The Viking Age - What Is It?

The Basic Answer: The Viking Age is 793-1066 AD. Recorded raid of Lindisfarne in 793 AD to The Battle of Hastings in 1066. That is the timeframe we use and repeat when educating others.

Bayeux Tapestry

The more complicated answer??   ... ... ... Lindisfarne and Hastings are both in England. The dates are Anglo-centric and us Americans with our connection to England (language, culture, historical) lean on Anglo-centric theory, history,  and ideals.

It's not a huge issue but if you are talking to some one from France, or a Dane, or a Greek, or a German, a Spaniard, or even Icelanders and Ukrainians, you will get a different answer dependent on their education, religion, culture, and upbringing. Some of them don't even have a "Viking Age" and call it something else like "Early Medieval" (common term I've seen). Some cultures further away from Western and Northern Europe don't even recognize it.

Why is this important? When you read research your online search for resources will be very limited by Anglo-centric parameters. You will have to open up that search net a bit and your mind as well. What is Viking Age to us may be "post migration" to others or just a "10th century"... and that is accounting for Romanized dating conventions.

The biggest speed bump from my own perspective is shopping. Many craft-people that sell online are in other countries like Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and even India. They may call Viking age shoes "early medieval period shoes" and using "Viking Age" and "793-1066" may mean nothing to them.

As hawt as the model is, if you don't know how to search for things on line this is what you end up with.

Further, Viking reenactment groups in other countries will have a different perspective than the Anglo-centric one. I've seen Eastern EU groups reach past the 11th century as that is THEIR history and not ours or England's. They are reenacting from their historical perspective and not ours. This matters in a simple communication perspective, especially on the internet. I have seen the dumbest social media arguments over this. 

Is this legit? Different group, different country, different standards. Not our place to correct.

ALL THIS TO SAY - Moving forward on this blog readers should remember this and consider this. Many reenactors get caught up on the hard dates of 793-1066 and it's understandable. Open up a little bit and consider the perspective of other modern countries, their history, and their cultures. 

Timberhaven is rather more on the stricter side of the scale but we've had our critics as well. All pedantry and it's a game that is played on the internet and even face to face. IT's OK and we all react to it in our own way - me I have been aggressive to ambivalent. I focus on my self and the group I currently lead. That's plenty.

A good rule to remember, in a wider aspect really, is "Did someone ask you?"