The Vikings. ( What has gone before. ) 772 - 792 CE. Charlemagne massacres thousands of Saxons and destroys their sacred sites in Europe because they are Pagans. 789 CE. Three Viking ships raid Britain. 793 CE. Vikings raid Abbey at Lindisfarne. Dragons are seen flying through the air. ( According to reliable sources of the time.) 800 CE. Charlemagne is made Emperor by the Church and improves Europe’s coastal defences. 845 CE. People start paying the Vikings to go away. 860 CE. Vikings discover a place covered with Ice and call it Iceland. 865 CE. The Danes stop messing around and invade England properly. 878 CE. Alfred gives up baking and defeats the Danes. 892 CE. Eric the Red discovers a land covered with rocks and calls it Greenland.
965 CE. Harald Bluetooth becomes a Christian and tells his subjects they are going to do the same. 995 CE. Olaf Tryggvasson tells Norway and Iceland to convert at the point of a sword. 1002 CE. Aethelred massacres all “Danes” settled in England on St. Brice’s Day.
1013 CE. Danes conquer England and Aethelred flees. 1016 CE. Knut the “Great” unifies all England and Denmark. 1028 CE. Knut adds Norway to his holdings. 1030 CE. Sweden joins Knut's “Empire”.
( For more details and less flippancy see the Chronology. ) |