Invasions: Crusades, Normans, Mongols, Magyars, Huns, Goths, Vandals, Ottomans, Turks, Persians, Invaders

Here is an excellent summary of the people invading other people: Crusades, Mongols, Khazars, the Rus, Ottomans, Turks, Persians, Mongols, almost you-name-it: at the History of Central Europe, at //mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong




Normans:
Here is the Cathedral at Palermo, in Sicily - Norman and Byzantine mix --and the area a crusader stop point.





Vikings:
The Vikings - Northmen- Normans - slid in their longboats rivers into Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the oceans between, and had more of a culture than you may think. Here is a large website on the topic of Vikings, including Video. See www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/; and for Viking ships: www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/vikingships.htm#Construction; and for their religious beliefs: www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/articles.

They attacked Irish monasteries in about 900, maybe earlier, and the French in Paris (was this at the same time or earlier?) bought them off by giving them Normandy -thus, the Normans. The Vikings then bypassed Paris, and attacked all the way to Burgundy.

For any of these site addresses, use the basic dot-org, and the rest to navigate to where I think the best part is.