In Scandinavia, the Iron Age is ended by the Viking Age. Then the early Middle Ages take over. The Middle Ages begin with the introduction of Christianity around 1050-1100 AD. Of course, the shift from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages cannot be entirely timed to a certain year. Several aspects of the Viking era continue to well into the 12th century. Some traditions were even more resilient and, for example, runic inscriptions have been used in the valleys until the 19th century.

One usually divides the Iron Age, which the Viking Age ends with the following approximate periods:

  • Pre-Roman Iron Age 500 BC - about year 0
  • Roman Iron Age 0 - 400 AD
  • Migration time 40 0 ​​AD - 550 AD
  • Turnaround 550 AD - 800 AD
  • Viking Age 800 AD - 1100 AD

Large parts of Europe have already come to what we call the Middle Ages during the same period that we Norwegians had Iron Age culture.

Daner landstiger i England 866 illustration ur "Miscellany on the life of St. Edmund" från 1130-talet.Scandinavia's population increased sharply during the Viking Age, while shipbuilding art was developed. These were contributing causes of the first Viking trains, that is, looting that Vikings, boat-borne warriors from Scandinavia, performed around Europe. On June 8, 793, the Vikings plundered the monastery of Lindisfarne on the east coast of England, an attack soon followed by innumerable warships, but also trade and colonization. In the east, the Norwegians sought in large numbers down the Russian rivers. They came as merchants or as future "guards", that is, enlisted soldiers in the army and navy of the East Roman emperor, but also as conquerors. According to tradition, the first Russian empire must have been founded from the Swarik Empire.

owever, most of the Norwegians during the Viking Age lived a quiet life as peasants, and must hardly have called themselves Vikings. In Icelandic fairy tales, the term norroenir men ("norren men") is used to denote the people of the Nordic countries. Through the preserved literature treasure found in the Icelandic manuscripts from the 12th and 13th centuries, and from the texts of the runestones, many details of the peoples' lives are known during the Viking era.

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