Quotes from Else Roesdahl

The sexual roles were so deeply rooted among the warrior aristocracy that the two sexes had different realms for the dead in pagan times (cf. p. 156).

On the coast the mild climate meant that cattle and sheep could stay outside all the year round and find their own food. If food supplies such as heather were plentiful, considerable numbers of animals could be supported. In other places on the coast and on the islands, fishing was the main source of food, supplemented by a few animals and a little grain. Settlements along the fjords would also exploit the mountain pastures during the summer and build up supplies of winter fodder from there.

It is likely that the woman normally brought a dowry and that the man contributed a certain sum, and that both were the personal property of the woman in the marriage.

the right to divorce among them belongs to the women; the wife divorces when she wants,' one wrote. Adultery by both sexes was punished harshly. Around 1075 Adam of Bremen relates that in Denmark men were punished by death for adultery, while women were sold, and that there was also capital punishment for the rape of virgins.

Erik called the land Greenland because the name would encourage people to go there.

Scandinavian conquests and settlements, such as Stearsby in northern England, where both the prefix Stear-, derived from the Scandinavian personal name Styrr, and the suffix -by (settlement) are Scandinavian, or Toqueville in Normandy with the Scandinavian personal name Toke as prefix and a French suffix: ville. An analysis of place-names also makes it possible to distinguish between areas settled mainly by Norwegians and those settled mainly by Danes.

Children were regarded in a particular way. In the pagan period unwanted children could be exposed to the elements and left to their fate, but Christians reacted strongly against this practice, and it was eventually banned, except in the case of deformed children.

The year 845 was a fateful one. The region around the Seine was plundered. Paris, including the town's fortified centre on the Île de la Cité, was conquered and looted on Easter Sunday, 28 March; Charles the Bald paid the Vikings 7,000 lbs of silver to withdraw – the first of many payments to them. The Vikings did not get much joy from their 'heavy-laden ships', however. Their leader Ragnar (who brought back a bar from the city-gate of Paris

Those who broke the codes lost their honour – their good name – and forfeited their place in society. Loyalty was expected towards the family and those with whom one was in fellowship (félag), between a lord and his men, between friends, and between the master and mistress of a household and their servants.

In 983 a great alliance of Slav tribes and Danes joined forces against the German realm, which had expanded both eastwards and northwards, but was now decisively repulsed. Around this time marriages took place between Scandinavian kings and the daughters of West Slav princes. For example, Harald Bluetooth married a daughter of the Abodrite prince Mistivoj.

The chieftain Rollo and his men were given the town of Rouen and the surrounding region as far as the sea and possibly some way up the Seine. Rollo was probably also baptized. This became the basis for the Duchy of Normandy.

Cattle die, kindred die, every man is mortal: but the good name never dies of one who has done well.

furs, walrus tusks ('fish teeth'), slaves, wax, honey, amber.

Many people had a fatalistic outlook, a conviction that life's vicissitudes were predetermined by fate, which must have been useful in such a violent age, when the world was very uncertain.

The Vikings were normally buried in cemeteries among the local people, which indicates that the relationship was often good.