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Sketch of the Svinfylking. The Svinfylking, Old Norse for "swine array" or "boar snout", [1] was a formation used in battle. Related to the wedge formation, it was used in Iron Age Scandinavia and later by the Vikings. [2]
The ancient Viking hall, Skiringssal, was located just inland from the fjord. Kaupang was an important merchant and craft center during the Viking Age and as yet the first known Norwegian trading outpost. [1] [2] Kaupang is the site of the remains of one of Scandinavia's earliest urban sites, established in year 800.
During the Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Vikings spoke Old Norse and made inscriptions in runes. For most of the period, they followed the Old Norse religion, but later became Christians.
Even if it is not entirely clear what the political order of the Faroe Islands was like at this time, it is no exaggeration to speak of a Republic, as the king in Norway, 500 kilometers away, had no power on the archipelago during the Viking Age, and the thing was an assembly of the local free men, i.e. the large farmers. This was also where ...
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries.
The Varangians (/ v ə ˈ r æ n dʒ i ə n z / və-RAN-jee-ənz; Old Norse: Væringjar; Medieval Greek: Βάραγγοι, romanized: Várangoi; Old East Slavic: варяже, romanized: varyazhe, or варяги, varyagi) [1] [2] were Viking [3] conquerors, traders and settlers, mostly from present-day Sweden, [4] [5] [6] who settled in the territories of present-day Belarus, Russia and ...
Many of the former kingdoms would later become earldoms under the Norwegian high king and some would try to break free again. Below follows an incomplete list of petty kingdoms of Norway and their known rulers. Most of the people mentioned in this list are legendary or semi-legendary. Some of the areas might have a contested status as petty ...
Landnámabók claims that the first Norseman to rest his feet on Icelandic soil was a viking by the name of Naddoddr. Naddoddr stayed for only a short period of time, but gave the country a name: Snæland (Land of Snow). He was followed by the viking explorer Garðar Svavarsson, who was the first to stay over winter. At some time around 860, a ...