The Scheldt basin consists today of the 'Schelde' and its major tributaries, the Leie (Lys), the Mandel, the Rupel and the Dender. Two other large rivers - the Rhine and the Meuse - also flowed into the North Sea via the same large delta region at the mouth of the river Scheldt. The Aa in the south, now in French-Flanders, also flowed just up to the delta. The Germanic tribes known as seafolk - the Saxons, the Frisians and the Danes - lived nearby. I would like to place the history of the earliest Danes not in northern Europe but in western Europe. Those families from the Schelde (Scheldt) region were to become the most famous founders of Denmark. Some of the descendants were also supposed to start a number of European noble families, but for that they had to fit within the system of the coming new rulers, the Franks. The Scandinavians were Danes in that respect because the old Danes arrived there. They mixed with the indigenous population, influenced the language, brought toponyms and founded a number of important dynasties. There is quite a lot to discuss about the right places of events in the eighth to eleventh centuries. Toponymic duplications in Western and Northern Europe may still bear witness to this. There are names like Ardres-Ardre, Berck-Birka, Moere-Møre, Upland-Uppland or Zeeland-Sjælland.In the north, we have to conclude that the Scandinavian stories about their oldest histories were not written down until centuries after the events. The rich politician Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) was the best-known author of those old stories. These stories were a recuperation that is all too often found in the construction of a state history. The same can be said of the content of christian-inspired stories. They too were very biased. Contemporary sources inform us very little about the real events of that time. It is archeology in particular that can help us a little. But here too we have to be careful. So much has happened to western European soil in 2000 years.The book aims to provide an overview of the history of the people who lived in Western Europe in the first millennium, bringing facts and searching for causal links. The following questions will receive a - hopefully satisfactory - answer: Which sea peoples successively ruled over the North Sea? Who were the wikings, where did they come from and what role did they play in that history? Where did those wikings live in Europe and even outside Europe? How did the wiking era end? Above all, I wanted to show the links between these subjects, and Flanders-Zeeland. There is already a great deal of material on this subject, but I have tried to find other logical connections that could shed a very different light on what has been written about it so far. I certainly do not deny the wiking histories of the European countries. I especially tried to clarify the birth and the early years of the wiking age.Readers of the paperback miss the pictures in colour. The relevant ones can be found in full colour via my link that can be found in the endnote 4 in the book. The names of the characters are in a version that is closest to the ones used in their time.
