THE VIKINGS!

1
THE VIKINGS!
2
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

3
How did Vikings make a living?

• Sailing
• Fishing
• Raising livestock
• Craftwork
• Beekeeping
• Trade silver, gold, furs
• Raiding

4
(No Transcript)
5
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 Norways land is good
   for farming grazing)

6
How did Vikings travel?

• Longships
• 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

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
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

10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
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)

13
(No Transcript)
14
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
• Eiriks 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
  Lanse aux Meadows.

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
What are the modern impacts of the Vikings?

• Days of the week
• Tyrs day the god of war
• Wodens day the chief god
• Thors day god of thunder
• Friggas day Wodens wife

18
What are the modern impacts of the Vikings?

• Place names
• Endings for place names having Viking name
  origins
• -by (village)
• -holm (islet)
• -wick (bay)
• -ford (fjord)
• -stad (place)
• -borg, burgh, -bury (settlement)

19
What are the modern impacts of the Vikings?

• Last names
• Each childs last name was based on the fathers
  first name in combination with son for a boy or
  dottir for a girl.
• Ex. Eirik has a son named Thorfinn. Thorfinns
  last name would be Eirikson.

20
What are the modern impacts of the Vikings?

• Old Norse word origins
• Many English words having Viking origins such
• anger, berserk, dirt, egg, hell, knife, muck,
  reindeer, ski, skirt, steer, ugly, troll