9781422283424

THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

VIKINGS

The Untold History of Ancient Civilizations AZTECS EGYPTIANS GREEKS

ROMANS VIKINGS

THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS VIKINGS

MASON CREST PHILADELPHIA MIAMI

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Copyright © 2019 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN (hardback) 978-1-4222-3522-5 ISBN (series) 978-1-4222-3517-1 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4222-8342-4

Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file with the Library of Congress

Developed and produced by Mason Crest Editor: Keri DeDeo Interior and cover design: Jana Rade Production: Michelle Luke

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: OH NO, HERE COME

CHAPTER 9: WHAT DO YOU WANT

THE VIKINGS 7 CHAPTER 2: SHIPS AHOY . . . . . . 11 CHAPTER 3: SURPRISE ATTACK 15 CHAPTER 4: THE TRUTH IN THE TALE 19 CHAPTER 5: ACCIDENTAL EXPLORERS . . . . . . 25 CHAPTER 6: SHOW ME THE MONEY 31 CHAPTER 7: HOME CROWDED HOME . . 35 CHAPTER 8: FLAIR FOR FASHION 41

TO PLAY? . . . . . . 45

CHAPTER 10: GODS WITH

SUPERPOWERS 49 CHAPTER 11: VIKING GRAFFITI . . . . 53 VIKING FACTS 58 FURTHER RESOURCES . . . . . . 60 INTERNET RESOURCES . . . . . . 61 EDUCATIONAL VIDEO LINKS AND PHOTO CREDITS . . . . . . . 62 INDEX 63

KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR: WORDS TO UNDERSTAND: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills. SIDEBARS: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there.

RESEARCH PROJECTS: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis.

CONTENTS 5

Many Viking accounts were written by people other than Vikings.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND FJORDS: deep inlets leading to the sea RECITE: to repeat by memory; Viking poets

usually spoke their poems by memory RAID: an attack usually by surprise; it can be by land, by sea, or by air

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CHAPTER 1

OH NO, HERE COME THE VIKINGS T horstein Cod-Biter, Ulf the Unwashed, Einar Belly-Shaker, Aud the Deep-Minded—no, these aren’t comic book characters. These are real people who lived more than 1,000 years ago in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. And if you saw them coming your way, you wouldn’t be laughing. Today, we call the

people of these northern lands “Vikings,” a word that probably once meant raider . Many people still think of Vikings as simply fierce invaders, but there was much more to them than that. They were also farmers, explorers, traders, and skilled craftspeople. The age of the Vikings lasted from about AD 780 to 1100. In that time, they left their homelands in

Explore the Vikings’ world in this video from the National Museum of Denmark.

Chapter 1: OH NO, HERE COME THE VIKINGS 7

The map shows the North Sea where the Norwegian Vikings traveled.

modern-day Norway, Denmark, and Sweden and set off on great journeys in all directions. Norwegian Vikings were looking for lands to settle and sailed west across the Atlantic. Danes and Norwegians crossed the North Sea to raid and invade the rich lands of Britain, Ireland, France, and Germany. Meanwhile, Swedish Vikings traveled east and south, along the rivers of Russia, on trading journeys. In their homelands, such as Norway, the Vikings usually lived close to water, along fjords .

NICKNAMES Vikings did not write books. So, much of what we know about them comes from

accounts written by the people whose lands they raided. Instead, Vikings loved to tell stories and recite poems. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, these were finally written down in books called sagas. It is from the sagas that we know that the Vikings were jokers who liked giving each other strange nicknames. For example, a big, strong, powerful man named Thorbjorn was called Thorbjorn the Feeble.

8 THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS: VIKINGS

Use this rune alphabet to write your name and other words.

TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS 1. How do we know so much about the Vikings? 2. When was the age of the Vikings? 3. Where did the Vikings go?

RESEARCH PROJECT The Vikings didn’t write books, but they did write…mostly on rocks. Use the image of the runic alphabet above, and write your name. What other words can you write using the runic alphabet?

Chapter 1: OH NO, HERE COME THE VIKINGS 9

This replica shows what a Viking ship looked like.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND EVIDENCE: scientific proof of something FIERCE: something violent, intense, or wild; scary looking REPLICA: a copy of something built in the same method and feel of the original item.

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CHAPTER 2

SHIPS AHOY O ne of the things people think about that go with Vikings is their warships. But Vikings also built beautiful boats and ships in which they buried their dead. Scientists still aren’t sure what this meant to them. Perhaps the Vikings thought of death as the start of a journey to another world—and Vikings traveled by ship. Thanks to this custom, we can still see ships built by the Vikings today. The Gokstad ship was a langskip , or longship, a narrow,

THE GOKSTAD SHIP The best-preserved Viking ship burial was found in 1881 at Gokstad in Norway. The ship, 70 feet (23.3 m) long, was built of overlapping oak planks. When the ship was found, it had sixty-four shields, so scientists believe the ship carried at least that many crew. A replica of the ship, built in 1893, sailed from Norway to Canada in twenty-eight days.

slim warship built for speed. It was strong enough to cross stormy seas but light enough to travel up shallow rivers or be dragged up onto a beach. With ships like this, Vikings could get almost anywhere. Vikings loved their ships and gave them names. One of the most famous was Olaf Tryggvason’s Long Serpent and Erik, the Earl of Lade’s Ironbard. The prows (fronts) were decorated with the carved heads of snakes, dragons, or

Chapter 2: SHIPS AHOY 11

This 3-D illustration provides a sense of what a Viking invasion must have looked like.

Can you imagine a ship with such a carving coming at you? How would you feel?

other dangerous animals. To a Viking warrior, sailing into battle might have felt like riding on the back of a fierce dragon. To the people who saw them coming, it was terrifying. Although the Gokstad ship looks plain today, it may once have been brightly colored. There is evidence for this on the wall hanging called the Bayeux Tapestry, which shows longships painted in colored stripes with patterned sails.

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The Bayeux Tapestry shows the Norman invasion of England

in the eleventh century and Viking longboats.

TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS 1. Other than warships, what other reason did the Vikings build ships? 2. Why are Viking warships called “longships”? 3. How do scientists know that the Viking ships were likely brightly colored? RESEARCH PROJECT There are multiple websites and videos on the Internet that explain how to make a Viking longship out of cardboard. For example, the We and Us Ltd site (http://www.weandus.ie/how_to_make.html) provides PDF instructions and a template for making a longship from a cereal box. Make sure to click on the image of the Viking ship.

Chapter 2: SHIPS AHOY 13

These are ruins of the Benedictine monastery of Lindisfarne, Northumbria, England, where the Vikings invaded.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND MONK: a religious man who has taken vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and lives in a monastery MONASTERIES: places where holy men, called monks,

lived and spent their time worshipping God SHRINES: boxes holding the bones of saints

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