Demon of Scattery Page 11

  Denmark officially became Christian in the middle tenth century, Norway in the early eleventh, Sweden later still. Scandinavians continued to sail widely for some while afterward—as far as America—but only a few in viking, and they not for long. This was less because of their conversion than because the Western nations had grown too strong for them. The last Norse attack on Ireland was by King Magnus Barefoot, who fell there in 1103. When his son Sigurd took a fleet to the Holy Land, 1108-1110, and King Valdemar I of Denmark conquered the pagan Wends, 1169, they went as crusaders.

  Poul Anderson