Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia, who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and Vinland. In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus'.
Depiction of Vikings sailing a longship from c. 1100
A Viking Age depiction from the Tjängvide image stone, on Gotland.
Runestone raised in memory of Gunnarr by Tóki the Viking.
The Stora Hammars I image stone, showing the saga of Hildr, under what may be the rite of blood eagle, and on the bottom a Viking ship
Denmark is a Nordic country in the south-central portion of Northern Europe. It is the metropolitan part of and the most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the North Atlantic Ocean. Metropolitan Denmark is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, lying south-west and south of Sweden, south of Norway, and north of Germany, with which it shares a short border, Denmark's only land border.
The gilded side of the Trundholm sun chariot dating from the Nordic Bronze Age
The Ladby ship, the largest ship burial found in Denmark.
Larger of the two Jelling stones, raised by Harald Bluetooth
The Assault on Copenhagen on 11 February 1659 during the Second Northern War. Danish defenders under King Frederick III successfully repelled the forces of the Swedish Empire. Painting by Frederik Christian Lund.