By Naomi and Andrea

• Although the Vikings are known as violent sea raiders, they had a very developed culture. The Viking inhabited Scandinavia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Although legends have led many people to believe that all Vikings were ruthless sea raiders the fact is that most of them were farmers. The stories come from later times when important changes were happening in Scandinavia. Changes such as increased violence, population growth, and increased contact with other European countries caused the men of Scandinavia to look to raiding for survival.

Unlike many other ancient civilization the Vikings saw women as equals, giving them right to status respect, wealth, and the right to attend the Things.

Every Viking Freeman was allowed to attend the Things. The Things were meetings where chieftains would meet with the freemen and nobles to discuss laws and punishments.

• In Scandinavia the King was the overall leader although he trusted the chieftains to take care of local matters. The noble men and women of Scandinavia also held some power because of their considerable wealth. Next came the freeman whose wealth came from the amount of land they owned. The slaves came last as is only according as they received no status or wealth.

• In the Viking culture the women were seen as equal to the men and were given the right of status, wealth, land, and the right to vote and attend the Things.

A typical Viking home for a freeman would often have been made of wood, stone, or sod. These houses were usually a rectangular box shape with thatched roofs. The walls were made with sticks woven together and cemented with mud to keep out the weather, creating a kind of hard wall the Vikings called wattle.

These houses were often one room with a hearth in the middle. The Vikings slept on benches or on the floor around the walls. Some houses had a small stable built into the house. Most houses were farm houses. They did not have a lot of furniture. Often many external family members will live together in one house, such as grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

• A rich noble would often have a farm house with an entrance hall, the main room, a kitchen with a hearth, a bedroom (there might have been 2 or 3 in some families depending on the size of the family) and a store room. There may have been a stable built into the house as well. These houses might have been decorated with wool tapestries, and would have had more furniture than freemen. Nobles would have slept on beds and eaten at tables, unlike freemen.

• The Vikings were exellent hunters and fishers, so their diet often consisted of meat and vegetables. The men hunted many animals including boar, dear, elk, birds, moose, and bear, but not all their meat was hunted. The Vikings had livestock which they slaughtered, ate, and bred. Fish and other seafood were often a part of a Vikings diet as they lived on the shore. The Vikings farms supplied them with fresh vegetables and grain to make bread. The Vikings were very fond of ale and mead which they made in abundance. The Vikings also drank skimmed milk and butter milk which they collected from their livestock.

• Most Viking men were farmers. They would wake before dawn care for their crops and livestock and finish work after dusk. The men would hunt and fish to provide for their family. Most viking men were able to work on and repair a ship. Some men would go on journeys to raid or trade goods, they called this going a viking. The Viking women ran the house hold. They would work in the hot smoky rooms of the house cooking, weaving and sewing, cleaning, repairing clothes, and taking care of the children.

• When the men went Vikinging the women would run the farms and take care of the crops. If the women were strong enough and if they wanted they could fight with the men as shield maidens. The Viking Children had a tough child hood. The boys were expected to hunt, fish, fight and keep the family business going. The girls were expected to sew, cook, clean, or fight as a shield maiden. No matter who you were if you were part of the Viking culture you were expected to work hard from dawn till dusk.

• Viking marriage outstood marriage in other cultures in the fact that wives were allowed to divorce their husbands. The pair would divide money and possessions equally. Viking women had almost as much freedom as men, although often the bride’s father would choose the groom. Brides were often married between the ages of 12-15 years old. A dowry usually consisting of cloth, a spinning wheel, a loom and a bed although if she came from a rich family jewellery might be part of the dowry.

• In Scandinavia childbirth was very dangerous. In that time women were vulnerable to many diseases and infections. Only women were permitted to help during the process of childbirth, although on a very secluded farm the husband could lend his help. There were no childbirth stands in Scandinavia, so the women were required to sit on the floor. During the process the women would have to turn over onto their knees and elbows so the child could be received from the back. If a child was born disfigured or caught a disease from an early age it would be taken out into the forest and abandoned.

• The Vikings did not have many childbirth traditions, but they had a few. Children’s last names are chosen depending on their family members. A boy would take the first name of his father and then –son after for his last name, so his last would be (father’s first name)son. A girl would have the same name format but she would take the first name of her mother so she would be (mother’s first name)daughter.

• In Scandinavia children did not go to school, instead they were taught by their parents. Viking children had a hard life and very few would live beyond their fifteenth birth day. The Viking boys spent their lives living with different family members up until the age of 5. Once they reached age five they would be sent to a respected adult in the community who would teach them about becoming a man. The girls would stay at home with their mothers and grandmothers who would teach them how to cook, clean, repair clothes, and run a house hold.

. The children helped their parents and other relatives with farming and other work such as cooking, chopping wood, wool spinning, and helping around the house. The children were taught realigion and law by the songs and stories they were told. Viking children were expected to respect and obey their elders. When they turned 16 they became adults.

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Viking Childhood Canadian ChildhoodSimilarities

-go to school

-parentsteach life skills e.g. cooking

-learn history, laws from parents by spoken word

-do not go to school

-become adults at 15, 16

-become adults at 18

-help parents with chores-parents teach and choose religion

-spend free time helping parents with chores forsurvival

-help parents with chores to learn

-do activities like swimming,soccer in free time

In Scandinavia the Viking children did not go to school. The boys learned skills such as fighting, farming, hunting and fishing from their parents and other men in the community. The girls learned sewing, cooking, cleaning, and fighting from the older woman of the community. Both boys and girls were taught about religion and law through the stories and sagas that they heard.

The Vikings believed in a series of myths with pagan gods. These myths were created to help explain things which we can explain with science, such as _. The Vikings had gods such as Odin the Allfather, god of war, wisdom and justice, Thor the god of thunder, Frey and Freya, the god and goddess of nature and birth, and Loki, the trickster god.

• The Vikings believed there were nine worlds, all of them connected by a gigantic tree called Yggdrassil. The worlds were:

• Midgard: the world they lived in• Alfheimr: the world of the elves• Svartalfaheim: world of the dark elves• Vanaheimr: world of the Vanir, the first group of

gods• Muspelheim: world of fire• Jotunheimr: world of giants• Asgard: world of the principle gods• Hel: underworld

The Vikings believed that when a person died in battle, their soul would go to Valhalla, which was a great hall similar to the heaven that Christians believe. Valhalla was located in Asgard was the property of Odin. The warriors would drink on mead and challenge other warriors in battle.

The Vikings also believed the world would end with a great battle called Ragnarok, which meant “Doom of the Gods”. Ragnarok was when a series of strange and horrible events would happen to the worlds, and would end in the total destruction of the human race, gods, troll, and monsters. After Ragnarok the sea would return to its rightful place, and a new sun would be born bringing with it new life.

• Later, as the Vikings began raiding places such as England, they encountered civilizations who followed Christianity. Living amongst Christians caused many of the Vikings to convert. The Anglo – Saxons also made repeated efforts to convert the Vikings living in Scandinavia to Christianity from 725 A.D. and on. However, Christianity wouldn’t be fully accepted in Scandinavia until the 12th century.

• Loki is the god of mischief and trickery. He is the son of two giants and is therefore a jotun, but because he tricked the god Odin into sharing blood he now has a godly status. Loki is a shape shifter as well as a god and has appeared in separate myths as a salmon and a mare. Loki is the father of the monster Hel who lies in wait for cowards and thralls. He is also the father of the giant wolf Fenrir who held such great power that the gods had to chain him, and he is called father by the great world serpent Jörmungand who is large enough to wrap around the entire earth. When Ragnarök occurs Loki will fight with the Jotuns and will slay and be slayed by the mighty god Heimdallr.

The type of clothes a Viking wore depended on their status. A common man would have worn a shirt, a short tunic and breeches, usually made of wool. A noble would have worn the same thing but made out of linen and fine wool. The cloth was thick enough to keep them warm. Most Vikings would dress for warmth, not looks.

• Women would have worn a long dress with a long apron on top. Rich women would have worn the same thing, but made out of fine linen and wool and accessorized with jewellery. A commoner would have worn clothes made out of wool. The cloth used for their clothes would have had to be

thick, to withstand the chill of the Scandinavian winters.

• The Vikings form of art was always useful and had a purpose. Since Vikings were raiders they needed art that could be easily moved. In the early years of the Vikings the art was displayed on bowls, brooches, medallion, weapons, and drinking horns. This allowed the art to have a practical use. Vikings displayed art on the front of their ships by carving an animal or human form on the prow of the ship. Most art was made from carved wood or silver inlayed with jewels. The Vikings took great pride in their metal works.

In the later times of Scandinavia art was expressed in music form. Scalds and bards (specially trained men) would perform great sagas that described the lives of great heroes and gods. Sagas could also describe the beauty or character of a women. This took great talent there fore giving skalds and bards a higher status in society.

The Vikings celebration Yule took place during the winter solstice. The Vikings would feast for 12 days to honour their Asa gods. The Vikings would sacrifice a boar to the goddess Freya and eat the meat afterwards. During the 12 days of feasting the Vikings would roll a large burning wheel down a hill to represent the sun coming back in the spring. Another way that the Vikings celebrated Yule was by carving runes onto a log to ask the gods for protection. The younger Vikings would often dress in goat skins to tell about the legend where Thor rode in the sky in a wagon pulled by two goats. The Vikings celebrated Yule every year during the winter solstice.

Vetrnaetr was a festival in which the Vikings would celebrate the beginning of winter and the beginning of the New Year. They would build bonfires to keep the spirits that they believed would wander around their world, Midgard, at the start of winter. They also believed the chief god Odin would lead spectral huntsmen and hounds in a hunt through their world.

• The Vikings were chiefly governed by the King, but the King had various chieftains who governed over local matters. Chieftains would have meetings where they met with freemen and nobles to discuss law, mete out punishments, and other local matters. Once a year the King would have a big meeting called the Althing at a site called Thingvellir at which he would discuss matters concerning all the Vikings.

• The Vikings were a group of people who had one of the most advanced cultures of their time. They recognized women as equals. The common belief that Vikings were bloodthirsty sea raiders is not true; they were mostly farmers who had been forced into sea raiding by many changes that were happening to the people of Scandinavia. The Vikings left behind a cultural imprint that has and will be remembered through the ages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwAomarPlx0

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• http://mrstammyjohnson.com/images/viking%20ship%20in%20water.jpg

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.jpg• www.guldsmedene.dk/images/1-225-00.jpg• www.elfwood.com/.../Viking-sword.2932460.htm

l• citypaper.net/.../03/CoolPrintVikingShip.jpg• totallyscandinavian.com/

• http://mrstammyjohnson.com/images/viking%20ship%20in%20water.jpg - warship

• http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5236870-lg.jpg -house

• http://www.bownet.org/jvulgamore/vikings/Viking%20Pictures/viking%20house2.jpg –house diagram

• http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_R8FrPyv-qDE/R1C8zDKLB8I/AAAAAAAAAbo/FAL7fww3jso/s1600-R/Tapestry9_color.jpg -viking tapestry

• http://www.garbtheworld.com/images/temp/Viking2.jpg -women in dress

• http://churchofthor.org/images/mjolnir.jpg -mjolnir amulet

• http://anglosaxondiscovery.ashmolean.org/discover_images/vikings/viking-man-small.gif - man in viking clothes

• http://paganpages.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Freya.jpg -freya

• http://images.elfwood.com/art/e/v/everose/yggdrasil.jpg -yggdrassil