furniture, weapons, and ships show
astonishing craft skills. They even
invented ice skates, using reindeers'
.', shinbones for "blades."
The Norse made high achievements
in literature, especially in sagas,
eddas, and skaldic poetry. Eddas
were large poems about Norse religion. Sagas were the adventures,
legends, and histories of the Vikings
and their gods. Originally oral compositions for long winter nigt:rts, sagas began to be written in the 12th
century in a prose, historical novel,
format. The heroes of the sagas
embody the Norse virtues of boldness, courage, adventure, and Intelligence.ln many ways. the Viking
sagas are slmilarto the Greek epics,
The lJiada~ The Odys~ey. Skaldic
poetry, recited by protesslonal poets,
used colorful language
called
kennings, or Imaginative synonyms
and metaphors. A typical kenning
might be the use of "falcon's seat"
for a man's arm or "reindeer of the
deep" for a ship.
Norse religion
The Viking gods Vikings to plunder and to trade. From
looked like humans and lived on- this base, Swedish Vikings pluncities and
high in a heaven called Asgard. Here dered Mediterranean
wielded
great
influence
in
this region
was the residence of many gods,
but only one, Odin, ruled over all for decades. By 1100 the Norse
other gods. He was cunning, wise, imprint was nearly world-wide.
and dangerous. Another god, Thor, Oddly, at the same time, the Viking
was god of war, rain, and farming. age was ending.
His supernatural power made most
Thus the
Vikings want to wear a Thor's ham- The complex Viking
mer necklace, much as we today , Norse were a little bit of everything:
mightwearagoodluckcharm.
Other
promine'nt g¢s included Tyr, Trey, '
}Inc!I3aId.e(..~~
!?f.tfiE(~'Qf
(;Jut
~eek·.~t~:,(lam.6d for fiSO.tS~:'.goqg
,~""y.fi~"[lay; :Wod~i1ts-'Day: "thOr's"
·""Day). Vikings also believed that
eventually there would be twilight of
the gods (Ragnarok) during whicfl
,the wortd would be destroyed. But
J~fbt'i_ .
'~,!e~' t~~::;g!t~~,~ thel
~Nlktn~·&
c~lLChristra:nlied
~and'f1:oO-;WrththatChangecame
miyi set of religious beliefs.
1 whOle'
Explorers, settlers, and traders
Culture and democracy aside, few
would doubt the immeasurable
contribution of the Vikings In the
roles of explorers, colonizers, and
merchants. They were clearly masters of seagoing technology. When
rugged Norse sailors went i viking in
their dragonships and knarrs (cargo
ships), the world became a smaller
place.
.
lia'f;1iS~,fhEtlrcontributions
acted as a sort of adrenalin in
'history's bloodstream.
Your Norse society Now it's your
turn to be a Viking and simulate
some of the events and contributions of Norse history. Pick a clever
Viking name, help your group as
members accumulate. NORSEMARKS ...follow your jarl's leadership, but yet maintain your cherished
individualism while learning to appreciate and understand
these
unique medieval people.
VIking democracy
The history of
the Norse- people is peppered with
the names of strong, forceful leaders such as Rollo, Harold Bluetooth,
OlafTryggvasson, Erik the Red, and
Knute the Great. Yet most of the
decisions affecting the dally lives of
Viking communities were made by
democratic assemblies all over
M~~IlThose
Scandinavia. In a~ual practice, the
Thing, a meeting of Norsemen, dealt Northmen who
in .France
with local matters, much like a-New became "Normans," and from their
England town meeting in our counnew homeland crossed the English
try. Usually the Thing took place in Channel in 1066 to permanently
summer for a few weeks. Impartial
Recognize, too, that though Viking
Impact English
judges, accusers, defendants, and
·women were not considered equal
even witnesses took part. Punishin most ways to their men, they were
Hl~:ifBl~\"ilutl'nmore freedom and more priviments were extremely harsh (e.g.,
eyes were poked out) and tried to
lege in their society than most of the
equal the other person's losses.
world's women-until
the 19th cenBanishment was the ultimate pun- "
.
tury. So girls, you too show your
Ishment. Erik the Red, convicted of . .{(li~~~'ret$;Qt~ftterica.At
same intelligence while you work and face
murcler, used hls exile to sail west time, Northmen from Sweden under the challenges' of the brave persons
andcolonlze Greenland. Vldngs had Rurik began to cruise Russian wa- living in the Scandinavia of a thou- .
rules and punishments for every terways, exploring, trading, and set- . sand years ago!'
action. We need to realize that the tling a vast empire from Novogorod
Copyright e 1991
Thing Is a forerunner of our repre- to Kiev. Even Constantinople, the
. Inleract
sentative government.
flourishing, wealthy center of the
Box 997
Lakeside. CA 92040
Byzantine Empire, beckoned the
And the status
of Viking women 1
VIKINr,~ 1:16