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At one point, a group of Rus Vikings went so far south that, after briefly being bodyguards for the Byzantine emperor, they attacked the Byzantine city of Constantinople. [12] Vikings also voyaged to Iran [13] [page needed] and Arabia. [14] They were the first Europeans to reach North America, briefly settling in Newfoundland (Vinland).
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries.
Generally, Vikings used axes as weapons due to the lessened amount of iron required for their creations; swords were typically seen as a mark of wealth. Spears were also a common weapon among Vikings. Great amounts of time and artistry were expended in the creation of Viking weapons; ornamentation is commonly seen among them. [160]
Vikings, according to Clare Downham in Viking Kings of Britain and Ireland, are "people of Scandinavian culture who were active outside Scandinavia ... Danes, Norwegians, Swedish, Hiberno-Scandinavians, Anglo-Scandinavians, or the inhabitants of any Scandinavian colony who affiliated themselves more strongly with the culture of the colonizer than with that of the indigenous population."
The Viking king of Northumbria, Halfdan Ragnarrson (Old English: Healfdene)—one of the leaders of the Viking Great Army (known to the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army)—surrendered his lands to a second wave of Viking invaders in 876. In the next four years, Vikings gained further land in the kingdoms of Mercia and East Anglia as well ...
The Great Heathen Army, [a] also known as the Viking Great Army, [1] was a coalition of Scandinavian warriors who invaded England in 865 AD. Since the late 8th century, the Vikings [ b ] had been engaging in raids on centres of wealth, such as monasteries .
Also in 869 the Picts were attacked by the Lochlanns and internal strife in Lochlann was recorded because: the sons of Albdan, King of Lochlann, expelled the eldest son, Raghnall, son of Albdan, because they feared that he would take the kingdom of Lochlann after their father; and Raghnall came with his three sons to Innsi Orc and Raghnall ...
The Vikings on the Faroe Islands were an agricultural people. They grew barley, which was ground with slate millstones imported from Norway. The most important domestic animals were sheep, and Faroese wool was already an important export at that time. There were also cows and, unlike today, many pigs. The name of the island, Svínoy, testifies ...