Viking Settlement - 1000 CE

The word Viking or Vikingr means pirate in Scandinavian, and today we think of the Vikings primarily as raiders and pillagers of other societies. However, many Vikings were traders and settlers.

The first report of a Viking attack in Britain was in 793 AD. Soon these Scandinavian marauders were attacking settlements all along the Northern European coast, Britain, and Ireland.

They established important settlements in Normandy, France and Dublin, Ireland. However, their settlements in Iceland and Greenland are more significant to a history of America. For it is quite possible that the Vikings were the first Europeans to arrive on the North American coast. There is good evidence that a Viking leader named Leif Erikson established a settlement named Vinland on the coast of Newfoundland.

It is amazing to think that these brave Vikings were able to face the fierce waves in their longboats. Although they were well built, the longboats were totally open and subject to the harsh weather of the North Atlantic Ocean.