Tjängvide stone, c700 X c900 AD

Stockholm, Statens Historiska Museum

This image: Bengt A. Lundberg/SHM, CC BY 2.5 SE, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bildsten_med_skepp_800-1099_Tj%C3%A4ngvide,_Gotland.jpg

The origins of the word ‘viking’ are uncertain, though there are certainly plenty of theories. What is clear is that by the later middle ages, it had come to describe a pirate of Scandinavian origin. In modern times, the term has expanded its meaning to encompass not only the whole of early medieval Scandinavia, but an entire era from the eighth to the eleventh centuries.

What is also not in question is the outstanding range and scope of Scandinavian conquest and settlement in that period, from the north of Canada to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Voyage with us - along with raiders and traders, warlords and farmers, poets and craftsmen - as we chart the history of a remarkable people.

RJW F2315 Online course (via Zoom)

10 weeks, Tuesday 19 September - Tuesday 28 November (incl., with half-term break on 31 Oct)

£110 (individual registration); £198 (for two people sharing one screen).