PowerPoint about the Vikings and what we did at school when we worked with the subject.

1. The Solar booklet
«Let It Shine»
The Norwegian part
- The Vikings.

2. • In Norway our project generally focused on the research on the Viking Age, which
lasted from about 800 – 1050 after Christ. We studied «The Viking Age» in all the
grades at school, and we had 2 Viking Days for the school:
• A visit to «The Viking Farm» in Avaldsnes near Haugesund for the 5. – 7. graders.
• A Viking Day at school for all our students.

3. • At the «Viking Farm» the students lived like vikings for a day. We made viking
food, had a viking meal and worked like guards. We also helped the Viking
chieftain and his wife with different authentic work, and the students played
games from the Viking Age.
• At the end of the day we watched a movie and tried viking clothes, helmets,
swords and fighting equipment. The film explained their faith and their way of
thinking.

4. Student comments:
Gaute, 12:
«We had fun at
Avaldsnes. I learned how
to be a good slave.»
Vebjørn, 12:
«The day was fun. I
learned a Viking game.»
Magnus K, 12:
«It was a good day. I
learned that they eat
pancakes for dinner
sometimes.»

5. Student comments:
Astri, 13:
«The making of the game was hard, but the cooking was fun, even though I cut myself with a knife when cutting
the fruit. I learnt that Viking bread tastes very good with Viking porridge.»

6. At the Viking Day at school we had different «stations».
• Art and craft, where the students made «Three in a row» and «Hnefatal». «Hnefatal» is a kind of
Viking Chess, probably a game which was very popular at that time.

7. Kitchen, where students cooked real viking food, and of course let the
«whole school» taste and eat.

8. Games, where we learnt the students about «fighting», throwing knives and axes,
playing with a «ball» and different strategical activities to steal land from each other.

9. «Faith of the Vikings»
This picture illustrates the
faith of the Vikings. They
had many Gods with
different functions, like
«Tor with the Hammer»
and «Odin, the one-eyed».
The female God, «Freya»,
helped them with love and
fertility.

10. The Viking sunstone
• During the period of studying the
viking age, we found out some facts
about how they used the sun.
• They had a calcite stone, which did it
easier to follow the sun navigating
overseas. Using the calcite stone
they were able to get a glimpse of
the sun, even though it was real
cloudy!

11. The Vikings and the sun
• The Vikings looked at the sun as a female
power that was very helpful. The moon was
the male power and an opposite of the «good» sun.
• The Vikings celebrated the sun, especially in the end of December,
which they called «Sol-snu», that means the days were longer again.
Christianity chose the same days for «Christmas», the celebration
reminding the birth of Jesus.

12. Svastika
• The Vikings made «Svastika», a
kind of medal or symbol for
giving luck and strenght. Even
though it looks like a Nazi-
cross, its origon was a sun-
symbol. Hindus and buddhists
uses this symbol, and Hitler
enjoyed it so much that it
became the official Nazi-
symbol from 1933 to his death
in 1945.

13. • Norway had a small population in the Viking
Age. We are relatives with kings from that
period, all of us, actually. The Vikings ruled
parts of Britain, France and other areas in
Europe with violence and barbaric behavior.
They stole, burnt down, killed and frightened
the Europeans. But in fact the vikings also
met Chistianity, which started a new era in
the history of Norway, a more civilized one!