From Lindisfarne to North America — how well do you know the Norse warriors who reshaped the medieval world? 20 questions on Viking history, mythology, and exploration.
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From the icy fjords of Scandinavia to the sun-baked shores of the Mediterranean, the Vikings shaped nearly three centuries of European history between 793 and 1066 AD. Their sleek longships carried farmers, warriors and traders far beyond their homelands of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, reaching the monasteries of Lindisfarne, the markets of Constantinople and the forests of Newfoundland — a feat that made Leif Erikson the first European to set foot in North America, five centuries before Columbus.
Behind the popular image of horned helmets — a 19th-century invention Vikings never actually wore — lies a rich, complex civilisation. Norse society was divided into thralls, karls and jarls, governed by assemblies called things, and bound together by a rich mythology in which Odin ruled Asgard, Thor swung Mjölnir and Yggdrasil connected nine realms. Vikings wrote in runes, traded silver across the Silk Road, founded Dublin and Kyiv, colonised and , and gave its through 's duchy.
The Viking Age closed almost as suddenly as it began: in 1066, when Harald Hardrada fell at Stamford Bridge, only days before William the Conqueror — himself a descendant of Vikings — landed at Hastings. Yet the Norse left behind place names, dialects and legends that still echo from York to Kyiv, and an enduring fascination with a people who were as much explorers and craftsmen as they were raiders.