9781422283424

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