Viking refers to seafaring raiders, traders, and explorers from Scandinavia (modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) who traveled across Europe and beyond from roughly 793 to 1066 AD, a period known as the Viking Age.

Vikings were skilled sailors who built remarkable longships: fast, shallow-draft vessels that could cross oceans yet navigate rivers far inland. These ships let them strike coastal villages without warning, seeming to appear from nowhere. They raided monasteries and towns across England, Ireland, and France, seeking treasure and sometimes settling in conquered lands. Vikings were also ambitious traders who established routes from Baghdad to North America, founded cities like Dublin, and settled Iceland and Greenland. Viking explorer Leif Erikson reached North America around the year 1000, nearly five centuries before Columbus.

Viking society valued courage, loyalty, and reputation above almost everything else. Their fascinating mythology featured gods like Odin and Thor, and their culture produced intricate metalwork, epic poetry, and a unique writing system called runes.

Today, Viking sometimes describes someone fierce or relentless, as in “She tackled that project with Viking determination.”