With the Viking name is known to the Germanic peoples who lived in Scandinavia (now Norway and Sweden) as well as neighboring Denmark, for several centuries before Christ. They were eminent navigators and feared pirates. But he also excelled in naval technology, arts and crafts. During the Middle Ages invaded other parts of Europe. The first Viking expansion took place in 795, when the Nordic people attacked Ireland. England attacked in 856, four years after invading Ireland. Discovered Greenland in 856. They also attacked several cities of the Carolingian Empire, including Rouen, Nantes, Paris and Bordeaux. By a treaty in 912, the Vikings (who now called Normans, or Northmen) received a vast territory north of France, which thereafter was called Normandy. In 1066 England seized definitely invaded after the northern islands of Scotland and founded the Irish cities of Dublin, Wicklow, Waterford, Wexford and Limerick.
Despite its extensive invasions settlement in some regions of Europe, the Viking peoples had no political experience, wealth or sufficient human resources to dominate the States, mostly more organized, they had invaded. In many cases they were assimilated by other peoples, which have left their cultural imprint, mainly in the arts and commerce.
The mythological traditions of ancient Scandinavia were collected by the parboiled or jugglers and narrated in sagas, ballads anonymous in the Eddas were collected between the XII and XIV.