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Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristic longships, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast, as well as along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes across Eastern Europe where they were also known as Varangians.
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.
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 .
The first known account of a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789, when three ships from Hordaland (in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of Portland on the southern coast of Wessex. When approached by Beaduheard , the royal reeve from Dorchester , whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants entering the kingdom, they killed him.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 10 February 2025. Period of European history (about 800–1050) Viking Age picture stone, Gotland, Sweden. Part of a series on Scandinavia Countries Denmark Finland Iceland Norway Sweden History History by country Åland Denmark Faroe Islands Finland Greenland Iceland Norway Scotland Sweden Chronological ...
Northumbria has also been ruled by Norway under Cnut the Great, as well as West Norse people of the British Isles. The most important city was called Jórvík (York). France. Normandy; The Duchy of Normandy was ruled by Norwegian and Danish Vikings, under the leadership of Rollo.
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 ...
These raiders came to be known as the Vikings; the name is believed to derive from Scandinavia, where the Vikings originated. [91] [92] The first raids in the British Isles were in the late 8th century, mainly on churches and monasteries (which were seen as centres of wealth).