German 3313 Northern Myths and Legends

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Timeline of Germanic and Viking History
Dates are approximations in many instances.
Dates given in BOLD TYPE should be memorized.

Antiquity and Germanic Prehistory
2000 BC Proto-Germans settle in southern Scandinavia
500 BC Proto-Germans displace Celts in northern Germany
120 BC Cimbri and Teutoni, Germanic tribes, invade Roman Empire
9 AD Cheruscan chieftan Arminius (Hermann) defeats Roman legions commanded by Quinctilius   
     Varus, end of Roman attempts to conquer Germanic territory
100 AD Tacitus writes Germania, describing the lands and tribes of Germany

Age of Migrations (Völkerwanderung)
300 Migration Period begins (sometimes dated from 375 with invasion of the Huns)
    Old High German language Period (until about 1100)
300 Earliest runic inscriptions in Denmark–runic inscriptions on weapons in Germany earlier
341 Bishop Ulfilas converts Visigoths to Aryan sect of Christianity, translates bible to Gothic
375 Huns appear in Europe, overrun the Ostrogothic King Ermenrichus. He is the basis for Jormunrek
    of the Volsungasaga. Beginning of dissolution of Roman Empire
436 Romans and their allies the Huns battle Burgundians in the Rheinland
437 Burgundian King Gundaharius dies. He is the basis for Gunnar of the Volsungasaga
449 Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrate to Britain, conquest of the Celtic population
453 Attila the Hun dies (possibly) at the hands of his new wife, the Germanic Ildico, a diminuitive form of
    Hild. Attila is the basis for the fictional Atli of the Volsungasaga, or Etzel of the Niebelungenlied
476 Scirian chieftan Odovacar deposes last emperor Romulus Augustulus, end of Roman Empire
489 Theoderic (Dietrich von Bern) deposes Odovacar, establishes Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy.
    Hildebrand is one of Theoderic’s most famous retainers
550 Migration Period ends / Beginning of medieval societies and states in Europe

Age of Vikings
700 Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf composed. It contains references to the Volsung legend
715 Willibrord leads first (unsuccessful) Christian mission to Scandinavia (Denmark)
750 Swedish Vikings establish Staraja Ladoga, a Viking colony in Russia
793 Vikings loot Lindisfarne, first Viking raid recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
795 Viking attacks on Ireland and Scotland, become almost annual events in next century
800 Earliest Skaldic poetry
    Charlemage crowned Holy Roman Emperor, controls most of European continent
839 Swedish Vikings reach Constantinople
841 Viking base Dublin in Ireland established
844 First Viking raid on Spain
860 Swedish Vikings, the Rus, attack Constantinople
862 Rurik, a Swedish Viking, becomes ruler of Novgorod, establishes Rus dynasty (Russia)
862 Finns and Slavs invite Rurik and the Rus to rule over them, origin of Russian state
870 Vikings begin settlement of Iceland
880 Harald Fairhair King of all Norway
900 Thjodolf of Hvinir a poet of Harald Fairhair, composes Ynglinga Tal and Haustlong
911 Rollo founds Normandy (land of the Norsemen), a Viking settlement in northern France
919 Heinrich the Falconer elected King of Germany, beginning of medieval German state
930 Erik Bloodaxe becomes King of Norway
930 Althing established on Iceland, beginning of the Republic
936 Hakon the Good, King of Norway
958 Harald Bluetooth, King of Denmark, converts Denmark to Christianity in 965
960 Harald Greycloak, King of Norway
980 Varangian Guard (consisting only of Vikings) formed at Constantinople
985 Eirik the Red sails from Iceland with a group of settlers headed to Greenland
988 Vladimir of Kiev converts to Christianity, Russia becomes independent Slavic state
995 Olaf Tryggvason king of Norway
1000 Conversion of Iceland to Christianity
    Leif the Lucky Erikson winters in Vinland
    Runestone in Sweden depicts Sigurd roasting Fafnir's heart.
1014 Brian Boru defeats Norse army in battle of Clontarf (Njal’s Saga)
1015 Olaf Haraldson (St. Olaf) king of Norway
1019 Cnut the Great King of Denmark
1045 Harald Hardrada becomes king of Norway
1066 Harold Hardrada killed at Battle of Stamford Bridge in England
    William the Conquerer, great-great-great-grandson of Rollo, invades England
    End of the Viking Age

Medieval History of Germany and Norse Lands
1100 Middle High German language period (to about 1450)
1075 Adam of Bremen writes Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum which includes
    description of heathen Norse rituals at Uppsala
1080 Pagan ceremonies at Uppsala, Sweden come to an end
1125 Icelandic Landnamabok, Book of Settlements, written, chronicles the Age of Settlement in Iceland
1185 Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus written, containing descriptions of Norse myths
1195 Nibelungenlied written in Southern Germany
1200 Saga of the Volsungs written down. The only manuscript in existence dates from c. 1400.
1210 Oldest Icelandic family sagas written.
1220 Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson written down
1260 Codex Regius manuscript of the Poetic Edda probably written down
1261 Greenland comes under Norwegian rule
1262 Iceland comes under Norwegian rule, end of the Icelandic Republic
1271 End of the Rus Rurik dynasty in Russia
1280 Vinland sagas (Eirik the Red’s Saga and Saga of the Greenlanders) probably written down
1300 Njal’s Saga composed
1375 Western Settlement in Greenland abandoned
1480 Last Norse colony in Greenland (Eastern Settlement) abandoned / extinguished.
1960 Helge Ingstad and Anna Stine discover Norse settlements on Newfoundland.