Vikings

Vikings were Scandinavian seafaring adventurers who, starting about 788, ravaged European coastlands for two centuries. Operating from seaport bases they repeatedly raided the countryside before being gradually absorbed in the local populations. They originally plundered and finally settled along the coastal areas of what are now Germany, the Netherlands, England, France, Eire, Spain, Portugal and along the western and northern shores of the Mediterranean as far east as northern Italy.