VIKING FACTS

• What do we owe the vikings?
• Types of vikings.
• Fun facts

WHAT WE OWE THE VIKINGS…

ADVANCED SHIP BUILDING ART

• Perhaps the most striking of Viking achievements was their state-of-the-art shipbuilding technology, which allowed them to travel greater distances than anyone before them. Their signature longboats—sleek wooden vessels with shallow hulls and rows of oars along the side—were faster, lighter, more flexible and more easily maneuverable than other ships of the time. But the Vikings’ exploring prowess also owed a great deal to their skill as navigators. They relied on simple but sophisticated tools like the sun compass, which utilized calcite crystals known as “sunstones” to identify the position of the sun even after sunset or on overcast days. Such innovations gave Vikings a distinct advantage when traveling long distances to foreign lands. In their heyday, Vikings were active on four continents simultaneously, making them the first true global citizens.

LANGUAGE

• In the centuries after their first raid on English soil in A.D. 793, Vikings made a historic series of attacks, waged wars and formed settlements in the British islands, leaving a permanent impact on the land, culture and language. As the Vikings interacted with their English neighbors, first through farming and trading activities and later through intermarriage, the two languages (Old Norse and Old English) mixed as well. This process is evident in place names such as Grimsby, Thornby and Derby (the suffix -by was the Scandinavian word for “homestead” or “village”), or Lothwaite (-thwaite meaning “meadow” or “piece of land”). “Give,” “window” and “dream,” among other common English words, also derived their modern meanings from Viking influence. In another famous example, the word “berserk” comes from the Old Norse berserker, meaning “bear shirt” or “bearskin.” These Viking warriors worshipped Odin, the god of war, and whipped themselves into a frenzied state before and during battle.

DUBLIN

• We owe the capital of the Emerald Isle to the Vikings, who founded the first recorded settlement on the south bank of the River Liffey in A.D. 841. Named Dubh Linn (“Black Pool”) after the lake where the ancient Norsemen moored their boats, the Viking settlement centered around a timber-earthen fort called a longphort. Built at what is now the heart of modern-day Dublin, it became the hub of one of Europe’s largest slave markets. The Vikings kept firm control of Dublin for nearly three centuries, until the Irish High King Brian Boru defeated them in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Unlike in England, Vikings left few Norse place names in Ireland or words in the Irish language, but they made their mark there nonetheless. In addition to Dublin, the Irish cities of Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick also began as Viking settlements.