Many people have a distorted perception of the historical Viking Age (300-1350) where they split it into two distinct cultural periods, where the latter can hardly be known as “Viking Age”.
It’s common to conclude that Norse Paganism and Fuþark (runes), runestones and Viking ships belong in one period, and the Christian era came with the latin alphabet and books.
It’s not that simple, though, as Christianity was introduced in southern Denmark around 650 and took more than 600 years to embrace all of Scandinavia.
The vast majority of runestones are made by christian Vikings, the Viking ship design is more-or-less still in use, and the famous Vegvisir graphic, that so many present day Vikings have tattooed is not found anywhere before 1860.
