Parker - The Northmens fury: a history of the Viking world

The Northmens Fury tells the Viking story, from the first pinprick raids of the 8th century to the great armies that left their Scandinavian homelands to conquer larger parts of France, Britain and Ireland. It recounts the epic voyages that took them across the Atlantic to the icy fjords of Greenland and to North America over four centuries before Columbus and east to the great rivers of Russia and the riches of the Byzantine empire.

One summers day in 793, death arrived from the sea. The raiders who sacked the island monastery of Lindisfarne were the first Vikings, sea-borne attackers who brought two centuries of terror to northern Europe. Before long the sight of their dragon-prowed longships and the very name of Viking became objects of fear and dread, so much so that monks were reputed to pray each night for delivery from the Northmens Fury. Yet for all their reputation as bloodthirsty warriors, the Vikings possessed a sophisticated culture that produced art of great beauty, literature of abiding power and kingdoms of surprising endurance.

The Northmens Fury describes how and why a region at the edge of Europe came to dominate and to terrorise much of the rest of the continent for nearly three centuries and how, in the end, the coming of Christianity and the growing power of kings tempered the Viking ferocity and stemmed the tide of raids. It relates the astonishing achievement of the Vikings in forging far-flung empires whose sinews were the sea and whose arteries were not roads but maritime trading routes.

Far more than mere raiders, the blood of the Vikings runs in millions of veins in Europe and the Americas and the tale of their conquests, explorations and achievements continues to inspire many more.

Philip Parker was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He has travelled widely including the whole length of the Roman frontier and large parts of the Viking World. He is the author of The Empire Stops Here: A Journey Along the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, published by Jonathan Cape in 2009.

The Empire Stops Here:
A Journey along the Frontiers of the Roman World

. The Lindisfarne Stone. ( English Heritage)

. Lindisfarne Abbey.

. The Gjermundbu Helmet. ( Peter Harholdt)

. The Gundestrup Cauldron.

. Stone ship setting from Lindholm Hje.

. Burial mounds at Gammla Uppsala.

. Viking invasion fleet in Francia. ( Bibliothque National, Paris, Bridgeman Art Library)

. Danish invasion under Ingvar and Huba. ( Photo Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource/Scala, Florence)

. The Cuerdale Hoard. ( The Art Gallery Collection/Alamy)

. Aerial view of Jarlshof. ( Kieran Baxter)

. The Jelling Stone.

. Reconstructed Viking longhouse at Trelleborg.

. Poppo carrying red-hot lump of iron, Tamdrup plaque. ( Getty Images/DEA/A. DAGLI ORTI/Contributor)

. Thors hammer amulet. ( INTERFOTO/Alamy)

. Gotland picture stone.

. Gokstad Ship.

. Oseberg Ship.

. Oseberg Head. ( Hemis)

. Sigurd roast the dragons heart, Hylestad carving.

. Sigurd kills Regin, Hylestad carving.

Gol Stave Church.

Jarlabanke Bro Runestone.

Thingvellir assembly site.

Thjodhilds Church, Brattahlid. ( Danita Delimont/Alamy)

. Thule Inuit doll. ( Peter Harholdt)

. Hvalsey Church, Greenland. ( Peter Stroh/Alamy)

. Viking longhouse at LAnse aux Meadows. ( David Muenker/Alamy)

. The Newport Tower. ( James Nesterwitz/Alamy)

. The Baptism of Vladimir of Kiev. ( INTERFOTO/Alamy)

. King Cnut and Queen Emma. (Timewatch Images/Alamy)

William of Normandy crosses the Channel (Bayeux Tapestry). ( The Art Archive/Alamy)

. The death of King Harold (Bayeux Tapestry). ( Ancient Art & Architecture Collection Ltd/Alamy)

Norman castle at Melfi, Italy. ( Universal Images Group/DeAgostini/Alamy)

. Viking ball, nineteenth century Stockholm. ( Nordiska museet)

. The Viking World

. The Early Viking Raids in Britain and Ireland

. Viking Francia and Frisia

. Viking England, 865 to 916

. Scandinavia in the Early Viking Age

. The North Atlantic World

. Viking Iceland and the Faroes

. Viking Greenland

. The Viking Exploration of North America

. The Vikings in Russia

. New Empires of the eleventh century

. Viking Normandy

. The Stamford Bridge and Hastings Campaigns, 1066

c.12,000 BC Hamburg reindeer hunters penetrate southern Scandinavia

c.4,000 BC Agriculture reaches Scandinavia

500 BC Beginning of Iron Age in Scandinavia

5001 BC pre-Roman Iron Age in Scandinavia

300 BC Greek traveller Pytheas mentions Thule, a possible reference to Iceland or Scandinavia

c.300 BC Hjortspring Boat shows evidence of clinker-built technique of shipbuilding

AD 1400 Roman Iron Age period

AD 5 Roman fleet reaches the northern tip of Jutland

AD 200500 Finds of weapons sacrificed in bogs in Denmark

310320 Construction of the Nydam Boat

c.400 First carved picture stones on Gotland, Sweden

c.400600 Occupation of trading and market site of Helg in Sweden

AD 400600 Migration period

AD 550750 Vendel period in Sweden

c.515 Chochilaichuss attack on Francia shows evidence of pre-Viking era raids by Scandinavians

650 Foundation of Swedish colony at Grobina, Latvia

c.700 Building of the Kvalsund boat, showing development of true keel in Scandinavia

c.714 St Willibrord leads unsuccessful Christian mission to Scandinavia

c.710 Foundation of trading centre of Ribe

726 Digging of the Kanhave Canal on Danish island of Sams

734 Eastern Frisia conquered by the Franks

737 Construction of the Danevirke begins

750 First evidence of settlement at Hedeby

c.750 Establishment of Staraya Ladoga in northern Russia, later to be Viking colony; beginning of settlement at Birka in Sweden

780 First Islamic dirhams appear in Scandinavian hoards

782 Charlemagne massacres 4,500 pagan Saxons after a revolt against Frankish rule

786802 Reign of Beorhtric of Wessex, during which the Vikings attack Portland in Dorset

792 Offa of Mercia issues decree calling on men of Kent to defend themselves against pagan peoples

793 First dated Viking raid in western Europe, against the Northumbrian monastery of Lindisfarne

794 Viking attack on the Hebrides

795 Viking raids commence against Ireland; Monastery of Iona off the west coast of Scotland raided

796 Viking attack on monastery at Jarrow beaten off

797 Franks complete conquest of Saxony, bringing their territory to the borders of Scandinavia

799 Vikings attack monastery of St-Philibert at Noirmoutier, first raid in Francia

c.800 Establishment of trading settlement at Kaupang in Sweden

806 Viking attack on the monastery of Iona kills 68 of the brethren

807 Vikings sack Inishmurray off Connaucht coast of Ireland

808 Godfred, king of the Danes, destroys the Abodrite settlement of Reric and moves its merchants to Hedeby

810 Ravaging of Frisia by the Danish king Godfred. He is assassinated and his nephew Hemming makes a treaty with the Franks

812 Vikings defeated in Ireland by the king of Loch Lin

814 Death of Charlemagne; Louis the Pious becomes Frankish ruler

815 Frankish attempt to restore Harald Klak to the Danish throne fails

819 Harald Klak becomes joint ruler of Denmark with Godfreds sons

81936 Under constant threat of Viking attack, the monks of St-Philibert leave Noirmoutier