Norwegian Vikings Discussion

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Norwegian Vikings were pioneering boat builders and adventurous sailors who signalled the start of the Viking Age in 793 AD by raiding the Catholic abbey of Lindisfarne in England. This was followed by raids in Northumbria, southern Wales and Ireland. Norwegian Vikings traveled to the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands and Hebrides where they established settlements. Floki Vilgerdarson was the first Norseman to sail to Iceland in order to settle it. He sailed from Western Norway to the Shetland Islands where his daughter drowned. He then continued to the Faroe Islands where another daughter was wed and then took three ravens with him to find his way to Iceland which he named after seeing only snow and a great fjord full of ice. Erik the Red established settlements in Greenland and Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, discovered Vinland (present-day Newfoundland, Canada). King Harald Finehair is credited for unifying Norway from petty kingdoms into a single united kingdom which was the predecessor to the modern Kingdom of Norway.