The Vikings

Who Were the Vikings?

Picture a long wooden boat slicing through cold grey waves, its striped sail full of wind and a carved dragon's head rising from its front. On board stand fierce sailors with shields and axes, ready for adventure. These were the Vikings, and more than a thousand years ago, they sailed out across the seas and into history.

The Vikings came from the lands of northern Europe we now call Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. It is a beautiful land of mountains, forests and deep sea inlets called fjords, but long ago it was a hard place to live. Winters were long, cold and dark, and there was not much good farmland to go around.

So the Vikings looked outward, across the sea. Starting around the year 800, they set off in their boats to find new lands, new riches and new homes. Some came to raid and fight. Others came to trade, to farm and to explore. For about three hundred years, the Vikings travelled farther than almost anyone in Europe had before, and their adventures are still remembered today.

The Famous Longships

The Vikings could never have done any of this without their amazing boats. The most famous was the longship, and it was one of the cleverest inventions of its time.

A longship was long and narrow, built from overlapping wooden planks. This shape made it fast and able to slice cleanly through the water. It had a tall mast with a big square sail to catch the wind, and rows of oars so the crew could row when there was no wind or when they needed to move quietly. Best of all, longships were light and did not sit deep in the water, so they could sail across wide oceans but also glide up shallow rivers far inland.

Many longships had a carved animal head, often a fierce dragon or serpent, at the front to frighten enemies and, the Vikings hoped, to scare away evil spirits. Sailing the open sea in these boats took great skill and courage. The Vikings had no maps or compasses like ours. Instead, they steered by the sun and stars, watched the waves and the birds, and used their deep knowledge of the sea.

Raiders and Warriors

The Vikings are perhaps most famous as fierce raiders. A raid was a sudden, surprise attack. Longships would appear out of the sea, and Viking warriors would leap ashore to grab treasure, food and other valuable things before sailing away again.

One of the very first big raids we know about happened in the year 793, at a monastery called Lindisfarne, on an island off the coast of England. Monasteries were rich in gold, silver and precious objects, and they were often near the sea, which made them an easy target. News of the attack spread fear far and wide.

Viking warriors were tough and brave. They fought with axes, swords, spears and round wooden shields, and they protected themselves with helmets and tough leather or chainmail. One thing many people get wrong, though, is the idea that Vikings wore helmets with horns on them. That is a myth! Real Viking helmets did not have horns at all. The Vikings could be frightening fighters, but raiding was only one part of who they were.

More Than Just Raiders

It would be unfair to remember the Vikings only as raiders, because they were so much more. Most Vikings were not warriors at all but farmers, who spent their lives growing crops like barley and oats and raising animals such as cows, sheep, pigs and chickens.

The Vikings were also brilliant traders. They sailed and travelled enormous distances to buy and sell goods, swapping furs, walrus tusks, amber and other treasures for silver, silk, spices and more. Viking traders reached busy markets far to the east and brought home goods and coins from distant lands.

Above all, the Vikings were daring explorers. They sailed west and settled on the island of Iceland, and later reached icy Greenland. Most amazing of all, a Viking named Leif Erikson is believed to have sailed all the way to North America around the year 1000, reaching a place they called Vinland. That was about five hundred years before Christopher Columbus crossed the same ocean. The Vikings were some of the greatest sailors and explorers the world has ever known.

Life in a Viking Home

When they were not sailing the seas, the Vikings lived in homes called longhouses. A longhouse was a big building, long and low, usually made of wood, stone or earth, with a roof of straw or turf. Sometimes the whole family lived in just one large room, often sharing it with their farm animals to help keep everyone warm in winter.

In the middle of the longhouse was a fire, used for cooking and for warmth and light. There were no chimneys, so the smoke escaped through a hole in the roof, and the inside could be quite smoky and dark. Families slept on benches along the walls.

Everyone in a Viking family had jobs to do. Men farmed, fished, hunted and made tools. Women ran the home, cooked, looked after children and made cloth and clothes by spinning and weaving wool. Children helped with the work too and had little time for school, though they did play games and listen to exciting stories. Vikings were skilled craftworkers, making beautiful jewellery, weapons and carvings from metal, wood and bone.

Gods, Stories and Beliefs

The Vikings believed in many gods, and they told wonderful stories about them. The most powerful was Odin, the wise and mighty ruler of the gods. Thor, the strong god of thunder, carried a magic hammer and was a favourite of many Vikings. Freya was a beautiful goddess linked to love and magic, while Loki was a tricky, mischievous god who often caused trouble.

The Vikings believed that brave warriors who died in battle would be carried to a great hall called Valhalla, where they would feast and fight happily forever. These beliefs and tales were passed down by word of mouth in long stories called sagas, full of heroes, monsters, gods and adventure. Later, some of these stories were written down, which is how we still know them today.

The Vikings did not use letters like ours. Instead, they wrote using special carved symbols called runes, made of straight lines so they were easy to scratch into wood, bone or stone. Runes can still be seen on Viking stones standing in the landscape.

The Legacy of the Vikings

Slowly, over time, the Viking age came to an end. Many Vikings settled down for good in the new lands they had reached, mixing with the people who already lived there. Many became Christians and gave up the old gods and the raiding life. By around the year 1100, the great age of Viking voyages was over.

But the Vikings left their mark all over the world. They founded towns and cities, including parts of what became Dublin in Ireland and York in England. Many places still carry names the Vikings gave them, and some everyday words in English, like sky, egg and knife, came from the Viking language. Their thrilling stories of gods and heroes are still read, and we even named a day of the week, Thursday, after the thunder god Thor.

Today, museums display real Viking ships, swords, jewellery and treasure dug up from the ground, and people everywhere are fascinated by these bold sailors. The Vikings remind us of a time of adventure, courage and discovery, when daring people in wooden ships set out to explore the wide and unknown world.

What We Learned

We have sailed back in time more than a thousand years to meet the Vikings.

We learned that they came from Scandinavia in northern Europe and crossed the seas in their fast, strong longships. We saw that they were fierce raiders, but also farmers, clever traders and brave explorers who reached as far as North America. We peeked inside a smoky Viking longhouse, met their gods like Odin and Thor, and discovered their sagas and rune writing. Finally, we saw how the Vikings left their mark on places, words and stories that are still with us today.

The longships have long since sailed into the past, but the bold spirit of the Vikings still sails on in the stories they left behind.

Want to keep exploring history? Step back into the age of stone fortresses in Knights and Castles, or travel to a sunlit river civilisation in The Ancient Egyptians.