VIKINGS
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Vikings
came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They were great sailors and traders,
but they were also fierce warriors attacking and robbing villages all
around the coasts of Europe. Their language was old Norse and the meaning
of the word Viking is pirate or raider. To the many
people who were conquered by the Vikings they were know as pagans, Danes
and Norsemen, or Northmen. Who
were the Vikings? |
Where
did the Vikings come from? Viking
Timeline |
Norway is extremely mountainous and the coast is dominated by valleys
where the sea has penetrated to form craggy inlets called fjords. They
lived on the narrow coastal strip beside these fjords in farms. |
Age of the Vikings The Viking Age began at the end of the 8th Century. The population was around 2 million but was growing quickly. Harvests were good and the climate had improved. The people were using iron to make tools which improved their farming methods. With more food available to them they were living longer and having more children. At first the growing population was sustainable, however gradually good farmland became scarce and many Vikings lived up to their adventurous nature by seeking their fortunes abroad. |
Viking
People |
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Kings and Noblemen The most important
Vikings were those from royal families. |
Kings
had to be declared as a rightful ruler by his subjects and chieftains.
An unjust King or one who lost the support of his chieftains would be
exiled or even killed and could be legally overthrown. Chieftains or nobles were landowners and warriors. These were the fierce Vikings who raided abroad and led the armies that invaded and terrorized most of western Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries. |
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Viking
Homes
Vikings lived in longhouses which were divided into rooms with the family at one end and their animals at the other. As they lived in a harsh environment with cold, long, dark winters their houses did not have windows as this would have let in the cold. Homes were often damp, full of smoke from the fire burning on the hearth this meant many Vikings suffered from chest diseases and some may have been killed by a poisonous gas called carbon monoxide produced when a fire using all the oxygen in a room. Viking
Homes |
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Viking Women It is thought that Viking women were greatly respected and made faithful wives who stood by their husbands to the end. The women were mainly concerned with the care of children, looking after the home and making and washing clothing. It is thought that some women did own property and were independent. The women often had to run the family farm for many months while their husbands were away fighting or trading. Despite having all this responsibility they were not given any political rights. Viking women went to war but they didn't fight! Instead they nursed woulded warriors and cooked means for hungry soldiers. |
Freemen Freemen could be farmers or fishermen or boatbuilders or even craftsmen such as silversmiths, they were also skilled sailors and made up the crews of the Viking longships. The wealth of these freement varied greatly. Some worked large farms and owned as many as 30 slaves, others were employed by wealthy chieftains and worked their land.
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Slaves They had to do all the hardest jobs around the house and on the land. Some were poor local people and others were siezed from their homes by the Viking Raiding parties overseas. They had no rights ar all and by Viking law could be beaten to death by their master if he so wished. Those who were skilled faired better such as craftsmen and were even paid for their work so were able to save up over time to buy their freedom. Vikings who traded in slaves were said to be the richest and they would capture large numbers of healthy looking people and sell them for silver and gold. |
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Clothes & Weaving Vikings were extremely proud of their appearance, in fact when they came to Britain the local Britains thought they were “much too clean”. Despite living in often unsanitary conditions, clothing and fashion was very important to them. Women were skilled at spinning and weaving and made their own clothes from the wool of their livestock. The wool was spun on a spindle weighted with a “whorl” of clay, stone or bone. Vikings loved bright colours and died the wool many shades of red, green, yellow, purple and brown. The women then wove the coloured wool into cloth on an upright loom. .
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Viking Children As soon as they were old enough Viking parents passed on their skills and knowledge to their children. Many children would have died before reaching adulthood because their life was so hard, but those who did survive would have been very strong and independent. Girls were taught how to spin and weave by their mothers, and boys went out in fishing boats with their fathers. Everybody in the family worked the farm. Children were also taught the runes. Although they had to work hard, children did have time to play, in winter they skated on icy ponds wearing shoes with bones attached. They had balls made of wood and fabric toys. Both parents and children enjoyed board games which they played during long winter evenings, pieces were made of bone or glass. |
Warriors,Weapons
and Invasions |
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| Vikings believed that a dead warrior's fame lived on after he died so they valued glory more than a long life. They used their myths and legends to tell how warriors who died valiently in battle would go to Valhalla where they feasted forever with the gods. Warriors called Berserkirs (bear-shirts) dressed in animal skins and worked themselves into a trance before battle. They charged at their enemies growling and chewing their shields. They were wild and fearless and dangerous to anyone who got in their way. Viking
Invasions |
Viking
Warriors |
Warriors gave names to their swords. They were a Viking warriors most treasured possession. A Warrior who died in battle was often buried with his sword and gave it names such as 'sharp biter'. Swords were double-edged with strong flexible blades made by hammering layers of iron together. The handles (hilts) were decorated with silver and gold patterns. Each Viking soldier had to provide his own weapons and armour. Rich Vikings had metal helmets and tunics and fine sharp swords. Poor soldiers wore leather caps and tunics and carried knives and spears. The
New Tower |
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Hunting and Fishing Many parts of Scandinavia was unsuitable for farming so hunting for food was essential for survival. Luckily there were great forests where animals such as elk, deer, wild boar and bears lived. The sea was also full of fish. Hunting wild animals on horseback became very popular and some wealthy Vikings could afford fast horses. |
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Art and Crafts Vikings were skilled in many forms of art and craft. They were clever in decorating ordinary objects, such as combs, buckets and sledges. In Towns there were craft areas where people could buy goods made of metal, leather or wood. Scandinavian art consisted of patterns of interlinking animals twisting or gripping each other, the interest in animal styles continued throughout the Viking period changing only as it was influenced by art from outside Scandinavia. Vikings were especially skilled in metal
work and the smith was very important in Viking society. |
Wearing beautiful jewellery was a sign of wealth and status and Vikings were no different from other people when it came to displaying their wealth in the form of cloak brooches, necklaces and earrings.
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Viking Traders, explorers and settlers Brave adventurers
and keen to seek new land, slaves and treasure. They travelled through
Russia to Istanbul, and to Jerusalem. Their journeys took several
years and in Russia they carried their ships over ground between rivers.
They even had to ride camels through the desert near Jerusalem. |
| Viking
Ships |
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Viking ships were called Dragon ships. There were several different kinds of ship:- cargo ships were low and heavy, having wide deep hulls to enable them to carry heavy loads. Ferry and river boats were small and sturdy and had lots of room for passengers and crew. The most impressive ships were the "drakkar" or dragon ships, these were designed for war. They had long slender hulls which made them fast. The Vikings put beautiful carvings on the stern and prow, their shallow keels enabled them to sail quickly onto the beaches in order to make raids. |
Viking Sailors steered by the stars, they had no radio or satellite systems to help them navigate when they were out of sight of land. They used the position of the sun by day and the stars by night to work out where they were. They also studied the wind, waves and ocean currents and the movements of fish and seabirds. |
Ships were built from oak timbers from the tallest trees they could find. The biggest ships used tree trunks from trees at least 40 metres high. The builders added long overlapping planks of oak, ash or birch for the hull. Masts were made from tall, very straight trees like pine.
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In Viking times the spoken word was more important than writing. Their laws, religion, customs and history was passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Writing was limited to the use of runes carved on bone, wood, stone or metal. The runic alphabet had 16 characters and was used before the introduction of the Roman alphabet we use today. It was called the futhark after its first letters in the same way that we call our alphabet the ABC. Runes were quite confusing because several of them had more than one meaning. Runes were easy to write down and therefore runes have been found on many objects including combs and buckets. Many
stories were written down at the end of the Viking age around 1200.
These are known as the sagas. Some of these are difficult to believe
and have probably been exaggerated over the generations. Much of what
we know about Vikings, especially their royalty, comes from Sagas.
They contain heroic stories of Viking gods, kings and noblemen. |
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Worshipping the Gods Vikings were largely pagan, worshipping many gods and goddesses. They believed the gods lived in a place called Asgard. There were also three Norns, sacred beings that represented the past, present and future. The Norns spun out the destiny of both gods and humans, and no-one could avoid their ‘fate’. They also believed that the god Odin had handmaidens called Valkyries. It was the Valkyries job to swoop down out of the sky on white horses and carry off the souls of the warriors killed in battle. If a warrior wasn’t killed in battle then he ended up in Niflheim, this was where ordinary people went, an icy, misty place with nothing much to do. Warriors were so afraid of this that they even asked their friends to kill them so they could go to Valhalla after all. Odin – Supreme god of Viking religion. lived in a great palace in Valhalla, he was surrounded by a bodyguard of warriors who had been killed in battle. It was believed that in Valhalla they prepared for one last battle against evil that would spell Ragnarok, the Doom of the Gods. Odin was the all-powerful god of battle, wisdom, knowledge and poetry. Thor – Although Odin was the chief god he was considered unreliable so his son, Thor, was believed to be more predictable and therefore it was Thor who was more widely worshipped by the Vikings. Thor was skilled in battle and he carried a mighty hammer, Mjollnir, which he used to destroy evil creatures. The Vikings believed that thunder was caused by Thor’s chariot and lighting appeared when Thor threw Mjollnir (his hammer). He was also believed to be a kind God who was ready to help Sailors and Farmers. Other gods included Odin’s wife Frigg, his son Baldr and the cunning and troublesome Loki. Frey was the god of harvest and fertility and his sister Freya was the goddess of love. Vikings
did not have Priests like the Christian Church so Religious ceremonies
were conducted by chieftains and took place in the open air and included
feasting and animal sacrifice. |
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Vikings believed in life after death and were buried with things they would need such as food, drink, weapons, jewellery, dogs and horses, all placed in the grave by friends and relatives of the deceased. Women were buried with pots and pans and clothes they had embroidered or woven. The items buried with the dead person was a sign of how wealthy and powerful that person had been in life. Wealthy Viking warriors were sometimes buried in a ship or wagon as Vikings thought that death was merely a journey to the afterlife. Most people were buried in a simple grave, if a person was not rich or important they might have a grave that was marked out with stones laid out in the shape of a ship. Kings, chieftains and their families were buried in magnificent ships painstakingly dragged onto the land. The richest ever Viking burial discovery was the Oseberg ship which dates from around 850. It contained two women, one was a queen thought to be Asa and her slave who was sacrificed. It was preserved by the mound of earth, stones, clay and peat heaped over it.
Viking
Burial Customs and Food
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Viking
Board Game (Print and Play) |
Write
a message on a Rune Stone (Print and Play) |
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