Viking Age art

Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavia and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries CE. Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions.

The Vikings' regional origins lay in Scandinavia, the northern-most peninsula of continental Europe, while the term 'Viking' likely derived from their own term for coastal raiding—the activity by which many neighbouring cultures became acquainted with the inhabitants of the region. The alternative name for the Viking people, Norse or Norsemen ('North men'), clearly reflects their northern homelands.

Viking raiders attacked wealthy targets on the north-western coasts of Europe from the late 8th until the mid-11th century CE. Pre-Christian traders and sea raiders, the Vikings first enter recorded history with their attack on the Christian monastic community on Lindisfarne Island in 793.

The Vikings initially employed their longships to invade and attack European coasts, harbours and river settlements on a seasonal basis.

Subsequently, Viking activities diversified to include trading voyages to the east, west and south of their Scandinavian homelands, with repeated and regular voyages following river systems east into Russia and the Black and Caspian Sea regions, and west to the coastlines of the British Isles, Iceland and Greenland. Evidence exists for Vikings reaching Newfoundland well before the later voyages of Christopher Columbus discovered the "New World".

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