Viking history

England Cnut the great Cnut the great returned to England, at Sandwich he unloaded a mighty army, a source mentions 2000 ships, 800 ships according to the Jomsvikingsaga, Adam of Bremen mentioned 1000 ships. Harald 2 had helped his brother equip the viking fleet and a lot of vikings came from Norway and Sweden to join the 20 year old Canute the great in the conquest of England. The Norwegian vikings was led by Earl Erik(Brother-in-law of Canute the great). The Danes was again successful and before the winter was over most of Wessex was conquered, and Mercia was attacked. While Harald 2 was securing the Danish kingdom and Cnut the great was busy conquering England, a new threat came to the North sea empires third kingdom: Norway. Thorkil the tall had in the period he served the English king a Norwegian chieftain Olaf the holy Haraldson( a descendant of Harald fairhair)under his command, Olaf the holy sailed back to Norway to conquer the throne. Norway Olav the holy refused to l...

England Cnut the great leading an army Totally unexpected Sweyn Forkbeard became very ill(He was probably suffering from a hereditary heart disease) and on the 3. February he died in his headquarter at Gainsborough . With his neglected wife Gunhild, he had 2 sons. The oldest son, Harald 2 was crowned king of Denmark, Harald 2 had been the ruler of Denmark while Sweyn Forkbeard was in England. The youngest, 17 year old Cnut the great was given the royal scepter and took command of the viking army in England. When the Anglo-Saxons heard that the feared Sweyn Forkbeard was dead, they called Ethelred the unready home to England from his refuge in Normandy and his son Edmund Ironside now led an army prepared to fight the Danish again. Cnut the great had to leave England fast, but before he sailed back to Denmark, he cut of nose,ears and hands of Sweyn Forkbeards hostages in Sandwich. He swore that he would return to England again. Thorkil the tall broke with king Ethelred the unread...

Drawing made by Mattheus Paris(dead 1259) King Sweyn on a horse, his men are looting, demanding taxes, imprisoning peasants. Queen Emma flees with her sons. England Sweyn Forkbeard conquered England. In July of 1013, he arrived with a mighty fleet outside Sandwich. The separated and weak England was ready to fall. The vikings never met any serious resistance, after Sweyn Forkbeard conquered Northhumberland he was ready to conquer South England, Oxford and Winchester gave up without fighting. Only London was defended bravely by Thorkil the tall and his men, but in Wessex all English nobles gave and oath of obedience and loyalty to the Danish king and after that London gave up. The conquest was over and the establishment of the Danish North sea rule installed. On the 25th of December Sweyn was proclaimed king, the loser King Æthelred the unready fled to Normandy where his queen Emma and his sons lived with her brother, Richard 2 of Normandy. It certainly was not a good asylum...

England King Aethelred the unready of England paid 17,900 kg of silver Danegeld to Viking raiders. Archbishop Ælfheah of Canterbury(St.Alphege) was killed on 19 April 1012 he was held hostage. But refused to  allow the people in Canterbury to pay a ransom for him on the grounds that they were already too poor, the Vikings beat him to death at a drunken feast. The 7 English kingdoms Scotland King Máel Coluim mac Cináeda of Alba defeated a Danish viking army at Cruden Bay in Buchan . Wales Earl Eadric Streona of Mercia led an English attack against the Church of St. David at Menevia.

Warrior England King Æthelred the unready paid Thorkil the tall a Danegeld on 48000 lbs silver, and Thorkil the tall with 45 ships entered the service of the English king. Before that a monk had betrayed Canterbury, and let vikings enter the town. Canterbury was plundered and Ælfheah, Archbishop of Canterbury was taken prisoner. The Danegeld paid in 1009, was only securing peace in a short period. Canada Lànse aux meadows, Canada The next summer the Vinland settlers lacked food, but Thordal hunter found a whale, which they ate, but Thorfinn found out that Thordal had made a heathen blessing on the meat, Thorfinn ordered that the whale meat to be thrown back into the sea. Thordal the hunter decided to leave and he sailed up north with his own ship and 9 other people.Thorfinn sailed further south, and came to a river full of fish and an area full of game. They stayed there for a while and one day they met some strangers sailing in skin boats, they named them skrælling...

Battle of Ringmere England Thorkil the tall plundered in England a final clash happened at the battle of Ringmere , East Anglia which Sigvat Tordssøn wrote about in " Vikingeviser ". Normandy Peasant revolt North America A Viking explorer Thorfinn Karlsevni "Þorfinnr "Karlsefni" Þórðarson" attempted to found a settlement in North America, this is the approximate date. Thorfinn Karlsevni Thorfinn Karlsevni was an Icelander, who had the chieftain Thord as a great Grandfather, who was a descendant of Ragnar Lothbrok in the fifth generation. He equipped a ship with 40 people to go on a trading expedition to Greenland. In the winter time Thorfinn had to help Eric the red with provisions, to celebrate a decent yule. And here Eric the red spoke about Vinland, his son Leif "the happy" Eriksson had been there. Thordal the hunter In the spring Thorfinn decided to sail to Vinland and Leif gave him permission to borrow his houses. With...

Thorkil the tall England A large viking fleet anchored outside Sandwich, The viking fleet was led by Thorkil the tall, a former Jomsviking, Olav and his foster father Rane took part in Thorkil theTall’s invasion of England - which caused horror in England and widespread pillaging and looting. A threat to attack Canterbury, made the people of Canterbury pay 3000 lbs silver in Danegeld.

Animalhead from Headpole the Oseberg grave England In 1008, Æthelred the Unready created a new fleet of warships, organized on a larger scale, but was weakened when one of his captains rebelled and became a viking. Estonia Olav "the fat" Haraldsson The 13 year old Olav "the fat " Haraldsson, landed on Saaremaa, Estonia, and won a battle and forced the losers to pay tribute. Olav then sailed to the southern coast of Finland greedy for more plunder, but he was ambushed and it resulted in the Battle of Herdaler(somewhere in Uusimaa)where Olav and his men were eventually ambushed in the woods. Olav lost many warriors but made it back to his longship. Olav Haraldsson later became known as the holy and became king of Norway. Galicia, Spain Viking raids in Spain. Count Menendez died on October the 6th during a battle with vikings,  in an area between the rivers Mino and Duero, it was the area around Braga that was pillaged and when vikings sailed up the M...

Æthelred the Unready king of England 978-1013 England Æthelred the Unready bought 2 years of peace with the Danes for the sum 36000 pounds of silver. Norway Åsta Gudbrandsdatter arranged Olaf the second's first military expedition by ordering her steward Hrane to take the 12 year old Olaf on board a warship as leader.

England England was haunted by new viking fleets. Not even the winter made the vikings stop plundering, which was unusual as they previously had not looted during the winter. Iceland Holmgang was declared illegal in the Icelandic Alting. The icelandic sagas tells of a duel between Gunnlaugr Serpent-Tongue and Hrafn Onundarson. Duelling holmgang was way to resolve conflicts, but it was often abused as a means of enrichment. Normandy First mention of the roman title Dux for Richard 2.

Viking ship 11th century England Southern England was raided by a Danish fleet. Ireland T he Irish high king Brian Boru established a fleet composed of vikings from Dublin, Waterford , Wexford and Munster to "levy royal tribute" (plunder) in Wales.    The revenue from this raid was to be split in 3 parts, with a third going to the King of Dublin, another third going to the warriors of Leinster and Munster, and the rest to professors of sciences and arts and the needy. This may have been a tactic Brian Boru used to avoid civil war.

Dark Lewisham chess pieces England Sweyn Forkbeard s viking army looted East Anglia and Thetford was plundered and Norwich was destroyed. Island of Man Ragnall was king 1004-1005. the western isles' independence from Orkney had been re-asserted under Ragnal mac Gofraid, who died in that year.After Ragnall's death Sigurd became ruler

Devon, England Sweyn Forkbeard gathered a viking fleet and sailed to England, the "Danekillings" would be revenged. The Norman chieftain Hugo betrayed Exeter to the Danish king, who burned down the town. King Æthelred the unready was a bad ruler he did not manage to motivate the people to put up an effective resistance. Hampshire, Wiltshire, Wilton and Salisbury all fell to the bloody viking revenge attack. Greenland Eric the red died.On October 9 Leif Erikson landed in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada. Brattahlíð church ruins

Lorenz Frølich: Bloodbath on the Danish St Brices day 13 november 1002 National museum Frederiksborg castle England The Scandinavian population living in England had on several occasions helped the invading viking raiders, and king Æthelred the unready lost constantly most of the battles that he fought. King Æthelred the unready chose to attack innocent weaponless civilians. On the 13th November 1002 he ordered the attack on Danes living in England, the incident was known as the "Danekillings" a lot of Danes living in England was brutally attacked while they were doing their daily deeds and weaponless and most of the victims was innocent children and women. In Oxford, surviving Danes barricaded themselves in a church (where Christ Church Cathedral now stands) and successfully defended themselves until townspeople set fire to the church. The skeletons of some 34 young men believed to have been killed in the same massacre were discovered under St John's College in 200...

England Danes raided the English South coast, they plundered and looted Devonshire and Hampshire. The First Battle of Alton: Danish invaders defeated the English. Battle of Pinhoe : Vikings defeated Anglo-Saxons in Devon. A siege was started against Exeter. But the strong fortification made by Athelstan they could not break instead they started pillaging nearby villages. Men from Devon and Somerset fought the Danes to stop their invasion. The battle was hard and the defenders nearly used up all their ammunition. A priest of Pinhoe wanted to supply his troops with ammunition. He sneaked through the Danish lines and ran to Exeter to get arrows and arms. He successfully returned to the defending Saxons and supplied them with the weapons The weapons were not sufficient for the Saxons to defeat the Vikings. The Vikings infiltrated Pinhoe and burned it to the ground. King Æthelred the unready had to buy peace for 24000 lbs silver. This was the third time he paid Danegeld, which ...

Denmark Aalborg was founded, It was mentioned in 1075 by Adam of Bremen as a large town, the early name Alabur was written on one of Harthacnuts coins from 1040. Lejre was burned down to the ground. Iceland Althingi in Iceland decided to install Christianity. To Iceland Olaf Tryggvason  sent the baptized Icelander Stefner Thorgilsson and the German priest Thangbrand, who quickly became unpopular but some Icelander turned Christians Njal the wise and his sons and Hjalte Skeggeson became leader of the Christians. It nearly came to a battle at the Althing, but it was decided that the lawmaker Thorgejr should judge the case, he was heathen but made a compromise and decided that Christianity should rule Iceland and that all people that made public sacrifices should be expelled, but you could still eat horse meat and pray to the old gods and lay small children to the wolves. Bolli "The elegant" Bollason was born. Island of Man The fleet of Æthelred the unready attacked...