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Introduction The term Viking Age is a late construction by modern historians, archae- ologists, literary historians, novelists, and artists. Obviously, the Vikings themselves did not know that they were living in the Viking Age. In textbooks, the beginning of the Viking Age is typically associated with the plundering and destruction of the church and monastery of Lindisfarne, just off the Northumbrian coast, in 793. In the three cen- turies that followed, the Vikings changed the political world of north- ern and western Europe in no small way. The Danish Vikings especially seem to have focused on the British Isles, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, where they became known as a dreaded military force. Although the Norwegian Vikings also participated in raids, they appear to have con- centrated mainly on the colonization of the islands in the North Atlan- tic: the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Faroe Islands, and Iceland. The Swedish Vikings were not particularly innocent either, but typically they went eastward as traders, where they thrust up the rivers of Russia to the Caspian and Black Seas and established themselves as Rus along the way. As for the end of the Viking Age, it is commonly associated with the famous battle at Stamford Bridge near York, England, in 1066, when the Normans (descendants of the Vikings) crossed the channel to invade England. Since, however, the Scandinavians, who by then were well estab- lished in the British Isles, did not disappear right away, it seems practical to regard the late 11th century as marking the end of the Viking Age. Broadly speaking, therefore, the Viking Age spans the period 800–1100. The image of the Vikings has undergone transformations over the years. Most of the earliest sources were written by Christians, who documented