Danes
The Kingdom of Denmark; the Anglo-Danish population of eastern England; part of the ancestry of the Normans.
Active in: Frisia, England (the Danelaw), Francia and Normandy, the southern Baltic, Cnut's North Sea Empire
Vikings / Legacy
Legacy
What the Vikings left behind
Countries, kingdoms and capitals; words you use every day; the endings on a map of England; and thirty-three places where you can stand on the evidence. Start with the map, or find the Vikings in your own country.
What changed on the map
Eight peoples, a map of modern countries
Where each branch of the Vikings was active, in terms of today's countries. A dot means that people operated there. Click a country to see what it holds.
| Country | Danes | Norwegians | Swedes and Varangians | Rus' | Normans | Norse-Gaels | Icelanders and Faroese | Greenlanders | Peoples |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Yes: Danes | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | Yes: Normans | Yes: Norse-Gaels | No | No | 4 |
| Ireland | No | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | Yes: Normans | Yes: Norse-Gaels | No | No | 3 |
| Belarus | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | Yes: Rus' | No | No | No | No | 2 |
| Faroe Islands | No | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | No | No | Yes: Icelanders and Faroese | No | 2 |
| France | Yes: Danes | No | No | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 2 |
| Greenland | No | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | No | No | No | Yes: Greenlanders | 2 |
| Iceland | No | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | No | No | Yes: Icelanders and Faroese | No | 2 |
| Russia | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | Yes: Rus' | No | No | No | No | 2 |
| Sweden | Yes: Danes | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | No | No | No | No | 2 |
| Turkey | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 2 |
| Ukraine | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | Yes: Rus' | No | No | No | No | 2 |
| Canada | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes: Greenlanders | 1 |
| Denmark | Yes: Danes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Estonia | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Finland | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Germany | Yes: Danes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Isle of Man | No | No | No | No | No | Yes: Norse-Gaels | No | No | 1 |
| Italy | No | No | No | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 1 |
| Latvia | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Lithuania | No | No | Yes: Swedes and Varangians | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Malta | No | No | No | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 1 |
| Netherlands | Yes: Danes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Norway | No | Yes: Norwegians | No | No | No | No | No | No | 1 |
| Syria | No | No | No | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 1 |
| Tunisia | No | No | No | No | Yes: Normans | No | No | No | 1 |
What each people became
Norwegians
The Kingdom of Norway and its Atlantic realm; the Icelanders, Faroese and Greenlanders; the Norse-Gaels of Ireland and the Isles.
Active in: Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides, Ireland and the Irish Sea, the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland, north-west England, Normandy (in part)
Swedes and Varangians
The Kingdom of Sweden; the ruling elite of the Rus'; the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors.
Active in: the eastern Baltic: Estonia, Curonia, Finland, Ladoga and Novgorod, the Volga and the Dnieper, Constantinople (the Varangian Guard), the Caspian
Rus'
Kievan Rus', the common ancestor of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, each of which tells the story differently.
Active in: Ladoga, Novgorod, Polotsk, Smolensk, Kiev and the middle Dnieper, the Volga and the Caspian, the Black Sea and Constantinople
Normans
The Anglo-Norman kingdom of England; the Kingdom of Sicily; the Principality of Antioch. The Channel Islands are the last part of the duchy still under the British Crown.
Active in: Normandy, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, southern Italy and Sicily, Antioch and the Crusades, the Tunisian coast
Norse-Gaels
The Kingdom of Dublin (to 1171) and the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles (to 1266); the Lords of the Isles and Hebridean clans that claim Norse founders; Ireland's first towns.
Active in: Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man, Galloway and Cumbria, York (the dynasty of Ivar)
Icelanders and Faroese
Iceland and the Faroe Islands; the authors of the sagas and Eddas, our main Norse source for the Viking Age.
Active in: the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the courts of Norway, Orkney and England, as poets
Greenlanders
Nothing: the only Norse society to vanish. Its ruins, and the Inuit who outlasted it, are in today's Greenland.
Active in: south-west Greenland, the northern hunting grounds (Norðrsetur), Helluland, Markland and Vinland in North America
Vikings in your country
Pick a country
Which peoples were there, which heritage sites you can visit, which runestones and ships were found there, and which events on the timeline happened there.
Choose a country above to see what the Vikings left there.
Belarus
The full history of Belarus on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (1)
Canada
The full history of Canada on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- L'Anse aux MeadowsUNESCO World Heritage Site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (9)
- c. 986 CE Bjarni Herjólfsson Sights Western Lands
- c. 1000 Leif Erikson Reaches Vinland
- c. 1004 Thorvald Eriksson Killed in Vinland
- c. 1010 Karlsefni and Gudrid Settle in Vinland
- c. 1012 Freydís's Vinland Voyage
- 1021 Norse Fell Trees at L'Anse aux Meadows
- 1960 Norse Site Found at L'Anse aux Meadows
- September 1978 L'Anse aux Meadows on UNESCO's First List
- 20 October 2021 Norse in America Dated to 1021
Denmark
The full history of Denmark on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (7)
- Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and ChurchUNESCO World Heritage Site
- Viking-Age Ring FortressesUNESCO World Heritage Site
- TrelleborgUNESCO World Heritage Site
- Viking Ship Museum, RoskildeMuseum
- National Museum of Denmark, CopenhagenMuseum
- Lindholm HøjeArchaeological site
- Ribe Viking CentreMuseum
Runestones (2)
- Jelling stones Jelling, Denmark
- Kingittorsuaq Runestone Kingittorsuaq Island near Upernavik, Greenland (now in the National Museum of Denmark)
Ships found (6)
- Ladby ship 1935, Ladby near Kerteminde, Funen, Denmark
- Skuldelev 1 1957–1962, Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev, Denmark
- Skuldelev 2 1957–1962, Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev, Denmark
- Skuldelev 3 1957–1962, Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev, Denmark
- Skuldelev 5 1957–1962, Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev, Denmark
- Roskilde 6 1996–1997, Roskilde harbour, Denmark
On the timeline (12 of 41)
- c. 1400 BCE Trundholm Sun Chariot
- c. 900 BCE Veksø Horned Helmets
- c. 350 BCE Hjortspring Boat Sacrificed
- c. 160 CE Earliest Runes: The Vimose Comb
- c. 205 CE Illerup Ådal Weapon Sacrifice
- c. 320 CE Nydam Boat Built
- c. 400 CE Golden Horns of Gallehus
- c. 705 CE Ribe Founded
- c. 710 CE Willibrord's Mission to the Danes
- 726 CE Kanhave Canal Cut Across Samsø
- c. 965 CE Conversion of Harald Bluetooth
- 10 July 1086 Cnut IV Murdered at Odense
Estonia
The full history of Estonia on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Salme ship burials, SaaremaaArchaeological site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (1)
- Salme II 2010, Salme, Saaremaa, Estonia
Faroe Islands
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
Finland
The full history of Finland on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (1)
France
The full history of France on AllHistories →
Heritage sites (1)
- Bayeux Tapestry MuseumMuseum
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 35)
- 799 CE First Viking Attack on Francia
- 800 CE Charlemagne Orders Coastal Defences
- 820 CE Vikings Test the Frankish Coast
- 14 May 841 CE Rouen Sacked
- 842 CE Quentovic Plundered
- 24 June 843 CE Sack of Nantes
- March 845 CE Siege of Paris
- 848 CE Bordeaux Captured
- 28 December 856 CE Vikings Burn Paris
- November 885 CE Siege of Paris
- 911 CE Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte
- 24 June 1204 Philip II Takes Normandy
Germany
The full history of Germany on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Hedeby and the DanevirkeUNESCO World Heritage Site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (1)
- Hedeby 1 1953 (excavated 1979–1980), Hedeby harbour, Germany
On the timeline (12 of 24)
- 737 CE Danevirke Rebuilt on a Grand Scale
- 777 CE Widukind Takes Refuge with the Danes
- 804 CE Gudfred Comes to Sliesthorp
- 808 CE Gudfred Destroys Reric and Builds Up Hedeby
- 811 CE Treaty of Heiligen
- 826 CE Baptism of Harald Klak
- May 839 CE Rhos Envoys at Ingelheim
- 845 CE Hamburg Sacked
- 3 February 865 CE Death of Ansgar
- 873 CE Danish Kings Seek Peace with the Franks
- 2 February 880 CE Battle of Lüneburg Heath
- November 881 CE Raids on the Rhineland
Greenland
Peoples
Heritage sites (2)
- Kujataa Greenland: Norse and Inuit Farming at the Edge of the Ice CapUNESCO World Heritage Site
- Brattahlíð (Qassiarsuk)UNESCO World Heritage Site
Runestones (1)
- Kingittorsuaq Runestone Kingittorsuaq Island near Upernavik, Greenland (now in the National Museum of Denmark)
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (10)
- c. 900 CE Gunnbjörn Sights Land West of Iceland
- c. 982 CE Erik the Red Explores Greenland
- c. 986 CE Erik the Red's Fleet Colonises Greenland
- c. 1000 Thjodhild's Church at Brattahlíð
- 1124 First Bishop of Greenland
- 1261 Greenland Submits to Norway
- c. 1350 Western Settlement Found Deserted
- September 1408 Hvalsey Wedding
- c. 1450 Eastern Settlement Abandoned
- 3 July 1721 Hans Egede Seeks the Lost Norse
Iceland
The full history of Iceland on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (2)
- Þingvellir National ParkUNESCO World Heritage Site
- The Settlement Exhibition, ReykjavíkMuseum
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 22)
- c. 860 CE Naddodd Sights Iceland
- c. 864 CE Garðar Svavarsson Circles Iceland
- c. 868 CE Hrafna-Flóki Names Iceland
- c. 874 CE Ingólfr Arnarson Settles Reykjavík
- c. 930 CE Althing Founded at Þingvellir
- c. 930 CE Iceland Is Fully Settled
- c. 960 CE Erik the Red's Family Leaves Norway
- c. 965 CE Iceland Divided into Quarters
- c. 997 CE Thangbrand's Mission to Iceland
- c. 1000 Iceland Adopts Christianity at the Althing
- c. 1005 Fifth Court Added to the Althing
- c. 1220 Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda
Ireland
The full history of Ireland on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 28)
- 798 CE Burning of Inis Pátraic
- 824 CE Skellig Michael Raided
- 837 CE Great Fleets on the Boyne and Liffey
- 841 CE Longphort Founded at Dublin
- 841 CE Longphort at Linn Duachaill
- 845 CE Turgesius Drowned by Máel Sechnaill
- 848 CE Battle of Sciath Nechtain
- 849 CE A Royal Fleet Comes to Ireland
- 851 CE Dark Foreigners Attack Dublin
- 852 CE Battle of Carlingford Lough
- 917 CE Sihtric Cáech Retakes Dublin
- 23 April 1014 Battle of Clontarf
Isle of Man
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Tynwald Hill, St John'sHistoric monument
Runestones (1)
- Manx runestones Isle of Man (examples at Kirk Michael, Andreas and Braddan)
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
Italy
The full history of Italy on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and MonrealeUNESCO World Heritage Site
Runestones (1)
- Piraeus Lion Venetian Arsenal, Venice, Italy (originally Piraeus, Greece)
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 24)
- c. 860 CE Raiders on the Rhône, Pisa and Luna
- c. 999 CE Norman Pilgrims Fight at Salerno
- 1017 Norman Knights Join Melus of Bari
- October 1018 Battle of Cannae
- 26 March 1027 Cnut's Pilgrimage to Rome
- 1030 Rainulf Drengot Receives Aversa
- c. 1035 Hauteville Brothers Arrive in Italy
- 1038 Harald Hardrada in Sicily and Bulgaria
- 17 March 1041 Normans Win at Olivento and Montemaggiore
- September 1042 William Iron Arm Elected Count at Melfi
- 23 August 1059 Treaty of Melfi
- 25 December 1130 Roger II Crowned King of Sicily
Latvia
The full history of Latvia on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Grobiņa archaeological ensembleArchaeological site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (1)
Lithuania
The full history of Lithuania on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Apuolė hillfortArchaeological site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (1)
Malta
The full history of Malta on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (0)
No timeline event is located in this country.
Netherlands
The full history of Netherlands on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
Norway
The full history of Norway on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (3)
- Urnes Stave ChurchUNESCO World Heritage Site
- Museum of the Viking Age, OsloMuseum
- Lofotr Viking Museum, BorgMuseum
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (4)
- Oseberg ship 1904, Oseberg near Tønsberg, Norway
- Gokstad ship 1880, Gokstad, Sandefjord, Norway
- Tune ship 1867, Rolvsøy near Fredrikstad, Norway
- Gjellestad ship 2018 (by ground-penetrating radar), Gjellestad near Halden, Norway
On the timeline (12 of 34)
- c. 779 CE Storhaug Ship Burial at Avaldsnes
- c. 780 CE Kaupang Founded
- c. 820 CE Oseberg Ship Built
- 834 CE Oseberg Ship Burial
- c. 872 CE Battle of Hafrsfjord
- c. 890 CE Ohthere's Voyage to the White Sea
- c. 901 CE Gokstad Ship Burial
- c. 932 CE Death of Harald Fairhair
- c. 934 CE Haakon the Good Ousts Eric Bloodaxe
- c. 950 CE Haakon the Good Promotes Christianity
- 29 July 1030 Battle of Stiklestad
- 1904 Oseberg Ship Excavated
Poland
The full history of Poland on AllHistories →
Peoples
None of the eight peoples is listed for this country; the sites below are the traces.
Heritage sites (1)
- WolinArchaeological site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
Russia
The full history of Russia on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Staraya LadogaArchaeological site
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 13)
- 753 CE Staraya Ladoga Founded
- c. 800 CE Islamic Silver Reaches the Baltic
- c. 830 CE The First Rus' in the East
- c. 862 CE Calling of the Varangians
- c. 879 CE Rurik Dies; Oleg Becomes Regent
- c. 910 CE Scandinavians at Wiskiauten in Prussia
- 922 CE Ibn Fadlan Describes the Rus'
- c. 925 CE Gnezdovo Flourishes on the Dnieper
- c. 965 CE Sviatoslav Destroys the Khazar Khaganate
- c. 1016 Eymund's Varangians Serve Yaroslav
- c. 1016 Yaroslav's Law: The Russkaya Pravda
- 1136 Novgorod Expels Its Prince
Sweden
The full history of Sweden on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (3)
- Birka and HovgårdenUNESCO World Heritage Site
- Swedish History Museum, StockholmMuseum
- Gamla UppsalaArchaeological site
Runestones (6)
- Rök runestone Rök, Östergötland, Sweden
- Ingvar runestones Mälaren region, Sweden (example: Gripsholm stone, Mariefred)
- England runestones Mainly Uppland and around Lake Mälaren, Sweden (example: Yttergärde stone U 344, Orkesta)
- Greece runestones Mainly Uppland and Södermanland, Sweden (example: Ed boulder U 112, north of Stockholm)
- Sigurd carving (Ramsund) Ramsund near Eskilstuna, Södermanland, Sweden
- Karlevi Runestone Karlevi, Öland, Sweden
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 32)
- c. 1700 BCE Nordic Bronze Age Ship Carvings
- 98 CE Tacitus Describes the Suiones
- c. 550 CE Vendel Period Begins
- c. 550 CE Royal Mounds of Gamla Uppsala
- c. 700 CE Scandinavian Ships Take the Sail
- c. 750 CE Birka Founded
- c. 800 CE Rök Runestone Carved
- 829 CE Ansgar's First Mission to Birka
- c. 852 CE Ansgar's Second Mission to Birka
- c. 870 CE Spillings Hoard Buried on Gotland
- c. 900 CE Peak of the Dirham Silver Trade
- 1103 Archbishopric of Lund Founded
Syria
The full history of Syria on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (0)
No timeline event is located in this country.
Tunisia
The full history of Tunisia on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (0)
None of the fourteen famous runestones.
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (1)
Turkey
The full history of Turkey on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (1)
- Hagia Sophia, IstanbulUNESCO World Heritage Site
Runestones (1)
- Hagia Sophia inscriptions Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 16)
- 18 June 860 CE Rus' Attack on Constantinople
- 867 CE Photius Reports Conversion of the Rus'
- c. 907 CE Oleg's Campaign Against Constantinople
- 2 September 911 CE Rus'–Byzantine Treaty of 911
- 941 CE Igor's Fleet Burned by Greek Fire
- c. 957 CE Olga Baptised in Constantinople
- 988 CE Varangian Guard Founded
- c. 1034 Harald Sigurdsson Joins the Varangian Guard
- April 1042 Michael V Blinded; Harald Escapes Constantinople
- 1043 Last Rus' Attack on Constantinople
- 26 August 1071 Varangian Guard at Manzikert
- October 1097 Siege of Antioch and Bohemond's Principality
Ukraine
The full history of Ukraine on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (0)
No heritage site from our list of 33.
Runestones (1)
- Berezan' Runestone Berezan Island, mouth of the Dnieper, Ukraine (now in the Odesa Archaeological Museum)
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 30)
- c. 863 CE Askold and Dir at Kiev
- c. 882 CE Oleg Takes Kiev
- c. 912 CE Death of Oleg the Wise
- c. 945 CE Rus'–Byzantine Treaty of 945
- 945 CE Igor Killed; Olga's Revenge
- c. 950 CE Emperor Describes the Dnieper Route
- 959 CE Olga's Embassy to Otto I
- 968 CE Pechenegs Besiege Kiev
- 972 CE Sviatoslav Killed at the Dnieper Rapids
- c. 977 CE War Between Sviatoslav's Sons
- 988 CE Baptism of Vladimir and of Rus'
- 20 February 1054 Death of Yaroslav the Wise
United Kingdom
The full history of United Kingdom on AllHistories →
Peoples
Heritage sites (4)
- Jorvik Viking Centre, YorkMuseum
- Lindisfarne (Holy Island)Archaeological site
- JarlshofArchaeological site
- Brough of BirsayArchaeological site
Runestones (1)
- Maeshowe graffiti Maeshowe, Mainland, Orkney, Scotland
Ships found (0)
No famous ship was found here.
On the timeline (12 of 152)
- 8 June 793 CE Sack of Lindisfarne
- 865 CE Great Heathen Army Lands
- 1 November 866 CE Great Army Captures York
- May 878 CE Battle of Edington
- 886 CE Alfred Takes London; the Danelaw Defined
- 937 CE Battle of Brunanburh
- 954 CE Eric Bloodaxe Killed at Stainmore
- 1013 Sweyn Forkbeard Conquers England
- 18 October 1016 Battle of Assandun
- 25 September 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge
- 14 October 1066 Battle of Hastings
- 24 August 1103 Death of Magnus Barefoot in Ulster
Language
The Vikings in your vocabulary
English took its plainest words from Old Norse: not exotic terms, but sky, egg, knife and window. Search the word wall, then look at the endings the Norse left on the map and the gods in the week.
sky
ský
cloud
egg
egg
egg (replaced Old English ǣg, 'ey')
knife
knífr
knife
window
vindauga
'wind-eye', an opening in the roof or wall
husband
húsbóndi
householder, master of the house
law
lǫg (plural of lag)
'things laid down', law
they
þeir
they
them
þeim
to them
their
þeira
of them
take
taka
to grasp, take
give
gefa
to give (the hard g- of the English verb is due to Norse)
get
geta
to obtain, beget
skin
skinn
animal hide, pelt
skull
skalli
bald head, skull (probable source)
anger
angr
grief, sorrow, distress
ugly
uggligr
dreadful, fearsome
wrong
rangr
crooked, awry, unjust
die
deyja
to die
cake
kaka
small flat loaf, cake
berserk
berserkr
frenzied warrior, probably 'bear-shirt' (borrowed in the 19th century)
ransack
rannsaka
to search a house (for stolen goods)
slaughter
slátr
butchered meat, butchering
thrall
þræll
slave, serf
club
klubba
heavy stick, cudgel
gun
Gunnhildr
woman's name built on gunnr, 'war', given to a siege engine in the 14th century (probable source)
bag
baggi
pack, bundle
leg
leggr
leg, limb bone
root
rót
root
seat
sæti
seat, place to sit
skirt
skyrta
shirt, long tunic (a doublet of native English 'shirt')
steak
steik
meat roasted on a spit
saga
saga
story, something said (borrowed in the 18th century)
fellow
félagi
partner, one who lays down money in a joint venture
call
kalla
to cry out, summon, name
want
vanta
to lack, be missing
weak
veikr
weak, pliant
ill
illr
bad, evil
happy
happ
good luck, chance (source of 'hap', 'happen' and 'happy')
loose
lauss
free, unattached
low
lágr
low, short
odd
oddi
point of land, triangle; hence the third or 'odd' number
outlaw
útlagi
person put outside the law
score
skor
notch, tally; a count of twenty
sister
systir
sister
kid
kið
young goat
No word matches.
Place-name elements
Look at a map of eastern England: the endings are Norse.
-by
farm, village (Old Norse býr/bœr)
GrimsbyWhitbyDerbySelby
-thorpe
outlying farm, secondary settlement (þorp)
ScunthorpeCleethorpesMablethorpe
-thwaite
clearing, meadow (þveit)
BraithwaiteSlaithwaiteBassenthwaite
-toft
house plot, homestead (topt)
LowestoftLangtoftWigtoft
-wick / -vik
bay, inlet (vík)
LerwickWickBrodickReykjavík
-ness
headland (nes)
SkegnessCaithnessStromness
-ey / -ay / -a
island (ey)
OrkneyAngleseyLambaySanday
-kirk / kirk-
church (kirkja)
OrmskirkKirkbyKirkwall
-dale, -beck, -fell, -gill
valley (dalr), stream (bekkr), mountain (fjall), ravine (gil)
BorrowdaleTroutbeckScafellGarrigill
-ford (Ireland)
fjord, sea inlet (fjǫrðr)
WexfordWaterfordStrangfordCarlingford
Wicklow, Howth and other Irish coastal names
Wicklow is probably Víkingaló, 'Vikings' meadow'; Howth is hǫfuð, 'head(land)'
WicklowHowthDalkeyLeixlip
-tot (Normandy)
house plot, farm (topt), the Norman equivalent of English -toft
YvetotHautotCriquetot
-bec (Normandy)
stream (bekkr)
CaudebecBolbecOrbec
-fleur (Normandy)
inlet, river mouth (Old Norse flóð or Old English flēot; the origin is debated)
HarfleurHonfleurBarfleur
The days of the week
TuesdayTýsdagr
WednesdayÓðinsdagr
ThursdayÞórsdagr
FridayFrjádagr
Saturdaylaugardagr ('washing day'; Swedish lördag, Danish and Norwegian lørdag, Icelandic laugardagur)
Meet the gods themselves on Gods and myths.
Places to visit
Thirty-three places where you can stand on the evidence
UNESCO World Heritage Sites, museums, excavated settlements and monuments, from L'Anse aux Meadows to Hedeby. Filter by type or country; hover a card to find it on the map.
UNESCO World Heritage Site (12)
Museum (10)
Archaeological site (10)
Historic monument (1)
L'Anse aux Meadows
The only confirmed Norse site in North America, at the northern tip of Newfoundland: eight turf-walled buildings found in 1960 by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad. Tree-ring evidence shows Norse were felling trees here in the year 1021.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Birka and Hovgården
Sweden's first town, on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren, active about 750–975, with ramparts, a hillfort and some 3,000 graves. The royal estate of Hovgården lies on neighbouring Adelsö. Reached by boat from Stockholm in summer.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church
The royal monument of Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth: two great mounds, two runestones and a church on the site of Harald's first wooden one, enclosed by a vast palisade. The free visitor centre Kongernes Jelling stands opposite.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Þingvellir National Park
The rift valley where Iceland's Althing met in the open air every summer from about 930 until 1798. Visitors can walk to the Law Rock (Lögberg) and see the remains of the turf booths used by those attending.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Kujataa Greenland: Norse and Inuit Farming at the Edge of the Ice Cap
Five areas of sub-arctic farmland in South Greenland where Norse settlers farmed from the late 10th to the 15th century and Inuit farmers later. They include Brattahlíð, the bishop's seat at Garðar (Igaliku, marked here) and the well-preserved Hvalsey church.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Hedeby and the Danevirke
The greatest trading town of the Viking North, inside its semicircular rampart on the Schlei inlet, and the 30-kilometre chain of earthworks that barred Jutland. The Viking Museum Haithabu shows the finds, including the Hedeby 1 longship, beside reconstructed houses.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Viking-Age Ring Fortresses
Five circular fortresses built to one geometric plan by Harald Bluetooth about 975–980: Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken, Trelleborg and Borgring. Aggersborg by the Limfjord, marked here, is the largest; Fyrkat near Hobro has a reconstructed longhouse and Viking farm.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Trelleborg
The first ring fortress to be discovered and the best presented, near Slagelse on Zealand, built with timber felled in 980–981. A museum, a full-size reconstructed longhouse and a summer Viking festival stand beside the rampart. Part of the 2023 UNESCO inscription.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Urnes Stave Church
The oldest surviving stave church, built about 1130 above the Lustrafjord. Its north wall reuses a portal and panels of about 1070 whose sinuous animals gave the last Viking art style its name. Reached by ferry from Solvorn.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale
Nine monuments of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, founded in 1130 by descendants of the Norse settlers of Normandy. Palaces, churches and cathedrals fuse Latin, Byzantine and Islamic art: a distant outcome of the Viking expansion rather than a Viking site.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Brattahlíð (Qassiarsuk)
The farm that Erik the Red founded about 985, the starting point of the Vinland voyages and one of the five parts of the Kujataa World Heritage Site. Norse ruins lie in the modern village beside reconstructions of a longhouse and Þjóðhildr's turf church.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde
Home of the five Skuldelev ships, deliberately sunk in Roskilde Fjord in the 11th century and raised in 1962. The boatyard builds full-size replicas with Viking-Age tools, and visitors can row or sail them on the fjord in summer.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Museum of the Viking Age, Oslo
The former Viking Ship Museum on Bygdøy, home of the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships and the Oseberg grave goods. Closed since 2021 for rebuilding as a much larger museum; reopening is planned for 2027, so check before travelling.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Swedish History Museum, Stockholm
Holds one of the world's largest Viking collections: the finds from Birka, the Mästermyr tool chest, picture stones, runestones and, in the Gold Room, hoards of Viking-Age silver and gold. Its permanent exhibition is called 'The Viking World'.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
Denmark's main collection of Viking antiquities: the Mammen axe and other Jelling-dynasty finds, hoards, weapons and runestones, the Kingittorsuaq stone from Greenland, and the surviving timbers of Roskilde 6, the longest Viking warship known.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Jorvik Viking Centre, York
Built on the site of the 1976–1981 Coppergate excavations, which uncovered timber houses and some 40,000 objects from Viking-Age York. Visitors ride through a reconstruction of 10th-century streets above the original excavation. An annual Viking festival is held in February.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Dublinia and the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Dublin
Dublinia, beside Christ Church Cathedral, recreates Viking and medieval Dublin close to the Wood Quay excavations. The original finds, including weapons, tools, ship timbers and the Kilmainham grave goods, are in the National Museum's Viking Ireland gallery on Kildare Street.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Lofotr Viking Museum, Borg
A full-size reconstruction of the largest Viking-Age building ever found, the 83-metre chieftain's hall excavated at Borg on Vestvågøy in the Lofoten Islands, with a replica ship on the lake below and a Viking festival each August.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Lindholm Høje
A hillside cemetery above the Limfjord at Aalborg with about 700 graves from roughly 400 to 1000, many marked by ship-shaped or triangular stone settings. Drifting sand preserved it, along with a ploughed Viking-Age field. A museum stands beside it.
Archaeological site Official page Wikipedia
Gamla Uppsala
The religious and royal centre of the Svear: three great 'royal mounds' raised in the centuries before the Viking Age, hundreds of smaller graves, and the place where Adam of Bremen set his pagan temple. A 12th-century church and a museum stand beside them.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
Ribe Viking Centre
An open-air reconstruction just south of Ribe, Scandinavia's oldest town, with a marketplace of about 710, a town quarter of 825, a great hall, a wooden church and costumed craftspeople. The original finds are in the Museet Ribes Vikinger in town.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Staraya Ladoga
Aldeigjuborg of the sagas, founded about 753 on the Volkhov river: the first Scandinavian base in the east and the gateway to the Volga and Dnieper routes. A later stone fortress, 12th-century churches and burial mounds mark the site.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
The great church of Constantinople, the Norse Miklagarðr. On the marble parapets of its upper gallery, Scandinavians, probably Varangian guardsmen, scratched runic graffiti, among them the name Halfdan. It belongs to the Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage Site.
UNESCO World Heritage Site Official page Wikipedia
Bayeux Tapestry Museum
Home of the nearly 70-metre embroidery that shows Duke William's Norse-descended Normans crossing to England in clinker-built longships in 1066. The museum is closed for renovation until 2027; meanwhile the tapestry is on loan to the British Museum in London.
Museum Official page Wikipedia
Lindisfarne (Holy Island)
The tidal island monastery off Northumberland whose sacking on 8 June 793 conventionally opens the Viking Age. The ruined priory is later, but its museum shows the 9th-century 'Viking Domesday stone' carved with a file of armed warriors.
Archaeological site Official page Wikipedia
Tynwald Hill, St John's
A four-tiered grass mound where the Manx parliament, a Norse foundation, still meets in the open air every 5 July to proclaim new laws in Manx and English. Tynwald traces its origins to the Norse kingdom of Man more than a thousand years ago.
Historic monument Official page Wikipedia
Jarlshof
A settlement near Sumburgh Head occupied for over 4,000 years. Its Norse layer, a farm of several longhouses founded in the 9th century and used for many generations, is among the most extensive Viking remains visible in Britain. The name was invented by Walter Scott.
Archaeological site Official page Wikipedia
Brough of Birsay
A tidal island off the north-west of Orkney's Mainland, reached on foot at low water, with the remains of a Pictish settlement overlain by Norse houses and a 12th-century church. Birsay was a seat of the earls of Orkney.
Archaeological site Official page Wikipedia
The Settlement Exhibition, Reykjavík
An underground museum built around a 10th-century longhouse excavated in 2001 in central Reykjavík, and a fragment of wall older than the volcanic ash layer of about 871, among the earliest traces of settlement in Iceland.
Museum Wikipedia
Apuolė hillfort
A Curonian stronghold near Skuodas and the oldest place in Lithuania named in a written source: Rimbert's Life of Ansgar says a Swedish army besieged 'Apulia' about 854. The attack is re-enacted at the annual 'Apuolė 854' festival each August.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
Grobiņa archaeological ensemble
Hillfort and burial fields near Liepāja where Scandinavians from Gotland and central Sweden settled from about 650 to 850, the earliest known Norse colony east of the Baltic, usually identified with the 'Seeburg' of Rimbert's Life of Ansgar. It is on Latvia's UNESCO tentative list.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
Salme ship burials, Saaremaa
The place where two ships holding 41 slain warriors from Sweden were found in 2008 and 2010, buried about 750, half a century before Lindisfarne. The spot in Salme village is marked; finds have been shown in Estonian museums.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
Wolin
A Slavic trading port at the mouth of the Oder with strong Scandinavian contacts, often identified with the Jómsborg of the sagas and the Vineta of legend. It has a regional museum and an open-air Slavs and Vikings centre, which hosts a large summer festival.
Archaeological site Wikipedia
More legacies
Law, DNA, the revival and the screen
Seven further threads: the words and days above in more detail, the parliaments and legal inheritance, what DNA shows, and how the Vikings were reinvented in the nineteenth century and on screen.
Old Norse Words in English
Norse settlers in the Danelaw spoke a language close enough to Old English for neighbours to understand each other, and the two blended. The result is that English took from Old Norse not exotic terms but its plainest words: sky, egg, knife, skin, leg, window, husband, sister, law, wrong, ugly, ill, die, take, give, get, call and want. Most remarkably it borrowed pronouns, they, them and their, which languages rarely do. Pairs such as shirt and skirt, or shatter and scatter, show a native English form beside its Norse cousin. Standard English contains roughly a thousand such loans, and the dialects of northern England and Scotland many more, including beck, fell, gate ('street') and bairn. A few words, such as saga and berserk, are later learned borrowings.
Key facts
- They, them and their come from Old Norse þeir, þeim, þeira
- Window is vindauga, 'wind-eye'; husband is húsbóndi, 'householder'
- The word 'law' itself is a Norse loan (Old Norse lǫg, 'things laid down')
- Doublets: English shirt and Norse-derived skirt come from the same Germanic root
Norse Place Names in Britain, Ireland and Normandy
Where Vikings settled, the map still speaks Old Norse. In eastern and northern England hundreds of villages end in -by ('farm, village'), -thorpe ('outlying hamlet'), -thwaite ('clearing') or -toft ('house plot'): Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Braithwaite, Lowestoft. They thin out abruptly at the old boundary of the Danelaw. Orkney and Shetland are almost wholly Norse in their names, and the Hebrides, the Isle of Man and Cumbria strongly so. In Ireland the Norse named the ports they founded: Wexford, Waterford and Wicklow, and headlands such as Howth. In Normandy, granted to the Viking leader Rollo in 911, villages in -tot (Yvetot), -bec (Caudebec), -beuf (Elbeuf) and -dalle show where Scandinavians took land, thickest in the Pays de Caux and the Cotentin.
Key facts
- England has more than 600 place names ending in -by
- Wexford, Waterford and Strangford contain Old Norse fjǫrðr, 'fjord, inlet'
- Normandy: -tot from topt ('plot'), -bec from bekkr ('stream'), -beuf from búð ('booth')
- Swansea in Wales is probably 'Sveinn's island' (Sveinsey)
Days of the Week
Four English weekdays are named after gods the Vikings worshipped. Tuesday is the day of Týr, Wednesday of Odin, Thursday of Thor and Friday of Frigg. Strictly, the English names descend from the Anglo-Saxon forms of the same deities, Tiw, Woden, Thunor and Frig, adopted when the Germanic peoples translated the Roman planetary week, matching Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus to their own gods. The Scandinavian languages keep the Norse versions: tirsdag, onsdag, torsdag, fredag. They also keep one purely native name. Saturday, Saturn's day in English, is lördag or lørdag, from Old Norse laugardagr, 'washing day'. Iceland is the exception: a 12th-century bishop replaced the pagan names with neutral ones such as þriðjudagur, 'third day'.
Key facts
- Tuesday: Týsdagr; Wednesday: Óðinsdagr; Thursday: Þórsdagr; Friday: Frjádagr
- Old Norse laugardagr ('washing day') gives Swedish lördag and Danish/Norwegian lørdag
- Bishop Jón Ögmundsson of Hólar (d. 1121) is credited with removing the gods from Iceland's weekday names
- The Germanic week translated the Roman one: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus
Parliaments and Legal Legacy
The Norse assembly tradition left living institutions. Iceland's Althing, founded about 930, is often called the world's oldest parliament, though it was suspended between 1800 and 1845; the Isle of Man's Tynwald, of Norse origin, claims more than a thousand years of unbroken sittings and still proclaims new laws in the open air each 5 July. The Faroese Løgting and the names of the Norwegian Storting and Danish Folketing carry the same word, þing. English law took its vocabulary from the Danelaw: 'law' itself, 'by-law' (town law), 'outlaw', 'husting' (house-assembly) and the 'ridings' (thirds) of Yorkshire, with their 'wapentakes'. Scandinavian law of the 12th and 13th centuries preserved rules on inheritance, compensation and collective judgement with roots in the Viking Age.
Key facts
- Althing: founded c. 930 at Þingvellir; it met there until 1798
- Tynwald Day is held on 5 July at Tynwald Hill, St John's, Isle of Man
- 'Law', 'by-law', 'outlaw', 'husting', 'riding' and 'wapentake' are all Norse-derived
- Æthelred II's Wantage Code (c. 997) required twelve leading thegns to accuse suspects in the Danelaw
Genetic Legacy
Ancient DNA has added a new kind of evidence. In 2020 a team led by Eske Willerslev published in Nature the genomes of 442 people from Viking-Age sites between Greenland and Russia. It showed that 'Viking' was not a closed ethnic group: Scandinavia was receiving genes from southern and eastern Europe before and during the period, and some people buried as Vikings in Orkney had no Scandinavian ancestry at all. Movements followed geography. Ancestry typical of Denmark went mainly to England, of Norway to Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland, and of Sweden to the Baltic and the east. The study estimated that about 6 per cent of people in the United Kingdom carry Viking-derived ancestry. Earlier studies had found that many of Iceland's founding mothers came from Ireland and Scotland.
Key facts
- 2020 Nature study (Margaryan et al.): 442 ancient genomes sequenced
- Estimated Viking-Age Scandinavian ancestry: about 6% in the UK population
- Four brothers were identified lying side by side in the Salme ship burial in Estonia
- In Iceland, most founding male lineages are Norse while a majority of female lineages are Gaelic
The Viking Revival and the Modern Image
The Viking as a cultural hero is largely a creation of the 19th century. As Old Norse texts were edited and translated, Romantic nationalists in Scandinavia found in them a glorious past: Sweden's Geatish Society, founded in 1811, published Erik Gustaf Geijer's poem 'The Viking', and Esaias Tegnér's Frithiofs saga (1825) became a European bestseller. In Britain the word 'Viking' itself entered common use only in the early 1800s, and Victorians embraced the Norse as free, seafaring ancestors. Wagner's Ring cycle, national-romantic painting and the excavation of the Gokstad (1880) and Oseberg (1904) ships fixed the visual image, horned helmet included. In the 20th century the Nazis exploited the same imagery. Modern scholarship has moved towards a fuller picture of farmers, traders and settlers.
Key facts
- 1811: the Geatish Society (Götiska Förbundet) founded in Stockholm
- 1825: Tegnér's Frithiofs saga published
- 1893: the Gokstad replica 'Viking' sailed from Norway to the Chicago World's Fair
- Since 1964 the United States has marked 9 October as Leif Erikson Day
Vikings in Film, TV and Games
Few historical peoples are as present in popular culture. Hollywood set the template with The Vikings (1958), starring Kirk Douglas, and comics softened it with Hägar the Horrible and Marvel's superhero Thor. Since 2010 the subject has boomed: the animated How to Train Your Dragon films, the television dramas Vikings (2013–2020), The Last Kingdom (2015–2022) and Vikings: Valhalla, Robert Eggers's film The Northman (2022), and video games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, God of War and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Recent productions take more care over ships, halls and ritual than their predecessors, but they still favour leather, tattoos, shaved heads and constant battle over the evidence. Sports teams, heavy-metal bands and festivals such as Shetland's Up Helly Aa keep the image alive.
Key facts
- The Vikings (1958) starred Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis
- The TV series Vikings ran for six seasons, 2013–2020
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020) is set during the Viking invasion of England in the 870s
- Up Helly Aa, Lerwick's fire festival with a Viking galley, dates from the 1880s