• Viking means men of the inland
• 763 AD In search of treasure, the Vikings crossed the North Sea and attacked the defenseless, English island Lindisfarne.
• They were a major threat to Christianity.
• Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
• Poets recorded major
• Egill Skallagrímsson was a notorious Viking. His father was from Norway, however, siding on the wrong side of a dispute he had been forced to live in Iceland.He owned a farm and had men fish, hunt and collect eggs. Egill was born ~900 AD in a village.
• At a young age, egill was rough with playmates. At age 6 Egill lost a competition to a boy called Grim, he felt humiliated to the point he swung an ax through grim's brain.
• Viking customs noted from an Arab trader included:

-A pole with the animal hair was hanged outside the house of anyone that killed an animal as a form of sacrifice. - Very growly singing - If a weak child was born, it was thrown into the sea to save from having to bring it up.

• Christianity had not fully conquered Northern Europe and there were Vikings that practiced paganism.
• Thor ( God of Thunder) = Thursday, Freyja ( Goddess of fertility and war) = Friday. Warriors had Odin (God of war) on their shields. Warriors that died in battle went to Valhalla (A feasting hall of another world), where he will fight with the gods in a final battle.
• By late 8th century the Vikings had developed the craft of the longboat. They would name their boats like "long serpent". The ships could reach 10 knots with a sail.
• During the time on the boat, Egill and his men would pass time playing board games like "Capture the King".
• English Women liked Viking men because they groomed their hair, washed every Saturday and changed clothes often
• Egill w/ 12 men reached to the Baltics, reaching what is now called Latvia trading peacefully for 2 weeks.
• The most feared Vikings wore bear or wolf skins and were thought to have powers from the gods. Powers that could blunt swords and stop the flight of javelins. Bezzer
• A valuable ornament were ceramic beads.They would bargain for them, put it on a chain and gave it their women as necklaces
• Russia owes it names from Russe traders of Viking. Normandy comes from men of the North. They created towns like Kiev and Dublin
• In Hagia Sophia mosque located in Istanbul(now a museum), there is Viking graffiti from the 9th century saying "Halvdan (Halfdan) carved these runes" the Viking version of "(name) was here"
• The Vikings were first Europeans to make it to America, predating Colombus by 500 years.
• When the king of Scotland declared war against the king of England. The king of Athelstan sought out help from the Norsemen who raided his shores. This included Egill, he first had to baptized then he joined the English king with 360 men. They one a beginner battle that begins before each war.
• Egill recounts battles in poetry.
• Around the end of Egill's life, the Vikings went back to England with a multitude of longboats but not to assist but invade.
• When Vikings died they were buried with their favorite weapon, horse or their favorite slave girl. His grave would be outlined by stones in the shape of a long boat, to carry them to the other side. A few would have a footpath and a stone monument that marked their deeds.The best warriors would have the highest ranked memorial of all; a boat burial. They were cremated in a sailing long boat for their journey to Valhalla.
• By the 12th centuary Christianity toke over the viking way of life
• The Vikings came from all of Scandinavia, the Dane vikings didnt found Norway or Sweden, It was allready people there! And it was not one ruler, it was MANY Chiefs. Swedish vikings was mostly a calm type, who farmed, and traded, the land was good to them. Norwegian vikings had much harsher land, but had alot of fjords and seas, so they became master sailors, and it was the Norwegian vikings who first founded Iceland, and Greenland. They was also known to be very good and ruthless warriors, plundering and conquering, first to England, and eventually South Europe. Dane vikings was a mix of what Swedish and Norwegian vikings was, and was also like the norse known to be brutal fighters. That said, nowadays Icelandic people are closest to viking DNA, and in speech. Danes, Norse, and Swede vikings has been all but estinct because of plagues and such.