Vikings Read the Vikings Lesson THEN Complete the Assignments and the TEST

WHO WERE THE VIKINGS? The Vikings were raiders from Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark and Sweden) who came by sea or up rivers in their fast and beautiful longships to attack and seize treasures from monasteries, towns, and churches. Only when they were raiding were they "vikings": They were basically farmers who raised livestock and fishermen, some of whom went "a-viking" in the summer. When they came back from their travels in the early fall, they became farmers again. The Vikings were also known as the Norse or Northmen. Their language was Old Norse. The Norse were also traders, skilled craftspeople in wood, jewelry, stone, and ivory, as well as poets, singers, and storytellers. The Viking Age was the period of raiding as well as creating far-flung trade networks, of settlements by Scandinavians throughout Europe and across the North Atlantic Ocean to Iceland, Greenland, and briefly to the North American Mainland. By the way, not all Vikings or Norse were tall, blond, and blue-eyed. They were short, medium, and tall, had black, brown, red, and blond hair, and their eyes were brown, green, grey, and blue. There were more with light-colored hair and eyes than dark, but a number had brown hair, as is the case today in Scandinavia.

WHEN DID THE VIKINGS LIVE? The Viking age began about 750 AD although some scholars date it at 793 AD when the Vikings raided the monastery at Lindisfarne in northeastern England. Scholars disagree about the ending of the Viking Age or Era but it is usually given as 1050 or 1066. Have your students find out what happened in 1066 in England. Two important historical events involved peoples of Scandinavian descent.

SOME FAMOUS HISTORICAL FIGURES IN VIKING AGE HISTORY:
Charlemagne
Alfred the Great
King Canute of England (Knut in Old Norse language)
St. Olaf of Norway
Harald Hardradi
King Harald (Godwinson) of England
William, Duke of Normandy who became known as "The Conqueror"
Erik the Red
Leif Eriksson
MacBeth, King of Scotland (whose birth name was Thorfinn)

WHERE DID THE VIKINGS LIVE AND TRAVEL?
Geography is a must because the Norse traveled so widely! Have students locate the following geographic features (* indicates lower grades):

Oceans & Seas: *Atlantic Ocean, *North Sea, *Baltic Sea, Mediterranean Sea Continents: *Europe, *North America

Peninsulas & Islands: *Scandinavian Peninsula, *Jutland Peninsula, *Great Britain, *Ireland, Isle of Man, Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, *Faeroes, *Iceland, *Greenland, Baffin Island, Ellesmere Island, *Newfoundland

Modern Countries: *Norway, *Sweden, *Denmark, *Finland, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, *France, Normandy (an important Viking settlement in France), England, *Scotland, *Iceland, *Canada.

HOW DID THEY TRAVEL?
The Norse were seafaring fishermen and traders as well as farmers and had different kinds of boats and ships, each for a different purpose. The most famous were their Longships. These ships were the best and the fastest ships in Europe if not in the whole world. The biggest ships were owned by the well-to-do.

WHAT CAUSED THE VIKING RAIDS?
Many factors caused the Scandinavians to become Vikings and later, settlers in new lands.
The increased wealth and trading within Europe, especially between the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne (the Netherlands, Germany, and France) and the Baltic Sea. This led to the growth of trading towns including some in Denmark and Sweden. Scandinavians had easy access to trade goods and coins in the towns through trade as well as through raids.
Much of the increased wealth in Europe was turned into fine treasures in or for monasteries and churches many of which were wealthier than kings or merchant princes of the time. Political instability in Scandinavia as some chieftains fought other chieftains to acquire followers and enlarge their land holdings so they could claim or create kingships. Many men left to make their reputation and gain treasures through raiding or in later times as mercenaries for the various warring parties in Europe and the Byzantine Empire. Then they returned home to assert their claims. As kingdoms emerged in Scandinavia, many families left to settle elsewhere, seeking better land and freedom from tyrants (kings and the nobility).
Their longships were the Vikings' greatest asset or "weapon". They were fast and could sail in shallow water (because of their shallow draft) almost up to the shore or up the great European rivers to strike unsuspecting targets far inland.
This was a time in Europe of political unrest with frequent warfare among kings, nobles, pagan peoples and would-be kings. There were no nation-states in Europe except for the Byzantine Empire.
Over-population. Only 3% of Norway's land area is good farm and grazing land. Think of the dramatic beauty of the fjord country and then ask where people would farm. Those who did not inherit land often went to make their fortune a-viking or later by settling in foreign lands such as in the British Isles or new lands such as Iceland and Greenland.

HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE VIKINGS?
What we know and how we know comes from many different sources: visible remains such as Norse rune- and picture stones and grave monuments as well as a few embroidered tapestries annals or chronicles written by European monks and others during the Viking Age Norse literature such as the sagas, the Eddas and Heimskringla (the history of Norwegian Kings) which were written 200-300 years after the end of the Viking Age, and finally archeology, physical anthropology, and interdisciplinary excavations and analysis. Each of these sources gives us different pieces of information, different pieces of the puzzle, and each has its drawbacks.

VIKINGS: Vocabulary and Terms

Annals: Records of yearly events of interest; in the Middle Ages these were written by monks and later by persons in the king's or queen's court.

Boat: A small water craft such as a rowboat not usually used for deep sea voyaging.

byre [buyer]: A place to keep livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs) either a pen, separate building or a room in the Longhouse.

Chronicles (as in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles): Records of important events of the year written by monks. The same as Annals.

crozier [Crow-zheer]: The curved top of the staff carried by a bishop, archbishop, or abbot of a monastery in the Catholic Church. Croziers were usually made of valuable metals or ivory. Also spelled crosier.

Jelling [YELL-ing]: A location in Denmark, site of the famous Jelling Runestone.

futhark [FOO-thark]: The name of the old Scandinavian/Germanic alphabet based on its first six letters. Its letters, known as "runes," are stick-like symbols.

Hnefatafl (also Hneftafl) [NhEHV-eh-TAH-Full]: "King's table or board," a popular board game during the Viking Age similar to but earlier than chess.

Leif Ericson (Eriksson or Eiriksson) [LAYF ERIKS-son or EYE-RICKS-son]: The son of Eric the Red, who sailed from Greenland to explore the lands sighted by Bjarni [BYAR-nee] Herjolfsson [HAIR-yallfs-son] several years earlier. He established a base camp for further explorations which is probably the site of L' Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.

Long Hearth: The long rectangular hearth or fire pit in the center of the Longhouse.

Longhouse: The Old Norse houses were long rectangular houses, 50 to 120 feet long, which generally had at least three rooms: a place to cook and weave, a long hall or living-dining-work and bed-room, and another room for storage or indoor craft work. In Greenland and later in Iceland, some houses added rooms including a place to keep animals in winter. Very wealthy families had a separate building or hall for feasting, music, games, and storytelling and a sleeping chamber for the head of the household.

Longship: Also known a Norse or Viking Longship. The long, narrow wooden ships with double prows (front and back,) square sails and oars, that were the fastest, most maneuverable ships of the Viking or Early Middle Ages. This was one of a number of different kinds of Scandinavian ships and boats.

Nordic: Refers to the northwestern European countries of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) plus Iceland and Finland.
Norse [NOR-s] 1) Name for Scandinavians from the Viking Age to today. 2) Norwegian.

Old Norse: The Northern Germanic language of the Scandinavians in the Viking Age.

pagan: Refers to a religion that is not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. The Norse religion had many gods and spirits. Pagan also means people who have a pagan religion.

parchment: Book pages made from cow-, sheep- or goat-skin. Many books of the Middle Ages were written on parchment.

rivet: In Viking times, an iron bolt to fasten wood planks (strakes) together.

rune(s) [ROON; ROONZ]: The letters of the alphabet of the Scandinavians and ancient Germanic peoples. The symbols are stick-like for ease of carving on stone and wood. Runes are thought to be based on the Etruscan alphabet with some added Latin letters. It is called Futhark [FOO-thark] after its first six letters.

runestone: A standing rock on which runic inscriptions are carved, usually within ornamentation, often along a dragon or serpent's long winding body.

saga [SAH-gah]: Oral history or stories about heroic exploits and trials of Viking Age ancestors. The sagas were written down about 200 years after the exploits occurred. Sagas are famous as literature and also because they were among the first works written not in Latin but in the language of the people, Old Norse. [Saga is both an Old Norse and an English word.]

Scandinavia [SKAHN-dee-NAVY-ah]: 1) The Scandinavian Peninsula off northwestern Europe; 2) The Scandinavian-speaking countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, 3) The Scandinavian countries plus Iceland.

ship: A water craft more than 30 ft. long for sailing on the open ocean. (Norse: skibet). Thing: An assembly of local people that discussed important issues and served as a place where law cases could be heard. Since there were no police, each citizen was responsible for carrying out the thing's decisions. The Scandinavian things became the basis of many European parliaments. In Iceland, the national thing was called the Althing. (al=all).

vellum [vel-um]: book pages made from the processed calf-skin. Most of the sagas are written on vellum.

Viking [VEYE-king; VEEK-ing]: First used by Anglo-Saxons in England for the sea-based Scandinavian or Norse raiders of the Viking Age. Scandinavians or Norse were Vikings only when they went on raiding parties in the summer. When they returned home, they were Norse farmers and fishermen.

Viking Age or Era: The time period in Scandinavian and European history from variously given from 750 AD to 1050 AD or from 793 AD to 1050 or 1066 AD.

whetstone: A stone used to sharpen metal tools such as knives, scissors, needles, axes, swords, etc. Men and women carried a small whetstone with them to sharpen tools when needed.