IF you like to come home to a real fire - on your boat - and secretly fancy a spot of pillaging then now is your chance to dust off your horns and show your Viking blood.

Scientists at University College, London, are looking for 100 volunteers from within 20 miles of York to test DNA from mouth swabs.

Volunteers should also be able to trace either their father's father or their mother's mother at the same location.

The research will test 2,500 British men from different parts of the country to see how many Britons are descended from Vikings, and to answer questions that still surround the invaders.

Geneticist Professor David Goldstein, from University College London, will lead the 15-month study and the results will form the basis of a new BBC 2 television series next year, Blood of the Vikings.

Prof Goldstein said: "Modern genetics has opened up a powerful new window on the past. We can now trace past movements of peoples and address questions that have proved difficult to answer through history and archaeology alone."

The Vikings spread further and conquered more widely than the Romans, yet little is known about their time in Dark Age Britain and Ireland.

The survey will attempt to discover how many of the Vikings stayed and made the British Isles their home.

The project will also examine both male and female ancestry to try to find out whether the first Viking invaders brought their families with them.

The genetic trawl will not be looking for physical characteristics, such as colouring or height, but at particular genes that were thought to be common in Vikings.

To take part in the survey, call the BBC History Line on 08700 106060 or visit the web site www.bbc.co.uk/history.