How the Vikings Gained a Foothold in Ireland

“Guests from Overseas” by Nicholas Roerich (1901), depicting a raid by the Varangians, Norse warriors during the Viking Age. Public Domain

Commentary

Around the year 800, attacks by Viking raiders erupted all over Europe. Scarcely anywhere on the continent was safe from these barbarians who used their dragon-prowed longboats to sail up river systems and cross seas to carry out rapine, looting, burning, kidnapping, murdering, and pillaging.