It focuses on historical Norse paganism of the Viking Age as described in the Eddas, but proponents also take a more inclusive approach, defining it as " Northern European Heathenry " not limited to a specific historical period.

Kiernan argues against an 8th-century provenance because this would still require that the poem be transmitted by Anglo-Saxons through the Viking Age, holds that the paleographic and codicological evidence encourages the belief that Beowulf is an 11th-century composite poem, and states that Scribe A and Scribe B are the authors and that Scribe B is the more poignant of the two.

During the Viking Age, Birka ( Birca in medieval sources ), on the island of Björkö ( literally: " Birch Island ") in Sweden, was an important trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient.

Category: Viking Age museums

The dominant kingdom in eastern Scotland before the Viking Age was the northern Pictish kingdom of Fortriu on the shores of the Moray Firth.

The term Edda ( Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur ) applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age.

The Faroese at Junkarinsfløtti remained dependent upon bird resources, especially puffins, far longer, and to a greater degree than any of the other Viking Age settlers of the North Atlantic islands.

Category: Viking Age

The Viking Age, a period of migrations of Scandinavian peoples, dominated the period from the late 700s to the middle 1000s.

As the Viking Age drew to a close, the period known as the Crusades began.

Migration Period golden bracteates, Vendel era helmet plates, a pair of identical Germanic Iron Age bird-shaped brooches, Viking Age objects depicting a moustached man wearing a helmet, and a portion of the 10th or 11th century Thorwald's Cross may depict Odin with one of the ravens.

Hedeby (, Old Norse Heiðabýr, German Haithabu ) was an important trading settlement in the Danish-northern German borderland during the Viking Age.

Hedeby was the largest Nordic city during the Viking Age and used to be the oldest city in Denmark until the site became part of Germany.

Category: Viking Age

Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age although scientific analysis of the oak timber shows at least one well known ship was built in Dublin, Ireland.

In 793, a Viking raid on Lindisfarne caused much consternation throughout the Christian west, and is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age.

The Viking Age settlements Birka on the island of Björkö and Hovgården on the neighbouring island Adelsö have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993, as has Drottningholm Palace on the island of Lovön.

In the Viking Age Mälaren was still a bay of the Baltic Sea, and seagoing vessels could sail up it far into the interior of Sweden.

Although most surviving instances of the word refer to spiritual matters, it was also used in more mundane situations, as in the Viking Age runestone poem from the inscription Sö 56 from Fyrby:

Category: Viking Age sites in Scotland

The island has evidence from every stage in the history of Orkney, with a Neolithic settlement at Rinyo, Bronze Age burnt mounds, Iron Age crannogs and brochs ( the highest density anywhere in Scotland: three within of coastline ), Viking boat burials, remains of a medieval church and the stately home at Trumland.

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300.

Another suggested influence is the six-string Scandinavian lut ( lute ), which gained in popularity in areas of Viking incursions across medieval Europe.

Reflecting Minnesota's Scandinavian cultural heritage, one of the team's two primary logos consists of a profile of a blond norseman, while the other consists of a white Viking horn.

With the growth of centralized authority in the Scandinavian region, Viking raids, always an expression of " private enterprise ", ceased and the raids became pure voyages of conquest.

The Viking Age was a period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries.

In Scandinavia the Viking age is considered to have ended with the establishment of royal authority in the Scandinavian countries and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion.

The long-term linguistic effect of the Viking settlements in England was threefold: over a thousand Old Norse words eventually became part of Standard English ; numerous places in the East and North-east of England have Danish names, and many English personal names are of Scandinavian origin.

The distribution of family names showing Scandinavian influence is still, as an analysis of names ending in-son reveals, concentrated in the north and east, corresponding to areas of former Viking settlement.

While battles at sea were rare, they would occasionally occur when Viking ships attempted to board European merchant vessels in Scandinavian waters.

In that case, the word Viking was not originally connected to Scandinavian seafarers but assumed this meaning when the Scandinavians begun to dominate the seas.

The word Viking derives from the feminine that in Old Scandinavian had the form vík and which means ' a bay '.

In the modern Scandinavian languages, the word Viking usually refers specifically to those people who went on Viking expeditions.

The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until the Norman conquest of England in 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history.

Geographically, a Viking Age may be assigned not only to Scandinavian lands ( modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden ), but also to territories under North Germanic dominance, mainly the Danelaw, including Scandinavian York, the administrative centre of the remains of the Kingdom of Northumbria, parts of Mercia, and East Anglia.

The names of Scandinavian kings are known only for the later part of the Viking Age.

During the Viking Age, Scandinavian men and women travelled to many parts of Europe and beyond, in a cultural diaspora that left its traces from Newfoundland to Byzantium.

During the 18th century, British interest and enthusiasm for Iceland and early Scandinavian culture grew dramatically, expressed in English translations of Old Norse texts, and original poems which extolled the supposed " Viking virtues ".

In Germany, awareness of Viking history in the 19th century had been stimulated by the border dispute with Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein and the use of Scandinavian mythology by Richard Wagner.

The cultural phenomenon of Viking expansion was re-interpreted for use as propaganda to support the extreme militant nationalism of the Third Reich, and ideologically informed interpretations of Viking paganism and the Scandinavian use of runes were employed in the construction of Nazi mysticism.

A giant Viking welcomes visitors to the town of Dannevirke in New Zealand, founded by 19th Century Scandinavian settlers.

Therefore historians believe that Viking warriors did not use horned helmets, but whether or not such helmets were used in Scandinavian culture for other, ritual purposes remains unproven.