Viking age

Viking refers to a member of the Norse (Scandinavian peoples, famous as explorers, warriors, merchants and pirates, who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late 8th to the early 11th century. These Norsemen used their famous longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. This period of Viking expansion is known as the Viking Age, and forms a major part of Scandinavian history.

The Vikings used to write on stones, those stones are called runestones. A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition began in the 4th century but most of them date from the late Viking Age, and it lasted into the 12th century. Most runestones are located in Scandinavia, but there are also scattered runestones in locations where the Norsemen went during the Viking Age. Runestones are generally memorials after deceased men, and originally they were usually brightly coloured.