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Who were the Vikings?• The Vikings were a group of
people from a region of Northern Europe called Scandinavia.
• Today, Scandinavia includes the nations of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, & Iceland.
• During the Middle Ages, people who came from Northern Europe, like the Vikings, were known as Norsemen.
• They were most active during the years 793 AD to 1066 AD
How did Vikings make a living?• Sailing• Fishing• Raising livestock• Craftwork • Beekeeping• Trade: silver, gold, furs• Raiding
Why did Vikings go on raids?
1. Increased wealth and trading within Europe
2. Fine treasures in monasteries & churches
3. Political instability in Scandinavia
4. Time of political unrest with frequent warfare among kings, nobles, & would-be kings
5. Over-population (only 3% of Norway’s land is good for farming & grazing)
How did Vikings travel?• Longboats:
– Long & narrow– Carved prows– Carried 50 men– Bank of oars & a sail– Shallow keel allowed
boats to travel up rivers easily & make inland raids
– Made for quick getaway
Where did the Vikings travel and settle outside of Scandinavia?• Perhaps the most well-traveled of all
Medieval Europeans
• North Sea, Baltic Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea
• Visited & settled lands that would become Russia, Germany, France (Normandy), England, Scotland, Iceland, & Canada
How do we know about the Vikings?1. runestones: large stones w/inscriptions written
in runes (Northern European alphabet created before the period of Christian conversion)
2. annals or chronicles: histories written by monks whose monasteries were attacked
3. sagas: Vikings’ stories based on oral history (retold from memory). Ex. Vinland Saga
4. archaeology: bone artifacts from Viking settlements (Ex. Viking ship burials)
Did Vikings travel to America before Christopher Columbus?• The Vikings were the first Europeans to travel to
North America.• A Viking named Eirik the Red discovered
Greenland in 985 after he was exiled from Iceland• Eirik’s son, Leif Eiriksson, was the first European
to reach North America in 1000 AD. • He made several landings, including an area that
he called “Vinland”. • It is thought to be modern-day Newfoundland,
Canada.• The story of this discovery is retold in the Vinland
Sagas.• Evidence has been found of a short-term Viking
settlement in Newfoundland at a site called L’anse aux Meadows.
Vy govorite po Rossii
• The Swedish Vikings influenced the growth of the early Russian state around Kiev.
• The Slavic people called them “Rus”. They were ruled by Vikings for a long time that the land was named Russia.
The Swedes went beyond the Baltic away from Christian Europe into Russia, Constantinople, an Baghdad.
What are the modern impacts of the Vikings?
• Days of the week:
– Tyr’s day = the god of war– Woden’s day = the chief god– Thor’s day = god of thunder– Frigga’s day = Woden’s wife
