Study Guide for “the Vikings”
INTRODUCTION
The year was 793. On a small island off the north coast of England, the monks of St. Cuthbert's were enjoying their quiet routine of prayer and study. One peaceful day in June, from across the sea, a band of strangers approached the holy shrine. They did not come to pray. The pagan invaders from the north grabbed everything of value: gold and silver chalices, silk vestments and altar cloths. And they slaughtered anyone who stood in their way. The rest they took as slaves. No one escaped their wrath. This is the classic image of the Vikings - brutal barbarians, skilled in murder and mayhem. But the truth about the Vikings is more complex - and more elusive. The Vikings were much more than mere marauders. They were highly skilled craftsmen and traders. Their ships were marvels of nautical engineering. And their lust for adventure knew no bounds. Over the course of several centuries, the Vikings would have a profound impact on Europe. They would push the boundaries of the western world, venturing across the Atlantic to America. In the east, they would help found the Russian empire. Today, scientists are digging deeper into the soil of Scandinavia, Ireland, North America, and the former Soviet Union - uncovering long-lost secrets of the Viking Age. When warriors were poets, and lands were won - not just by brute force - but with superior technology, and political cunning. Finally, we are discovering the truth about the Vikings.
1. What is the popular perception of the Vikings?
2. Who gave them this bad reputation?
3. Why don’t we know more about what the Vikings were really like?
4. What’s a “rune stone”? What were they used for?
5. Why don’t archaeologists know more about the ancient Vikings?
6. What new methods of archaeology are being used at the Birka site?
7. What are some of the objects found at the Birka site?
8. Why are “wasp beads” useful to archaeologists?
9. How was Birka different from the typical Viking settlement?
10. What qualities were required to be a good Viking chieftain?
The power and authority of chieftains was very much dependent upon their ability to produce for their followers, that if you gave good parties with lots of beer, lots of food, lots of meat, lots of good things to eat, you were a good chieftain. If you rewarded loyalty with gold and you punished treachery with iron, you know, you didn't suffer people gladly to do you harm, then you were a good chieftain because you could defend your followers.
11. Why were monasteries so attractive to Viking raiders?
12. What sort of weapons did the Vikings prefer?
13. Why do we know so much about the Viking longships?
14. How was a longship constructed?
The boat builders would first select large, straight trees - usually of oak or pine - and split the trunk into sections. From every section, a single plank was carved. Each plank was remarkably thin and light, but very strong. The ships were all built from the bottom up, with the biggest planks forming the keel, the stem and the stern. Planks were carefully shaped and then nailed to the keel, with each subsequent set overlapping slightly. Inside, the builders added a light framework to stabilize the construction. The result was a smooth, streamlined vessel.
15. What qualities made the longship especially suited to the Viking style of warfare?
16. How big was the largest longship that has been discovered?
17. How can scientists tell when a longship was constructed?
18. What change in Viking raiding patterns occurred in the middle of the 9th century?
19. What can we find out about the Vikings by looking at their toilets?
You can see the various layers of stuff that has been dumped down, and here almost halfway down we have layers and layers of shell. And here we have the mussels and the cockle shells that were eaten by the people in Viking Dublin. And there is also evidence in these cesspits of seeds that have passed through human bodies and we can tell quite a bit about the, sort of, their vegetarian diet, the various plants that they were eating.
Perhaps one of the nicest finds we have found to date is this little silver toilet set. And there you can see it very clearly: a nice little tweezers, which is still functional, an ear scoop, possibly for scooping out wax in ears, and a nail file.
20. What was the overall effect of the Viking invasions?
From a short term perspective, particularly if you were a monk, the coming of the Vikings to England was bad, bad news. But in the longer term, they had a more positive impact. It was they who introduced long distance trade. It was they who opened up markets. It was they who brought about a much wider spread of commerce than had been the case before.
21. Why did the Vikings convert to Christianity?
22. How historically accurate are the Icelandic Sagas?
The authors, they inherited their story material, you could say, and so there are sometimes more than 200 years, that's between the writing and the actual time of events. So the accuracy obviously has gone through many generations, so we can think that it's not historically accurate like we would think a chronicle would be. But we know what's happening and when, and the storytelling is at its finest in some of these Sagas, and they are a fine blend of fantasy and fact.
23. How is Iceland different now from when the Vikings arrived?
24. How did that change occur?
25. What did Erik the Red discover?
26. What technical apparatus may have helped him do so?
27. What geographical description in the Sagas helped investigators locate a Viking settlement in the new world?
28. What did archaeologists find at L’Anse-Aux-Meadows that identified it as a Viking settlement?
29. Who were the “scrailings”?