Viking
Viking Navigation
The Norse Greenland colony was medieval Europe’s most remote outpost. To reach it from the European continent seafarers needed to cross almost 2,000 miles of open ocean. At the time, only the Malays in the Indian Ocean and the Polynesians in the Pacific undertook longer oceanic voyages, but they did so in warmer and more predictable seas. In the Icelandic…
Most Recent
THE RETURN OF THEÂ VIKINGS
Elfrida: England’s First Crowned Queen Ethelred could not have been more than twelve years old at the time of his accession. He was at least three or four years away from political maturity and some sort of regency was required. Elfrida, as a crowned queen and the young king’s mother,…
Berserkers
Individual Viking warriors known during the eighth through eleventh centuries for their ferocity. The berserkers are one of the most interesting and least understood aspects of the Viking warrior society. These were individuals who fought in such a blinding fury that they lost all sense of self and became unconscious…
Viking Vessels
The Hedeby 1 and Hedeby 3 Viking ships. DRAWN BY SUNE VILLUM-NIELSEN. THE VIKING SHIP MUSEUM, DENMARK The Viking ship was perfectly adapted to the needs of these hardy adventurers. Swift, with a draught shallow enough to enter rivers and creeks, it gave the Vikings the same advantage of mobility…
Danelaw
Danelaw encompassed the areas of northeast England where Danish customs had a strong political and cultural influence throughout much of the early Middle Ages. The area included Yorkshire (southern Northumbria), East Anglia, and the Five Boroughs, named for its main centers of settlement: Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby. All…
LARGS, 1 October 1263
Detail from William Hole’s mural of the Battle of Largs, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Following a Scottish raid on the Isle of Skye, at that time part of the kingdom of Norway, a large Norse fleet under King Hakon IV (160 ships and 20,000 men according to the…
Viking Assault on the British Isles
The Assault on Ireland (794–847) They came mostly from modern Norway by way of the Shetlands and Orkneys. From these archipelagos it was only a short jump to Caithness at the northern tip of Scotland, then either down the east coast to Northumbria and East Anglia or down the west…