Viking Longships Essays

Viking Longships Essays Viking Longships Paper Viking Longships Paper The Vikings are peoples that were originally from Scandinavia. Scandinavia is now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. From the eight to the eleventh century, these people originally referred to as Norsemen began to raid places in Europe and other countries they became referred to as Vikings. The name Viking, originates from the place Viken in the Oslofjord. The Oslofjord is a bay south-east of Norway. Vikings are known for plundering from other societies. They are usually shown that the whole Viking nation went out to help on these raids but, they were done mostly independent by chieftains that obtained men who were willing to aid and longships. Viking Longships are the warships of the Vikings. These ships were used mostly for raids because of their ability to travel swiftly in coastal waters, open waters, rivers, and estuaries and travel long distances. The Longships are usually in between twenty to thirty-five meters long. The largest Longship discovered was at Roskilde Harbor, which is in Demark, and it was 35 meters in length. It had the capacity to carry 72 oars and a crew of 100 men. Tree- ring analysis places this ship to be created around 1025 A. D. The Longships usually carried between twenty to sixty Viking warriors. The ship was also big enough for all the equipment that the Vikings had to transport, and the loot that they plundered. These Longships were light-weight and strong. They were created with a square sail. The square sails were made of woven wool. The sail could be pulled down over the crew to protect them during rough storms. The sail is what allowed the Longship to sail so quickly throughout rough seas and other waters. The sail in combination with the oars allowed for the Vikings to sail through open oceans straight through and then switch to using the oars when they were near attacks. The Longships also featured a shallow hull that allows the ship to sail up onto the beach or sail through rivers. This also aided with raiding villages that have centers on the river. Craftsmen in that time would create the boat differently by first splitting an oak tree’s trunk into long, thin planks. The craftsmen attached the boards together with iron nails then to a single sturdy keel and then to each other, with one board overlapping another. The Vikings used this clinker technique as opposed to the more used method of building the skeleton of the hull first. Craftsmen then spaced the floor timbers to the keel of the boat and not the hull. This created flexibility, speed, maneuverability within the boat. Modern replicas of Viking Longships have reached up to fourteen knots and could be closely compared to the speed of modern sailboats. Viking Longships were basically without any civilized religion and their ships often were created with a dragons head on the bow of the ship to protect them from evil sea spirits. The Longship was a great advantage to the Vikings. When a chief or leader died, the Longship was sometimes buried in the grave with the leader or chief. The Vikings believed that this practice would help the dead chief or leader quickly sail to Valhalla. Some dead Viking warriors were placed in their ships when they passed away. The ship would then be set on fire and they would sail away slowly. The Viking Longships basically created the Viking Age, from eight hundred to eleven hundred A. D. A misconception about this period is that the Vikings were the only group of uncivilized people who were running about plundering societies, but in actuality this was just a time where this was almost normal. There were more groups than just the Vikings plundering societies but, the Vikings were just the best at doing it. The model of the Longship paved the way for other models of ships. The Vikings pretty much had a sort of new technology. Citations: (THE VIKINGS) (Hauge, 2002) (Fitzhugh, 2005)