Ancient Civilizations:The Viking Age

By Paul Scheland and Elon Gothlin

Our HistoryOur reign started 789 AD. We formed a

community and on the 8th of June 793 AD we attacked the Lindisfarne abbey. It was our first successful raid and that is what stated our age. Our people come from Scandinavia, but we ruled most of Europe. Our age slowly ended from about 1066-1200. We were not defeated but instead settled as Christians. We marked it by setting up wooden churches across Europe

Environmental and Geographical Effects

We started in Scandinavia and moved to France and to England. The valleys in which we settled gave us the our fresh water. Our main mineral was iron. We also mined precious minerals but used them to decorate our swords. One of the most important cities was York. Our maximum population was about 7 million.

Stable Food Supply

We grew barley, rye, oats, peas, beans, root vegetables and cabbage. The animals that we domesticated were cows, pigs and sheep. We also domesticated horses but didn’t eat them.

Social Structure

MEN WOMEN

Farmers Soldiers Field workBuilders Carpenters SowingTraders Fishers Watching kidsPoets Music Players Traders

Clothes makers

Social Structure (Con.)

Kings: The Kings were the leaders. There were different Kings for different places.Nobles: These were the King’s advisors. They could become the next King.Hired People: These were the people that had a regular job. These people were often soldiers.Civilians: People that try to keep their family alive. They don’t have a constant job.

Government

Our groups had one main leader. He was called king. If a Nobel wanted to be king he would have to have support from the other Nobel's, or they would be killed. The king would have to lead his army into battle. That resulted in many dead kings. There was barely any laws, so the king took care mostly of his army and himself.

The Viking groups were led by a king

Religion

We Vikings believed in mainly 5 gods. They were Odin, Thor, Frey, Freya and Frigg. There was a different god he was named Loki. He wasn’t real a god. He was born by the giants. He then became a blood brother of Thor. We the Vikings loved Thor. We feared Odin because of his mighty power. We build a building called Valhalla. It was an honor to go there. We became Christian about AD 1000. We also have special beliefs about burials and after life. We didn’t leave much about our believes. We didn’t go to church but our believes were our life style.

TechnologyWe made ships. These ships weren’t invented by us but we built them. Our homeland was starting to not have enough space for us all so we set sail. Ships were the main thing we made. We also made weapons like every civilization. A man’s most pride possession was his sword.

LanguageOur language was called old Norse. It is like

old Norwegian. Very heavily accented. It is based of our gods. When do not write with it though. We carve runes into wood, stone and metal. It is a good way to communicate but takes a long time.

ArtWe have 3 main types of Viking art.

There is the jellinge style, the Ringerike style and the Urnes style. They are all very unique. We used iron and natural materials for their work. Our most proud piece of art is our Long ships. It is the best structure we have built. At festivals we will sing songs.

OtherPeople in Denmark, Norway and Sweden all are decedents from us. We left you modern people our culture and style of life. We played chess in the Winter. Often we play ball games wrestled and fenced. We would also go ice skating and played a lot of music. When we went hunting in the Winter we used skies like the modern version. We also would go after men who sang a song or a poem to our daughters but didn’t marry her. We never killed them we just drew blood.

Citation

Book: Lassieur, Allison. The Vikings. San Diego: Lucent, 2001. Print. 

Book: Pearson, Anne. The Vikings. London: Hamlyn, 1993. Print. 

Book: Schomp, Virginia. The Vikings. A Franklin Watts Library ed. New York: Franklin      Watts, 2005. Print.