The Viking Invasion
About 1100 years ago, vikings that had settled in northern France were pillaging towns - as they do - and after a few large scale attacks including a few on Paris led by a viking named Rollo, the Frankish king at the time said they could have the land in the north if they promised to stop raiding, convert to Christianity, and protect the land from further viking invasions. Rollo agreed, and northern France became the duchy of what they called Normandy, and the vikings themselves began to be referred to as Normans. Once having received a royal title, Rollo's legacy continued through arranged marriages and subsequent military campaigns by his descendants (his great-great-grandson was William the Conqueror) to the point that every single royal family in Europe to this day shares Rollo as an ancestor. Now THAT is an invasion.
Rollo was the leader of an army of Norsemen that came to northern France to plunder cities and to eventually settle there. After making peace with King Charles III, he became the first Duke of Normandy.
​Poppa of Bayeux was the daughter of a noble family that was captured and ransomed to legitimize Rollo's royal influence as the first Duke of Normandy.
William Longsword was the second Duke of Normandy, succeeding his father and also pledging loyalty to the King of France. Many of his fellow Normans felt that he was too "French" and not enough "viking."
Ragenold of Roucy was a viking warrior and military chief who swore his loyaly to French kings. After Rollo, vikings began to align themselves with French royalty in exchange for land and titles, as opposed to earlier raiding vikings who simply demanded to be paid monetary tribute.
Odin is the Norse god of war, battle, and victory, among many other things. He was widely revered by the vikings, both openly and in secret after the Holy Roman church had taken over Europe.
The penny of Sihtric Silkbeard, a viking ruler of Dublin, Ireland. The viking influence of power was widespread in northern Europe.