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There is actually one instance of conversion by the sword which apparently took.
In 878, King Alfred the Great, along with his Anglo-Saxon allies, successfully attacked the viking plunderers (read terrorists) and, after capturing their leaders caused them to be baptized and swear fealty to God.
The vanquished kings and their people actually sought and recieved instruction in the faith and lived accordingly.
Of course, in previous eras, one took oaths seriously, and followed whatever religion your leader or family head prescribed for you, an idea that is foreign to most today.

There is actually one instance of conversion by the sword which apparently took.

It's that "apparently" which throws the whole equation.

1 Samuel 16: 7 -- But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

In 878, King Alfred the Great, along with his Anglo-Saxon allies, successfully attacked the viking plunderers (read terrorists) and, after capturing their leaders caused them to be baptized and swear fealty to God. The vanquished kings and their people actually sought and recieved instruction in the faith and lived accordingly. Of course, in previous eras, one took oaths seriously, and followed whatever religion your leader or family head prescribed for you, an idea that is foreign to most today.

You can "follow the religion", but it doesn't, of itself, do you a darn bit of Salvific good.
For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
I'm not saying that there weren't "conversions"; I'm saying that any True Conversions which happened in the course of the above-mentioned affair, did not result from the efficacy of the sword.

John 6: 63, 65 -- It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.... And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

You can't "make" a believer out of any man. You can only make him "follow the religion" at gunpoint -- if that. But it amounts to putting a sheepskin on a goat -- strap it on as tight as you like, it's still a goat. God converts whom He wants to convert; our duty is simply to Obey His commandments.

Romans 9: 15-16 -- For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Or, since you brought up Vikings...

The Thirteenth Warrior