The year 1066: a battlefield in England, a mighty king lies prone
on the ground, his lifeblood ebbing out of him. As he draws his
last breath, the world of which he is the greatest figurehead also
moves towards its end, its existence about to pass from history
into legend and later into myth. This is not Hastings; it is
Stamford Bridge, and the dying king is Harald Hardrada, one of the
greatest figures of the Viking age. It was a bolt from the blue
when Viking raiders descended on the defenceless monastery at
Lindisfarne in 793 and left it a heap of burning rubble. In
succeeding years, other monasteries fell too; Jarrow,
Monkwearmouth, Iona. Britain and Ireland suffered extensively as
did France, Spain, Italy and even the mighty Byzantine Empire. But
this was not just a period of conquest and violence. It was also an
age of exploration, Viking ships crossed the Atlantic, through
Shetland and Orkney to the Faroes and from there to Iceland,
Greenland and North America. They sailed east and their traders
moved across the steppes and rivers of Russia down to
Constantinople, then the greatest city in Christendom. This is the
story of the Vikings, those men and women who raided and traded
their way into history whilst at the same time helping to build new
nations in Scandinavia and beyond. Their history begins a long time
before the Lindisfarne raid. It is also the tale of evocatively
named great men: Sweyn Forkbeard, Harald Bluetooth, Ragnar Lodbrok,
Erik the Red, Ivarr the Boneless, Cnut the Great.
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