Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The period covered by this book, from AD 800 to 1100, or thereabout, is defined by two phases of attack from beyond the islands of Britain and Ireland, the first by Vikings from Scandinavia and the second by Normans from northern France. Viking raiding began in the 79os and in a sense continued for nearly 300 years, although it is conventional to differentiate a ‘first Viking Age’ during the ninth century from a ‘second Viking Age’ in the late tenth and early eleventh.