In the Late Eighth Century, wider Europe knew little of the Scandinavians. Less than a hundred years later - from Dublin to Seville, from the Baltic to Constantinople, from Paris to Baghdad - few people could claim ignorance of them. For almost three hundred years, pirate warbands and eventually great armies sailed out of Scandinavia in their longships to wreak havoc across the known world. These were the Vikings and for them violence and theft were a way of life. Economies were ruined, kingdoms laid waste, empires shattered. Even as the centuries progressed and the Vikings grew rich and turned away from their pagan gods to accommodate themselves in the commerce and culture of Christendom, their violence was unabated. From Russia to North America, the Vikings founded new settlements, discovered new lands and opened up new trade routes. Much of the political map of modern Europe was drawn during the Viking Age.

Martin Arnold is Senior Lecturer in Old Norse-Icelandic Studies at Hull University. He is author of The Post-classical Icelandic Family Saga