Vikings! Click on the longship to enter MS:8/01. Family lifeClothesViking TimelineCombatDaily life...

Vikings!Vikings!

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Family life

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Viking Ships

Viking TimelineViking Timeline

The timeline will

appear as you click

the mouse or press

the space bar.

You will see some

of the important

dates in the history

of the Vikings in

Britain.

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How did the Vikings get to Britain?How did the Vikings get to Britain?

The Vikings were great explorers. They were running out of land so they started exploring.

This adventuring spirit led them to Labrador and Newfoundland.

They went on to settle in Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, the Hebrides and the Isle of Man.

They founded states in Ireland and in Britain.

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More about Viking ships

This photograph lets you see what a Viking ship would look like.

It is a full sized copy of a real Viking Ship.

The Vikings and their ships


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Vikings had several kinds of ships according to what they would be used for and what kind of water they would have to sail, but the basic pattern was the same for them all.

The Vikings built many different kinds of ships, from small fishing boats and ferries up to the famous longship.

Viking ships large and small were all made in the same way. Planks of timber, usually oak were overlapped and nailed together.

A merchant ship


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The Vikings and their ships

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The Vikings and their shipsThe Vikings and their ships

The Vikings were the most powerful people in north western Europe for nearly five centuries from about AD 800.

Their longships were fast and sleek. Powered by sail or oars, they were ideally suited for raiding because their shallow draught meant that they could travel up estuaries and rivers.

Not all Viking ships were great sea going vessels. A common sight would have been smaller boats that were used to cross the fjords and rivers. From these, you could ferry a few people from shore to shore, fish or sink fish traps.

A small boat like the ones many Vikings would have used on fjords

and rivers.

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The Vikings and their shipsThe Vikings and their ships

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Weapons were stored near the crew's rowing position.

Since there are no surviving sails, it is difficult to say how the sail worked.

The mast could have been 40 feet high held by stays and firmly constructed at the base to avoid strain with the wind-filled sail.

What was Viking Family Life like?

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Parents, grandparents and children

lived and worked under the same

roof, often along with the servants

and livestock.

The actual house usually had only

one room, which included a

fireplace in the middle and a hole

in the roof for the smoke to

escape.

Love were care was important to

Vikings, and living together like

this gave them a strong feeling of

family.

Servants, known as "treller"

(slaves), did about all the work,

both inside and outside the home.More about Viking family life

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What was Viking Family Life like?

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Every Viking house had a weaving frame and the women were extremely skilled in making clothing.

For winter cloths they used wool and hides.

Vikings are even known to have ironed the cloths by warming up a glass bowl and ironing blouses and other clothing on flat whalebone.

What was Viking life like?What was Viking life like?

Despite the traditional image of hairy, smelly Vikings, the opposite was the case.

They combed their hair regularly and washed more often than many other peoples, even though they didn't have a bathtub.

Their hair was cut short as well. All of the carvings that the Vikings left to us demonstrate this.

In addition to dressing their hair, they combed and plaited their beards, and never let them get too shaggy and straggly.

A Viking oarsman

Family life

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IndexMore about Viking life

Vikings usually lived in a large house, built to accommodate people and cattle.

Most Viking settlements were centred around the longhouse, a large barn-like building in which the family lived.

Other buildings included storehouses (where grain and food supplies were stored) and workshops (where weapons and farming tools were made).

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Because the Vikings were skilled sailors, many of their settlements were near water, and they used their boats for fishing, for trade, and to raid other settlements and villages.

The walls of the main house were made generally of turf and stone. Sometimes walls were sunk directly into the ground. To seal off the new home, they made a mixture of mud and animal hair to seal the walls.

To protect against the winter cold some even built walls that was a two or three layers thick.

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Viking homesViking homes


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The roof frame was made of a wooden structure or even thick planks.

Usually nothing covered the floor, and there was only one big room and a door, which was kept tight by placing a thick carpet of wool in front.

Some used flat stones to cover parts of the floor, like the entrance and other places that were heavily used.

There were no windows so that there could be no drafts during cold nights or times of cold weather.

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What were Viking clothes like?What were Viking clothes like?

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clothes

A Viking ruler

A Viking nobleman

A farmer and his wife

A warrior

A servant

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Trousers and a knee-length tunic were worn by men, while women wore a full-length dress, with either a more expensive over-dress or an apron.Sleeves were full-length on both tunics and dresses.

Shoes have been found on several sites, made from leather. Some are known as "turn shoes", because they were constructed inside-out and then turned, leaving the stitching on the inside, while some others were stitched with a ridge up the front.

In a few cases, the upper is stitched to the sole on the outside, in a similar way to modern shoes, so that the stitching is visible on the upper, and is pulled into a cut slot on the bottom of the sole to protect the thread.

What were Viking clothes like?What were Viking clothes like?

Members of the Viking Society show what Vikings

would have worn.

Drawings of Viking shoes

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How did Vikings fight?

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Vikings raided for money, obviously, but they also took other goods.

These included jewels, pottery, falcons, Arab furs, feathers, wheat, glass, spices, slaves, walrus ivory, soap stone, tin, gold, sword blades, hides, cloth, honey, amber, wine, silk, and fish.

After a while the Vikings were forced to capture land as well because back at home land was running out.

But instead of just a single boat with a raiding party, they sent a whole fleet of boats, maybe 100 or more.

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How did Vikings fight?o The speed of the attacks

helped a lot because they caught the opposition unawares.

o After capturing the land they would fortify it and settle in it as quickly as possible so that other ships could arrive. Then once they have a large enough force they would invade further inland.

o Countries would pay Danegeld to the Vikings, which was a bribe to keep them away (Dane = Viking, Geld = gold).

o Countries would pay them, and in return the Vikings leave them alone.


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Viking weapons usually had a peacetime use too.

For example the axe was also used on the farm.

The longbow and spear was also used for hunting.

Swords were valued and effective, but not the most important weapon of the Vikings, probably because of the cost of a good sword.

The most common sword was about 1m long.

A chieftain's sword most likely had a lot of decorations, and it was common for a fine sword to be decorated in gold or silver.


The Viking Axes: Vikings used both "bearded" axes, and "wide" axes. The "bearded" axe was like a common working axe.

Some axes were decorated at the blade and handle too.

Round shields helped keep them safe from attack


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Vikings! Click on the longship to enter MS:8/01. Family lifeClothesViking TimelineCombatDaily life...

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