HistoryExtra Academy Vikings Course

In the final week of the HistoryExtra Academy Vikings course, Professor Ryan Lavelle explores the ways in which Norse rulers established their own kingdoms, and offers his thoughts on the end of the Viking Age

Viking kingdoms, with Professor Ryan Lavelle.

Vikings quiz – week four.

Vikings quiz - week three.

Daily life, with Professor Ryan Lavelle.

Vikings quiz - week two.

Trading and exploring, with Professor Ryan Lavelle.

Vikings quiz - week one

Vikings quiz - week one.

Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark and the first Viking king of England (Photo by Getty)

How Sweyn Forkbeard became the first Viking king of England.

A French manuscript from c1100 shows Viking warriors sailing to Brittany. The Viking Age touched all areas of life and can still be felt today

What if...The Vikings had never left their homelands?.

The Danelaw: a Viking kingdom in England?.

Viking women gathered outside a home - illustration

What was life like for Viking women?

The Vikings’ global connections.

Statue of Leif Erikson (Leifur Erikssonn) in front of Eric the Red's home. (Photo by Draper White, Getty Images)

Leif Erikson’s voyage to Vinland

A helmet from a chieftain's grave in 10th-century Norway. (Images by Getty)

Inside the Viking mind: the view of the Vikings' world from 5 perspectives.

A portrait of Cnut holding a sceptre. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Cnut: the great Dane.

Illustration of the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne

Slaves in the Viking Age: how prevalent were enslaved people in Viking societies?.

Old Norse sages describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as 'the loveliest of women and nobel in every trait'. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during on of her intrepid voyages (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

The amazing life of a great female Viking explorer

A Viking sword with silver and gold hilt, from Dyback, Skane. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How England rode the Viking storm.

What began as small raids on British coastal towns soon developed into all-out war, as a Great Viking Army arrived with a very different aim: to conquer (Photo credit: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Vikings in Britain: how did raiders and marauders become lords and kings?.

A statue of Leif Eriksson, Erik the Red's son, who sailed to North America, c1000 AD. (Image by RF/Getty Images)

Russia, North America and the Middle East: where did the Vikings visit to trade and raid?.

Katheryn WInnick as Lagertha in season 2 of 'Vikings'. A strong belief in Viking women warriors is now rife in many quarters of cyberspace, says Judith Jesch. (Image by Alamy)

Viking ‘warrior women’: Judith Jesch, expert in Viking studies, examines the latest evidence.

Detail of a Viking helmet from grave one at Vendel, Uppland, Sweden. In the 860s and 870s, the Vikings would bring war to England’s four kingdoms on a massive scale. (Photo by CM Dixon/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The great Viking terror: how Norse warriors conquered the Anglo-Saxons.

A detail of the decorative carving on the side of the Oseberg cart c850 AD. A woman with streaming hair apparently restrains a man’s sword arm as he strikes at a horseman accompanied by a dog. Below is a frieze of intertwined serpentine beasts. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Viking women: raiders, traders and settlers.

A view of Þingvellir National Park in western Iceland. It was here, in AD 930, that Viking settlers established the first pan-Icelandic assembly – possibly the oldest parliamentary body in the world. (© Dreamstime)

Vikings: A land without kings.

The Oseberg ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/UIG via Getty Images)

How the Vikings ruled the waves.

A runestone depicting two warriors fighting and the journey of the Vikings to Valhalla, the hall of slain. (DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

The Vikings at home.

View across the river Clyde to Dumbarton Rock and the medieval Dumbarton Castle. (Photo by Martin W Holt via Getty Images)

History explorer: Alfred and the Vikings.

The Abingdon Sword, an iron sword fragment and hilt found near Abingdon in Oxfordshire in 1874. The decoration on the sword hilt indicates this was a high status weapon dating from around AD 875. (Ashmolean Museum/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Fighting the Vikings.