SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #2924

[James Prescott]

At 15:41 -0500 2001-01-29, Jenne Heise wrote:

> Can the person who posted the information about the book give us more
> information about the period that they define as 'Viking'? (The
> Encyclopedia Britannica defines Vikings as: "Scandinavian seafaring
> warriors who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 9th to the
> 11th century". 

Wasn't me, but most academics restrict the official 'Viking Age' to 
about the years given in your quote.  The exact beginning and ending
dates vary depending on the academic's point of view.

The start is most often taken as the date of the first recorded raid, 
that on the monastery at Lindisfarne in the British Isles in 793.

The end is sometimes taken as the battle of Clontarf in Ireland in 
1015 (or 1014), which is (arguably) the last battle involving Vikings 
who were not closely affiliated with a Scandanavian government (the 
Vikings lost big time).

The end may also be taken as 1066, the date of the battle of Stamford
Bridge in northern England where Harald (himself part Norse) defeated 
a Norwegian invading army.  In the same year William the Conqueror, a
Viking-gone-soft <joke>, changed the political map of Europe by 
bringing feudalism to Britain.

The end might also be taken as 1085, the date of the last attempted
Danish conquest of Britain.

Take your pick.


Those who prefer a less sanguine dating system might consider the
rise and fall of the very profitable Baltic trade route run by the 
Norse connecting the Far East to Western Europe.  The fortunes of 
this route rose and fell roughly coincident with the Islamic shut-down 
of European access to the Mediterranean sea-borne trade routes, that 
is from the early 800s to the mid 1000s.


- -- 
All my best,
Thorvald Grimsson / James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net> (PGP user)