WBirka listen (help·info), on the island of Björkö in present-day Sweden, was an important Viking Age trading center which handled goods from Scandinavia and Finland as well as Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient. Björkö is located in Lake Mälaren, 30 kilometers west of contemporary Stockholm, in the municipality of Ekerö.
WSwedish pre-history ends around 800 AD, when the Viking Age begins and written sources are available. The Viking Age lasted until the mid-11th century. Scandinavia was formally Christianized by 1100 AD. The period 1050 to 1350—when the Black Death struck Europe—is considered the Older Middle Ages. The Kalmar Union between the Scandinavian countries was established in 1397 and lasted until King Gustav Vasa ended it upon seizing power. The period 1350 to 1523 – when king Gustav Vasa, who led the unification of Sweden, was crowned – is considered the Younger Middle Ages.
WKata Farm is the remains of a large Viking-age farming estate, located in Varnhem, Västra Götaland. The ruins include a crypt dated to the late 10th century A.D., which could make it the oldest Christian church in Sweden.
WThe Mästermyr chest is a Viking Age (793–1066) tool chest found in the Mästermyr mire west of Hemse on the island of Gotland, Sweden. It is the largest tool find from that era in Europe.
WThe Rällinge statuette is a seated figure in bronze, discovered in Södermanland, Sweden in 1904 and dated to the Viking Age. The seven-centimetre-high figure, who wears a conical headdress, clasps his pointed beard and has an erect penis, has often been assumed to be the god Freyr. This is due to an 11th-century description of a phallic Freyr statue in the Temple at Uppsala, but the identification is uncertain.
WRunestone U 582 is a runestone that used to be located by the church of Söderby-Karl, Norrtälje municipality in the Roslagen area on the east coast of Sweden. It has been lost since some time before 1830. The runestone has been dated to the 11th century and includes what is probably the oldest written mention of Finland.
WThe Sundveda Hoard is a Viking Age hoard of 482 silver coins found in 2008 in Sundveda between Märsta and Sigtuna, not far from Stockholm in Sweden. It is the largest silver hoard found in the Mälaren region since 1827.
WThe term thegn, also thane, or thayn in Shakespearean English, comes from the Old English þegn, "servant, attendant, retainer".