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A further activity of the Scandinavians in the East was service as mercenaries in Constantinople (now Istanbul), where they formed the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor.

After the 11th century the Viking chief became a figure of the past.

Norway and Sweden had no more force for external adventure, and Denmark became a conquering power, able to absorb the more unruly elements of its population into its own royal armies.

Olaf II Haraldsson of Norway, before he became king in 1015, was practically the last Viking chief in the old independent tradition.

It carried the Vikings on their piratical raids of the 9th century and bore Leif Eriksson to America in 1000; it was also used by Dutch, French, English, and German merchants and warriors.

Some of the 11th-century versions shown in the Bayeux tapestry have their masts supported by shrouds, implying that their square sails could be manipulated enough to sail with the wind abeam.

The introduction of the stern rudder in about 1200 led to the differentiation of bow and stern and the transformation of the longship.

Leif was born in Iceland in about 960 AD, son of Eric the Red. As was tradition with the Vikings, Leif did not grow up with his family. Instead, when he was eight he moved in with a man named Thyrker. Thyrker was from Germany where Eric the Red had captured him, had taken him to Iceland, but had not enslaved him. Thyrker taught Leif everything he needed to know, including reading and writing runes, the Celtic and Russian tongue, and the ways of trade. Leif was also taught the old sagas, plant studies, and the use of weapons. When Leif was not learning he and his friends would watch the ships come into the harbor; then he would listen to the tales of the sailors.

At 12, Leif was considered a man and traveled back to his father's house. Eric's house had grown since Leif had left. The herds had multiplied and there were new houses and more slaves. The spring after Leif arrived, Eric was summoned to Reykjavik or lawmaking assembly. Eric took Leif along with him to the Thing. The next day, among the crowds, Eric met a man with whom he was feuding. They started to fight and Eric killed the other man. Because of this, the Thing council banished Eric from Iceland for three years.

Leif was probably 15 to 17 when he was out and saw a young polar bear on an ice flow. He decided to capture the bear but there was a strong current between the ice flow and land. So using his knowledge of the sea, he went "upstream" from the polar bear and let the current carry his boat into the ice flow. After capturing the bear he used the same tactic to get back to land, impressing the people on shore.

One day, when Leif was watching the boats, he saw an old tattered ship rowing very slowly. Leif became very exited because he recognized this ship as belonging to Bjarni Hergelfson, who had been gone over a year. After the ship landed, Leif followed Bjarni into a hall where Bjarni told the story of how mist had covered the North Star so they couldn't navigate. They sailed for many days and finally spotted land, but it wasn't Greenland, where they had been heading. Glaciers did not cover the coast they had seen, but instead it was green with trees.

The day they arrived, a storm came in and didn't allow them to leave for a month. During this time Leif stayed in the house of the lord of the island. There lived the lord's daughter who was named Thorgunna. She was known to embroider tapestries and was believed to be learned in witchcraft.

Before Leif left for Norway, Thorgunna told him she was going to have his baby and she foresaw that it would be a boy. She had her child and named him Thorgils. Later he traveled to Greenland and Leif accepted him as his son. This is the only child known to be Leif's.

When the storm had cleared, Leif set off for Norway. The wind was good and they got there in a few days.

The king was so impressed with Leif that he invited Leif to stay in Norway. Leif decided there was no reason to rush back home to Greenland, so he accepted the offer. While in Norway, he marveled at all the wonderful things and rested in the lap of luxury

They landed, but were disappointed because the land seemed to be one huge slab of rock. Because of this he named it Helluland (Slab Land or Flat Rock Land), which is now believed to be Baffin Island. Leif then sailed south and found another land. When he went ashore he found it to be flat with white beaches and some trees. He named this land Markland (Woodland) which today is believed to be the eastern coast of Canada.

Then Leif sailed southeast for two days and came to an island with a mainland behind it. On this land the dew on the grasses seemed as sweet as honey. Here Leif had some booths or temporary shelters built. But, the land here was so rich that he decided to build at least one large house for the winter. On this land there were salmon bigger than any the Vikings had ever seen before, there were also very rich pastures there for their cattle (they had brought a few), and there were rich forests covering this land.

After the houses were built, Leif sent out an exploration group to explore the land. After one of these expeditions, Thyrker didn't return. The men searched for him all day and finally found him the next morning. When they found him he was very excited and blabbering in German. After he calmed down he explained to the men that he had found grapes on this land.

Just north of the most northerly Orkney Island, there is an eddy or whirlpool called the Swelki (from Old Norse svelgr or sea-mill). At the bottom of the sea floor in this spot is a magic mill, and with it are two giantesses, Grotti-Fenni and Grotti-Menni, who grind and grind and grind.

Originally the mill was supposed to grind out good things, but when the giantesses were enslaved and forced to turn the mill, they cursed it to grind nothing but salt. And while they still are enslaved to the mill, to this day it still grinds salt. The legend states that the whirlpool is caused by the waters of the sea, pouring through the grind-stone's center hole. The Norse called the great whirlpool maelstrom.

May 8, 2000 - Time Magazine

They earned their brutal reputation--but the Norse were also craftsmen, explorers and believers in democracy.

Ravagers, despoilers, pagans, heathens--such epithets pretty well summed up the Vikings for those who lived in the British Isles during medieval times. For hundreds of years after their bloody appearance at the end of the 8th century A.D., these ruthless raiders would periodically sweep in from the sea to kill, plunder and destroy, essentially at will. "From the fury of the Northmen, deliver us, O Lord" was a prayer uttered frequently and fervently at the close of the first millennium. Small wonder that the ancient Anglo-Saxons--and their cultural descendants in England, the U.S. and Canada--think of these seafaring Scandinavians as little more than violent brutes.

But that view is wildly skewed. The Vikings were indeed raiders, but they were also traders whose economic network stretched from today's Iraq all the way to the Canadian Arctic. They were democrats who founded the world's oldest surviving parliament while Britain was still mired in feudalism. They were master metalworkers, fashioning exquisite jewelry from silver, gold and bronze. Above all, they were intrepid explorers whose restless hearts brought them to North America some 500 years before Columbus.