The 11th Century, 1000 - 1099 The Viking Era

The 11th century is mostly characterized by the many wars there are between the Nordic kings because all of them thought they were just The King to rule the vikings.

The vikings were building ships in several sizes. Some of the ships were used as tradingships built to carry a lot of goods.

The vikingship you see in your imagination is not the tradingship, but the ship designed for the raids or used when the vikings moved to new areas.

1000 Norway

The Norwegian king, Olav Tryggvesøn is falling in a big naval battle between the combined Danish and Swedish fleet under command of the Danish king, Svend 1. Tveskæg.

1002 The Danekilling

The English king Ethelred is rather displeased of all the vikingraids on his country. He believes that the Danes, who have settled down in England, are a fifth column and are helping the vikings. The English king is probably right. The 13th of November he is making a massacre on the Danes, very many women and children are killed.

1003-1011 Vikingraids

The information about the massacre has found Denmark, and everyone got the feeling of signal revenge. English cities are plundered and burned down by the vikings. The Danish anger is so strong, that the raids also is happening in the wintertime, which never had happened before.

1013 England

The Danish king, Svend 1. Tveskæg is conquering the whole England, even London become Danish. The English king Ethelred is escaping to the Normandy and are getting a nonpleasent asylum at the Normandic duke, Richard the 2nd, who have close connections to the nordic people.

1026 Attach

A combined Norwegian and Swedish fleet are attacking Zealand and Scania. The king, Knud 1. den Store, is giving the Norwegians and the Swedish a very convincing defeat, so he don't have to be afraid of any attackings from the Norwegians or Swedish.

1027 Rome

The king, Knud 1. den Store, is in Rome, Italy. At the Easter he is present at the coronation of the German-roman emperor, Konrad 2.

1066 Mess

After the king, Knud 1. den Store, is dead in 1035 the areas ruled by the Danes are conqured by mostly Norwegians kings or earls. Denmark has no strong king. The Danes loosing England in 1066, where the Normannic duke, William the Conquerror is conquering England. In a way England is still ruled by the vikings.

1068 Sight-seeing

A German master, Adam of Bremen, is visiting Denmark and he had made a description of the Danish country. Jutland is a barren land, where it is hard for people to live. Great parts of Jutland are covered by primeval forests, and only at bays and inlets are living people.

The most important cities are: Slesvig, Ribe, and Aarhus. Funen and the other southern islands are more civilised. The biggest city is Odinsvi today known as Odense.

Zealand is a very big island and wellknown all over Europe for the brave warriors. At Zealand is the Danish capital, Roskilde, which is the biggest city of Zealand. Scania is the prettiest part of Denmark. Many people are living there on a well cultivated land. It is the rich part of Denmark, with many merchandises and over 300 churches. The biggest city of Scania is Lund. Adam of Bremen is telling us, that the king Svend 2. Estridsøn is a very vise king, but the Danes are a cruel and barbarian people. The Danes loves to eat and to have orgies, but unfaithfull womens are sold as slaves.

One of the most important gods before Christianity was Thor, who was the God of thunder, agriculture and war. Thor was symbolized by a hammer and at the figure the beard is changing to a hammer.

1074 Democracy

The king, Harald 3. Hén, is making laws in a democratic way.