Vikings in the East

We commonly consider the Viking Age to be a western European phenomenon. This is not surprising, given the Viking impact on communities either side of the North Sea and the English Channel and across the British Isles. However, it also had a crucial eastern aspect that was a key cause of the Viking raids in the first place.

Changes taking place in the distant Islamic Caliphate disrupted the flow of silver to Scandinavia. For years, Islamic merchants and their middlemen had carried silver to ...