## TL;DR

Vikings (Norse: víkingr = raider/pirate) were Scandinavian seafarers (8th-11th centuries) who explored, traded, and raided across Europe, reaching North America ~1000 CE — 500 years before Columbus. Beyond the raiding stereotype: skilled traders, craftsmen, shipbuilders, and storytellers. Runestones and sagas preserve their history.

## Core Explanation

Society: jarls (nobles), karls (freemen), thralls (slaves). Women: more rights than most contemporary cultures — own property, divorce, run farms while men raided. Norse gods: Odin (wisdom, war), Thor (thunder, protection), Freyja (love, fertility). Ragnarok: prophecy of the end of the world. Longship: clinker-built (overlapping planks), flexible, shallow draft — the technological advantage that enabled Viking reach. Runestones: memorial stones with inscriptions — 'Tola had this stone raised for her son Harald.'

## Further Reading

- [The Vikings: A History (Robert Ferguson)](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/302917/the-vikings-by-robert-ferguson/)