Vikings

Vikings means ‘people of the inlets’, the inhabitants of Scandinavia between roughly AD700 and 1100, when their raids terrorised the coastlands of western Europe. Their greatest achievements were in the fields of boat-building and navigation. In 865 raids on England for loot were succeeded by attacks for conquest and settlement, and the Great Army ultimately occupied most of eastern England from East Anglia to Northumberland, forming the Danelaw. The whole of England, though reconquered by Alfred and Edward of Wessex, finally fell to the Danes under Canute in 1016. The Normans, or Northmen, were also of Danish ancestry. Culturally the Vikings drew on their extensive raiding and trading to produce attractive art styles based on interlaced animals. In metalwork, as one might expect, weapons and war gear figured largely.