“Deliver us, O Lord, from the fury of the Norsemen. They ravage our lands, they kill our women and children!” This was the fervent prayer that resounded from England’s places of worship in the late eighth century. Striking from the cold and hostile north, the Vikings pillaged monasteries and decimated entire villages by fire and by sword. Terrified monks in England, Ireland, and France described the Vikings as brazen, plundering barbarians but also observed that they were “well dressed and combed their hair and beards.” Their daylight summertime raids, out of what is now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, heralded an epoch that was to last for nearly three centuries.

Since Scandinavia was surrounded by the sea, the Vikings were well placed to reach the heart of neighboring countries. The name Viking, adopted in the ninth century, likely comes from the Norse word vik, meaning “bay” or “creek.”