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The Viking Age in Scandinavian history is taken to have been the period from the earliest recorded raids by Norsemen in 793. -
Colonisation of Iceland by Norwegian Vikings began in the ninth century. The first source mentioning Iceland and Greenland is a papal letter of 1053. Twenty years later, they appear in the Gesta of Adam of Bremen (German medieval chronicler). It was not until after 1130, when the islands had become Christianized -
The south coast of the Baltic Sea was ruled by the Obotrites, a federation of Slavic tribes loyal to the Carolingians. The Vikings led by King Gudfred destroyed the Obotrite city of Reric on the southern Baltic coast in 808. This secured Viking supremacy in the Baltic Sea, which continued throughout the Viking Age. -
As early as 839, when Swedish emissaries are first known to have visited Byzantium (was the continuation of Roman Empire), Scandinavians served as mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine Empire (The same as Byzantium). European courts simultaneously also recruited Scandinavians to stop the emigration. -
In 882 they annexed Kiev to serve as the capital of the Kievan Rus (It was a state in Eastern and Norther Europe). -
Rollo died between 928 and 933 he was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, today a region in northern France. -
Jomsborg was a semi-legendary Viking stronghold at the southern coast of the Baltic Sea that existed between the 960 and 1043. -
By the late 10th century, some Vikings (including the famous Erik the Red) moved even further westward, to Greenland, he have become the first Europeans to discover and explore North America. -
Christianity had taken root in Denmark and Norway with the establishment of dioceses in the 11th century, and the new religion was beginning to organise and assert itself more effectively in Sweden. In 1103 the first archbishopric was founded in Scandinavia. -
Two Vikings even ascended to the throne of England, with Sweyn Forkbeard (was a king of Denmark) claiming the English throne in 1013 until 1014 and his son Cnut the Great being king of England between 1016 and 1035. -
While the Vikings were active beyond their Scandinavian homelands, Scandinavia was itself experiencing new influences and undergoing a variety of cultural changes.