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Horrible Histories - Historical Dating (Viking)

Horrible Histories - Season 1 - Vicious Vikings

Vikings Discovering America

A Viking called Bjarni Herjolfsson discovered America by accident in the year 985. He saw an unknown land, after his ship was blown off course on the way from Iceland to Greenland. In 1001, Leif Ericsson, the
son of Eric the Red, sailed west to find this new land.
Leif and his men were the first Europeans known to have landed in America. They spent the winter in a place they named "Vinland" (Wine-land). It was in Newfoundland, Canada. Soon afterwards, Thorfinn Karlsefni led a small group of Viking families to settle in the new land. But after fights with the local Native American people, the Vikings gave up their settlement.

Viking Children

Babies were given little Thor's
hammer charms, to protect them from evil spirits and sickness. A boy usually took his father's name too - so Eric, son of Karl, became Eric Karlsson. Girls often took the same name as their mother or grandmother.
Viking children did not go to school. They helped their parents at work, and learned Viking history, religion and law from spoken stories and songs, not from books. By 15 or 16 they were adult. It was common for a girl's father to choose her husband.

What did the men and woman do?

Most Viking men were all round handy men, but some had special skills. There were boat builders, for example and potters, leather workers and black smiths. Most Viking men knew how to handle a boat. And most could fight if they had to, to protect the family or to support their chieftain(leader).
Women baked bread. They did spinning and weaving to turn sheep wool into cloth. They looked after the children, made the family's clothes and cooked the two meals a day most families ate. On the farm, women milked the cows and made cheese.

Horrible Histories: Vicious vikings: helmet myths

Horrible Histories (The Viking Report).m4v

Vikings Weapons

The laws of the late Viking period show that all free men were expected to own weapons, and magnates were expected to provide them for their men. The main offensive weapons was the spear, sword and battle-axe, although bows and arrows and other missiles were also used. Weapons were carried not just for battle, but also as symbols of their owners' status and wealth. They were therefore often finely decorated with inlays, twisted wire and other adornments in silver, copper and bronze.The spear was the commonest weapon with an iron blade on a wooden shaft, often of ash and 2 to 3m in length. It was used for both thrusting and throwing. The blades varied in shape from broad leaf shapes to long spikes. Skilled spearsmen are said to have been able to throw two spears at once using both hands, or even to catch a spear in flight and hurl it back with deadly effect.Swords were very costly to make, and a sign of high status. The blades were usually double-edged and up to 90cm, or a little over, in length, but early single-edged sabres are also known. They were worn in leather-bound wooden scabbards. Early blades were pattern-welded, a technique in which strips of wrought iron and mild steel were twisted and forged together, with the addition of a hardened edge. Later blades of homogeneous steel, imported probably from the Rhineland, bore inlaid makers' marks and inscriptions.Viking craftsmen often added their own elaborately decorated hilts, and many swords were given names, such as Leg-biter and Gold-hilt.Long-handled battle-axes might be used instead of swords, particularly in open combat. The famed, double-handed broad axe is a late development, typical of the late 10th and 11th centuries. But as the owner could not hold a shield at the same time, he would take cover behind the front line of warriors, rushing out at the right moment to hew down the enemy.

Horrible Histories - Literally: The Viking Song