How well do you know the Vikings?
Vikings were sailors, traders, farmers and explorers. Six questions, from easy to hard, separate fact from myth.
Did you know?
- Vikings navigated without compasses, using the Sun, stars, landmarks and knowledge of waves and birds. Some historians think they may also have used 'sunstones', crystals that help locate the Sun on cloudy days.
- Viking women could own property and ask for divorce, and some managed farms and trade while men were away. Archaeology shows many women travelled with settlers to new lands.
- Many Vikings cared about their appearance. Archaeologists have found combs, tweezers and ear cleaners in Viking graves, and an English chronicle claimed that Danish settlers bathed every Saturday and combed their hair often.
Beyond the raiders
The Vikings are often remembered only as raiders, but most were farmers, craftsmen and traders. Their remarkable ships carried them across rivers and oceans, from North America to the Middle East. They founded towns, traded goods such as furs and amber, and left lasting marks on languages and place names.
Master shipbuilders
Viking longships were light, flexible and fast, with shallow hulls that could sail on open seas and up rivers. Built from overlapping wooden planks, they could even be carried or dragged over land between rivers, which allowed Vikings to travel deep into Europe.
Traders across continents
Viking traders travelled along Russian rivers to reach Constantinople and Baghdad. Arab silver coins have been found in large numbers in Scandinavia, showing how far their trade networks reached. Markets such as Birka in Sweden and Hedeby in Denmark became busy centres of commerce.
Settlers and farmers
Vikings settled in places such as Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and parts of Britain and Ireland. In Iceland, they created a parliament, the Althing, founded in 930, which is often described as one of the oldest parliaments in the world.
Stories and sagas
Much of what we know comes from sagas, stories written down in Iceland in the 13th and 14th centuries. They describe voyages, families and disputes, mixing history with legend, and they remain an important part of Icelandic literature.
Words we inherited
English borrowed many words from Old Norse, including 'sky', 'egg', 'window', 'knife' and 'husband'. Place names ending in '-by' or '-thorpe' in northern England often mark former Viking settlements.
Everyday Viking homes
Most Vikings lived in longhouses, large buildings with thick walls of wood, stone or turf and a central hearth for cooking and warmth. Families often shared the building with their animals in winter, which helped keep everyone warm. Daily tasks included farming, fishing, weaving cloth and making tools, and many households were largely self-sufficient.