A Viking history of Scandinavia

A Viking history of Scandinavia

This timeline started as a history of Scandinavia. Quite quickly I realised that I was far too optimistic to think that I would have the time and energy to translate the full and vibrant history of this part of the world into a blog post!

It was taking me ages! And I wasn’t even at the end of the Viking era!

So, I changed my plan and decided to make it a Viking History instead. This was a much better fit, not only because of the vast amount of information about the Vikings (which was taking such a long time to research, understand and reorganise), but also because this was after all a most fascinating period of history which had totally captivated me.

Moreover, doing the reading for this post has led me down countless ‘rabbit holes’, many of which will end up as subjects of later posts.

On the other hand, I have frequently become totally confused with the players on this vast stage, and what roles they were playing. Particularly since they seemed to swap roles intermittently, as well as swap sides, and even swap countries. In fact, even the idea of a ‘country’ or kingdom and their boundaries has been pretty fuzzy!

So, there are a few important discoveries I have made along the way:

  • We talk about Vikings, but we really mean Norse people. So, I have used those terms interchangeably, unless I am specifically defining one or the other separately.
  • Scandinavia means Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I thought that Finland was part of Scandinavia. However its distinct cultural, historical and linguistic differences set it apart from Scandinavia from a very early stage. This means that the wider group know as Nordic Countries is made up of Scandinavia + Finland + Iceland. I will publish something about Finland in due course.
  • As mentioned above, the Viking history of this area is a fascinating combination lots of colourful figures running around trading, raiding, conquering, negotiating, settling, integrating, and generally changing the course of history over and over again. Altogether very confusing when you are trying to create a timeline, because exciting things are happening at the same time in different places. Moreover, the key figures pop up in different scenes at different times. The bottom line is that the Norse were extensive travellers and effective influencers, and this is borne out in this period of history. So, the timeline looks a bit like a hotch-potch. And the dates often overlap.  But look at it like a patchwork quilt, which is brought together through careful placement, notwithstanding the fact that it still looks like a colourful mess!

I have selected entries that are either important to the early history of Scandinavia, or that simply appeal to me enough to include. Undoubtedly, I will be omitting some information which others may consider important! I will do my best. But I confess that my objective is to find the items which bring the history alive for me.

In due course I will share where exactly I am travelling to.

In the meantime, you can be assured that it includes Scandinavia!

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