At home

How people lived

Most Vikings were actually ordinary farmers, not full-time raiders. Nat. Mus. Denmark The Vikings were mainly farmers, fishers, hunters and skilled craft workers. British Museum

Viking society was organised into three classes: karls (freemen and landowners), jarls (wealthy nobles), and thralls (slaves or bondsmen). Britannica Viking women were able to own property and divorce their husbands, and they often ran their family's finances and farms in their husbands' absence. Britannica

In Britain the Vikings established major towns at York (Jorvic) and Dublin, which issued their own coinage and became important trading centres. British Museum

Words, runes, gods

The Vikings themselves wrote short messages in runes on wood and stone. Nat. Mus. Denmark The Vikings did not write books themselves. Nat. Mus. Denmark

Odin was the most powerful god, whilst the most popular god was Thor. British Museum Amulets of Thor's hammer were very common. British Museum

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

After introducing Christianity into Denmark, and integrating Norway with the country, Harald Bluetooth proclaimed his achievements by erecting a stone between the two mounds. UNESCO The large runic stone's inscription says that Harald "won for himself all Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christians." UNESCO The Jelling mounds, runic stones and church in Denmark were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994. UNESCO The complex includes two flat-topped mounds, 70 metres in diameter and up to 11 metres high. UNESCO

Conversion did not happen on a single Sunday. Jelling is one public statement of a change that took generations, and it did not look the same in every kingdom.