How to Learn the Viking Age: 60 Flashcards from Lindisfarne 793 to Stamford Bridge 1066
A 60-card Viking Age deck, decoded: the raids, kingdoms and treaties it really covers, the mythology it skips, and the two cards you should fix first.
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The Flip It deck Viking Age (code PD6737) holds 60 cards, and the first thing worth knowing is where it points. Roughly two thirds of the cards describe what the Norse did in Britain and Ireland — raids, winter camps, conquered towns, treaties — rather than life back in Scandinavia. Treat it as a campaign history of the westward expansion and it becomes a very efficient deck; expect Norse mythology and it will disappoint you.
Study this deck: Viking Age
1 / 10What time period did the Viking Age span?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
Eight cards that show the deck's shape
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| When did the Viking attack on Lindisfarne occur? | June 8, 793 CE |
| What was the Danelaw? | A Viking territory and earldom established in England |
| What were Vikings called on eastern European trade routes? | Varangians |
| What was the Great Heathen Army? | A large Viking army led by Ivar the Boneless, Halfdan and Ubba that arrived in East Anglia in 865 |
| Which Viking leader was granted Normandy by Charles the Simple in 911? | Rollo, a Norse warleader |
| What were longphorts? | Fortified encampments built by Vikings on the coast of Ireland from around 840 |
| What was Dublin's role in Viking trade? | It was the biggest slave port in western Europe |
| What battle in 1066 marked the end of the Viking Age in England? | The Battle of Stamford Bridge, where Harald Hardrada of Norway was defeated |
What you will actually memorize
Lindisfarne and Alcuin of York, the Great Heathen Army, the Battle of Ashdown (871) and Alfred the Great, Eric Bloodaxe at York in 947, Jorvik, the Battle of Buttington (893) in Powys, the siege of Alt Clut (870) and the Kingdom of Strathclyde, the invasion of Fortriu (839), the Nordreys and Sudreys, Ketil Flatnose, Amlaíb of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard and Ireland's first mint, Brian Boru and Clontarf (1014), Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick, Rollo and Normandy, Rurik and Novgorod, Kievan Rus', Sweyn Forkbeard, Cnut the Great and the North Sea Empire, Olof Skötkonung, Stiklestad (1030), Naddodd and Iceland, Erik the Red and Greenland, Norse-Gaels, clinker-built longships, the Medieval Warm Period, the Cuerdale Hoard, and the -wich towns.
Missing entirely: Odin, Thor and Ragnarök, runes, ship burials, the thing assembly, the cargo-carrying knarr, and Leif Erikson — card 8 credits "Vikings" with reaching Newfoundland without naming him or L'Anse aux Meadows. Write those seven cards yourself before you start; they are the ones a Viking quiz actually asks about.
Tip 1 — split the timeline from the aftermath
Card 1 defines the Viking Age as 800–1050 CE, but four cards run far past it: the Battle of Largs (1263), the Treaty of Perth (1266), Harald Fairhair's Norway and Orkney passing to Scotland in 1468. Memorize them in a separate "Norse afterlife in Scotland" stack, or they will corrupt your sense of the core period. Your spine is short and worth drilling cold: 793 Lindisfarne → 850 first overwintering on Thanet → 865 Great Heathen Army → 871 Ashdown → 911 Normandy → 1014 Clontarf → 1016 Cnut → 1066 Stamford Bridge.
Tip 2 — fix the Harald Fairhair card
Card 36 says Harald Fairhair "united Norway around 800 CE". That is roughly seventy years too early: the unification is traditionally dated to the Battle of Hafrsfjord, around 872, and modern historians push it later still. Edit the back to "c. 872, Battle of Hafrsfjord" — otherwise you will place him before Lindisfarne. While you are in there, add to the Clontarf card that Brian Boru was killed in the battle he won; the deck never says so.
Open the deck in Flip It under the title Viking Age, code PD6737.
Related: Study Guide to Medieval Europe · How to Memorize the Crusades
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