Dating the age

When was the Viking Age?

There is no single official pair of years. Museums in Denmark, a British Museum schools guide, and the English story of 793 to 1066 each frame the age a little differently.

Five stations on a long century: raids, settlement, the western ocean, Cnut, 1066.Drawing: our own, simplified and not to scale

The National Museum of Denmark dates the Viking Age from 800 until 1050 AD. Nat. Mus. Denmark

By AD 1050, Christian kingdoms were established in Scandinavia and, in the British Museum's words, the Viking Age was over. British Museum

In England, desultory raiding occurred in the late 8th century, notably the raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793, and began more earnestly in 865. Britannica

English Heritage dates the Lindisfarne attack to 8 June 793, when "heathen men came and miserably destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter." English Heritage Stamford Bridge is remembered as the last time the Vikings attempted to conquer England, though it is overshadowed by Hastings three weeks later. Britannica

Sources differ: the date range

Sources do not use one start and end date. The National Museum of Denmark dates the Viking Age from 800 until 1050 AD, and a British Museum schools guide says that by AD 1050 Christian kingdoms were established in Scandinavia and the Viking Age was over. In English history the age is often framed from the Lindisfarne raid of 793 to the Norwegian defeat at Stamford Bridge in 1066. We give the range each source uses, rather than picking a single pair of years for the whole Viking world.

On King Harald Bluetooth's rune stone at Jelling, Denmark is named for the first time around 965 AD. Nat. Mus. Denmark At the end of the Viking Age, Denmark's king also ruled over England and Norway during certain periods. Nat. Mus. Denmark

Jelling was a royal monument during the reigns of Gorm and his son Harald Bluetooth in the 10th century. UNESCO The large runic stone's inscription says that Harald "won for himself all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians." UNESCO On the south-west face is the earliest depiction of Christ in Scandinavia, with an inscription relating to the conversion of the Danes between 953 and 965. UNESCO

England's Key Stage 2 history programme includes "the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor." GOV.UK The programme of study names Viking raids and invasion among its examples. GOV.UK It also names further Viking invasions and Danegeld. GOV.UK

If you are using this site with a class, the curriculum title is the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England, not “everyone in a horned helmet from 800 to 1050.”