The violent and predatory society of Dark Age Scandinavia 
    left a unique impact on the history of medieval Europe. 
    Norse warriors, explorers and merchants raided, traded and settled 
    across wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic 
    from the late eighth to the mid-eleventh century. 
                
  
    In 800 the Scandinavians were barbarians in longships bent on plunder and rapine; 
    by 1200, their homelands were an integral part of Latin Christendom. 
    John Haywood narrates, in authoritative but compellingly readable fashion, 
    the extraordinary story of the Viking Age.