The Vikings raided Lindisfarne in AD 793, helping themselves to heaps of treasure as well as taking a clutch of captives. This wasn’t the first recorded Viking raid – a royal official had been killed by marauding Vikings in Wessex a few years previously – but it did herald the beginning of further death and destruction as attacks escalated over the following years.

All of the above – the Vikings were far more than simple bloodthirsty raiders. Viking traders ventured all the way to Russia’s fast-flowing rivers and the Caspian Sea, whereas others sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America’s coastline – 500 years before Columbus did. They are remembered for their beautiful creative works, too, with evocative sagas such as the Íslendingasögur or Icelandic Family Sagas spreading tales of their exploits.

The Vikings first discovered Iceland in the mid-ninth century, with numerous voyagers coming across the island. After Arnarson and his group of colonists settled there between AD 874 and 930, they created a unique society that owed no formal allegiance to the Norwegian monarchy. Instead, it was a republic that had a strong claim to being the world’s oldest parliament (Alþingi).

The Viking ‘sunstone’ is thought to have helped guide navigation. When the crystal is held up to the sky, it forms a solar compass that shows the sun’s location through concentric rings of polarised light – even through thick clouds or after dusk has fallen. These navigational tools were apparently used by Vikings including Leif Erikson, who journeyed to Newfoundland.

Wessex, ruled by King Alfred, was the only kingdom that remained independent of Viking rule. Despite a close call when part of Guthrum’s Great Army crossed into Alfred’s land, causing him to hastily seek refuge in the Somerset marshes at Athelney for months on end, they maintained their independence. Alfred then formed a new army and defeated the Vikings at Edington. For all his achievements, Alfred was later known as ‘the Great’.

Ivarr (or Ivar) the Boneless is one of the most famous Vikings you should know about, having also helped to lead the ‘Great Heathen Army’ that landed in East Anglia in 865 before conquering both that kingdom and Northumbria.The roots of his rather bizarre nickname remain unclear, but it could be a reference to an unnatural flexibility during combat or a degenerative muscular disorder that could have required someone to carry him everywhere. Without his corpse, though, historians may never uncover the truth.

In true Viking fashion, it was copious amounts of ale and a dispute that led to Harald adopting Christianity. He was baptised in around 960. As a whole, though, Vikings were slower to adopt Christianity than other European powers – kings of the Franks had accepted the religion by the early sixth century, and many of England’s Anglo-Saxon monarchs took up Christianity the following century.

While all of these attributes were important, it was being remembered for great deeds was seen as the highest achievement of a Viking warrior. it was being remembered for great deeds that was seen as the greatest sign of a Viking warrior of all. According to a collection of Viking aphorisms called the Hávamál: “Cattle die, kindred die, we ourselves shall die, but I know one thing that never dies: the reputations of each one dead”.

If a Viking died on the battlefield, they wouldn’t be sent to Hel. This underworld was reserved for those who succumbed to old age or sickness, rather than warriors who had heroically perished on the end of a sword. And if you were a murderer, adulterer or oath-breaker, Hel was particularly unpleasant: a giant dragon would gnaw on your corpse.If a Viking died in battle, they only had a 50 per cent chance of going to Valhalla. The half not chosen to ascend to the heavenly hall were instead destined for the field of the goddess Freya, where they would offer their company to the women who had died as maidens.