by The Vikings explored, raided and traded across a large area stretching from North America to the Middle East between about the end of the eighth century and the middle of the 11th century.
In Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings was, “a Viking was a sea-borne raider, and to go-Ving was to take sea-borne raiding,” Angus Somerville and Russell Andrew McDonald (opens in a new tab)which the two professors at Brock University in Canada wrote in their book “The Vikings and their Age (opens in a new tab)” (University of Toronto Press, 2013) “The word is a job description but it only applied to a small minority of the population,” because many people in Scandinavia would not have participated in raids.
Among those who raided, “being a Viking was a part-time job since small farmers, fishermen, merchants, chiefs and nobles took Viking expeditions seasonally as a means of increasing their income and fame ,” wrote Somerville and McDonald. .
The word “Viking” was rarely mentioned in written sources during the time when the Vikings were active. “It was not until the nineteenth century that the term came into common use in English, where it was generally used as a descriptor for the people of Scandinavia in the period from the late eighteenth to the eleventh century,” wrote Somerville and McDonald. .
The Vikings married or had other children with the people they met. This meant that some of the Vikings were not of full Viking ancestry. A study published in the journal nature (opens in a new tab) in 2020 it was found that much genetic diversity in the coastal areas of Scandinavia. Despite the popular belief that Vikings had blonde hair, the study found that many of them had brown hair.
The Viking Age
Historians today use the term “Viking Age” to describe a period in which the Vikings were expanding and raiding. “The years 793 to 1066 are often cited as defining the period,” wrote Somerville and McDonald, but these dates are subject to debate.
In the year 793, the Vikings raided a monastery Lindisfarne, an island off the east coast of Great Britain. They killed people and made off with a significant amount of loot. It was the year 1066 when William the Conqueror succeeded in invading England. He was in charge of the Normans, a people who had Scandinavian descendants among them.
Although the Vikings originated in Scandinavia, they traveled and lived across a large area. L’anse aux Meadows, on the northern side of Newfoundland in North America, has the longest western outlet known today. Although this pole may have only been in use for a short time, there were Viking colonies on the west coast of Greenland that had been in use for hundreds of years.
The Vikings also traveled to the Middle East, reaching Constantinople and Baghdad by the 830s, wrote John Haywood, an independent researcher, in his book “The North: The Viking Saga, AD 793-1241 (opens in a new tab)” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2015).
In Eastern Europe, the Vikings established settlements and established a state called Rus in the ninth century, Haywood noted. They failed to lay siege to Constantinople in 860.
Who were the main gods/mythology of the Vikings?
“There are at least two layers in the pantheon of Norse gods – the upper aesir and the lesser vanir,” Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide, who was a professor of medieval history at the University of Bergen in Norway, and Kevin Edwards (opens in a new tab)emeritus professor of physical geography at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, who wrote in his book “The Vikings (opens in a new tab)” (Arc Humanities Press, 2019). The Vanir include the deities Freyja, Freyr and Njörðr, and the Aesir include Odin and his son Baldur.
“The two groups are constantly at war, which keeps the balance,” write Nordeide and Edwards, noting that there were also intermarriages and relationships between the groups, for example between Odin and Freyja. In addition to these two pantheons, there were also mythological creatures, such as the Jötnar, who were in conflict with the gods.
There was also a belief in Ragnarök, a world-ending event in which a person named Surtr would kill the gods and engulf the world in flames. In the ninth century, a volcanic eruption occurred in Iceland, and the inhabitants may have believed that Ragnarök was taking place. they built a boat-shaped structure out of rock in a cave and burning animal bones, perhaps in an attempt to strengthen Freyr, the Norse god of fertility who fought Surtr, the archaeologists discovered.
Scandinavian culture
Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings did not wear horned helmets, Steve Ashby (opens in a new tab)senior lecturer at the University of York in the UK, and Alison Leonard, an independent researcher, wrote in her book “Vikings (opens in a new tab)” (Thames & Hudson, 2018). A complete helmet from Gjermundbu, Norway, has several composite iron parts.
The Vikings had a writing system. “During most of the Viking Age, writing in Scandinavia consisted mainly of short, simple inscriptions [called runes] on stone, bone, or wood,” wrote Nordeide and Edwards, noting that literacy among the Vikings was probably low.
Sometimes members of Norse society were placed in boats. “Boat graves seem to have been of particular importance to the Scandinavian countries,” write Nordeide and Edwards.
Viking ships
“The real secret of the Vikings’ success was their mobility” at sea, Haywood wrote, noting that it was faster to travel on water than on land. “Viking ships had only a shallow draft so that a raiding fleet could land almost anywhere on the open coast or go far inland on rivers,” Haywood wrote. This meant that the Vikings could choose weak points to attack and bypass strong points.
To build ships, the Vikings “used iron rivets to fasten long planks produced by radially splitting logs,” write Nordeide and Edwards. “The lower planks were attached to the keel, each plank of the hull overlapping the rest, riveted to each other and to the stem posts.”
In the early ninth century, Viking ships began to incorporate mainsails. “Sail reconstruction, using techniques and wool from old sheep breeds, suggests that fiber from five hundred animals was needed to produce an average sail,” write Nordeide and Edwards.
The dimensions of the ships used for raiding probably varied, Haywood wrote, noting that a ship found at Gokstad, Norway, dating from 850 to 900, is 76.5 by 17 feet (23 by 5 meters) and has 16 pairs of oars.
The end of the Viking age
As time went on, more Vikings converted to Christianity. Raids continued in England, however. In the 11th century, “the Danish army led by Sweyn Forkbeard was still in full Viking mode: plundering, burning and demanding tribute from the Anglo-Saxons,” Ashby and Leonard wrote. Forkbeard became king of Denmark in 986 and king of England in 1013.
Although some scholars believe that the Viking Age ended in 1066 with William the Conqueror’s conquest of England, the descendants of the Vikings lived on it. Today, Vikings are often the subject of popular TV shows, books and movies.
Additional resources
Parks Canada has more information (opens in a new tab) on L’Anse aux Meadows, including how to visit the site. The IS National Museum of Denmark (opens in a new tab) examines the Viking Age in detail. In Oslo, Norway, a new Viking Age Museum is being built, and the museum website (opens in a new tab) description of his collection.
