For 300 years, from the ninth to the eleventh centuries, the power of the Vikings dominated Western Europe. Their voyaging extended westwards to America and as far south as the Mediterranean and North Africa. As well as beign warriors and accomplished seamen, they were jewellers, sculptors and poets of great skill and originality: the forts, town sites, ships, burial mounds, carved stones, place names, sagas, art and artefacts they left behind substantiate their legendary exploits. This book's text is complemented by a wealth of illustration, including maps and reconstruction drawings. Photographs portray the brilliant products of the Vikings' culture and teh beauty and harshness of the natural world they faced.