Iceland´s history dates back to the first Icelandic settler, Ingolfur Arnarson who settled in Reykjavik in 874 AD. Svitjod was one of the old names for Sweden, a name still used for the country by the Icelanders. The Danes invade Mercia in 874. The territory of the Vistulans is conquered by king Svatopluk I of Great Moravia.
Harald I Hardrada of Norway (Haraldr hinn hárfagri) was the founder and first king (872 – 930) over Norway and son of Halfdan the Black, king of Vestfold, Southeast Norway. He ruled his kingdom during the Viking Age (793-1066). He succeeded, on the death of his father Halfdan the Black Gudrødsson in A.D. 860, to the sovereignty of several small, and somewhat scattered kingdoms in Vestfold, which had come into his father's hands through conquest and inheritance, and lay chiefly in southeast Norway. In 866, Harald made the first of a series of conquests over the many petty kingdoms which then composed Norway, including Värmland in Sweden, which had sworn allegiance to the Svea king Erik Eymundsson.
In 872, after a great victory at Hafrsfjord near Stavanger, Harald found himself king over the whole country. His realm was, however, threatened by dangers from without, as large numbers of his opponents had taken refuge, not only in Iceland, then recently discovered; but also in the Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Hebrides Islands and Faroe Islands, and in Scotland itself. Harald was forced to make an expedition to the West, to clear the islands and Scottish mainland of Vikings: West Donegal, Applecross, Cromarty and Raasay, the Cumbrae Isles of the Old Irish North and the Hebrides comprising the Inner and Outer Hebrides and Kintyre, and the kingdom of Man had been under the suzerainty of Norway since about 1100, its kings vassals of the king of Norway. A great number of them fled to Iceland. This course of action led to the major settling of Iceland and beyond. The latter part of Harald's reign was disturbed by the strife of his many sons. When he grew old, Harald handed over the supreme power to his favourite son Eirik Bloodaxe, whom he intended to be his successor. Eirik I Bloodaxe ruled side-by-side with his father when Harald was 80 years old. Of course due to his age, Harald would die three years later. Harald died in 933, having had eight wives and 23 children. Twelve of his sons became kings, two of them over the whole country.
The Book of Deer may be the oldest surviving manuscript produced in Scotland (although Book of Kells; Ceanannus Mór), and is notable for having originated in what is now considered a Lowland area. There are seven Scottish Gaelic texts written in blank spaces surrounding the main items.The Gaelic used in the notes is "Middle Gaelic", also called "Middle Irish", which was the form of Gaelic common to Ireland and parts of Scotland from, roughly, 900 to 1200 A.D. Only two women are mentioned in the Gaelic notes in the Book of Deer, one of them twice: Ete ingen Gille-Míchél.
By the early 7th century there was a unified Pictish kingdom north of a line from the Clyde to the Forth rivers (Applecross/ Maree ). The Annals of Ulster (s.a. 866) tells us that the Gallaib Erenn & Alban (i.e. the Vikings of Ireland and Alba) went to Fortriu and "raided all the lands of the Picts," while Scandinavian sources shed some more light on the earlier rulers of Erenn: Moray. The Heimskringla tells us that, somewhere between 889 and 892, Thorstein the Red, allied with Sigurd, conquered Caithness and Sutherland, and killed a Scottish Jarl named Mael Brigte. This is confirmed by both the Orkneyinga Saga and Landna¡mabak. The latter names another Scottish Jarl, called Mael Duin.
Beowulf Hrólf Kraki, Heimskringla etc. Relation Ongenþeow Egil (Angantyr) father of Ottar and Ale Ohthere Ottar brother of Áli Onela Áli brother of Ottar Eadgils Adils son of Ottar
The Ynglings (Heimskringla), Scylfings (Beowulf and Ynglingatal) or Sons of Freyr (Gesta Danorum and Ynglingatal) were the oldest known Scandinavian dynasty and further into Dublin. They make up a large part of the Mythological kings of Sweden as well as the Semi-legendary kings of Sweden surrounding the search for the Old English Odin. Ynglingatal which is attributed to the Norwegian 9th century skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, and which also appears in Historia Norwegiae, a glorification of king Ragnvald the Mountain-High describing descent from the Swedish kngs and the Norse gods (the Vendel era and the Constantinian Shift) and who himself was a cousin of Harald I of Norway. The protagonist of Hrafnkels saga is a priest of Freyr. The courtship of Freyr and Gerðr is dealt with extensively in the Eddic poem Skírnismál. Freyr is referred to several times in skaldic poetry as are the Sigurdssons, Håkonssons jarls or earls who warred with Harald and fled to Denmark where the independent rulers had biographies by runic inscription in Old Norse. Harold I Bluetooth Denmark was at war with Henry I HRE and afterward, the gospel was preached in Donegal and Jutland. Harald oversaw the reconstruction of the Jelling runic stones which were mostly located in Sweden from Denmark. Sweyn, Harald's son was given the name Otto I the Great HRE, from then Old Norse divided the gods between the Æsir and the Vanir...in Icelandic skaldic poetry. Freyr's name is, as those of other gods, common in kennings for warriors. In Ynglinga saga, Odin and the Æsir are men from Asia who gain power through their prowess in war and Odin's skills. The Vanir send Freyr and Njörðr to live with the Æsir. Íslendingabók, written around 1125, is the oldest Icelandic source to mention Freyr, including him in a geneology of Swedish kings. The Danish Gesta Danorum describes Freyr, under the name Frø, as the "viceroy of the gods".
In 840, the Danes began their attacks on the Frankish Empire – not on the Seine but on the Adour. Gascony fell under their complete control as early as 844. The leader of the invasion, Björn Ironside, became the ruler of the area and gave his name to Bayonne (originally "Björnhamn"). Hastein had occupied Noirmoutier in 843. In 845 Asgeir began to settle in Saintonge in Aquitania. Effectively, by 845 all the lands around the Bay of Biscay were under Danish control. Björn forced the king of Navarre to make a treaty allowing the Danes to cross Navarre to reach the river Ebro and Tortosa. He then sailed with Hastein to the Mediterranean Sea. While Hastein set about disorganizing trade in the Rhine valley and Italy, Björn attacked Constantinople, after joining up with the Swedish Varyags who had come across Rus. He obtained a commercial treaty from the Byzantine Emperor intended to attract trade away from the Rhône to the Ebro.
In 863, Dorestad in Frisia, the Franks' main commercial centre on the Rhine was over before the Danes had set up a new trade network in place of an older and opposing one. The Danish chiefs tried to emulate the success of Björn in Gascony and to create their own overseas kingdoms. Northumbria, Mercia, Frisia, Aquitaine, Bretagne and Normandy were all affected by these attempts to found Scandinavian settlements. Gascony stayed under the Vikings’ control for 140 years where their continuing presence in the Biscay area may help to explain why the Basques have so many traditions, according to legend becoming despised and ostracized Agotes or Cagots said to have reached America one hundred years before Christopher Colombus. The Gascons of Nordic origin were allowed to stay in the country not to mix with other communities during the succeeding rule from Périgord and Navarre of the Aquitaine region.