Experience the History

  • Construction of the Danevirke begins
    Denmark, Germany
    737
  • Founding of trading town of Birka
    Sweden
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    750
  • Sacking of Lindisfarne Monastery
    England
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    793
  • Sacking of Raithlin Island Monastery
    Ireland
    795
  • Elder Futhark replaced by 16-Rune Futhark
    Scandinavia
    Hedeby centre of Baltic trade
    Denmark
    800
  • Floki Vilgerdason of Rogaland discovers Iceland
    Iceland
    815
  • Oseberg ship burial
    Norway
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    834
  • First Rus Vikings arrive at Miklagard (Constantinople)
    Turkey
    838
  • Dublin founded by Turgeis
    Ireland
    Viking base camp established at Woodstown, Waterford
    Ireland
    840
  • Raid on Nantes
    France
    843
  • Raid on Moorish Seville
    Spain
    844
  • Ragnar Lothbrok raids Paris
    France
    845
  • Hastein enters Mediterannean & raids Algecira & Morocco
    Spain, Morocco
    859
  • Hastein raids Luna thinking it Rome
    Italy
    First raid on Constantinople
    Turkey
    Rurik becomes ruler of Novgorod
    Russia
    860
  • Jorvik founded
    England
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    "Great Heathen Host" in Britain led by brothers Halfdan, Ivar & Ubbi
    England
    866
  • King Harald Fairhair King of Norway
    Norway
    Guthrum shipwrecked in Unst, Shetland but escapes
    Scotland
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    870
  • "Year of Battles"
    England
    Alfred the Great King of Wessex
    England
    Guthrum arrives in England & leads "Great Summer Army"
    England
    871
  • Settlement of Iceland begins
    Iceland
    874
  • Alfred defeats Guthrum at Battle of Eddington
    England
    Harald Harfagra unifies Norway
    Norway
    878
  • Rurik establishes Kiev
    Ukraine
    879
  • Murder of Godfrid, Duke of Frisia
    Netherlands
    Siege of Paris
    France
    Birth of Erik Bloodaxe
    Norway
    885
  • Alfred creates the Danelaw
    England
    886
  • Hedeby at its height as trading centre
    Denmark, Germany
    Gokstad ship burial
    Norway
    900
  • Rollo (Hrolf) granted lands by the Franks & founds Normandy
    France
    911
  • Reginald King of Waterford, captures York
    Ireland
    918
  • Ulfljotr brings Gulathing law to Iceland
    Iceland
    920
  • Ibn Fadlan, Arab ambassador, writes account of ship cremation
    Russia
    922
  • First Althing at Thingvellir
    Iceland
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    Death of Harald Fairhair
    Norway
    Erik Bloodaxe, King of Norway
    Norway
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    930
  • Harold Bluetooth, King of Denmark
    Denmark
    Birth of Olav Trygvasson "Crowbone"
    Norway
    958
  • Erik the Red discovers Greenland
    Greenland
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    982
  • Svein Forkbeard King of Denmark
    Denmark
    985
  • Battle of Maldon - Trygvasson V. Brythnoth
    England
    993
  • Olav Trygvasson King of Norway
    Norway
    995
  • Iceland officially converts to Christianity
    Iceland
    Olav Trygvasson killed by Svein Forkbeard & King Olaf of Sweden
    Norway
    Ethnic cleansing of Danes by Aethelred Unraed
    England
    Leif Erikson founds L'Anse Aux Meadows settlement in Newfoundland (Vinland)
    Canada
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    1000
  • Brian Boru King of Ireland
    Ireland
    1002
  • Svein Forkbeard defeats Aethelred Unraed
    England
    1013
  • Death of Svein Forkbeard
    England
    Brian Boru defeats Jarl Sigurd of Orkney at Battle of Clontarf - both slain
    Ireland
    1014
  • Vinland settlement abandoned
    Canada
    1015
  • Cnut the Great, son of Svein Forkbeard, conquers England
    England
    1016
  • Cnut , King of England & Denmark, conquors Norway
    Norway
    1028
  • City of Oslo founded
    Norway
    1050
  • King Harald Hardrada of Norway killed at Battle of Stamford Bridge
    England
    King Harold Godwinesson of England killed at Battle of Hastings
    England
    William the Conqueror King of England
    England
    Hedeby sacked by Polabian Slavs - ceases as trading centre
    Denmark, Germany
    1066
  • Adam of Bremen writes Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
    Germany
    1075
  • Battle of Foteviken
    Sweden
    1134
  • 1170 - Invasion by Normans marks end of Viking Age
    1170
  • Saxo Grammaticus writes Gesta Danorum
    Germany
    1185
  • Ibn Dihya writes account of Al-Ghazal's embassy to Ireland
    Ireland
    Orkneyinga Saga written by Icelandic author
    Iceland
    1200
  • Snorri Sturluson writes Prose Edda
    Iceland
    1220
  • Snorri Sturluson writes Heimskringla
    Iceland
    1225
  • Poems of Poetic Edda collected
    Iceland
    1250
  • Battle of Largs
    Scotland
    1263
  • Final reference to Vikings in Irish history in court case held at Waterford
    Ireland
    1312