TIME

Vikings

c. 8th–11th centuries

The Oseberg ship in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, a dark, clinker-built wooden ship with a tall prow carved in a spiral, seen from the bow.

Recorded HistoryVikings

An age of seafarers.

The Viking Age runs from about the late 700s to the mid 1000s, when Scandinavian seafarers raided, traded and settled from Britain to Greenland and North America.

Scholars open it with the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 and close it with Harald Hardrada’s death in 1066.

c. 8th–11th centuries, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Recorded History
Period
c. 8th–11th centuries
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing a longship under sail in rough seas. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. The scene is imagined.