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The Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. The Viking Age followed the late Germanic Iron Age. During this period, the Vikings, Norse warriors and traders, raided and explored much of Europe, Southwest Asia, Northern Africa and Northeastern North America. As well from the exploration of Europe's oceans and rivers with their advanced knowledge of navigation and extending their trading routes across vast parts of the continent, they also engaged in war, looted and set slavery in many Christian communities of medieval Europe for centuries, contributing to the development of the feudal system in Europe, including the castles and barons (serving as defense against Viking raids).

Norse society was based on agriculture and trade with other peoples and placed great emphasis on the concept of honour, both in combat and in the criminal justice system. It was, for example, unfair and wrong to attack an enemy already in a fight with another.

Their language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Nordic languages (notably including Danish).