Read Vikings Online
Authors: Neil Oliver
Stone ships at the Lindholm Høje cemetery near Aalborg, in Denmark. The largest site of its kind in Scandinavia, it contains over 600 burials dating from the Iron Age to the Viking period.
Sailing solo – the author among the stones of the largest of the 380 Bronze Age ship settings on Gotland, Sweden.
Seaborne Norwegian warriors attacked the religious community at Lindisfarne, in Northumberland, on 8 June 793, marking the start of the Viking Age. The religious significance of the island survived the raid, however, and the magnificent Lindisfarne Priory was built in the twelfth century.
Illuminated by faith – the beginning of the New Testament Christmas story, from the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Remembered in stone – a carved grave marker at Lindisfarne Priory depicts Viking raiders armed with swords and axes.
The Gokstad Ship is one of the best-preserved vessels of the Viking Age. Found in the Vestfold County of Norway, it was built sometime in the first decade of the tenth century.
A detail of the rich carvings of fighting figures and intertwined serpents on the side panels of the wooden wagon, which was included among the lavish grave goods at the Oseberg Ship burial.
Intricately carved dragon head post from the Oseberg Ship, buried in the Vestfold County aroundAD834.
This Viking Age picture stone from Gotland, Sweden, shows the distinctive curved prow and stern of the classic long ship, together with the square sail.
A faithfully reconstructed replica of the Oseberg Ship takes to the sea once more.
Impregnable for a thousand years, the defensive walls around the city of Constantinople defied Huns, Muslims and Vikings alike.
Greek Fire. A twelfth-century depiction of the still mysterious, sticky, flammable substance used by the Byzantine navy to set fire to enemy ships and their crews.