The Viking Age: basics

In short: The Viking Age lasted roughly from 790 to 1066 AD and was marked by trading voyages, settlements, and also violent raids by Scandinavian seafarers. Vikings were far more than just raiders.

In more detail: The term “Viking” refers to people from Scandinavia who travelled by sea, not to a single ethnic group.

In detail

• Shipbuilding: The fast, agile longships allowed both river travel and transoceanic voyages.
• Trade networks: Vikings traded furs, amber, slaves, and silver as far as Byzantium and the Arab world.
• Settlement: They founded settlements in Iceland and Greenland and were the first Europeans to reach North America.
• Social structure: Viking societies had chieftains, free farmers, and thing assemblies for jurisdiction.
• Religion: Belief in gods like Odin and Thor was only gradually displaced by Christianity over time.
• Raids: Attacks on monasteries and coastal towns in England and France shaped the image of the “wild Vikings”.
• End of the era: The Christianisation of Scandinavia and the Battle of Hastings in 1066 ended the classic Viking Age (mittelalter-lebenswelt-und-gesellschaft, antike-hochkulturen-mesopotamien-indus-china).