How to be a Viking

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First, the Vikings were fierce warriors and respected the bravery of men (and women) willing to risk their lives to achieve their ambitions.

How to Be a Viking - Cressida Cowell - Google Books How to Be a Viking - Cressida Cowell - Google Books

The warfare and violence of the Vikings were often motivated and fuelled by their beliefs in Norse religion, focusing on Thor and Odin, the gods of war and death. [235] [236]

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Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation, and conquest. In this period, voyaging from their homelands in Denmark, Norway and Sweden the Norsemen settled in the present-day Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norse Greenland, Newfoundland, the Netherlands, Germany, Normandy, Italy, Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, [79] Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, as well as initiating the consolidation that resulted in the formation of the present-day Scandinavian countries. The gods were very important to the Vikings. They loved to talk about them, worship them and argue about them which was their favourite! Colonisation of Iceland by Norwegian Vikings began in the 9th century. The first source mentioning Iceland and Greenland is a papal letter from 1053. Twenty years later, they appear in the Gesta of Adam of Bremen. It was not until after 1130, when the islands had become Christianised, that accounts of the history of the islands were written from the point of view of the inhabitants in sagas and chronicles. [87] The Vikings explored the northern islands and coasts of the North Atlantic, ventured south to North Africa, east to Kievan Rus (now – Ukraine, Belarus), Constantinople, and the Middle East. [88]

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The original Vikings hailed from Denmark, Norway and Sweden and thrived between the 8 th and 11 th centuries, sailing around Europe, Asia and as far as North America, conquering and settling. Who were the vikings ? See also: Trade during the Viking Age, Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, and Volga trade route The scales and weights of a Viking trader, used for measuring silver and sometimes gold (From the Sigtuna box found in Sweden) Another reason why the Vikings outcompeted many of their neighbours, and were also taller than many of them, was that they generally had a better diet. This was for two reasons. The last known people to use the Runic alphabet were an isolated group of people known as the Elfdalians, that lived in the locality of Älvdalen in the Swedish province of Dalarna. They spoke the language of Elfdalian, the language unique to Älvdalen. The Elfdalian language differentiates itself from the other Scandinavian languages as it evolved much closer to Old Norse. The people of Älvdalen stopped using runes as late as the 1920s. Usage of runes therefore survived longer in Älvdalen than anywhere else in the world. [154] The last known record of the Elfdalian Runes is from 1929; they are a variant of the Dalecarlian runes, runic inscriptions that were also found in Dalarna. Even some modern town names are based on Viking words! York and places that end in ‘thorpe’, ‘by’ orSee also: Old Norse and The Norse Sagas One of the few surviving manuscript leaves from the Heimskringla Sagas, written by Snorri Sturluson c. 1230. The leaf tells of King Ólafur. This gave them the protein that they needed to thrive and be the stereotypically muscular warriors that historical witnesses described.