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Cross-curricular Connections
Language Arts
Fiction
Stories
• “The Hunter Who Was to Mind
the House”
Myths and Mythical Characters
• Norse Mythology
At a Glance
The most important ideas for you are:
The Vikings originated in Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
The Vikings moved out from Scandinavia in different directions: those
from Norway sailed west and south; those from Denmark moved south;
and those from Sweden went east and south.
Skillful shipbuilders and sailors, the Vikings developed fast-moving,
highly maneuverable longships that could sail rivers as well as oceans.
The Vikings were interested in trade as well as in raiding Europe.
Eric the Red, one of the Vikings who ventured west beyond the known
lands, discovered Greenland.
Archaeologists have found what they consider proof that Leif Ericson,
the son of Eric the Red, explored as far west as the North American
continent.
Text Resources
44
Eric the Red: The Vikings
Take Greenland
Materials
Instructional Masters
24–25
The Viking World, p. 142
Viking Voyages West, p. 143
books with photos of the
Scandinavian landscape,
p. 141
overhead transparencies,
p. 143
overhead projector, p. 143
sentence strips, 1 per
student, p. 144
world map, p. 144
reproductions of the
outline of a Viking ship,
p. 144
construction paper
6" x 6" squares,
2–3 per student, p. 144
project rubrics, p. 144
What Teachers Need to Know
Background
The Vikings moved out from their home base of Scandinavia across the
North Atlantic to the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland, and finally North
America. Their presence in North America was fleeting, but they had a lasting impact in Europe, establishing long-term rule in England, France, and
Russia.
Scandinavia
The Vikings originated in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, the countries
known collectively as Scandinavia. Norway and Sweden share the Scandinavian
peninsula, while Denmark lies to the south of them on the Jutland peninsula. The
term Viking comes from vikingr, which means “pirate” in early Scandinavian.
Teaching Idea
Bring books with photographs of the
Scandinavian landscape to class.
Give students about 15 minutes to
browse through the books and then
share their observations of the landscape with the class. Talk about any
landforms that students see in the
photographs.
History and Geography: World
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III. The Vikings
Teaching Idea
Make an overhead of Instructional
Master 24, The Viking World, and use it
to orient students to the routes that the
Vikings took as they moved south and
east across Europe.
Point out that their voyages took
place about 400 years after the end of
the Roman Empire in the west, but that
an important trading partner for the
Vikings from Sweden was the
Byzantine Empire.
Name
The Scandinavian peninsula is bordered on the east by the Gulf of Bothnia,
Finland, and Russia; on the south by the Baltic Sea; and on the west by the
Norwegian Sea. Mainland Denmark lies between the North and Baltic Seas, but
the country also encompasses more than 400 islands scattered on these seas. To
the south, mainland Denmark borders Germany.
Much of the Scandinavian peninsula is rugged highlands with little fertile
land. In contrast, Denmark is very flat with good farmland. Thousands of years
ago, during the last Ice Age, glaciers moved south across the Scandinavian peninsula. As they moved, their force carved out lakes and valleys. The displaced soil
was dragged along by the glaciers and deposited in Denmark and other areas of
Europe farther south.
Sailors, Traders, and Raiders
Because of the limited resources of their homeland, the people of Scandinavia
had long turned to the sea for their living. They developed light, fast craft called
longships that were sturdy enough to strike out on the rough northern seas. Their
ships were capable of great speed and maneuverability.
Date
The Viking World
Study the map below. Then answer the questions that follow.
Beginning in the late 700s CE and until the 1000s CE, the Vikings launched a
series of raids against the rest of Europe. These raids may have begun due to population pressures and internal rivalries, and were certainly initiated to gain trading advantages. No town, castle, or monastery in the way of the Vikings was safe
from burning and looting. But the Vikings were also traders. By the end of this
period, the Vikings had opened trade routes from northern Europe to the
Byzantine Empire.
SCANDINAVIA
SWEDEN
NORWAY
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SCOTLAND
IRELAND
RUSSIA
N
DENMARK
ENGLAND
E
W
S
0
500 Miles
0
500 Kilometers
FRANCE
ITALY
BLACK SEA
SPAIN
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
1. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway, and
2. The arrows on this map show some of the major
Sweden
Viking
.
invasions.
Purpose: To read and interpret a map featuring the regions inhabited and/or invaded by the Vikings
Master 24
Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation
The Byzantine Empire in 565
Grade 3: History & Geography
Use Instructional Master 24.
Teaching Idea
Compare and contrast the Viking raids
and pillaging with the exploration of
North America by the European settlers. Note the similarities and differences in motivation and results of the
efforts.
In the late 700s, the Danes attacked and pillaged what is now England. Alfred
the Great, king of the West Saxons, rallied his people to resist. One hundred years
later, the Danes, under Canute, again attacked. For a time, they succeeded in controlling a large part of the country, but were again routed by the Saxons. In addition to England, the Danes raided the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Italy.
The Vikings from Norway raided Scotland, Ireland, France, and various
islands, including the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. Like other Vikings, these
raiders from Norway also traded with local inhabitants and established their own
settlements. Dublin, Ireland, was a Viking settlement established in 839 CE.
Varangians (Vikings from Sweden) moved east into what is today eastern
Europe and Russia. Using the river systems and Baltic and Black Seas, they were
able to reach as far south as Constantinople. According to legend, the Varangians,
known as Rus among the local Slavs, are credited with the founding of the
Russian state. In 862 CE, Rurik, a Varangian chief, established a settlement at
Novgorod. Twenty years later, Oleg, also a Varangian chief, seized Kiev, which
became the center of a powerful state. The Russian state’s early rulers had
Scandinavian names, but after the people converted to Christianity in 988 CE, the
local Slavs became dominant. From this base, the Varangian and Slavic cultures
mixed, blended, and emerged as Russian.
Around 1000 CE, after the introduction of Christianity among the Vikings,
the raids against Europe ended. In various places like Russia, newly settled Viking
states were the norm. In 911 CE, the Viking chief Rollo settled in northwest
France. In exchange for protection against other Viking raiders, the French king
recognized Rollo’s right to rule what became known as Normandy. Norman is the
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French equivalent of Norsemen, meaning “men from the north.” It is another
term for the Vikings.
The Normans settled, intermarried with the French, and soon began to speak
French. In 1066 CE, William, Duke of Normandy (also known as William the
Conqueror) and his Norman forces invaded England and seized control, establishing what was to become the modern country of England. William was more
French than Viking. Likewise, when other Normans moved into the
Mediterranean and took over Sicily at about the same time, they, too, had lost
most of their Viking heritage.
Eric the Red and Leif Ericson
While the Vikings from Sweden and Denmark were looking south and east,
the Vikings from Norway were moving west. From the close-in islands like the
Hebrides, they sailed farther out to the Orkney and Faroe Islands. From there
they went to Iceland and farther west still to Greenland—and then North
America.
By 870, the Vikings had reached Iceland. In Iceland, the Vikings found a land
that was virtually unpopulated and suited for agriculture. At this time, Norwegian
monarchs were attempting to exert their power over the country, thus antagonizing many chiefs and others. These people were only too eager to move to Iceland.
In 930, they established a cooperative government, the world’s oldest functioning
parliament. At that time, the land was forested and fertile, but human activity rapidly changed the environment. People cut down trees for lumber and to clear
tracts of land. Their herds foraged on the grasses. The result was erosion. Today,
there are few trees and little good farmland in Iceland.
In 982, Eric the Red was expelled from Iceland for murder. He sailed west
and came to a huge island where he found a cold, bleak, rugged land, much of
which was buried beneath deep fields of ice. He called it Greenland to entice settlers. Other Vikings followed him and settled along the coast. There, they built
large houses with thick walls of stone and turf to keep in the heat. The Viking settlements lasted into the 1300s or 1400s, but when English explorers rediscovered the island in the 1500s, they found no trace of the descendants of
these first colonists. At some point they had disappeared, either dying out or
mixing with the Eskimos who had also settled on the island.
Around 1000, Leif Ericson, Eric the Red’s son, sailed west from
Greenland. He found and explored three areas that he called Flat Rock Land,
Forest Land, and Vinland. He built a settlement in Vinland as a base for
exploration of resources in the area. The group found grapes and unknown
fruits and nuts. They also encountered local people who first traded and then
fought with them. The Vikings stayed only a few seasons. The local people
were a constant threat, and the Vikings were too few in number to control the
area. Their supply line was also 2,000 miles long. On his return trip to
Greenland, Leif Ericson and his men rescued a shipwrecked Viking crew.
According to custom, Leif was awarded the rich cargo of the ship and was
henceforth known as “Leif the Lucky.”
The exploits of Leif Ericson, as well as his father, Eric the Red, were captured
in Norse sagas, long stories of heroic deeds. The Norse sagas were similar to the
Roman Aeneid and the Greek Iliad and Odyssey in that they provided information
about the beginnings of a group. In all cases, there is some truth to be found in
Teaching Idea
Make an overhead from Instructional
Master 25, Viking Voyages West, to
help students visualize the stepping
stones the Vikings used in their
exploration west and to understand
how far Leif Ericson and his crew
traveled in a small boat across the
open seas. To give students an even
greater appreciation of the small size
of longships, you may wish to mark
off the typical dimensions of a Viking
longship in a hallway or outside on a
soccer field or other open area.
Longships typically ranged in length
from 45 to 80 feet long and were quite
narrow, often only about 8 to 15 feet
wide. For example, a longship found
in Gokstad, Norway, in the late 1800s
was 78 feet long and only 17 feet
wide.
Stud
y the
belo
w.
Then
the
quest
ions
that
follo
w.
1. In North America the Vikings
landed in
2. They also sailed west to
Iceland and
Purpose: To read and
interpret a map featuring the
westward voyage of the
Vikings Master 25
Use Instructional Master 25.
History and Geography: World
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III. The Vikings
Teaching Idea
the epics. However, other stories were invented to make the people feel proud of
their heritage.
You may want to have students think
about characteristics that describe
their personalities. You may want to
challenge them to come up with a
name with alliteration like “Leif the
Lucky.” Give students a sentence strip
to record their new names during their
study of the Vikings and post them on
their desks (e.g., “Gina the Generous”
or “Bob the Brave”).
For years, scholars argued over whether the sagas were true and if so, where
Leif Ericson might have made landfall. In 1960, a Viking settlement was found at
L’Anse aux Meadows at the northern tip of Newfoundland. The settlement consisted of large halls with workshops and smaller outbuildings. It seems to have
held a population of 40 or 50, mostly men. The artifacts seem to prove the truth
of the sagas. Flat Rock Land was Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle, Forest Land
was the island of Labrador, and Vinland was this site in Newfoundland. Leif
Ericson had probably sailed as far as the mouth of the St. Lawrence and to what
today are the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick. 44
The Big Idea
in Review
The Vikings’ expertise
as sailors and shipbuilders enabled them
to become seafaring
traders and explorers.
Review
Below are some additional ideas for ongoing assessment and review activities.
These are not meant to constitute a comprehensive list. Teachers may also refer
to the Pearson Learning/Core Knowledge History & Geography series for additional information and teaching ideas.
• Make a geography connection by having students label Greenland,
Newfoundland, and the Canadian mainland on a map. Students should be able to
make a connection to the Viking history from this section.
• Make a language arts connection by reading the Norse myths included in Text
Resources. Compare and contrast the Viking myths to the Roman myths. What
are the similarities and differences? Have students write a paragraph comparing
and contrasting one Norse myth to one Roman myth. Use the paragraph form of
a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.
• The Vikings were known for their shipbuilding. Make reproductions of the
outline of a Viking ship on pieces of 8 1–2 '' x 11'' paper. Have students write outlines on the ship of some of the facts they have learned about the Vikings, and
post these on a bulletin board outside the classroom.
• Make a class quilt to illustrate what students have learned about the Vikings.
Give each student two or three 6" x 6" construction paper squares. On each
square, have students write sentences about a Viking topic they studied and then
illustrate the square. Collect the squares and tape them together to form a class
quilt. Post the quilt in the classroom.
• Give the class a choice of three project ideas: a story, a poem, or a letter. Have
students choose one of these projects to show their understanding of the Viking
civilization. For example, students could write a poem about a Viking settlement
or write a letter pretending to be a Viking who is describing a difficult sea voyage.
On the assigned day, provide time for students to share their projects. You may
want to develop a rubric for each project so that students know what is expected
in their final product.
• You may also ask the following questions at the end of this section:
1.
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Grade 3 Handbook
Where did the Vikings come from?
They came from Scandinavia.