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Home / Historical Periods / Medieval Period / Viking Age Scandinavia

Period

Viking Age Scandinavia

c. 911–1,066

Viking Age Scandinavia covers the Norse world of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the wider North Atlantic from the late eighth to eleventh centuries. It involved raiding, trade, settlement, slavery, shipbuilding, kingship, conversion and long-distance exploration. The Scandinavian focus is useful because not all Viking fiction belongs under Anglo-Saxon England or Britain.

It mattered because Norse activity connected the Baltic, British Isles, Frankish lands, Russia, Byzantium, Iceland, Greenland and North America. The period contains both violent raiding and sophisticated trade, law, poetry and settlement. It offers fiction a world of sea routes, family honour, gods, kings, exiles and changing religion.

Viking Age Scandinavia links to Bernard Cornwell's Uhtred novels through the wider Norse world, but it also has its own fiction by Frans G. Bengtsson, Giles Kristian, Linnea Hartsuyker, Tim Severin and other writers of Norse and seafaring series. These stories often follow raiders, traders, settlers, kings, shieldmaidens, explorers and families moving between Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the British Isles and the North Atlantic. A separate Scandinavian entry helps avoid treating all Viking fiction as Anglo-Saxon England only.

Related people for Viking Age Scandinavia

Brian Boru941–1014 Cnut the Great994–1035 Edmund Ironside988–1016 Emma of Normandy987–1052 Eric Bloodaxe895–954 Gunnhild, Mother of Kings910–980 Harald III of Norway1015–1066 Harold Godwinson1022–1066 Leif Erikson972–1020 Rollo860–932 Sigtrygg Silkbeard970–1042 Sweyn I of Denmark963–1014 William II of England1060–1100 William the Conqueror1028–1087 Æthelred the Unready967–1016

Series

Series about Viking Age Scandinavia (1 series)

The Whale Road Chronicles in Order

by Tim Hodkinson 8 books 4.4

The Whale Road Chronicles follow the Icelandic warrior and poet Einar Unnsson through the North Atlantic world of the 930s. His journeys connect Iceland, Orkney, Norway, Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, Francia, al-Andalus and Byzantium as Viking warbands, Christian kings and competing dynasties struggle for control of kingdoms and sea…

Books

30 Best Novels About the Viking Age in Scandinavia

Bestselling authors first, then star rating.