Possible reasons for Viking raids (víking)and expansion:

Overpopulation, limited resources

Reputation

Avoiding enemies and feuds

Objection to rule of kings

King

Jarls (chieftains) with warrior bands

Karls (free men), usually farmers or crafters

Thralls (slaves)

Women as powers behind husbands, poetesses,prophetesses. Rights in divorce, marriage,inheritance, succession

Odin

All-father, king of the gods

God of poets (skalds) and wisdom

Hung on tree to gain runes (Futhark)

Thor

God of strength, thunder and lightning

Mjollnir

Frey: God of fertility

Freyja: Goddess of love, beauty andfertility

Hel/Hela: Queen of Hel (the underworld)

The Valkyries: choosers of the slain(Valhalla)

c. 960 Harald Bluetooth of Denmark(r. c. 958-85) becomes Christian

c. 1000 Olaf I Tryggvason (r. 995-1000) andOlaf II Haraldsson (r. 1015-30) ofNorway convert population to Christianity

c. 1000 Iceland adopts Christianity

11th c. Conversion of Sweden begins

12th c. Last records of pagan practices

814 Vikings burn monastery onNoirmoutier, off mouth of R. Loire

841 Vikings plunder Rouen

Map Link: Viking Raids:

<http://www.historyireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/map1-240x300.jpg>

843 Vikings winter on Noirmoutier

844 Vikings ravage Garonne valley, attackSpain

857 Vikings have repeatedly sacked variousFrench cities incl. Paris

859 Vikings raid Morocco, Balearics, winterat Rhone delta, raid southern France

885 Vikings besiege Paris

887 Charles the Fat (r. 876-87) relieves siegeof Paris

911 Charles the Simple (r. 893-923) grantsViking leader Rollo area around mouthof Seine, which forms seed of Normandy.Viking raids on mainland Europe end acouple of decades later

9th c. Vikings invade Ireland, occupy Orkney,Shetland, Hebrides and Isle of Man

874 Viking settle in Iceland, and later inGreenland, east coast of N. America

13th c. End of Viking rule in Scotland andIsle of Man

830 Start of Viking Rus raiding and tradingin eastern Europe, Byzantine Empire andMiddle East. Settlements follow alongVolga river and (in 10th c.) in Slaviclands including city of Kiev. They expandterritory further in 10th c.

c. 988 Vladimir of Kiev (r. 980-1015) convertsto Greek Orthodox Christianity

Map Link: Journeys of the Vikings:

<http://www.historiska.se/ImageVault/Images/id_855/conversionFormat_109/scope_0/webSafe_1/width_480/height_480/ImageVaultHandler.aspx>

c. 980 Eirik the Red leaves Scandinavia forIceland, but is banished from Iceland andheads west, where he discovers Greenland

985 Eirik leads a party to colonise Greenland.Bjarni Herjolfsson, following, accidentallysights N. America but does not land.

c. 1000 Leif (“the Lucky”) Eiriksson lands onBaffin Island, Labrador and “Vinland”(Newfoundland)

Thorwald Scraelings

Annals of St Bertin

Annalistic monastery chronicle

Covers 830-82

Abbo Cernuus (“crooked”)

French Benedictine monk from Paris, bornmid-9th c.

Witnessed siege of Paris, 885-87

Description of siege in Latin verse, De BellisParisiacae Urbis, with description ofevents to 896

Chronicle of St Denis

Mediaeval chronicle written long after eventsdescribed here

Sources: Dudo (d. c. 1043) and William ofJumièges (d. c. 1090), monks also writinglong after events

Ahmad ibn Fadlan

Very little known about him. Sent by caliph,in 921, as ambassador to king of Bulgarsof Middle Volga, to present gifts andsupervise Muslim teachers

Met some of the Swedish Rus after arrived in922. Impressions recorded in risala(“message”)