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type of ship built for long sea voyages and used during the Viking expansion. The knörr was a cargo ship; the hull was wider, deeper and shorter than a longship, and could take more cargo and be operated by smaller crews.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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warship is narrower, longer, and shallower than a knörr, and is powered by oars, supplanted by sail. The warship is completely open and is built for speed and maneuverability.

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medieval steel was weak, containing particles of slag, the steel of the Ulfberht swords was different : Ulfberht – a superior steel that could not be replicated until well into the 1880s during the Industrial Revolution.

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Harald Bluetooth:
was a king of Denmark and Norway. He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 958 – c. 986. Harald introduced Christianity to Denmark and consolidated his rule over most of Jutland and Zealand.
Erik the Red:
Norse explorer, described in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first settlement in Greenland. He most likely earned the epithet "the Red" due to the color of his hair and beard.
Leif Erikson:
Norse explorer from Iceland. He is thought to have been the first known European to have set foot on continental North America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus

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They went from believing in the Norse Mythology to believing in Christianity. That ultimately led them to making kingdoms and settling down and stop being vikings. The Vikings were Norwegians, Swedes and Danes, men who were usually farmers, traders, blacksmiths, and craftsmen. For various reasons, they took to raiding towns, churches and monasteries. Many of the places they attacked were on the coasts as they were easiest to reach. When a Viking wasn’t busy farming, planting crops, they left their farms and went raiding.

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Technological innovations such as the potter's wheel and the vertical loom transformed not only the types of products being manufactured in Viking settlements, but also the scale on which they were produced. They were also known for their boats. Technological developments emerged as people came together in growing coastal trading centres and market towns.

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The environment of Scandinavia was relatively cool and not conducive to large-scale agriculture. This meant that Viking communities tended to be small and somewhat mobile, which in turn made it easy for them to engage in long-distance travel to raid and trade.

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Viking society was divided into clear social strata. At the top were the great landowners or magnates, in the middle were the farmers and at the bottom the slaves. The great divisions in society were between the free and unfree, rich and poor, as well as between men and women. Society was divided into three classes, the Jarls (aristocracy), Karls (lower class), and Thralls (slaves). Upward mobility was possible for Karls but not Thralls.

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During the Viking Age, the Norse had an oral culture and only rune writing existed. However, the Vikings had both law and government even without written law. All free men of the Vikings would gather in their communities to make law and to decide cases in a meeting called a Thing.

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The Viking economy was based on agriculture and local food products obtained from hunting, fishing, and collecting. Chieftains and members of the elite required luxury goods to set themselves off from the population at large. Such wares were obtained by trade, often from far-away locations.

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This source explains the Viking economy. Their economy was based on agriculture and local foods. They also traded with the Saami people in Northernmost Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Their agriculture was mainly dairy farming and the raising of sheep and goats.

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The Viking economy was based on agriculture and local food products obtained from hunting, fishing, and collecting. Chieftains and members of the elite required luxury goods to set themselves off from the population at large. Such wares were obtained by trade, often from far-away locations. The chieftains offered furs, leather, honey, and slaves in return for grain, salt, gold, silver, copper alloys, velvet, silk, and spices. From Norway and Sweden they also got iron, and from Norway whetstones (to sharpen their swords and tools) as well.

Through trade with the Saami people in northernmost Norway, Sweden, and Finland, they obtained fine pelts and whale and seal products as well as reindeer antler for use in combs, and other small articles.

Agriculture was geared more to dairy farming and the raising of sheep and goats than to the production of cereal. North of southern Sweden and Denmark it is difficult to grow crops. The soils are not particularly good, and the growing season is short. Wheat cannot be grown successfully north of southern Norway and the province of Gästrikland in Sweden. Bread made from wheat and wheat porridge were therefore foods that only the rich could afford. The more common breads and porridges were made from oats and barley. In Europe barley is often referred to as 'corn.' This 'corn' is different from the corn or maize of the American continents. Maize was totally unknown to the Vikings as was rice, which has never grown in Scandinavia.

Livestock was economically more important than the growing of crops, and the Vikings were avid dairy farmers. They had large herds of cattle, sheep, and goats from which they got a variety of milk products: fresh milk and cream, butter, cheese, buttermilk, and a form of yogurt called skyr. The sheep were also kept for their wool. They favoured long-haired sheep of a kind still bred in Iceland and now known as 'Icelandic' sheep. They are hardy and can spend much of the winter out of doors. Their fleece is particularly long and rich. Cloth made from this wool became an important trading product in Iceland and Greenland. Beef, mutton, and lamb were favoured meats. A large farm could have up to a hundred cows and several hundred sheep. The average free farmer had only about a tenth of that and the small farms fewer yet.

Pigs were kept, and pork and ham were festive food. Pigs produce more offspring than cattle and sheep, so they are useful when one starts a farm from scratch as was done by the first generation of immigrants into Iceland and Greenland. In the long run it is hard to keep pigs thriving in cold climates, so they became increasingly rare in the Norse diet after the first few decades in a new location. The Norse also kept chickens, ducks, and geese (and they hunted the wild varieties), but not on a large scale.

Hunting played an important role in the economy. Beaver, ermine, sable, grey squirrels, marten, and fox were pursued for luxury furs for use in clothing and blankets. Whale and seals provided much desired oil and food. A strong type of leather could be made from seal skins, and whale bone was the plastic of the Viking Age. It was used for combs, needles, pins, and ornaments, board games, small tools, and 'ironing' boards. Deer were hunted in Denmark and Sweden as were boar; in Sweden and Norway also moose and, in the north and Greenland, reindeer (caribou), although in Scandinavia much of the reindeer were managed by the Saami people.

In northern Norway walrus were hunted for the great value of their teeth. Walrus tusks were rare and their hard shiny ivory made them the treasured material for small ornaments. Walrus ivory became the most important product Greenland chieftains used to obtain wares from Europe. Greenlanders established special hunting camps called Nordsetr, the Northern Shielings, far north of their settlements. They were probably on what is now known as Disko Island but may have been as far north as Upernavik. At the camps, blubber from the walrus was rendered into oil, and the skins were prepared into leather. Ropes made from walrus hides were the strongest ropes of their day.

Each chieftain also had seasonal fishing camps to which he sent some of his work force for short periods of time to lay up supplies of fish which could be used the rest of the year. The fish was either dried, smoked or cured to prevent it from rot.

Chapters in Books

Axel Christophersen, Ports and trade in Norway during the transition to historical time, Aspects of Maritime Scandinavia AD 200- 1200: Proceedings of the Nordic Seminar on Maritime Aspects of Archaeology, Roskidle, 13th-15th March, 1989, 1991

Keneva Kunz, trans., [Fishing in] The Saga of the People of Laxardal, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, 2000

Bernard Scudder, trans., [Fishing in] Egil's Saga, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, 2000

Bernard Scudder, trans., [Taxes and Fur Trade in] Egil's Saga, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, 2000

Bernard Scudder, trans., [Farming in] Egil's Saga, The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, preface by Jane Smiley, introduction by Robert Kellogg, 2000

Internet Source

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The Viking economy was based on agriculture and local food products obtained from hunting, fishing, and collecting. Chieftains and members of the elite required luxury goods to set themselves off from the population at large. Such wares were obtained by trade, often from far-away locations.

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They often returned in time for harvest in the fall. Raiding was very profitable and many farmers became full time pirates and raiders. The first Europeans to discover America. They settled Iceland and tried to colonize Greenland. They were also shrewd and competent traders and merchants. They traded all the goods of the north – furs, amber, iron and timber – for all the goods of the south – silver, gold, silks and spices. And all along the trade routes, the Vikings traded in slaves.

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Environment and Trade: Viking Age (article) | Khan Academy

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Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, Vikings not only raided, but traded far and wide. Environmental and political contexts shaped this trade.

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Discover why the Viking heritage remains strong in Norway.

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This explains how the culture met the Vikings demise. It shows how they raided and explored the world. They talked about the economy and culture. The long ship is talked about. Technology is talked about. They talk about the leaders and the battles of the Vikings. It explains the conversion of Christianity. It explains the invasions of the countries.

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Who Were the Vikings?

Contrary to some popular conceptions of the Vikings, they were not a "race" linked by ties of common ancestry or patriotism, and could not be defined by any particular sense of "Viking-ness." Most of the Vikings whose activities are best known come from the areas now known as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, though there are mentions in historical records of Finnish, Estonian and Saami Vikings as well. Their common ground-and what made them different from the European peoples they confronted-was that they came from a foreign land, they were not "civilized" in the local understanding of the word and-most importantly-they were not Christian.

The exact reasons for Vikings venturing out from their homeland are uncertain; some have suggested it was due to overpopulation of their homeland, but the earliest Vikings were looking for riches, not land. In the eighth century A.D., Europe was growing richer, fueling the growth of trading centers such as Dorestad and Quentovic on the Continent and Hamwic (now Southampton), London, Ipswich and York in England. Scandinavian furs were highly prized in the new trading markets; from their trade with the Europeans, Scandinavians learned about new sailing technology as well as about the growing wealth and accompanying inner conflicts between European kingdoms. The Viking predecessors-pirates who preyed on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea-would use this knowledge to expand their fortune-seeking activities into the North Sea and beyond.

Early Viking Raids

In A.D. 793, an attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age. The culprits-probably Norwegians who sailed directly across the North Sea-did not destroy the monastery completely, but the attack shook the European religious world to its core. Unlike other groups, these strange new invaders had no respect for religious institutions such as the monasteries, which were often left unguarded and vulnerable near the shore. Two years later, Viking raids struck the undefended island monasteries of Skye and Iona (in the Hebrides) as well as Rathlin (off the northeast coast of Ireland). The first recorded raid in continental Europe came in 799, at the island monastery of St Philibert's on Noirmoutier, near the estuary of the Loire River.

For several decades, the Vikings confined themselves to hit-and-run raids against coastal targets in the British Isles (particularly Ireland) and Europe (the trading center of Dorestad, 80 kilometers from the North Sea, became a frequent target after 830). They then took advantage of internal conflicts in Europe to extend their activity further inland: after the death of Louis the Pious, emperor of Frankia (modern-day France and Germany), in 840, his son Lothar actually invited the support of a Viking fleet in a power struggle with brothers. Before long other Vikings realized that Frankish rulers were willing to pay them rich sums to prevent them from attacking their subjects, making Frankia an irresistible target for further Viking activity.

Did you know? The name Viking came from the Scandinavians themselves, from the Old Norse word "vik" (bay or creek) which formed the root of "vikingr" (pirate).

Conquests in the British Isles

By the mid-ninth century, Ireland, Scotland and England had become major targets for Viking settlement as well as raids. Vikings gained control of the Northern Isles of Scotland (Shetland and the Orkneys), the Hebrides and much of mainland Scotland. They founded Ireland's first trading towns: Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Limerick, and used their base on the Irish coast to launch attacks within Ireland and across the Irish Sea to England. When King Charles the Bald began defending West Frankia more energetically in 862, fortifying towns, abbeys, rivers and coastal areas, Viking forces began to concentrate more on England than Frankia.

In the wave of Viking attacks in England after 851, only one kingdom-Wessex-was able to successfully resist. Viking armies (mostly Danish) conquered East Anglia and Northumberland and dismantled Mercia, while in 871 King Alfred the Great of Wessex became the only king to decisively defeat a Danish army in England. Leaving Wessex, the Danes settled to the north, in an area known as "Danelaw." Many of them became farmers and traders and established York as a leading mercantile city. In the first half of the 10th century, English armies led by the descendants of Alfred of Wessex began reconquering Scandinavian areas of England; the last Scandinavian king, Erik Bloodaxe, was expelled and killed around 952, permanently uniting English into one kingdom.

Viking Settlements: Europe and Beyond

Meanwhile, Viking armies remained active on the European continent throughout the ninth century, brutally sacking Nantes (on the French coast) in 842 and attacking towns as far inland as Paris, Limoges, Orleans, Tours and Nimes. In 844, Vikings stormed Seville (then controlled by the Arabs); in 859, they plundered Pisa, though an Arab fleet battered them on the way back north. In 911, the West Frankish king granted Rouen and the surrounding territory by treaty to a Viking chief called Rollo in exchange for the latter's denying passage to the Seine to other raiders. This region of northern France is now known as Normandy, or "land of the Northmen."

In the ninth century, Scandinavians (mainly Norwegians) began to colonize Iceland, an island in the North Atlantic where no one had yet settled in large numbers. By the late 10th century, some Vikings (including the famous Erik the Red) moved even further westward, to Greenland. According to later Icelandic histories, some of the early Viking settlers in Greenland (supposedly led by the Viking hero Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red) may have become the first Europeans to discover and explore North America. Calling their landing place Vinland (Wine-land), they built a temporary settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in modern-day Newfoundland. Beyond that, there is little evidence of Viking presence in the New World, and they didn't form permanent settlements.

Danish Dominance

The mid-10th-century reign of Harald Bluetooth as king of a newly unified, powerful and Christianized Denmark marked the beginning of a second Viking age. Large-scale raids, often organized by royal leaders, hit the coasts of Europe and especially England, where the line of kings descended from Alfred the Great was faltering. Harald's rebellious son, Sven Forkbeard, led Viking raids on England beginning in 991 and conquered the entire kingdom in 1013, sending King Ethelred into exile. Sven died the following year, leaving his son Knut (or Canute) to rule a Scandinavian empire (comprising England, Denmark, and Norway) on the North Sea.

After Knut's death, his two sons succeeded him, but both were dead by 1042 and Edward the Confessor, son of the previous (non-Danish) king, returned from exile and regained the English throne from the Danes. Upon his death (without heirs) in 1066, Harold Godwinesson, the son of Edward's most powerful noble, laid claim to the throne. Harold's army was able to defeat an invasion led by the last great Viking king-Harald Hardrada of Norway-at Stamford Bridge, near York, but fell to the forces of William, Duke of Normandy (himself a descendant of Scandinavian settlers in northern France) just weeks later. Crowned king of England on Christmas Day in 1066, William managed to retain the crown against further Danish challenges.

End of the Viking Age

The events of 1066 in England effectively marked the end of the Viking Age. By that time, all of the Scandinavian kingdoms were Christian, and what remained of Viking "culture" was being absorbed into the culture of Christian Europe. Today, signs of the Viking legacy can be found mostly in the Scandinavian origins of some vocabulary and place-names in the areas in which they settled, including northern England, Scotland and Russia. In Iceland, the Vikings left an extensive body of literature, the Icelandic sagas, in which they celebrated the greatest victories of their glorious past.

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The Vikings were a group of Scandinavian seafaring warriors who left their homelands from around 800 A.D. to the 11th century, and raided coastal towns. Over the next three centuries, they would leave their mark on much of Britain and the European continent, as well as parts of modern-day Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland.

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This explains the origin of the Vikings and their actions. Most of the Vikings weren't raiders but fishers and farmers. They used force and gifts to gain followers. The borders weren't solid and the people lived wherever was live able. When the Vikings explored they got involved in the politics and trade. They had gods but not all of them worshiped the same gods. They were paganists. It explains the conversion to Christianity. The Vikings did things such as converting to Christianity to gain money and political power. It contains the major rulers of the vikings.

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Ten Minute History - The Viking Age (Short Documentary)

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This is the primary source for the technology advancements of the Vikings in the Viking Age.

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"Yes it's a new thing we're trying out, it's called 'international trade'." Anna Gowthorpe/PA

The connections between technology, urban trading, and international economics which have come to define modern living are nothing new. Back in the first millennium AD, the Vikings were expert at exploring these very issues.

While the Vikings are gone their legacy is remembered, such as at the annual Jorvik Viking Festival in York. The Norsemen's military prowess and exploration are more often the focus of study, but of course the vikings were more than just bloodthirsty pirates: they were also settlers, landholders, farmers, politicians, and merchants.

Between the 8th and 11th century (the Viking Age), Europe saw significant technological advances, not all of them Scandinavian - the Anglo-Saxons, Frisians and Franks were equal players. To understand these changes, we have to see them in the context of increasing contact between Scandinavia, the British Isles, and continental Europe - in which the Vikings were key players. Technological innovations such as the potter's wheel and the vertical loom transformed not only the types of products being manufactured in Viking settlements, but also the scale on which they were produced.

Technological developments emerged as people came together in growing coastal trading centres and market towns. The world was rapidly becoming more joined-up during this period than at any time since the heyday of the Roman Empire. Trade fostered international links across the North Sea, Baltic and beyond, and similar developments were happening as far afield as the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. This was a period in which people began to live and work in entirely new ways, and technological change was both a cause and an effect of this.

While many Viking artefacts of the period are familiar, the complex methods that lay behind their manufacture are less well-known. Each involved a specialised set of skills, tools and raw materials, which meant craftspeople were reliant not only on a market for sale, but also on a well-organised supply chain. This is why the development of specialist crafts, of growing urbanisation, and of long-distance trade are intimately connected.

The Vikings were expert shipbuilders and navigators, and while evidence for their shipwrights' skills survives to the present day, there is little detail of how they navigated their huge journeys. What is clear is that between the 8th and 11th century, viking shipping underwent significant development, beginning with the appearance of the sail, and leading to the development not only of specialist warships, but also of prototypes for the large cargo vessels that would come to dominate the waters of later medieval Europe. But Viking technology had more to offer than ships and swords.

British Museum

Brooches

Among the most recognisable Viking artefacts are their brooches. Long studied by archaeologists, they signified gender, status, and ethnicity. Work is ongoing to reveal the advanced technology used in their manufacture.

Evidence for brooch manufacture in Viking towns includes the remains of moulds and crucibles. The crucibles are often found complete with residues of the metals melted down in them. Brooches were cast by pouring this metal into moulds, which were produced by pressing existing pieces of jewellery or lead models into clay, followed by minor artistic modification. This resulted in a sort of mass-production. As this craft was dependent on high-quality brass ingots from continental Europe, specialist jewellery production centres arose at ports associated with long-distance trade routes.

Glass bead jewellery

Strings of ornate glass beads are another common sight in Viking museum displays. Beads were made in Scandinavian towns by carefully manipulating coloured glass as it melted. Waste deposits prove that the raw glass used in this process came in the form of coloured : small, square blocks from the Mediterranean, where they were used to produce mosaics. Whether they were bought and sold in south-eastern Europe, before travelling west, or whether they were ripped from Byzantine churches on raids in the region is unclear.

Combmaking

Animal bones were among the most important materials in pre-modern technology: a durable, flexible, readily available raw material used for everything from knife handles to ice skates. Many such objects could be made quickly, with little training - but not the Vikings' hair combs.

These large, ornate, over-engineered objects took days to manufacture and required a trained hand. Specialised tools such as saws, rasps, and polishers were needed, and deer antler particularly was the material of choice.

British Museum

Combs of this type go back to the Late Roman period, but they really came into their own in the Viking Age, where they became a symbol of status and aspiration. Combmakers tended to work in towns, where they had access to periodic markets and a supply network that brought in deer antler from the local countryside, and reindeer antler from the Arctic north. They may also have moved around from town to town, in order to maximise their sales. It's a great example of the way town, countryside, and long-distance travel were tied together in order to support the technology that was important to the everyday life of Viking-Age people.

These examples of craftmanship and technical tool work - and there are many more - demonstrate that the Vikings should be seen as more than just raiders, and more more than simple traders or merchants too. With their outward-looking society and cutting edge techniques, they were among the earliest investors in global technologies in a post-Roman world that, even then, was increasingly international. And today, as a modern recreation of a Viking vessel embarks for the first ever Viking exhibition in China, it's clear their appeal is truly global.

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Vikings were pioneers of craft and international trade, not just pillaging

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The connections between technology, urban trading, and international economics which have come to define modern living are nothing new. Back in the first millennium AD, the Vikings were expert at exploring these very issues. While the Vikings are gone their legacy is remembered, such as at the annual Jorvik Viking Festival in York.