Vikings

Vikings were seafaring people originally from <a href="/facts/Scandinavia/KpLQ40kl">Scandinavia</a> (present-day <a href="/facts/Denmark/KVtykzsw">Denmark</a>, <a href="/facts/Norway/wlDRKRTR">Norway</a>, and <a href="/facts/Sweden/u3qC7lyj">Sweden</a>), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean_Sea/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean</a>, <a href="/facts/North_Africa/ItxQAfs7">North Africa</a>, the <a href="/facts/Middle_East/8CD6pLWv">Middle East</a>, <a href="/facts/Greenland/aagXRTB7">Greenland</a>, and <a href="/facts/Vinland/DrIkAKvD">Vinland</a> (present-day <a href="/facts/Newfoundland/3rdY8zvo">Newfoundland</a> in <a href="/facts/Canada/D5P9yqs6">Canada</a>, <a href="/facts/North_America/djNjCQIl">North America</a>). In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the <a href="/facts/Viking_Age/sP3Ax2wX">Viking Age</a>, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the <a href="/facts/Early_Middle_Ages/9FrTq3rt">early medieval</a> history of <a href="/facts/Northern_Europe/u77t0yJI">northern</a> and <a href="/facts/Eastern_Europe/f5CDGzNA">Eastern Europe</a>, including the political and social development of <a href="/facts/England/U9mE5bGL">England</a> (and the English language) and parts of <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">France</a>, and established the embryo of <a href="/facts/Russia/jfkCwyxn">Russia</a> in <a href="/facts/Kievan_Rus%2527/oYbNWrwR">Kievan Rus'</a>.
Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristic <a href="/facts/Longship/NLuXcbkm">longships</a>, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the <a href="/facts/Viking_activity_in_the_British_Isles/e73JD6Eq">British Isles</a>, the <a href="/facts/Faroe_Islands/HMJ3bfmN">Faroe Islands</a>, <a href="/facts/Settlement_of_Iceland/q86dQNtx">Iceland</a>, <a href="/facts/History_of_Greenland/DL2xBgnQ">Greenland</a>, <a href="/facts/History_of_Normandy/LcsnBg9U">Normandy</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Baltic_Sea/jbQJGLQX">Baltic coast</a>, as well as along the <a href="/facts/Trade_route_from_the_Varangians_to_the_Greeks/rbhmDe0I">Dnieper</a> and <a href="/facts/Volga_trade_route/o84vYLkp">Volga trade routes</a> across <a href="/facts/Eastern_Europe/f5CDGzNA">Eastern Europe</a> where they were also known as <a href="/facts/Varangians/D9HbBA7T">Varangians</a>. The <a href="/facts/Normans/nUclGJWf">Normans</a>, <a href="/facts/Norse-Gaels/Y0JtlrLP">Norse-Gaels</a>, <a href="/facts/Rus%2527_people/bbFcBdav">Rus</a>, <a href="/facts/Faroe_Islanders/wU7JK9Va">Faroese</a>, and <a href="/facts/Icelanders/ACTclSH1">Icelanders</a> emerged from these Norse colonies. At one point, a group of Rus Vikings went so far south that, after briefly being bodyguards for the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_Empire/njEELXWF">Byzantine</a> emperor, they attacked the Byzantine city of <a href="/facts/Constantinople/fLcY371n">Constantinople</a>. Vikings also voyaged to <a href="/facts/Caspian_expeditions_of_the_Rus%2527/pG64W3IY">Iran</a> and <a href="/facts/Arab_world/F8Jouq98">Arabia</a>. They were the first Europeans to reach North America, briefly <a href="/facts/Norse_colonization_of_North_America/pGTr2UJc">settling in Newfoundland</a> (Vinland). While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines, and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, influencing the genetic and historical development of both. During the Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
The Vikings spoke <a href="/facts/Old_Norse/3dIvgsm5">Old Norse</a> and made inscriptions in <a href="/facts/Runes/NxdzMS8E">runes</a>. For most of the period, they followed the <a href="/facts/Old_Norse_religion/IqGJCGfM">Old Norse religion</a>, but later <a href="/facts/Christianization_of_Scandinavia/glyfVfxH">became Christians</a>. The Vikings had their own <a href="/facts/Medieval_Scandinavian_law/IwxtQ5ez">laws</a>, <a href="/facts/Viking_art/26BYN0PV">art</a>, and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Popular conceptions of the Vikings often strongly differ from the complex, advanced civilisation of the <a href="/facts/Norsemen/sXH813Vv">Norsemen</a> that emerges from <a href="/facts/Archaeology/K3Q5P38R">archaeology</a> and historical sources. A romanticised picture of Vikings as <a href="/facts/Noble_savage/ytg2yfXf">noble savages</a> began to emerge in the 18th century; this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century <a href="/facts/Viking_revival/4ujsoEh1">Viking revival</a>. Perceived views of the Vikings as violent, piratical heathens or as intrepid adventurers owe much to conflicting varieties of the modern Viking myth that had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular representations of the Vikings are typically based on cultural clichés and stereotypes, complicating modern appreciation of the Viking legacy. These representations are rarely accurate—for example, there is no evidence that they wore <a href="/facts/Horned_helmet/aChEUfd8">horned helmets</a>, a costume element that first appeared in the 19th century.

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Vikings