The Viking Age begins historically with the first recorded raid by a Norwegian fleet on the monastery of Lindisfarne, which is an island off the coast of northeast England. This was in the year 793. It ends in the 11th century with the conversion of all the Scandinavian countries to Christianity. The Scandinavian countries that made up the Vikings of that time were the people of what today is Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In the beginning of the Viking Age, the raids were along the coasts of the British Isles and the western part of the mainland of Europe. Usually it was on defenseless monasteries with rich holdings of gold and fine objects. This continued on until the second half of the 9th century when they turned from piracy raids to colonizing the lands they raided.
When they began colonizing, it was mostly the Norwegians who traveled west to the Shetland Islands, Iceland and Greenland. The Danes went more too the populated areas of England, France and the areas to their south. Sweden went to the east to Baltic and then Russia. First they fought, and then they settled and lands. As time went on, they intermarried and accepted the cultures and faiths or the lands they invaded. Finally in the 11th century, the raiding and settling of foreign lands came slowly to an end. Next, the Vikings became traders and explorers reaching North America 500 years before Columbus.