The Vikings

Thor the Mighty God of War
Set Out Upon His Filly.
I'm Thor He Cried,
The Horse Replied
Your Forgot Your Saddle, Silly.**

See Viking Proverbs.

The Vikings were a fearsome yet intelligent civilisation. They existed between the 8th Century and the 11th Century AD. In the beginning they mainly lived in Scandinavia. Later they raided and settled in many countries from Russia to America. They became Christian around 1030. They had many kings, their last one in England was called Eric Bloodaxe. Their law was very harsh.

In about 860 AD the Vikings discovered Iceland. Also Greenland was discovered by Eric the Red and America was spotted by a Viking also. So you see that they were excellent sailors, explorers, warriors and traders. They had been trying to attack England for about thirteen years. They conquered the North and the East of England, but never managed the South or West.

Click here to see a Map of the Viking World from the Viking Network .

Viking Civilization

The Vikings had no real empire. They were just a group of seagoing people, who were forced into travel for the following reasons:

1. In the 8th century inheritance laws changed in Scandinavia. Before, when the farm-owner died his property was divided equally among all his sons. Now the law said that only the eldest son would inherit the property, so there were lots of sons with nothing to do, so they went out to find their own property.

2. Before the 8th century Scandinavia was made up of lots of little kingdoms. In this century they started conquering each other and so there were lots of kings with no kingdom who went out in search of new land.

Here is a map of Viking Settlements in Greenland and Newfoundland.

Here is another map of Map of the Viking World.

Read more about Viking civilization and Where the Vikings traveled.

Read about Viking settlements in England, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Middle East & France