Viking settlements: Map & History
Vikings were a seafaring people originally from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.
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Vikings were a seafaring people originally from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and Vinland. In their countries of origin, and in some of the countries they raided and settled, this period of activity is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole during the late 8th to the mid-11th centuries. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of northern and Eastern Europe, including the political and social development of England and parts of France, and the establishment of Kievan Rus', the ancestor of the later states of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.
Modern Countries Once Part of Viking settlements
At its mapped extent, Viking settlements covered territory in 7 present-day countries. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
- Faroe Islands800–1325 CE · a large part
- Iceland875–935 CE · a large part
- United Kingdom866–877 CE · a large part
- Ireland850–1325 CE · a large part
- Netherlands850–885 CE · a small part
- France911–946 CE · a small part
- Germany850–885 CE · a small part
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Viking settlements's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Viking settlements in Depth
History
The Viking Age in Scandinavian history is taken to have been the period from the earliest recorded raids by Norsemen in 793 until the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Vikings used the Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea for sea routes to the south.
The Normans were descendants of those Vikings who had been given feudal overlordship of areas in northern France, namely the Duchy of Normandy, in the 10th century. In that respect, descendants of the Vikings continued to have an influence in northern Europe. Likewise, King Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, had Danish ancestors. Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, with Sweyn Forkbeard claiming the English throne in 1013 until 1014 and his son Cnut the Great being king of England between 1016 and 1035.
Culture
A variety of sources illuminate the culture, activities, and beliefs of the Vikings. Although they were generally a non-literate culture that produced no literary legacy, they had an alphabet and described themselves and their world on runestones. Most contemporary literary and written sources on the Vikings come from other cultures that were in contact with them. Since the mid-20th century, archaeological findings have built a more complete and balanced picture of the lives of the Vikings. The archaeological record is particularly rich and varied, providing knowledge of their rural and urban settlement, crafts and production, ships and military equipment, trading networks, as well as their pagan and Christian religious artefacts and practices.
Legacy
The Vikings heavily influenced Old English to contribute to Modern English. Nouns lost their grammatical gender and grammatical conjugation was reduced to a simple -s added to the third person verb. Preposition stranding also entered English, which is permitted in Old Norse.
In England the Viking Age began dramatically on 8 June 793 when Norsemen destroyed the abbey on the island of Lindisfarne. The devastation of Northumbria's Holy Island shocked and alerted the royal courts of Europe to the Viking presence. "Never before has such an atrocity been seen", declared the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Vikings (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Viking settlements Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Viking settlements appears, with the other states of the time.
Viking settlements Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 134,483 km² in 876 CE.
Viking settlements: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Viking settlements exist?
Viking settlements is dated to 793 CE – 1332 CE, in the Early Middle Ages era.
How large was Viking settlements at its peak?
At its peak in 876 AD Viking settlements covered about 134,483 km².
How did the map of Viking settlements change over time?
Viking settlements appears on 5 dated world maps in the atlas, from 900 CE to 1300 CE. Each shows its borders in that year next to the other states of the time.
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