History of the Vikings

1. Who ruled the Vikings?
 Viking leaders.
 Tough kings.
 Viking society.
 What about the women?
 Viking children.
 The thing.

2. Viking leaders.
 In early Viking times, each town or village
had its own leader, called a Chief.
 The Chief controlled a large area of land.
 Each Chief had an army of men from his
town or village.
 Sometimes the army of a Chief fought
with the army of another local Chief to
gain more land.
 By 1000 CE, each of the Viking countries,
Sweden, Norway and Denmark, had just
one king who ruled the whole country.

3. Tough kings.
 When a Viking king died, all of his sons
had an equal right to inherit his land.
 This sometimes led to brutal fighting
between royal families. For example :
930CE, king Eric of Norway killed two of
his brothers so he could rule.
 A few years later, Eric’s younger brother ,
Haakon, fought against Eric.
 Eric escaped Norway and settled in
Britain
 Haakon then became king of Norway and
ruled from 934 to 961 CE.

4. Viking society.
 Under the king, Viking society had three
social classes: the jarls, karls and thralls.
 Jarls: were the richest and most powerful
local chiefs, they owned lots of land and
lived in the largest houses.
 They employed other Vikings to work for
them and also kept slaves.
 Sometimes a jarl became very powerful
and challenged the king for the throne.

5. Viking society.
 Karls: belonged to the middle class, this
group included farmers, merchants and
craftspeople.
 This was the group that traded with other
countries and went to war or raids.
 Thralls: were the slaves, slaves were
captured in war or purchased by traders
and sold in the market, if laves ran a way,
they could be killed. Female thralls
cooked food and sometimes helped on
the farms. Male thralls worked hard doing
any work that their owner wanted them
to do.

6. What about women?
 Women were not equal to men, but they
had many rights that women in other
ancient cultures did not have.
 A woman’s parents usually chose her
husband, but Viking women could own
property, run businesses, inherit land and
divorce their husbands.
 Most married women looked after the
house and children.

7. Viking children.
 Children did not go to school.
 They helped their parents with cooking
and weaving at home.
 By the time they were 15 or 16 years old,
they were classed as adults.

8. The Thing.
 Each local chief had a council of karls to
help him.
 The council met regularly at an open-air
meeting called a Thing.
 They discussed problems, voted on new
law, settled arguments and decided on
the punishment for a person who was
found guilty of breaking the law.
 At a Thing, accused people could defend
themselves and present their side of the
argument.