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Thank you for your purchase from In the Hands of a Child Your Premiere Lapbook Provider since 2002!! Vikings HOCPP 1082 Published: April, 2007 Original Copyright June, 2006 Authors: Katie Kubesh Niki McNeil Kimm Bellotto For information about other products available from In the Hands of a Child Call 1-866-426-3701 or visit our website at www.handsofachild.com. Entire contents of this Project Pack 2007 In the Hands of a Child. 6222 Pierce Street Coloma, MI 49038 Permission is hereby granted to the individual purchaser to reproduce student materials in this project pack for noncommercial individual or classroom use only. In the Hands of a Child gives permission for one copy of all written material to be copied and or printed. Classroom teachers have permission to reproduce one copy for each student in class. Members of co-ops or workshops have permission to reproduce one copy for up to 10 children per unit. Reproducible graphics may be reprinted as many times as needed. Permission is not granted for school wide or system wide reproduction of materials. Printed in the USA. 2
Table of Contents Guide Page 3 People Page 3 Timeline Page 3 Clothing Page 4 Language Page 4 Religion Page 7 Burials Page 9 Warriors Page 9 Weapons Page 10 Traders Page 10 Explorers Page 11 Ships Page 14 Famous Vikings Page 16 The End of the Viking Age Page 17 Vocabulary Page 18 Activity List Page 21 Activity 1 Page 22 Activity 2 Page 27 Activity 3 Page 30 Activity 4 Page 33 Activity 5 Page 35 Activity 6 Page 37 Activity 7 Page 40 Activity 8 Page 44 Activity 9 Page 46 Activity 10 Page 49 Activity 11 Page 52 Activity 12 Page 55 Activity 13 Page 57 Activity 14 Page 60 6
Activity 15 Page 65 Activity 16 Page 67 Activity 17 Page 70 Activity 18 Page 72 Activity 19 Page 75 Activity 20 Page 79 Activity 21 Page 82 Activity 22 Page 85 Activity 23 Page 88 Activity 24 Page 90 Activity 25 Page 92 Activity 26 Page 96 Folder Instructions Page 101 7
Vikings In Northern Europe, there is a region called Scandinavia, which includes the countries of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. More than one thousand years ago, the Viking people lived in Scandinavian communities where they raised animals and crops, fished, and traded with their neighbors. Each community of Vikings was ruled by a king, called a chieftain. Who were the Vikings? Vikings were adventurers. Vikings were explorers. Vikings were settlers. Vikings were raiders. Vikings were traders. Vikings were warriors. Vikings were pirates. The Viking People In Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (Scandinavia), Vikings lived in separate kingdoms ruled by royal families. Viking society had three classes of people, slaves, freemen, and nobles. The nobles were the next step down from the royal families and were the local chieftains, called earls or jarls. At the beginning of the Viking Age, there were many nobles who ruled over the small areas. By the end of the Viking Age, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden were each ruled by a single king. Freemen included landowners, farmers, traders, craftsmen, and warriors. They were ruled by the Thing, a local assembly where all the freemen could voice their opinions. By the end of the Viking Age, the Thing was replaced by the role of the king. Viking Timeline 700s: Vikings build ships capable of long sea crossings. 793: Vikings raid Lindisfarne monastery on Holy Island, England (the first recorded raid by Vikings). 795: First Viking raids on Scotland and Ireland. 799: Vikings attack France. 835: First Danish invasion of England. 840s: Vikings set up trading towns on coast of Ireland. 845: Charles the Bald, King of France, bribes Danish leaders with silver in exchange if they leave Paris alone. 850s-920s: Viking attacks at height. 859-862: Vikings led by Hastein and Bjorn raid France, Spain, North Africa, and Italy. 860: Vikings discover Iceland. 865: Danish Vikings invade England. 867: York (Jorvik), England captured by Vikings. 870: Vikings begin settling in western Iceland. 876-880: Danish Vikings, begin to settle in eastern England. 886: Alfred the Great signs Peace of Wedmore, establishing Danelaw. 907: Vikings in Russia sign trade treaty with Constantinople. 911: Rollo receives Normandy from King Charles the Simple of France. 930: First Althing held in Iceland at Thingvellir. 965?: King of Denmark decides to become Christian. The rest of the country soon joins the conversion. 8
Landowners were called bondirs or carls. When Viking warriors were at sea, the women ran the farms. A woman showed her importance in a family by her possession of household keys, which she held from her belt or a brooch. A Viking woman had the right to divorce her husband if he kept the household keys from her. Viking men could have more than one wife. Viking artifacts including the remains of plowed fields, farm tools, animal bones, and fishing tackle all show historians that Vikings were very good farmers. They could produce all the food they needed. Vikings grew wheat, produced meat and dairy products, caught fish, and hunted game. A typical Viking family lived in a rectangular-shaped longhouse made of timber and sealed with moss or twigs woven with clay. Roofs were sloped and made of thatch. There were no windows in a longhouse. Inside the longhouse there were benches along the walls, and a central hearth below a smoke hole. Vikings ate fish, meat, cabbages, peas, oats, and fruits. Meat was salted and dried for winter and other foods were sweetened with honey, flavored with garlic and other spices, and usually washed down with beer. Vikings used wooden bowls, spoons, knives, and other wooden kitchen utensils (they did not use forks). 982: Greenland discovered by Erik the Red. 984-1014: King of Denmark is Svein Forkbeard. 986: Leif Eriksson colonizes Greenland. 995-1000: King of Norway is Olaf Tryggvason. 1000: Leif Eriksson lands on Vinland, North America. Iceland converts to Christianity. 1010: London Bridge pulled down by Olaf the Stout. 1013: King of Denmark, Svein Forkbeard invades and conquers England. 1016-1035: First Viking king of all England, Canute (Cnut). He later rules Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden. 1030?: Norway converts to a Christian country. 1047-1066: King of Norway is Harold Hardraade. 1066: Harold Hardraade killed at Stamford Bridge, William of Normandy conquers England. Last major Viking invasion of any of their European neighbors. 1100: Sweden becomes a Christian country. All Viking lands are now Christian and have close ties with neighboring European countries. The Viking Age is over! 1100 s-1200 s: Sagas are written in Iceland. Craftsmen such as carpenters, woodcarvers, and blacksmiths, were highly respected in Viking communities. The most important craftsmen were the blacksmiths. 9
Viking blacksmiths forged tools, nails, weapons, and locks. Blacksmiths used an anvil, hammers, and tongs. Most freemen lived on family farms served by slaves, called thralls. Many slaves were captured in foreign wars by the Vikings. Some wealthy Vikings were even buried with their slaves. Slaves could be freed. Viking Clothing Both Viking men and women wore leather shoes and heavy capes or cloaks to keep them warm, but other clothing they wore was different from each other. Men wore long, woolen trousers over linen breeches. On top, they wore a linen or wool shirt with a belt and tunic over it. They also wore leather or cloth hats. Viking men wore beards that parted in the middle. Wealthy Viking men wore shirts made from silk imported from Asian, and wide, baggy trousers. Viking women wore long smocks with sleeveless pinafores over the top. Only unmarried girls and widows were allowed to wear their hair loose. Wealthy married women tied their hair back and wore white linen headdresses. It is difficult for historians to determine what Vikings really looked like. Real pictures of Viking people are very rare. Vikings did not have books, and most of the people and animals in their artwork are imaginary creatures. To the Vikings, jewelry was a sign of wealth. Both men and women loved to wear gold and silver jewelry. Viking traders often had silver coins melted down to make jewelry for their wives. Brooches were very important in the way that Vikings dressed. They were not just pieces of jewelry, but they were worn to hold clothing in place as well. Men wore ring-shaped brooches to fasten their cloaks on the right shoulder. Wealthy Viking women held their pinafores together with two bronze oval brooches, called tortoise brooches. They wore a third brooch to hang scissors, needles, knives, and keys from. Other jewelry worn by the Vikings included arm-rings, pendants shaped like Thor s hammer, Christian cross pendants, rings, and necklaces made of glass beads. The Viking Language The Viking form of writing was carving thin letters called runes into wood and stone. The Vikings told stories to pass down their history and memories. Many times the stories were told like poems. Kings had their own poets, called skalds. The scalds entertained the king s guests and praised their king through poetry and stories. Many stories and poems were passed down from father to son and the Viking people knew all the stories by heart. 10