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The term Viking is used to denote the explorers, traders and warriors who originated in Norway , Iceland , Denmark and Sweden and raided the coasts of the British Isles and other parts of Europe from the late 8th Century to the 11th Century . This period of European history (generally dated to AD 793 - AD 1066) is often referred to as the Viking Age . It may also be used to denote the entire populations of these countries and their settlements elsewere. Famed for their navigation ability and long ships, Vikings in a few hundred years colonized the coasts and rivers of Europe, the islands of Shetland , Orkney , the Faroe Islands , Iceland , Greenland , and for a short while also Newfoundland circa AD 1000, while still reaching as far south as North Africa , east into Russia and to Constantinople for raiding and trading. Viking voyages grew less frequent with the introduction of Christianity to Scandinavia in the late 10th and 11th century. The Viking Age is often considered to have ended with the Battle Of Stamford Bridge in 1066 . The word “Viking” was introduced to the English language with Romantic connotations in the 18th Century . In the current Scandinavian languages the term ''viking'' is applied to the people who went away on viking expeditions, be it for raiding or trading. In English it has become common to use it to refer to the Viking Age Scandinavians in general. The medieval Scandinavian population is also referred to as Norse . THE VIKING AGE ''See main article Viking Age ''. The period of North Germanic expansion, usually taken to last from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, is commonly called the 'Viking Age.' The Vikings may be seen as late joiners in the Migrations Period , and thus the period links Late Antiquity with the high Middle Ages . Geographically, a "Viking Age" may be assigned not only to the Scandinavian lands (modern Denmark, and southern Norway and Sweden), but also to territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly the Danelaw , Scotland , the Isle Of Man and Ireland . Contemporary with the European Viking Age, the Byzantine Empire experienced the greatest period of stability (circa 800– 1071 ) it would enjoy after the initial wave of Arab conquests in the mid-seventh century. Viking navigators also opened the road to new lands to the north and to the west, resulting in the colonization of Shetland , Orkney , the Faroe Islands , Iceland , Greenland , and even a short expedition to Newfoundland , circa AD 1000. During three centuries, Vikings appeared along the coasts and rivers of Europe, as traders, but also as raiders, and even as settlers. From 839, there were Varangian mercenaries in Byzantine service (most famously Harald Hardrada , who campaigned in North Africa and Jerusalem in the 1030s). Important trading ports during the period include Birka , Hedeby , Kaupang , Jorvik , Staraya Ladoga , Novgorod and Kiev . Generally speaking, the Norwegians expanded to the north and west, the Dane s to England, settling in the Danelaw , and the Swede s to the east. But the three nations were not yet clearly separated, and still united by the common Old Norse language. The names of Scandinavian kings are known only for the later part of the Viking Age, and only after the end of the Viking Age did the separate kingdoms acquire a distinct identity as nations, which went hand in hand with their Christianization . Thus it may be noted that the end of the Viking Age ( 9th – 11th Century ) for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Ages. Decline After trade and settlement, Christianity was introduced into Scandinavia by the 11th century, and the process of Christianization was completed during the Middle Ages . The coming of Christianity, and with the inclusion into a wider European civilization, as well as technical advances in warfare, made the Viking raids less desirable and less profitable, and eventually the political structures based on them were replaced by structures based more on continental Feudalism . HISTORICAL RECORDS having illustrations of what probably are Varangians in the Byzantine Empire and a Byzantine ship]] The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 787 AD when, according to the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ,'' a group of men from Norway sailed to Portland , in Dorset. There, they were mistaken for merchants by a royal official, and they murdered him when he tried to get them to accompany him to the king's manor to pay a trading tax on their goods. The next recorded attack, dated June 8, 793 AD, was on the monastery at Lindisfarne – the "Holy Island" – on the east coast of England . For the next 200 years, European History is filled with tales of Vikings and their plundering. Vikings exerted influence throughout the coastal areas of Ireland and Scotland , and conquered and colonized large parts of England (see Danelaw ). They travelled up the rivers of France and Spain , and gained control of areas in Russia and along the Baltic coast. Stories tell of raids in the Mediterranean and as far east as the Caspian Sea . Adam Of Bremen records in his book ''Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum'', (volume four): - :''Aurum ibi plurimum, quod raptu congeritur piratico. Ipsi enim piratae, 'quos illi Wichingos as appellant, nostri Ascomannos regi Danico tributum solvunt''. - :"There is much gold here (in Zealand ), accumulated by piracy. These pirates, which are called ''wichingi'' by their own people, and ''Ascomanni'' by our own people, pay tribute to the Danish king." Viking raids in Iberia By the mid 9th century, though apparently not before (Fletcher 1984, ch. 1, note 51), there were Viking attacks on the coastal ) to protect Compostela from the Atlantic approaches. In the Islamic south, the first navy of the Emirate was called into being after the humiliating Viking ascent of the Guadalquivir , 844, and was tested in repulsing Vikings in 859. Soon the dockyards at Seville were extended, it was employed to patrol the Iberian coastline under the caliphs Abd Al-Rahman III (912–61) and Al-Hakam II (961–76). By the next century piracy from Saracens superseded the Viking scourge. Rune stones Many Rune Stones in Scandinavia record the names of participants in Viking expeditions. Other rune stones mention men who died on Viking expeditions, among them the around 25 Ingvar Stones in the Mälardalen district of Sweden erected to commemorate members of a disastrous expedition into present-day Russia in the early 11th century. The rune stones are important sources in the study of the entire Norse Society and early medieval Scandinavia, not only of the 'Viking' segment of the population (Sawyer, P H: 1997). Icelandic sagas Norse Mythology , Norse Saga s and Old Norse Literature tell us about their religion through tales of heroic and mythological heroes. However, the transmission of this information was primarily oral, and we are reliant upon the writings of (later) Christian scholars, such as the Icelanders Snorri Sturluson and Sæmundr Fróði , for much of this. An overwhelming amount of these sagas were written in Iceland . Vikings in those sagas are described as if they often struck at accessible and poorly defended targets, usually with impunity. The sagas state that the Vikings built settlements and were skilled craftsmen and traders. ETYMOLOGY The etymology of "Viking" is somewhat vague. One path might be from the Old Norse word, ''vík,'' meaning "bay," "creek," or "inlet," and the suffix ''-ing'', meaning "coming from" or "belonging to." Thus, ''viking'' would be a 'person of the bay', or "bayling" for lack of a better word. In Old Norse, this would be spelled ''víkingr''. Later on, the term, ''viking,'' became synonymous with "naval expedition" or "naval raid", and a ''víkingr'' was a member of such expeditions. A second etymology suggested that the term is derived from Old English , ''wíc,'' ie. "trading city" (cognate to Latin ''vicus'', "village"). The word ''viking'' appears on several Rune Stone s found in Scandinavia . In the Icelandic Saga s, ''víking'' refers to an overseas expedition (Old Norse ''farar i vikingr'' "to go on an expedition"), and ''víkingr,'' to a seaman or warrior taking part in such an expedition. In Old English, the word ''wicing'' appears first in the Anglo-Saxon poem, " Widsith ", which probably dates from the 9th century. In Old English, and in the writings of Adam Von Bremen , the term to a Pirate , and is not a name for a people or a culture in general. The word disappeared in Middle English , and was reintroduced as ''viking'' during 18th Century Romanticism (the " Viking Revival "), with heroic overtones of " Barbarian warrior" or Noble Savage . During the 20th Century , the meaning of the term was expanded to refer not only to the raiders, but also to the entire period; it is now, somewhat confusingly, used as a noun both in the original meaning of raiders, warriors or navigators, and to refer to the Scandinavian population in general. As an adjective, the word is used in expressions like " Viking Age ," "Viking culture," "Viking colony," etc., generally referring to medieval Scandinavia. SHIPS , Denmark .]] There were two distinct classes of Viking ships: the Longship (the largest also known as "drakkar", meaning "dragon" in Norse) and the Knarr . The longship, intended for warfare and exploration, was designed for speed and agility, and were equipped with oars to complement the sail as well as making it able to navigate independently of the wind. The longship had a long and narrow hull, as well as a shallow draft, in order to facilitate landnings and troop deployments in shallow water. The knarr, on the other hand, was a slower merchant vessel with a greater cargo capacity than the longship. It was designed with a short and broad hull, and a deep draft. It also lacked the oars of the longship. Longships were used extensively by the Leidang , the Scandinavian defense fleets. The term "Viking ships" has entered common usage, however, possibly because of its Romantic associations (discussed below). In Roskilde are the well-preserved remains of five ships, excavated from nearby Roskilde Fjord in the late 1960s. The ships were scuttled there in the 11th Century to block a navigation channel, thus protecting the city which was then the Danish capital, from seaborne assault. These five ships represent the two distinct classes of the Viking Ships, the longship and the knarr. MODERN REVIVALS ''See also 19th Century Viking Revival .'' Early modern publications, dealing with what we now call Viking culture, appeared in the 16th Century , e.g. ''Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus'' (Olaus Magnus, 1555 ), and the first edition of the 13th Century ''Gesta Danorum'' of Saxo Grammaticus in 1514. The pace of publication increased during the 17th Century with Latin translations of the Edda (notably Peder Resen's ''Edda Islandorum'' of 1665). Romanticism According to the Swedish writer, Jan Guillou , the word ''Viking'' was popularized, with positive connotations, by Erik Gustaf Geijer in the poem, ''The Viking'', written at the beginning of the 19th Century . The word was taken to refer to romanticized, idealized naval warriors, who had very little to do with the historical Viking culture. This renewed interest of Romanticism in the Old North had political implications. A myth about a glorious and brave past was needed to give the Swedes the courage to retake Finland , which had been lost in 1809 during the War Between Sweden And Russia . The Geatish Society , of which Geijer was a member, popularized this myth to a great extent. Another Swedish author who had great influence on the perception of the Vikings was Esaias Tegnér , member of the Geatish Society , who wrote a modern version of '' Friðþjófs Saga Ins Frœkna '', which became widely popular in the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and Germany . A focus for early British enthusiasts was George Hicke, who published a ''Linguarum vett. septentrionalium thesaurus'' in 1703– 1705 . During the 18th Century , British interest and enthusiasm for Iceland and Nordic culture grew dramatically, expressed in English translations as well as original poems, extolling Viking virtues and increased interest in anything Runic that could be found in the Danelaw , rising to a peak during Victorian Times . The German composer Richard Wagner 's works are strongly influenced by Norse Mythology . Pseudohistorical views '' Le Secret Des Vikings '' is a Pseudohistorical work by the French author Joel Supéry . According to Supéry, the Scandinavia n attacks against the Frankish Empire were carried out not by raiding adventurers looking for gold and silver but by armies applying a military strategy. Nazism The Romanticist heroic Viking ideal and the Wagnerian mythology also appealed to the Germanic supremacist thinkers of Nazi Germany as reflected, for example, in the runic emblem of the SS , the Neo-Nazi youth organization Wiking-Jugend , and its Odal Rune symbol (see also Fascist Symbolism ). The Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling used viking symbolism and imagery widely in its propaganda. Living History Since the 1960s, there has been rising enthusiasm for Historical Reenactment . While the earliest groups had little claim for historical accuracy, the seriousness and accuracy of re-enactors has increased dramatically during the 1990s, including many re-enactment groups concentrating on an accurate representation of the Viking Age. POPULAR MYTHS Horned helmets Apart from two or three representations of (ritual) helmets with protrusions that may be either snakes or horns, no depiction of Viking Age warriors' helmets, and no actually preserved helmet, has horns. In fact, the formal close-quarters style of Viking combat (either in shield walls or aboard "ship islands") would have made horned helmets cumbersome and hazardous to the warrior's own side. The general misconception that vikings wore and Vicky The Viking . Skull cups The use of human skulls as drinking vessels is also ahistorical. The rise of this myth can be traced back to a mistranslation of an ). Uncleanliness The image of wild-haired, dirty savages, sometimes associated with the Vikings in popular culture, has hardly any base in reality. The Vikings used a variety of tools for personal grooming such as combs, tweezers, razors or specialized "ear spoons". In particular, combs are among the most frequent artifacts from Viking Age graves, and one can conclude that a comb was the personal equipment of every man and woman. The Vikings also used Soap , long before it was reintroduced to Europe after the fall of the Byzantine Empire . The Vikings in England even had a particular reputation of excessive cleanliness, due to their custom of bathing once a week, on Saturdays (as opposed to the local Anglo-Saxons ). To this day Saturday is referred to as ''laugardagur''/''lørdag'' "bathing day" in the Scandinavian Languages . As for the Rus' , who had later acquired a subjected Varangian component, Ibn Rustah explicitly notes their cleanliness, while Ibn Fadlan is disgusted by all of the men sharing the same vessel to wash their faces and blow their noses in the morning. Ibn Fadlan's disgust is probably motivated by ideas of personal hygiene particular to the Muslim world, while the very example intended to convey the disgusting customs of the Rus' at the same time records that they did in fact wash every morning. IN POPULAR CULTURE Books Vikings, and Viking inspired societies have appeared in a number of works of fiction, including:
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REFERENCES - Source: “Famous Vikings of Northern Europe'' by Harmondsworth: Penguin. New edition 1990 by Penguin Books. ISBN 0140206701. SEE ALSO Culture Historians Archaeology
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