BACKGROUND

Vikings were Norsemen (Germanic peoples who inhabited Scandinavia, including pagan Danish, Norwegian, and
Swedish warriors mainly speaking the Old Norse language) who, from the late 8th to late 11th centuries, raided and
traded from their Northern European homelands across Wide areas of Europe, and explored westwards to Iceland,
Greenland, and Vinland. This period of Nordic military, mercantile and demographic expansion
constitutes an important element in the early medieval history of Scandinavia, Estonia, the
British Isles, France, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.

NORSE MYTHOLOGY
The Vikings had their own vibrant native pagan religion that was as harshly beautiful as the
Nordic landscape to which it was intimately connected. The centerpiece of that religion was
what we today call “Norse mythology:” the set of religious stories that gave meaning to the
Vikings’ lives. These myths revolved around gods and goddesses with fascinating and highly
complex characters, such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and Loki.

CONQUESTS & SETTLEMENTS

To the north and east they attacked the Lapps, Finns, and Russians. To the west they conquered and held for
generations large parts of Britain and Ireland. To the south they occupied northern France. The Norsemen did not
actually conquer any country south of France, but their ships sailed along the coasts of Spain and Portugal. They
plundered Sicily and the northern shores of Africa and attacked Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire. To the west the Vikings did not stop with the British Isles but crossed the Atlantic Ocean to take Iceland away
from the Irish monks who had settled there. In 874 they began to colonize Iceland, and during the years that
followed, many freedom-loving people came to Iceland as settlers. In about the year 982 Eric the Red sailed
westward from Iceland. He landed on the coast of Greenland and gave the island its name. Later he founded the first
colony there. His son, Leif Ericson, sometimes called Leif the Lucky, is believed by most historians to have been the
first explorer to reach the North American mainland. About the year 1000 he landed at a place that he called Vinland.
Vinland was identified as Newfoundland in 1963 when archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Viking settlement
at the extreme northern tip of the island. While the Vikings were discovering lands and waging war, they were telling
each other adventure tales that later were known as sagas, from the Icelandic word for story. Poets also were singing
the praises of Norse heroes and gods and describing the Norse way of life. In this way the Norsemen preserved
major parts of the early history of the Scandinavian countries and of Russia, Germany, Britain, and Ireland.

VIKING LONGHOUSES
Vikings lived in a long, narrow building called a longhouse. Most had timber frames, with walls of wattle and daub and
thatched roofs. Where wood was scarce, as in Iceland, longhouses were made of turf and sod. Two rows of high
posts supported the roof and ran down the entire length of the building, which could be up to 250 feet long. The
floor of the Viking longhouse was pounded earth.

NORDIC RUNES