to [[Constantinople]]. The eastern connections of these "[[Varangians]]" brought [[Byzantine silk]], a [[cowrie shell]] from the Red Sea, and even coins from [[Samarkand]], to [[Jorvik|Viking York]].

In 884, an army of Danish Vikings was defeated at the [[Battle of Norditi]] (also called the Battle of Hilgenried Bay) on the Germanic [[North Sea]] coast by a [[Frisians|Frisian]] army under Archbishop [[Rimbert]] of Bremen-Hamburg, which precipitated the complete and permanent withdrawal of the Vikings from [[East Frisia]]. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Saxons and Slavs began to use trained mobile cavalry successfully against Viking foot soldiers, making it hard for Viking invaders to fight inland.<ref name="Howard">{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzXp1yYjq94C|title=Swein Forkbeard's Invasions and the Danish Conquest of England, 991–1017|publisher=Boydell Press|year=2003|isbn=0-85115-928-1|location=Woodbridge|page=26|access-date=16 October 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414015622/https://books.google.com/books?id=jzXp1yYjq94C|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Scandinavia, the Viking Age is considered by some scholars to have ended with the establishment of royal authority and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion.<ref name="Winroth2016 143">{{cite book |last1=Winroth |first1=Anders |title=The Age of the Vikings |year=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16929-3 |page=143 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E26YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA143}}</ref> Scholars have proposed different end dates for the Viking Age, but many argue it ended in the 11th century. The year 1000 is sometimes used, as that was the year in which Iceland converted to Christianity, marking the conversion of all of Scandinavia to Christianity. The death of Harthacnut, the Danish King of England, in 1042 has also been used as an end date.<ref name="Jesch2015"/> History does not often allow such clear-cut separation between arbitrary "ages", and it is not easy to pin down a single date that applies to all the Viking world. The Viking Age was not a "monolithic chronological period" across three or four hundred years, but was characterised by various distinct phases of Viking activity. It is unlikely that the Viking Age could be so neatly assigned a terminal event.<ref name="Somerville&McDonald2019">{{cite book |editor1-last=Somerville |editor1-first=Angus A. |editor2-last=McDonald |editor2-first=R. Andrew |title=The Viking Age: A Reader |edition=3rd |date=2019 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-7047-7 |page=451 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oBK_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA451 |chapter=The End of the Viking Age}}</ref> The end of the Viking era in Norway is marked by the [[Battle of Stiklestad]] in 1030, in which Óláfr Haraldsson (later known as [[Olaf II of Norway|Olav the Holy]]), a fervent Christianiser who dealt harshly with those suspected of clinging to pagan cult, was killed.<ref name="Bagge2012">{{cite book |last1=Bagge |first1=Sverre |title=From Viking Stronghold to Christian Kingdom: State Formation in Norway, c. 900–1350 |year=2012 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=978-87-635-0791-2 |pages=29–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCarBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29}}</ref> Although Óláfr's army lost the battle, Christianity continued to spread, and after his death he became one of the subjects of the three miracle stories given in the [[Manx Chronicle]].<ref name="McDonald2020">{{cite book |last1=McDonald |first1=R. Andrew |title=The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles c. 1066–1275 |year=2020 |publisher=Birlinn Ltd |isbn=978-1-78885-148-0 |page=221 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DnjnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT221}}</ref> In Sweden, the reign of king [[Olof Skötkonung]] ({{circa|995–1020}}) is considered to be the transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, and he is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted until the 12th century; Olof was the last king in Scandinavia to adopt Christianity.

The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by the failed invasion attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III ([[Harald Hardrada|Haraldr Harðráði]]), who was defeated by Saxon King [[Harold Godwinson]] in 1066 at the [[Battle of Stamford Bridge]];<ref name="Jesch2015"/> in Ireland, the capture of [[Dublin]] by [[Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Strongbow]] and his [[Normans in Ireland|Hiberno-Norman]] forces in 1171; and 1263 in Scotland by the defeat of King [[Haakon IV of Norway|Hákon Hákonarson]] at the [[Battle of Largs]] by troops loyal to [[Alexander III of Scotland|Alexander III]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2015}} Godwinson was subsequently defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, [[William I of England|William]], Duke of [[Normandy]]. Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the [[Norsemen|Norse]] between the 13th and the 15th centuries; the [[Western Isles]] and the [[Isle of Man]] remained under Scandinavian authority until 1266. [[Orkney]] and [[Shetland]] belonged to the king of Norway as late as 1469. Consequently, a "long Viking Age" may stretch into the 15th century.<ref name="Jesch2015"/>

{{Timeline of the Viking Age}}