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Definition: Vikings from Chambers Dictionary of World History

Raiders, traders and settlers from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, who between the late 8c and the mid-11c conquered and colonized large parts of Britain, Normandy and Russia; attacked Spain, Morocco and Italy; traded with Byzantium, Persia and India; discovered and occupied Iceland and Greenland; and reached the coast of North America. As sea-borne raiders they gained a deserved reputation for brutality and destructiveness, but as merchants and settlers they played an influential and positive role in the development of medieval Europe. Their earliest overseas settlements were in the Orkney and Shetland islands, which remained united to the Norwegian crown until 1472. → Canute; Danelaw; Normans

Vikings

From The Encyclopedia of War
In the history of warfare a special place must be reserved for the Vikings. Better known to their contemporaries as “Northmen” or “pagans,” their name became synonymous with “warrior.” These raiders from Scandinavia revolutionized combat in northern Europe using an improved ship design and developed the amphibious assault, made more lethal by the excellence of their arms and armour. They raided and established colonies from the north Atlantic to the Mediterranean; their settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Canada is now acknowledged as the earliest European colony in North America. The ferocity of these northern warriors was celebrated before the classical Viking Age (800–1050). The Old English poem Beowulf is the legend of a warrior from what is now southern Sweden fighting for a noble in Denmark during the so-called Migration Period (400–600). The poem mentions several features that would be later associated with the Vikings, such as the boats that were a mainstay of transportation. …
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Full text Article VIKINGS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
Known as Gynt (from ‘gentiles’, and thereby meaning ‘pagans’) in Welsh , the Vikings were first recorded as marauders on the Welsh coast in the mid-9th century. Settlement seems to have taken place in two regions. Place name evidence (but no contemporary records) suggest that a territory around…
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Full text Article Vikings

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
The Vikings were instrumental in unifying several...
Scandinavian raiders, traders, mercenaries, and colonists renowned for their clinker-built, sail-powered ships. The Vikings were instrumental in unifying several long-existing regional trading zones in western Eurasia by connecting northern Europe with Byzantium, the Islamic caliphate, and Central…
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The economic success of the feudal system in early medieval times meant that considerable wealth had accumulated in Europe, England, and Ireland. As the unity of Charlemagne's empire began to collapse in the late ninth century, this wealth became vulnerable to raids from fierce invaders out of…
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Full text Article Vikings

From Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase and Fable
The Scandinavian adventurers, from Norway and Denmark, known to themselves as Ostmen and to the Irish as Lochlannaigh (‘lakelanders’), who were involved in Irish affairs for some 400 years (795- c .1200). Most of the early marauders lived up to their names ( viking is Old English for ‘pirate’); they…
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Full text Article VIKINGS

From Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures Full text Article Europe
A term customarily used today to describe all early medieval SCANDINAVIANS , although it originally meant ‘pirate’ and had no ethnic overtones. To contemporaries, a vikingr was simply someone who went Í viking — that is, plundering. Only a small minority of early medieval Scandinavians were, …
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Full text Article Vikings

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Scandinavian warriors who raided the coasts of Europe and the British Isles from the 9th cent. to the 11th cent. In their language, the word “viking” originally meant a journey, as for trading or raiding; it was not until the 19th cent. that it was used to mean the people themselves. During the…
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Full text Article Vikings

From Encyclopedia of Warrior Peoples & Fighting Groups Full text Article ENTRIES
Vikings
An aggressive Scandinavian population known for ruthlessness, raiding, commerce, and widespread settlement during the eighth through eleventh centuries. The Vikings came out of Scandinavia in the later years of the eighth century to attack and plunder whatever source of wealth they could find. It…
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The Viking spacecraft showing the...
NASA's Viking programme originated with studies in 1960–67 for a large spacecraft called Voyager that could be sent to Mars or Venus, but this was cancelled because of cost. A scaled-down mission to Mars was then proposed in November 1967, which became the basis for Viking. NASA's Viking programme…
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Full text Article Vikings

From The Encyclopedia of Tourism and Recreation in Marine Environments
The Vikings were Scandinavian raiders, traders and settlers active between the end of the 8th and the 11th centuries. There is no clear reason why the Vikings began their raiding activities. Various possibilities have been suggested, including population pressures, technological advances in boat…
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Full text Article Viking

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Member of the Scandinavian seafaring warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the 11th century. Overpopulation at home, ease of conquest abroad, and their extraordinary capacity as shipbuilders and sailors inspired their adventures. In 865 Vikings conquered East Anglia, …
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