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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Vikings
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A word meaning sailors or pirates, applied to any of the numerous groups who sailed from Scandinavia in the 9–11C either to plunder or settle. They are also known as Norsemen. Those who came west were mainly from Denmark and Norway, whereas the Swedes marauded east into the Baltic territories and Russia.
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The first Viking raid on the British Isles is generally held to be their sacking of the monastery on Lindisfarne in 793. Two years later they attacked an unidentified Irish island (called Rechru in the chronicles). Within the next half century they established kingdoms of their own in much of Ireland, and an invasion by the *Danes in 865 led to their rapid conquest of northeast England. The other Vikings of great significance in English history were those who invaded northwest France, establishing themselves there as the *Normans.
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