2. 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.
3. BACKGROUND
The 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.
4. SOCIAL STRUCTURE
On 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.
5. HOUSING
Many 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.
6. FOOD
The 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.
7. FAMILY LIFE
Viking 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
8. MARRIAGE
Viking 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 her husband’s family, she still was a part
brought also gold or silver jewels, some of her own family, so if her husband
farm animals, a part of a farm or even a treated her very badly and didn’t run the
whole farm. All these dowry that the girl farm well, the woman could call an
brought were still her belongings, not divorce. To get a divorce, the woman
her husband’s, and then her children need to have a couple witnesses over
inherit her dowry after she died. The and declared divorce in front of the
woman did not become a member of couple’s bed.
9. CHILDHOOD
Viking 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.
10. 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.
11. RELIGION
The 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 Thor Frey
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 Odin
12. CLOTHING
The 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.
13. ART AND MUSIC
Viking 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.
Ornament
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.
14. 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.
15. INFORMATION BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bartlett, 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
