THE VIKINGS

BY KEVIN

MAP

The age of the Vikings started around the 8th century and

it lasted for 300 years. Their homeland was Scandinavia,

which is modern day Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

They slowly migrate from their homeland to England and

Scotland and begin to settle there.

BACKGROUNDThe Vikings came from Denmark, Sweden,

and Norway. These three countries were

called the Scandinavia.

The age of the Vikings was around AD

700 to 1100. During this time, many

Vikings left Scandinavia, and migrate to

England, Scotland, and countries that they

explored by using their longships. Some

Vikings settle in new lands as farmers,

craftsmen, and traders, but some raid and

steal treasure from the shores of Northern

Europe. The Vikings used their longships

to travel as far as Constantinople, which

was amazing because the capital of the

Eastern Roman Empire is at the other side

of Europe. They also traveled to

Greenland, North America, and Iceland.

They were outstanding warriors, so

Northern Europe cannot stop them from

raiding their treasure.

SOCIAL STRUCTUREOn the top of the Viking’s society, there

was a small group of nobles or Jarls.

Archaeologist believed that their physical

appearance was stronger and taller than

people in other level of the society. When

there was war, the power of the Jarls was

raising, and they commanded the armies,

control the raid parties overseas. In the

middle were the karls, which was the

largest group, and was made up of

farmers, craftsmen, merchants and

traders. These people had the rights to

own and equip weapons. In the bottom of

the vikings society, there was slaves that

were called ”Thralls”, they had no rights

and unable to carry arms. They did all the

labouring and heavy lifting. Most of them

were taken captives as prisoners from

raiding, and they were sold by the

merchants.

HOUSINGMany houses of the Vikings were set up as

small farm buildings, and the Vikings and

their animals lived together in it. The

houses of the Vikings were called

“Longhouses” because they were wider in

the middle than at the end. A normal Viking

house was built out of wood, wattle, stone

and turf, but mostly they used wood as their

preferred material to build their houses. A

Typical Viking house have only one room

with a fire in the middle, and all activities

would take place around the fire. A thatched

roof is built on top of the house with a hole

to let smoke out. Most Vikings built a bench

around the inner walls, and put animal skins

or furs on it for sitting and sleeping.

Wealthier Vikings have much bigger houses

which consist more than one room, and

they build up a second level rather than

restricting themselves to one floor designs.

FOODThe Vikings usually ate two meals a

day instead of three. They ate bread,

buttermilk, and porridge in the

morning and since they don’t eat

lunch, they have a large, meat-

based dinner in the evening with

huge amounts of beer. Even though

it is a meat-based dinner, the

Vikings stays healthy by putting

vegetables such as beans, peas,

carrots, and turnips. In Scandinavia,

most of the meat came from far

animals such as cows, wild animals

like reindeers. The Vikings in other

areas adopt the local environment

and hunted for other animals. The

Vikings also ate cheese, a variety of

fruits, nuts, and many other food

that they find in the wild.

FAMILY LIFEViking men were in charge of the family.

Almost every Viking men were

handymen, and some have special skills

such as boat builders, potters, leather

workers and smiths. Every Viking men

must knew how to handle a boat and

fight to protect their family for help their

chief. Women baked bread, milked cow,

made cheese, and cook meals for their

families . They also span and weaved to

turn wool in to clothing for their family.,

and looked after the children. The

children did not go to school, they help

their parents’ work, but they still learned

Viking’s history, religion and law from

their parents. The information was

passed down in spoken tales, not books..

When the children is 15 or 16 years old,

they were adults, and they were

expected to have every skill that every

Viking should have.

MARRIAGEViking girls were married when they

were 12 to 15 years old, so they must

knew how to run the household as they

reach the age of marriage. The

marriage was agreed between the both

families and the Vikings looked at this

marriage as an alliance for protection

and help. The girl did not have much

right to choose her own husband. The

girl brought clothe of linen and wool, a

spinning wheel, a loom, and a bed as

her contribution to this marriage.

Women that came from rich families

brought also gold or silver jewels, some

farm animals, a part of a farm or even a

whole farm. All these dowry that the girl

brought were still her belongings, not

her husband’s, and then her children

inherit her dowry after she died. The

woman did not become a member of

her husband’s family, she still was a part

of her own family, so if her husband

treated her very badly and didn’t run the

farm well, the woman could call an

divorce. To get a divorce, the woman

need to have a couple witnesses over

and declared divorce in front of the

couple’s bed.

CHILDHOODViking children had to work along with their parents, so their childhood was very different

than children in modern days. They don’t go to schools, but they learned Vikings history,

religion and Before Viking boys reached five years old , they were raised by their

parents and grandparents. As they got past the age of five, they were sent to a uncle or

a respected community member to learn skills that a Viking man should have. As the

next five or so years past, these boys every skill that a Viking man required, how to plant

and care for crops, raise farm animals, how to fight using swords, spears, and axes. The

Vikings were superb boat builders and every man was expected to build longships really

well, so the boys must learn this skill. Viking girls stayed at home and learned how to run

the household from their mothers or grandmothers. They must knew how to cook meals

for the family, and make yarn from wool to weave clothes. The girls were taught to tend

farm animals because their husbands often left their household to go trading and raiding.

By 15 or 16 years old, Viking children turned into adults.

EDUCATION Since Viking children did not go to school, they learned

the skills, traditions, religion, history, and laws of the

Vikings from their parents’ tales and stories that were

passed down from generation to generation. Viking boys

learned how to fight, run the farm, and build boats. The

girls were taught to run the house hold, prepare meals,

and weave clothes.

RELIGIONThe Vikings believed in an old religion that had lots of

different gods and goddesses like the Romans and

Greeks. These gods only have little impact on the Vikings’

daily life, the Vikings behaviour, and almost every thing

they did were based on a code of honor or ethics. The

gods each had their own personalities like human beings.

People believed if they treated these gods well, they

would helped them fight against evil forces or spirits. To

treat the gods well, the Vikings made sacrifices called

“Blot”, these sacrifices were mostly animals. The Vikings

often worshipped their gods in open air, so they built the

temples called “Hov” in wild landscapes. The three main

gods were Odin, Thor and Frey. Odin was the god of

wisdom and war and the ruler of the gods, and the

Vikings believed this god had many strange super powers.

Thor was the strongest in all the gods and he was the

god of thunder and his weapon was a magic hammer

called Mjollnir, which was a powerful thunderbolt. Frey

was the god of weather, generation, and fertility. When

the Vikings were married, they prayed to Frey to give

them many children. The Vikings slowly turned into

Christians around 1000 A.D because of the influence of

Christians in the lands they Conquered. But they did not

totally changed to Christians, they still kept some of their

religion.

Thor Frey

Odin

CLOTHINGThe Viking used wool and linen to make

their clothes. These clothing were spun

and weaved by the women, and they dye

the clothes with mineral and plant dyes of

red, green, brown, yellow, blue……

Viking men put on a long woolen shirt

and cloth trousers that were held up by a

drawstring. A three-quarter coat was

worn on top. For footwear, the Vikings

wore soft leather shoes or long leather

boots. They wore mail-chains and iron

helmets for battle. As for women, They

wore a long, plain linen dress, and a

woolen tunic like a apron on top of the

dress. A typical Viking woman would also

wear a shawl over the tunic. For footwear,

the women wore soft leather shoes with

woolly socks. In freezing weather, the

Vikings wore fur or woolen hats and

cloaks that were fasten by a pin.

ART AND MUSICViking artists were known of their

woodcarving and beautiful ornaments

of gild and silver. There are 3 styles of

Viking art: Jellinge, Ringerike, Urnes.

Each have very different styles of

drawing.

Music of the Vikings was passed down

by mouth , so it changed from time to

time. Archaeologists have found a

variety of instruments in Viking times:

Panflutes: made from cow horns and animals

bones .

Horn pipes: a bagpipe without the bag.

Lyre: played by snapping the strings

Rebec: an instrument like a violin

Harp: most popular instrument in the Viking age.

Lur: A long natural blowing horn without

fingerholes.

Ornament

CONCLUSION I had heard a lot about the Vikings, but I didn’t actually research

and study about them. I learned almost everything about the

Vikings by spending hours on this project, but it was worth it

because the Vikings were a group of amazing people that I really

enjoy studying. Overall, the Vikings were a great civilization to learn

about.

INFORMATION BIBLIOGRAPHYBartlett, Mike “Viking Children”

http://mrbartlett.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/viking-children/

Hauge, Arild “Daily Life In The Viking Period”

http://www.arild-hauge.com/elife.html

“The Vikings”

http://www.viking.no/e/index.html

“The Vikings”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/

“Vikings”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/

“Vikings Religion”

http://library.thinkquest.org/C003446/a.php?b=9

“Viking Art”

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0023723.html

“The Vikings”

http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/vcontent.htm

Wikipedia, “Viking”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking

Book:

Margeson, Susan. Viking. Great Britain: Dorling Kindersley Limited,1994

Hatt, Christine. The Viking World. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2005

PICTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY Slide 1- http://lib.lbcc.edu/handouts/vikings.html

Slide 2- http://142.22.186.6:15871/cgi-bin/blockpage.cgi?ws-

session=3549754526

Slide 3- http://apetcher.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/norway-

haugesund-and-the-vikings/

Slide 4

http://cd7.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cd7/website/Viki

ngs.html

http://imonlyhereforthefood.com/2009/06/scandinavian-mid-

summer-festival/

Slide 5

http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=66155&page

=153

http://www.bownet.org/jvulgamore/vikings/viking.html

Slide 6- http://www.lore-and-saga.co.uk/html/viking_burials.html

http://www.vikingsofmiddleengland.co.uk/LH_food.html

Slide 7- http://vallepajares.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/family-life/

http://cd7.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cd7/website/Vikings.html

Slide 8- http://www.indiana.edu/~marriage/

Slide 9- http://mrbartlett.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/viking-children/

http://www.wirral-mbc.gov.uk/Vikings/gallery/pages/Vikings007_jpg.shtml

Slide 10- http://www.clg-nezant-stbrice.ac-versailles.fr/ecosse/ppzn.htm

Slide 11- http://getasword.com/blog/218-viking-gods-names-of-viking-gods-and-

goddesses/

http://www.olevikingshop.com/catalog/item/2654005/4475377.htm

http://www.fruitsaladretro.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Vikings__16.htm

Slide 12-http://www.denmarkemb.org/viking-clothes-in-detail/

Slide 13-http://moorstation.org/typoasis/designers/klein06/pic05/vikings_art.htm

http://www.latinst.org/musical_instruments.htm