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Norway's Viking Age
Home » Norway » Norway Overview and History » Norway's Viking AgeNorway's first settlers arrived over 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. These early hunters and gatherers followed the glaciers as they retreated north, pursuing nomadic reindeer herds. The country's greatest impact on history was during the Viking Age, a period thought to have begun with the plundering of England's Lindisfarne monastery by Nordic pirates in 793 AD. Over the next century the Vikings made raids throughout Europe, establishing settlements along the way. Viking leader Harald Hårfagre unified Norway around 900 and King Olav, adopted the religion of the lands he had conquered, converting the people to Christianity a century later. The Vikings were great sailors and became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Eric the Red, the son of a Norwegian banished to Iceland, colonized Greenland in 982. In 1001, Eric's Icelandic son, Leif Eriksson, possibly became the first European to explore the coast of North America when he sailed off course on a voyage from Norway to Greenland. However, the Viking Age came to an end in 1066 when the Norwegian king Harald Hardråda was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in England.
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