The Vikings are best known as marauding warriors, called the “Plague from the North” by their contemporaries. Besides warriors who did loot, rape, and murder, they were also explorers, settlers, craftsmen, traders, and shipbuilders. The Vikings were first spotted in 789 and began their raids in 793 with the looting of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England. The name Viking came from the Scandinavians themselves, from the Old Norse word ‘vik’ (= bay or creek) which formed the root of “Viking” (= pirate).

The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia, but to any place significantly settled by Scandinavians during the period. Two periods can be distinguished in the Viking conquests. The time between 789 to 840 involved raids in which an area that was under attack was abandoned just as quickly. Monasteries were beloved targets because of the valuables present. From 840 onwards they would have worked in a more structured way, including by setting up camps. This was rather colonization.

A vast number of Scandinavians left their homelands to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Over three centuries, they would leave their mark as pirates, raiders, traders, and settlers. Voyaging by sea from their homelands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Norse people settled in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, the Baltic coast and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in eastern Europe. They even settled in Newfoundland, becoming the first Europeans to arrive in North America. The Vikings founded kingdoms and earldoms in Europe. The Norse homelands also unified during the Viking Age, and the short-lived North Sea Empire included large swathes of Scandinavia and Britain.

Several things drove this expansion. The Vikings were drawn by the growth of wealthy towns and monasteries overseas, and weak kingdoms. Overpopulation, lack of good farmland and political strife may also have been pushing them. The aggressive expansion of the Carolingian Empire and forced conversion of the neighboring Saxons to Christianity may also have been a factor. Sailing innovations allowed the Vikings to sail further and longer to begin with.

Contrary to some popular conceptions of the Vikings, they were not a “race”. What made them different from the European peoples they confronted, was that hey came from a foreign land and not “civilized” in the local understanding of the word. More importantly in that era, they were not Christian. The exact reasons for leaving their homeland are uncertain. Overpopulation is not the prior reason, because the earliest raids were looking for riches and not land to settle. Europe was growing richer in the 8th century. Scandinavian furs were highly prized in the new trading markets. Scandinavians learned about new sailing technology as well as the growing wealth and the inner conflicts between European kingdoms. Viking predecessors expanded their fortune seeking activities in the North Sea and beyond.

The attack in 793 on the Lindisfarne monastery shook the European religious world. These invaders had no respect for religious institutions, who were left unguarded and vulnerable near the shore. Other raids followed. For several decades, the Vikings confined to hit-and-run raids against coastal targets in Europe. They took advantage of internal conflicts in Europe to extend their attacks further inland. Frankish rulers were willing to pay them rich sums to prevent them from attacking their subjects.

By the mid-ninth century, Vikings gained control of the Northern Isles of Scotland and much of mainland Scotland. They founded Irelands first trading towns, e.g., Dublin. And used their base on the Irish coast to launch attacks within Ireland and to England, after King Charles the Bald began defending West Frankia by fortifying towns, abbeys, rivers, and coastal areas. Many Vikings became farmers and traders and established York as a leading mercantile city.

Meanwhile, Viking armies continued to raid on the European continent. In 911, the West Frankish king granted Rouen and the surrounding territory by treaty to a Viking chief, Rollo in exchange for the latter’s denying passage to the Seine to other raiders. This region is known as Normandy, land of the Northmen.

After colonizing Iceland in the North Atlantic, some Vikings, including Erik the red, moved further westward to Greenland. Calling their landing place Vinland (= Wine-land), they built a temporary settlement in modern-day Newfoundland.

Harald Bluetooth, king of a Christianized Denmark organized large-scale raids and hit the coasts of Europe mid-10th century. The Vikings conquered the entire English kingdom in 1013. The English king went into exile. His son returned from exile and regained the English throne.

In 1066, the successor fell to the forces of William, Duke of Normandy who managed to retain the crown against further Danish challenges. These events in England marked the end of the Viking Age. By that time, all the Scandinavian kingdoms were Christian, and the Viking “culture” was being absorbed into the culture of Christian Europe.