by Neil Oliver
c. 860
Riurik, with his two brothers, moves from what is thought to be Rosaglen in eastern Sweden to rule the tribal federation of the Slavs at their request and establishes a new capital at what is now Novgorod beside the Volkhov River. He later brings 200 shiploads of soldiers to attack Constantinople.
Death of Halfdan the Black, King of Vestfold in Norway, regarded as the founder of the Norwegian royal dynasty and father of King Harald Fairhair.
865
The ‘Great Heathen Army’ first lands in England and the following year occupies York.
868
Aethelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred confront unsuccessfully the invading Danish army in Mercia led by Ivarr the Boneless.
869
Edmund, King of the East Angles, is killed in battle against the Great Heathen Army.
871
A year of battles against the Danes in Wessex. All other Saxon kingdoms have fallen to the Vikings’ Great Heathen Army and Wessex alone fights on. Aethelred is killed at the Battle of Marston and Alfred succeeds to the throne.
871–2
Halfdan Ragnarsson rules London and issues coins in his name.
872
Harald Fairhair, son of Halfdan the Black, first King of Norway.
874
Ingolfr Arnarson the first Viking settler on Iceland. Makes his home in a place he names Reykjavik.
876
Halfdan Ragnarsson takes his army north to Northumbria where the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes him as King of part of Northumbria.
876–8
The Danish army under their leader Guthrum harry the English army under Alfred and he is forced to flee to the Somerset Levels, where he regroups and wins a decisive battle at Edington.
c. 880
The treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, preserved at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, divides up the old kingdom of Mercia giving Guthrum an enlarged kingdom of East Anglia known as the Danelaw, where Viking laws and customs are to prevail.
889
Death of Guthrum (known as Aethelstan after his conversion to Christianity), Danish King of East Anglia.
892 or 3
A large Danish fleet of over 300 ships invades Kent and over the next four years is continuously pursued by Alfred (now with a reorganised and more effective army) and his allies until they are forced to disband and disperse.
899
Death of Alfred the Great, self-styled King of the AngloSaxons and the dominant English ruler of his time.
900
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, blown off-course, lands on Greenland.
907
Oleg of Kiev, leader of the Rus, sets out to attack Constantinople. The city sues for peace and grants the Rus trading rights.
c. 911
Charles the Simple, King of France, cedes the town of Rouen and the countryside around it to Rollo, a Viking leader, in return for feudal allegiance. This territory becomes known as the land of the Northmen (the Nor manni), and in due course Normandy.
Snæbjörn Galti leads a party of adventurers from Iceland to Greenland where they survive the winter before returning home.
936
Gorm the Old recognised as first King of Denmark.
937
Battle of Brunanburh, when Aethelstan defeats a huge Viking force.
947 or 8
Eirik ‘Bloodaxe’ Haraldsson, King of Norway, ‘taken as king’ by the people of Northumbria.
954
Eirik Bloodaxe, it is thought, dies at the Battle of Stainmore in Cumbria whereupon Edgar of England disbands the Norse kingdom based on Jorvik (York) and subsumes it under the earldom of Northumberland.
958
Harald ‘Bluetooth’ King of Denmark. Son of Gorm the Old. Succeeds in unifying the Danish tribes and uniting them with their Norwegian neighbours.
975
Death of Edgar, King of England.
Edward (Edward the Martyr after his murder) succeeds his father as King of England.
c. 978
Aethelred the Unready becomes King of England as Aethelred II until 1013, and again 1013–16.
980–2
Viking raids on coastal towns of England.
c. 982
Eirik Thorvaldsson, known as Eirik the Red, sails west from Iceland to explore the west coast of Greenland.
985 or 6
Bjarni Heròhlfsson, a Norwegian, blown off-course on a voyage to Greenland. The first Viking to sight North America – the coast of Labrador.
986
Eirik the Red leads a party of settlers between 500 and 1,000-strong to Greenland. He goes on to pioneer a direct route of some 2,000 miles between Greenland and Norway and leads an expedition to North America. His exploits are celebrated in the Saga of Eirik the Red.
986 or 7
Svein Forkbeard King of Denmark in succession to his father Harald Bluetooth.
988
Vladimir the Great, successor to Riurik as the leader of the Rus, has the old pagan gods torn down and thrown into the River Dniepr and converts his subjects to Christianity, having first sampled Judaism and Islam.
Viking raids in the south-west of England.
991
Peace treaty signed between England and Normandy at Rouen following English hostility at the Norman sanctuary offered Viking raiders.
Olaf Tryggvasson, King of Norway from 995 and grandson of Harald Fairhair, invades England with a fleet of 93 ships and defeats the English army at the Battle of Maldon the same year. He is paid off by Aethelred with a Danegeld of 10,000 pounds in weight of silver.
994
Olaf returns again to England together with Svein Forkbeard. Peace treaty signed between Aethelred and Olaf Tryggvasson in which Olaf is paid to return to Norway.
997–1000
Continuous raids on England by Danish armies.
1000
Olaf Tryggvasson is killed in a battle against Svein Forkbeard, who is now ruler of most of Norway.
The law speaker of Iceland Thorgeirr proclaims the country will convert to Christianity to prevent hostility between pagans and Christians.
1001–2
A Danish fleet returns to raid west Sussex and other targets but is paid a Danegeld of 24,000 pounds.
1002
St Brice’s Day massacre. The ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Danes in England ordered by Aethelred the Unready. Svein Forkbeard’s sister Gunnhild reputed to be amongst the dead, possibly prompting retaliatory raids by Svein in the following years.
1002–5
Raids against England led by Svein Forkbeard, King of Denmark. Severe famine in England is the probable reason the Danish army returns to Denmark in 1005.
1006–7
Svein returns again to England. A Danegeld of 36,000 pounds is paid.
1009–12
Thorkell the Tall with his brother Hemming invades England with a formidable Viking force until paid off by Aethelred with 48,000 pounds in weight of silver.
1010
Followers of Thorkell the Tall raid Canterbury and beat the archbishop to death. Appalled, Thorkell abandons his colleagues and sides with Aethelred instead, helping him defend London against an attack by Svein Forkbeard in 1013.
c. 1010
Thorfinn Karlsfeni leads the third expedition from Greenland to North America. After three years the survivors return to Greenland.
1013
Full-scale invasion of England by Svein Forkbeard which leads to Aethelred being sent into exile in Normandy with his sons Edward and Alfred. On Christmas Day Svein is declared first of the Viking Kings of England.
1014
Svein Forkbeard dies at his base in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire on 3 February and his body is returned to Denmark for burial. Aethelred is summoned to return as King and drives out Cnut the Great, son of Svein, who had displaced his brother Harald II as King of Denmark. Battle of Clontarf. Brian Boru, titular High King of Ireland, defeats the King of Leinster backed by Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King
of Dublin and Sigurd Lodvesson, Earl of the Orkney Islands, but is himself killed.
1015
Cnut returns to England with an invasion force of 200 ships and 10,000 men.
1016
At the Battle of Ashingdon Cnut routs the army of Aethelred and his eldest son Edmund Ironside. Thereafter the land of England north of the Thames is surrendered to the Danes – the return of the Danelaw.
Aethelred dies and is buried in old St Paul’s Cathedral.
1017
Cnut the Great crowned King of England.
1018
Death of Harald II, King of Denmark and brother of Cnut.
Cnut returns to Denmark to claim the Danish throne.
1027
Cnut visits Rome to attend the imperial coronation of Conrad II.
1028
By this date Cnut recognised as King of England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden too.
1035
Death of Cnut the Great. He is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Harold Harefoot, son of Cnut the Great, though technically regent for his half-brother Harthacnut, generally accepted as King of England until his death in 1040.
Harthacnut, born c. 1017, son of Cnut the Great, King of Denmark as Cnut III until 1042, loses control of Norway to Magnus I. The agreement includes Magnus being appointed heir to Harthacnut which prompts Magnus’ claim to the English throne and that in turn of his son Harald Hardrada.
1040
Harthacnut King of England in succession to his half-brother Harald Harefoot, until his death in 1042. He is buried at Winchester, the last Danish King of England.
1042
Edward the Confessor, c. 1003–66, half-brother of Harthacnut (Edward was the son of Emma of Normandy by Aethelred the Unready, Harthacnut was Emma’s son by Cnut the Great) succeeds as King of England.
1046
Harold Hardrada, 1015–1066, King of Norway until 1066.
1047
Svein Estridsson 1020–74, cousin of Harold Hardrada, King of Denmark until 1074.
1066
Edward the Confessor dies and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Harold Godwinson, brother of Edward’s wife Edith, succeeds briefly to throne of England. Harold Hardrada invades England but is defeated and killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge by Harold Godwinson’s forces.
William of Normandy, 1027–87, great-great-great-grandson of the Viking chieftain Rollo, invades England with c. 7,000 men and defeats Harold Godwinson’s forces at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October, where Harold is killed. On Christmas Day he is crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.
1069
Svein Estridsson, King of Norway, backs his brother Asobjsrn’s expedition to York to raise an army against William. They are forced to abandon the expedition for lack of support.
1094
The last Viking King of Dublin, from 1091, Godfred ‘Crovan’ Haraldson is deposed.
1098
Magnus Barelegs, King of Norway, leads an expedition to Orkney and the Hebrides where his overlordship is recognised by the Scottish king.
1263
In retaliation for Scots aggression against Viking rule in the Western Isles, the Viking King Haakon IV unsucccessfully takes on the Scots at the Battle of Largs. Tnis is the last Viking raid on mainland Scotland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SECONDARY SOURCES
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Ahmad Ibn Rustah, Book of Precious Records, quoted in National Geographic, March 1985
Alcuin of York, quoted in Christensen, C. and Nielsen H. (eds.), Diplomatarium danicum, 1. Raekke, Vol. I, Diplomaticum danicum: Regester 789—1052, Det danske sprog og litteraturselskab. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Forlag, 1975 in Forte, Angelo, Oram, Richard and Pedersen, Frederik, op. cit.
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EDDAS
Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans. and ed. Faulkes, Anthony (Everyman, 1995) The Poetic Edda, trans. Larrington, Carolyne (Oxford University Press, 2008)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As always, this book would never have seen the light of day without the talent and kindness of others. Sincere thanks to Bea Hemming, my editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson for so much care and attention, and to all of her colleagues there — in design, picture research and marketing. My debt to editor Michael Dover grows ever larger, just as my respect deepens. He makes books better. Having worked through three of mine with me, he now spots my self-indulgences from half a mile out. Any that survive in the final version are entirely my own responsibility. The same is true of the contribution of proofreader Linden Lawson, who has worked her painstaking magic here once again.
