History glossary
Viking
Scandinavian raiders, traders, settlers, and rulers active across Europe and the North Atlantic.
- Category
- People and activity
- Region
- Scandinavia and wider Europe
- Date range
- c. 750-1100
What it means
Vikings came mainly from modern Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They raided, traded, settled, and ruled from the North Atlantic to Russia and the Mediterranean, shaping places including England, Ireland, Normandy, Iceland, Greenland, and Kievan Rus.
Related terms
Stories using this term
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From Augustus to the fall of the Western Empire, Rome built a vast imperial system whose law, cities, armies and ideas shaped the ancient and medieval worlds.
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were the peoples and kingdoms that shaped Anglo-Saxon England after the end of Roman rule in Britain. From migration and settlement in Anglo-Saxon Britain to Christian conversion, Viking attacks, Alfred the Great, and the road to 1066, Anglo-Saxon history explains how early medieval England took form. Their language, laws, kingdoms, monasteries, and political traditions left a lasting mark on English identity before the Norman Conquest transformed the realm.
Kievan Rus
The founding of the Rus’ state in the north.
The Norman Conquest of England
From Viking settlers to conquerors, the Normans reshaped England, Italy, and the medieval Mediterranean.
The Viking Age
From raiders to traders, Vikings built kingdoms and networks that reshaped Europe and beyond.
Feudalism and Medieval Society
From the estates of Charlemagne's empire to the flowering of Gothic cathedrals, this story explores how feudal hierarchies, manorial agriculture, and Church authority shaped the lives of kings, knights, and peasants alike.
The Mongol Empire
From scattered steppe tribes to the largest contiguous empire in history, the Mongols reshaped Eurasia through conquest, terror, and trade.
