The Viking Age

Norway was first inhabited over 10,000 years ago during the Ice Age. However, the country’s greatest impact on world history came during a never to be forgotten 250 year period – known as the Viking Age - from 800 to 1050 AD.

It was a time when the Vikings ruled the roost throughout most of civilised Europe, particularly where they could sail and land their magnificent boats. The Vikings were fearless sailors, not only from Norway, but from Sweden and Denmark too. They were not just violent warriors who took and stole whatever they could, as many people think today: some were also peaceful farmers and excellent fishermen.

The Viking era is believed to have begun in the north-east of England, when Nordic pirates invaded the Lindisfarne monastery off the Northumberland coast near Newcastle in 793 AD. After that they settled in many parts of northern England, making York the most important English city outside of London. They also conquered much of Ireland, capturing the capital city of Dublin, and explored much of France and Spain, sailing their boats up the countries’ rivers.

Shipbuilding was very important to the sea-loving Vikings. Their boats were called ‘drakkars’, and were extremely reliable and tough. A Viking warrior was also never without his sword and a wooden shield to protect himself.

The Vikings were great, skilful sailors and may even have been the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic Ocean to North America. Most people think that this was Christopher Columbus, an explorer who discovered America in 1492. However, there is some evidence that Vikings had actually been there almost 500 years before!

The good times couldn’t last forever, and the Viking Age came to a particularly gruesome end when the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada was beaten at the bloody Battle of Stamford Bridge in England. By this time the Vikings had already made a big impact, particularly in Britain and Ireland. They left behind lots of important archaeological remains which are still being discovered today.


The Vikings today

Unless you come from one of the Scandinavia countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland), you might think that the language you speak has nothing to do with the Vikings. In fact, the language spoken in these countries today is very close to that of the Old English, which was adopted and spoken by the Vikings when they landed in England all those years ago.

If you speak English, you might be surprised to learn that a lot of Viking-like words are still in use today! Many English words come from those used by our Nordic cousins. In fact, Viking words are still common today in languages such as Gaelic, German, Dutch, and even French.

Words such as 'husband', 'knife' and 'window' are all very similar to Viking words which had the same meaning at the time. Many words connected to favourite Viking pastimes like farming or sailing, such as 'keel', meaning ‘bottom of a boat’, are also in use today.

Vikings also gave us plenty of place names to remember them by, particularly in the north of Britain. Towns whose names end in ‘–by’, such as Selby or Whitby, as well as ‘-thorpe’, such as Scunthorpe, were originally named and lived in by Vikings. Can you think of any other towns with Viking names? Maybe you even live in a town that was once home to the Vikings?

The Vikings were some of the first people to use coins and money. In the Viking era coins became more and more common in everyday use, and it was at about this time that the word ‘penny’ was invented. Today they are seen as just small change, but in those days they were worth much more!

In Norway you can also find some of the oldest wooden buildings on Earth, built during Viking times about 1000 years ago. The Norwegians' love of wooden buildings can still be seen today: with all those forests, there’s plenty of wood to build houses from.

So the Vikings still live on today, particularly in Norway. People’s surnames in Norway are the same, or similar, to those of 1000 years ago, while many place names, customs, folk tales and stories are also the same as in Viking times. They may have travelled all over the world, but the home of the Vikings is definitely still Norway.

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