Model of Norse settlers’ home-stead, with Gokstad-type 16-bench longship named "Munin", and reproduction Viking artefacts

Written for The Viking Network by Nicholas C. Brown, Birmingham, England

 


Contents

1. Diorama of length of coastline, farmstead, and 16-bench longship

2. Detachable mast for longship

3. Viking treasure (purse containing money and jewellery, silver chalice)

4. Cloth with animal motifs

5. Notes: - introduction

- detailed description of features on diorama

- detailed description of Viking treasure

- selected extracts from Snorre Sturlasson’s writings

INTRODUCTION

Contents

This model shows a small farm of the 10th or 11th Century AD, belonging to settlers somewhere outside of Scandinavia; together with an example of a sea-going longship of the same period, which is being readied for departure. These are shown on a very small scale, by which an adult man would be only 15mm tall.

Also supplied is a small amount of life-sized reproduction money and jewellery, which could be given to school-children to look at, and handle themselves; and a coloured tapestry decorated with stylised animal motifs of the period, which might provide either a suitable covering for a table on which the other items were displayed, or could be used as a wall hanging.

Finally there are some notes and selections from the sagas, which are not supposed to be used directly in the class-room (at least, not by children of only Junior School age); but which teachers may hopefully find useful as background material when planning their own lesson plans.

The aim of showing these all of these items together is to try to restore some sense of historical balance into the picture we have of what the Norse people of Viking days were really like. People all too often think that the Norsemen were all a bunch of heathen pirates, who turned up out of the blue; looted and burned civilised Christian settlements, and either killed the people or carried them off into slavery; and then disappeared just as mysteriously as they had come, back into the grey void of the sea. As such, the Norse hardly seem like human beings at all.

This model tries to balance this image by showing the typical, peaceful, everyday activities of a family and their house-servants, living somewhere in one of the islands of the Northern Ocean settled by emigrants from Norway.

We can tell at a glance that this is not home in Scandinavia, because there are not enough trees around to build the walls of the farmhouse from wood: instead they are made of turf. But this could be anywhere from the Shetlands, the Orkneys, the Faroes, Iceland - or even the remotest of all colonies, that set up on Greenland by the great explorer Erik the Red, and his son Leif Erikson.

Is this supposed to be Leif Erikson’s ship?

The longship is a close copy of that found in a grave burial at Gokstad, with space for 16 rowers per side, as well as a very robust mounting for mast and sail which would have made it quite capable of venturing into the open waters of the North Sea or the Atlantic. It could therefore possibly be Leif Erikson’s vessel, on the way to make the first land-fall by Europeans on the continent of North America......

Sadly, it is somewhat unlikely to be Leif’s ship after all, as we know that Leif bought his off the merchant Bjarni Herjólfsson, who had been travelling from Iceland to Greenland some ten years before, when he had been caught by a storm and carried so far west that he found himself sailing along the coasts of previously unknown lands. Bjarni is somewhat less likely to have been using a longship for long-distance Atlantic journeys than the humbler knarr, which was bigger and slower, and relied mostly on sail-power, but which could carry twice or three times as much cargo as a longship, was better in rough seas, and yet did not need such a large and expensive crew.

When Leif went back to have another look at the lands that Bjarni had sighted (but not set foot upon), the sagas tell us that Leif took as many as 34 men with him. This is quite a lot more crew than that which would be necessary to handle the sail and the few oars on a knarr. It does sound more like the size of crew which would normally be needed for a longship, which had oars all down the whole sides of the vessel. But this is still not conclusive evidence that Leif had a longship rather than a knarr. It might just have been a wise precaution to take a lot of spare men with him, if Leif knew that he would be sending parties ashore onto into what might well be hostile territory. In fact the natives of Vinland did not get on well with the new arrivals, and there were indeed several armed clashes between the two sides during Leif’s initial expedition, and on later voyages made by other Greenlanders to explore more of the place. Maybe Bjarni had been wise after all, not to have even tried to land in Vinland when he had arrived there by accident, with only a few crewmen, and a ship full of valuable trade goods worth stealing.

To change the subject slightly, there was an odd reason why Leif bought this particular vessel from Bjarni. It was not that Leif did not already have a ship of his own (or maybe several: after all, his father was the richest man in Greenland.) However, Norse folk of this time (whether they were followers of the old gods, or Christian converts) were very superstitious. Just as certain people were thought to have a "lucky streak" to their character, so it was thought that certain inanimate objects, like swords, favourite pieces of clothing, flags - or ships - could also be lucky. As Bjarni’s ship had already sailed to these strange lands over the Western horizon, and safely returned in one piece afterwards, it must be a lucky ship. So when Leif decided to go back there, he wanted to take the one ship that apparently already knew the way !

Superstition also had another part to play in deciding what would happen on this first deliberate voyage to land on the coasts of North America. The original plan had been for Leif’s father, old Erik the Red himself, to have sailed along on this latest trip. But as he rode from his farm down to the coast, to see the ship being made ready, his horse stumbled. Erik thought that this was a very bad omen (a sign of what his fate would be). He believed this was meant to tell him that that his own stock of good fortune as an famous explorer was now running out. So he left it to his son to go on to America without him.

Still, when people think of Norsemen, they do like to think of longships, and their famous dragon-prows, so it would be a pity not to let them see one in this model. Indeed, we cannot be absolutely sure what type of vessel Bjarni was using. Maybe he did own a longship after all......

MODEL OF SETTLERS’ HOMESTEAD & GOKSTAD-TYPE SHIP

KEY TO MAIN FEATURES

 

1. Farmhouse 7. Ship

2. Pigs & cattle 8. Sail/ tent

3. Fish drying 9. Oars

4. Sheep 10. Bailing out

5. Family group 11. Rudder

6. Carpenters & small dinghy 12. Loading stores

13. Dragon figurehead

14. Look-out man

15. Mast (detachable)

 

See following sections for a more detailed description of each feature shown (suitable for teachers, or older schoolchildren to read).

A few questions, which younger schoolchildren could be asked about the model, are provided at the end of each section.

 

 

TEACHERS’ NOTES ABOUT THE HISTORICAL FEATURES SHOWN ON THE MODELS

1. FARMHOUSE

This is based on modern reconstructions of medieval farms found in Iceland and the Orkneys, although the design would be similar wherever settlers found themselves living in a cold wind-swept environment where few trees (if any) grew, and hence timber would be at a premium.

The site is well-chosen: the low hill gives some shelter from wind in that direction, and the small island would act as a breakwater when bringing a small boat ashore. There is a small stream providing fresh water. (Please note that, to be honest, the site of the farm does look a bit crowded on this model, and the buildings are somewhat smaller than you would usually find for a permanent settlement. Unfortunately this was unavoidable, due to the pressure to find space inside the Viking Relay box).

Both the walls and the roof of the farm-house are made from turf. There would be courses of dry stone-work laid as foundations under each wall, but these have disappeared from view under the grass which would rapidly begin growing again: all that can be seen of the structure of the building are a few beams visible at the gable-ends. But despite being an apparently crude method of construction, the result is a very effective shelter against even the worst winter storms.

Heat could come from a fire built in the main hall (the central part of the farmhouse): but also from the sheer number of people crammed into the place, as well as from the animals who occupied one of the wings of the building. The other wing probably would have been used as a store-room, and as a workshop. One important task that had to be done all year round on each farm was the brewing of beer for the family and their servants to drink. Note that chimneys were not in use, even in civilised parts of Europe, for a couple more centuries.

There is controversy between historians about what sort of attempt was ever made to colonise North America itself. One theory (favoured by Magnus Magnusson, amongst others) is that the foundations of huts discovered at L’Anse aux Meadows in modern Canada are not actually the remains of a permanent settlement at all. Instead they may have been some sort of summer-camp, used by parties who (for several years) paid visits from their real homes back in Greenland or Iceland. According to this theory, the visitors would stay only long enough to catch and dry a good supply of fish (cod being very plentiful there); and to cut a supply of timber from the forests to take back to their homelands, which were almost entirely lacking in this very important resource. Items made from North American larch-wood have indeed been found in Iceland.

Note the decorated beam above the front door: many settlers brought their door-posts over from their old family homes in Norway, perhaps to help them remember their origins, even if they could no longer easily visit the relatives they left behind, or the graves of their dead forefathers.

Why would this have been a good place to build a farm? (fresh-water; shelter from the wind; near the sea for fishing and travel).

Why are the walls of the farmhouse coloured green? (made out of turf, the grass is still growing)

Were all Norse houses like this? (no, they could have stone or wooden walls, if the materials were available)

Where is the chimney? (there isn’t one; the farm must have been very smoky, as well as smelling like a barn.)

2. PIGS & CATTLE

Livestock could do quite well out on the grasslands during the summertime, as well as eating household scraps from the dump (as a pig is doing here). Cows produced milk, which could be made into cheese. But it was very difficult to store enough fodder to feed the animals once winter came, so only a few would be kept alive until the spring, to start the stock for next year. Most of the animals would be slaughtered in the autumn, and their meat either dried or salted. Their hides would be useful for making clothes, bags, shoes or other items. Their fat could be used to fuel small reed candles to light the inside of the house during the long winter evenings.

Where did the animals live? (in the same building as the people)

What use were animals like pigs and cows? (meat; leather; possibly some milk)

3. FISH DRYING

Fish were the most important source of food for the Norse settlers living on the islands of the Atlantic.

You could try catching them at any time of the year, but obviously it was a lot easier to do it in the good weather during spring and summer, when there was more daylight so you could see what you were doing properly; and when the sea tended to be less stormy, so you could go out from the shore even in a small boat. It is possible that longships like the one shown might also have been used, like modern fishermen use larger trawler vessels.

Since there were no refrigerators in those days, and salt was quite hard to get hold of, people needed some other way to store the surplus fish they caught in the summer, so they could eat it throughout the winter months. They cut the fish they had caught open to remove the insides, and washed them in the sea (which did get some salt into them at least, for free). Then the split fish were hung up on special wooden racks, where the sea-breeze quickly dried them out. Little children could be given the job of staying near the racks, and throwing stones at any sea-gulls that tried to steal the fish as they were drying out.

Once the fish looked like (and felt like) a piece of hard leather, it could be taken down and stored till it was needed. But before you could eat it, you would have to soak it in water, and boil it. Some people still eat Lutefisk as a special dish at Christmas, to remember how families lived in olden times - but it must have been very hard to keep up any enthusiasm about eating it, if you had little else (apart from porridge) for months and months and months on end !

There are two men doing the work of collecting some of the dried fish. They could be relatives of the farmer, or they could be house-servants (or even slaves). Their clothes are very plain, so they could well be servants. Notice that the older man has lost an arm somehow; but he still has to do what work he can, to make himself useful.

Have you ever tasted Lutefisk? (?)

Would you like to eat it for every meal, for months on end? (.....??!!??)

How did they stop birds from taking the fish when it was drying? (probably a job for the children, or old people)

How do you think the old man shown here lost his arm? (fishing accident? a whale? a fight?)

Have you heard the story about when Thor went out fishing, to catch the Midgard Serpent? (ask your teacher)

4. SHEEP

Sheep were very important, and every farm would have some sheep, even if they did not have enough space or good grass to keep a cow or pigs. Almost all the clothes that people wore were made from wool or sheep-skin.

Here, the teenage daughter of the family is taking the flock inland to better pastures. Unlike in Norway, in the islands there was no problem from wolves attacking the sheep; but a good well-trained dog was still useful to have, to keep the sheep from straying (and to protect the girl from any unpleasant human neighbours she might meet).

What sort of things were sheep useful for? (wool for clothes; meat and sheepskins when they were killed; the sinews could be used for tying the seams of leather bags, or even for the string of a bow to shoot arrows with).

Have you heard the story of the little boy who had to look after the sheep, and got bored, and pretended to see a wolf? (ask your teacher).

 5. FAMILY GROUP

It is easy to identify the man who is the head of the household, as he alone can afford to wear a brightly coloured blue cloak, and bright red trousers. The Norse people loved colour and decoration, but it was expensive to import strong dye, and so most clothes were either the colour of the materials they were made out of; or only had simple locally-produced dye, which did not produce a very rich colour.

The farmer also carries a sword hanging from his belt, something else which very few people could afford to own: out of a hundred men who went to war, probably around ten of them would have had swords. Everyone else would have to settle for an axe (which they might also use for every-day tasks on the farm), or just a spear or two. Swords were so valuable that they were often handed down from generation to generation in the same family. Sometimes they were given as gifts on important occasions, by kings and chiefs, to reward their most loyal followers and friends.

His wife is the tall woman in the dark red dress. Hanging in front of her black leather apron is a set of keys. These were just as much a symbol of her importance as her husband’s sword, because they show that (when her husband was away from the farm) she would be left in charge. Not only can she unlock the strong-box where the family’s money and valuable objects are kept; she will also give orders to her children and to all the servants, even the men. It was only after many centuries, (and the ideas that the Church had in the Middle Ages about women being inferior to men), that women stopped being considered capable of running important affairs on their own.

(Note, however, that most houses did not have a lock where we would most expect one nowadays, on the front door!)

We have already met the eldest daughter of the family: she is taking the sheep out to graze.

Their next oldest daughter, may still only about 9-10 years old, is standing by her mother, and carefully watching what is happening with the dried fish, and with the loading of stores onto the ship. She must learn everything her mother knows, if she is ever to get married and be able to run a household of her own. But even now she is doing some work while she learns, as she is looking after the little baby she is holding in her arms.

Only the very youngest children were allowed to spend much of their time playing, and even then they might be told to go and play in a certain place, so they could also keep birds away from the crops when they were getting ripe; or protect the fish which was being hung out to dry. Life was hard, and everyone had to help around the farm in whatever way they could.

Would you have liked to live as a child in those days? (? no school. live in open air. food boring. no TV.....)

Was it better to be a man or a women back then? List five reasons for your choice. (.....?)

What about nowadays? (.....!)

6. CARPENTERS & SMALL DINGHY

This dinghy could belong either to the farm (for small fishing trips); or indeed be part of the equipment carried on the longship itself. The sagas make it clear that any large vessel would always have at least one small boat, though we are not quite sure if it would be towed behind, or carried on deck (the latter seems most likely in Atlantic conditions, though it must have added to what was already a very cluttered ship’s deck).

The carpenter dressed in white is splitting a large tree-trunk into planks, by inserting wooden pegs and wedges, which he forces into the wood with blows from his hammer.

The senior craftsman, who is standing with his back to the farm-house, pointing, carries an adze. This was a tool shaped something like an axe, only with the head turned through 90°. He is beginning to hack and smooth down a piece of split log, to make into a plank. Although the ancient Romans had known how to make large saws to cut tree-trunks into planks, nobody in Europe seems to have used them for several hundred years, between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the end of the Middle Ages. Nobody quite knows why this was; but none of the planks of wood we have found in old Norse ships, (or in the wooden stave-churches still standing in Norway), show any signs of the edges having being cut, only split and then hacked into shape with an adze.

These figures are based on the scenes of shipbuilding shown on the famous tapestry in Bayeux cathedral in France, which show the building of the fleet of ships the Normans used in their invasion of England in 1066 AD.

The third craftsman man is bending over a fire, heating a large ladle which contains pitch (tar) until it melts. He will then finish giving the bottom of the dinghy a new coat of waterproofing. Because it is often dragged up on the stones of the beach, the old coat of pitch has worn off, so the wood is becoming heavy and water-logged, and the seams of the planking may be letting water into the boat.

What did the Norse people make out of wood? List as many things as you can see on the model (ships and boats; at least the main structural parts of buildings; doors and gates; sailors’ sea-chests; fish drying racks; spear shafts).

Can you think of anything else, from what you know of everyday life in Norse times, which people made out of wood, but which the model does NOT show? (bowls and spoons for the kitchen; combs for your hair; chess-boards; spinning-loom to make cloth on; chairs and tables inside the house.......)

Where did they get the wood from in olden days? (your teacher can explain whether the people living in the part of the world your school is in could find enough trees locally, or whether they needed to import timber from elsewhere; some of the Viking ships found buried in Denmark are made of wood which scientists agree originally grew in Ireland, because the Danes made so many ships that they finally ran out of big old trees, suitable to make large items like the long keel of a ship.)

 

7. SHIP

As mentioned before, this is a longship, which means a type of vessel which is propelled equally well by teams of rowers, sitting all the way down each side; or, if the wind was good, by its large square sail instead. (By contrast, on a merchant knarr there would only be a couple of oars on each side). Notice the higher decks at the prow and stern of the longship (the front and back), where the lookouts and the steersmen would stand for a better view.

The vessel is constructed of over-lapping planks ("clinker-built"), with the gap between each plank and its neighbours being sealed with rope soaked in pitch. The bottom of the vessel may well also have been coated in pitch to limit the tendency of the wood to become heavy and waterlogged. Oak was the best and strongest wood for ship-building, and the keel was always made from it, and also the planks too, if enough were available. If not, spruce or pine might be used instead.

The planking was secured by iron nails, hammered in from the outside, and the tips then hammered down flat against small square iron plates to form a kind of rivet. It was considered very inelegant to have plates showing on the outer surface of the vessel, so this was only done at the extreme stem and stern, where it was too cramped to wield a hammer inside the shell of the planking. There is some staining visible on the model, representing where this has been done, and the plates on the outside have rusted. It was a big problem that the acidic nature of oak wood tends to chemically corrode iron. At practically any Viking settlement excavated in the world, one can find signs of a forge where the sailors carried out repairs to the ironwork of their ships. This may be the reason why someone was trying to smelt bog-iron at L’Anse aux Meadows.

An even more visible hallmark of a longship (than its planking) is the row of shields found on either side. This was achieved by looping the straps on the back of the shields through a special mounting-rail which ran down most of the length of the ship. Shields were relatively cheap to make, besides which they tended to get very badly damaged in any battle, so it seems that a longship might carry two shields per crew member. This number of shields certainly helped make an impressive display, and historians wonder if this was the whole point of hanging them out. Replicas of the Gokstad ship have demonstrated that it was indeed possible to row with the shields hung out: but it is not clear whether they would be particularly helpful hung up like that, during any actual fighting. Maybe it was all for show - especially as the owner of the Gokstad ship took care to provide shields of a regular design throughout, alternating in yellow and black!

There are actually several categories within the broad description of longship. The Gokstad vessel (which this is modelled on) is the basic type, a "16-bencher". This means that it was large enough to accommodate 16 pairs of rowers (32 oars in total). Despite the term benches, often mentioned in the sagas, no longship of the classic Viking era which has been excavated so far has had anything like rowing permanent seats fitted. Historians thus generally agree that each man must, instead, have sat on his own wooden sea-chest.

 Despite the name longship, the Gokstad ship is not a particularly slim vessel, but it does have a quite small draught (i.e it can move though quite shallow water, because there is only a small distance between the waterline and the bottom of the keel). It is also quite light, because the sides are low, and the planks used to make the hull are thin. Thus if the longship ever did run aground, the crew could (if necessary) manage to pick it up, and man-handle it (perhaps with the help of wooden rollers) over-land for several hundred metres, to get to somewhere they could find deeper water. Such vessels were indeed sometimes used for pirate raids, and for warfare between the kings of Scandinavia. But their main use would have been for travel between settlements, maybe to go and visit relatives living elsewhere along the coast; and for small-scale trading (particularly by landowners wanting to take their surplus produce to a local market). Quite possibly the smaller longships could have been used for fishing trips as well.

There were other, larger, sorts of longship built, with 20, 25, or even 30-plus pairs of oars: these definitely were intended for warfare. They were too big to be of much use for any other peaceful purpose. You needed a big crew to row them, (and indeed there may even have been two or three men sat at each oar, to achieve maximum speed in battle, as well as extra warriors standing on the raised decks at the front and back of the ship). These very large longships were hard to steer, let alone to lift and carry through shallow water. They were not very good at staying afloat in the rough weather found out on the open sea on a bad day, as instead of rising up on the waves (like a small ship could), the water tended instead to crash right over the sides of bigger longships. They were best used in the sheltered waters near the coast-line, or perhaps for quick movements across short sea-crossings, such as between Norway and Denmark, or across the English Channel. Several replicas of the normal smaller Gokstad-type longship have, by contrast, successfully crossed the Atlantic.

Do you think Bjarni Herjólfsson used a longship, or a knarr? (he was a full-time merchant; he needed to carry lots of goods, including perhaps horses and other animals; there is much more room for cargo in a knarr than in a longship. Also Bjarni mainly did business between Iceland, Greenland, and Norway so he had no need of the special capabilities of the longship to go up shallow rivers; yet, as he often did venture out into the Atlantic Ocean, he would have found it very useful that knarrs are better at surviving large waves, as they have a rounder shape, and much higher sides).

8. SAIL/TENT

We have never actually found a preserved Viking sail yet, but descriptions in the sagas, as well as rock carvings and tapestries, give a fair idea of what they must have been like.

The main part of the sail would probably have been linen cloth, of a dull white colour. But if this was reinforced by bands of leather or thicker cloth, sewn on at regular intervals, and coloured with dye, this would explain the descriptions of the sails having patterns like stripes or diamonds.

Most journeys were made along the coastline, so the ship could put into a sheltered bay or fjord each night. When the ship was at rest, the yard-arm (cross-piece of the mast) could be lowered down, and the sail or some other piece of cloth slung over the top to make a sort of tent. If the sailors knew they were in friendly territory, they might put up smaller tents on shore as well, where there would have been more room than on the cramped deck of the ship; (several ship-burials have been discovered which contain objects which look very much like tent-frames). Once on shore the sailors could also build fires, both to cook some hot stew or porridge; and to try to dry out their wet clothes.

Conditions must have been very uncomfortable indeed on the longer sea journeys, lasting several days or even weeks across the Atlantic Ocean, which the settlers had to make in order to get to Iceland, or to the other far-away island colonies. On a longship there was absolutely no cover to protect the sailors from the wind and the rain, and not much more on a knarr either; and you could not make a fire on board when either type of ship was underway.

Did the sailors have any beds or hammocks to sleep in? (no, they would have had to sleep on deck, or go ashore and sleep on the ground; they could maybe use their spare clothes as a sort of mattress; if they came on shore, they might also gather heather or bracket to make a softer surface to sleep on.

 

9. OARS

When the oars were not being used, they could be stored in racks on either side of the ship. No oar racks were found in the Gokstad grave, but they were probably lost whilst the ship was buried: other longships dug up at Skuldev have racks like the ones shown on the model. (The three funny-looking T-shaped rests on the Gokstad ship are spaced too far apart to be of any use for holding oars, so we think they must have been used to support the yard-arm instead).

What did the sailors sit on, when they were rowing the ship? (probably their own sea-chests).

Can you see any more oars, apart from those on the ship? (there are 4 smaller ones, belonging to the dinghy, stacked up against the wall of the farm-house).

10. BAILING OUT

Despite the most careful construction, Viking ships tended to leak a little bit all the time, even without being out at sea, and having waves come over the top of the sides.

Where there wasn’t a good sheltered place to anchor, safe from storms, the normal practice was to drag the ships part- way out of the water, up onto a beach, each night. This would have saved the ships from being carried away by the wind and waves, and dashed against rocks: but it would have damaged the joints between the planks of the hull.

However the deck planking was made in small pieces, and only rested (or was lightly nailed) into place. So it was easy to lift the planking out, and to inspect the bottom parts of the ship (the bilges) for damage; and to scoop out any water that had got in, by using a bucket. You can see one sailor doing this daily task on the model.

How could water get into the ship? (leaks in the bottom; waves coming over the sides)

How often would you need to bail out the ship? (at least once a day, even in harbour; perhaps many more times, if travelling in rough seas)

11. RUDDER

The job of steersman was given to the most experienced man on the ship, who was not necessarily the captain in charge of the whole expedition. Any Viking leader with any common sense would tell the steersman where he wanted the ship to be taken; but then leave it to the steersman to decide on how precisely they were going to try to get there.

The steersman had to know how to use the heavy steering rudder to turn the ship carefully, through narrow channels between islands, and where there might also be powerful hidden currents under the water. By carefully observing the waves he might see if the ship was near shallow, dangerous, waters with hidden rocks or sandbanks.

He also had to know as much as possible about navigation. The best way of telling the ship’s position was by remembering all the land-marks sailors had said you could see, when travelling along within sight of well-known coastlines. Such features included cliff-tops, mountain peaks, or even ancient burial mounds - the dying words of the mythical hero Beowulf were "Ask men of battle to build me a tomb, fair after fire, on the foreland by the sea, that shall stand as a reminder of me to my people, towering high above Hronesness, so that ocean travellers shall afterwards name it Beowulf’s barrow, bending in the distance their masted ships through the mists upon the sea".

When out of sight of land upon the open sea, the task of keeping a straight course was even harder. You could try using the sun or the stars to tell which direction you were heading, but there was often thick cloud spoiling your view for days on end. Yet by looking at the shape cloud formations, and whether there were sea-birds overhead, a good steersman might still tell which direction the nearest land was, even if it was over the horizon and out of sight.

Why isn’t the steering rudder, shown on this model ship, actually in the water? (it has been pulled up by the crew, and tied in place using a rope, to stop it being damaged on the rocky beach)

Did the Vikings have maps? (a good question !; nobody really knows; the famous "Vinland Map" is almost certainly a fake; the balance of academic opinion is that they did not have maps as such; but around the 12th century they were writing down very detailed accounts of what landmarks to look out for, in order to make the most popular voyages).

Did their ships have magnetic compasses? (almost certainly not).

 

12. LOADING STORES

As the ship is not yet quite ready to go, not all of the crew have arrived yet, and left their wooden sea-chests ready to be loaded on board.

Apart from the sailors’ sea-chests, another very important thing which must be loaded on soon is several barrels of beer, or mead, which can be keep under the floor decking. Because of the alcohol, this will probably taste better when it has been stored for some time in the barrels than pure water would; it might also help the crew feel a little less miserable, when they are cold and tired and wet, than they would if they only had cold water to drink.

The man kneeling by the side of the farm-house is checking what is in his trunk: you can just see that he has a good thick cloak packed, ready for the cold of the voyage. A small girl, and her even smaller brother, are talking to him.

List things it would be important to take with you on a long sea-voyage (waterproof oilskin coat or cloak; spare dry clothes, packed inside a waterproof leather bag in your sea-chest; needle and thread, to repair your clothes if they get torn; a set of chess pieces or draughts, to pass the time; as much food as you can carry, especially dried or salted things that will last a long time; a fishing net; a bow and arrows to hunt birds, or small animals, to provide fresh meat; and, hoping that you do finally arrive somewhere where there are people to trade with, some treasure to buy anything else you find you need during the course of the journey, or perhaps some trade items to bring home with you. Also weapons, to fight off any pirates you meet- or perhaps to do a bit of plundering yourself, if the opportunity arose...... you can probably think of lots of other things too.)

 

13. DRAGON FIGUREHEAD

Nearly everyone will have heard about the famous dragon-heads the Norsemen had on their ships. Yet, strangely, we do not really know what the figureheads of their ships looked like.

Only a very few have been discovered from archaeological sites; and, of these, several have been dated (using Carbon-14 tests) to show that they really belong to the period of Folk Migrations, which was some 200-300 years before what we consider to be the classic "Viking era".

Other ships which have been dug up either have no decoration at all; or else (like the famous Oseberg ship) they have curved tail-like shapes at both ends. Some tapestries and illustrated manuscripts from later on in the Viking period do show dragon-heads on some ships (e.g. on the Bayeux Tapestry showing the invasion of England by the Normans in 1066 AD). But these look quite different to the few wooden sculptures we have found preserved in the ground. It is all a bit confusing.

Why is the dragon head lying down? (one thing we do know for sure is that the Icelanders made a law which said that anyone who did have a ship with a dragon-head, must take the head down whenever he came into port. This was so that the fierce face carved on it would not scarce the spirits of the land, who were protecting the harbour. This is why the model shows the dragon-head taken down from the prow, and resting on the forward deck. Although the Normans were supposed to all be good Christians, it is interesting to note that there are many ships shown on the Bayeux Tapestry crossing the English Channel which have dragon-heads; but none of the ships shown drawn up on the shore has one. Maybe the Normans still thought it was bad luck to leave them up, when their ships got to land).

14. LOOK-OUT MAN

A wise precaution, in a time when there was no organised police force to protect you from raids by pirate Vikings - especially when there is something as valuable as a ship waiting to be stolen.

What weapons does this man have? (he is armed simply with a spear, and the knife that everyone would carry in their belt; he has borrowed one of the shields from the ship; he has no sword, or helmet, or shirt of iron-ring armour as these things would be far too expensive for most ordinary people to afford).

15. MAST (detachable)

The Gokstad ship features a massive piece of timber, which sits over the middle five ribs of the ship. This block is level with the decking of the ship. It is very firmly held in place, with iron bands and huge nails. If you looked underneath the deck, in the bottom of the ship, you would also see another very similar-looking block of wood resting on the keel itself.

On a real ship the mast would be put into position by first sliding it into place (from the direction of the back of the ship); and then slowly standing the mast upright, passing it right through the top block, and down until it was resting in a socket in the lower block of wood. Finally, when the mast was absolutely vertical, it would be locked into place with the large rectangular piece of wood you can see on the model.

On a real ship there would also have been rigging, with ropes running to both ends of the ship, and to the sides, to stabilise the mast against the strain of a fully-set sail. This has not been shown on the model ship, as it was not possible to replicate this feature whilst keeping it simple for teachers to put up (and take down) the mast when visiting each school. However you can see a few token ropes, and wooden pulleys, on the model mast.

To raise the mast on the model ship, simply insert it vertically downward. Adjust the rectangular locking block by pushing with a blunt object (like a matchstick) if necessary - it is not glued. If it gets too loose, a new locking block can be made out of balsa or pine, or any similar soft wood. ( Cold black coffee or tea are both excellent for staining wood to make it look suitably old and worn to match the rest of the ship !)

*** PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW CHILDREN TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE MODEL MAST ***.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS MODEL

The design of the Gokstad ship, and various other details of ship’s equipment, is taken from the book The Viking Ships: their ancestry and evolution, by AW Brøgger and H Sheltely, ISBN 82 0900030 6). First published in the late 1950’s, this remains one of the best basic reference works on the subject. Sadly it is now long out of print, but your library may still be able to get hold of a copy from a central reference stock.

Many other details (including the farm layout) were obtained from The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings (edited by Peter Sawyer, 1997, OUP, ISBN 019 820 526 0). Illustrated with numerous colour plates, as well as

black-and-white photos and line drawings, this collection of essays by different experts on the Viking period must be one of the best general introductory reference books on the market today. The current UK price is £25.00 for the hardback edition.

Also worth consulting are any of the large range of books produced over the past 30 years by Magnus Magnusson, either on general Norse culture, or the translations he has made of several of the sagas (in collaboration with Hermann Pálson). Of particular relevance to the Viking Relay project is The Vinland Sagas (1965, Penguin, ISBN 0 14 044154 9) which is still in print in paperback at a UK price of only £5.99, or US $10.95. Magnusson provides not only a good translation into modern English, but also many pages of introduction and notes. Rumour has it that Penguin Books are aiming to have a new translation of Heimskringla out for the summer of 2001, in the same series of Classics paperbacks.

The ship is constructed of planks carved out of real oak-wood veneer (the sort of material used to cover furniture). The whole display rests on a base of hardboard, onto which plastic foam-board has been firmly glued to form the main part of the landscape. Everything else on the model has been made up from pieces of scrap wood, plastic foam, or metal, with the exception of the model people and animals.

The model people and livestock were bought in from a range of British firms who make figures out of lead or tin alloy for collectors, or for people interested in fighting battles with model soldiers. These figures are "15mm scale", that is to say that an adult man of just under 2m in height in real life would be represented by a model figure who was 15mm tall. A wide range of similar figures are also available in the slightly larger 25mm scale, (although it isn’t quite as easy to get hold of civilian figures in this size, nor quite such a variety of farm animals). These models may contain lead, which can be poisonous if ingested; they are also of a small size, which could possibly cause a child to choke if swallowed; please be careful about letting young children handle the model without close supervision.

The builder of the model, Nicholas Brown, would be happy to give advice to any persons considering making similar models for their own educational establishments. Making models on this scale is something that most people with an eye for detail, and reasonable co-ordination with their hands, should be able to achieve with a fair degree of success. Mistakes are rarely disastrous, and the basic raw materials are all relatively inexpensive. Even painting the little figures is actually somewhat easier than it looks, once you know a few basic techniques. All of the firms who make the model figures offer a mail-order service world-wide.

But before thinking of any such project, be warned about one thing ! The main problem will be the vast amount of time you will need to devote to finishing it! Even a quite small display such as this can take 20-30 hours of careful attention: and you must count not only to the time for the actual model-making itself, but also for getting hold of all the different materials you may require. If you are still interested in having a go, despite these words of caution, I can be contacted either by normal letter post (85 Teignmouth Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 7AX, England); or by

e-mail (cnutwise@hotmail.com).

THE VIKING TREASURE

 * Leather Purse

* set of seven replica English silver penny coins: the three smallest ones are reproductions of the coins minted by Cnut the Great in 1018 AD, from the tax (geld) he raised in England to pay off the Viking mercenary troops who he had brought with him in order to secure his claim to the throne. The two slightly larger ones, showing the profile of the left side of a king’s face, are based upon pennies made at the order of the Cnut’s immediate predecessor on the English throne, the unfortunate Saxon leader Æthelred the Second. (His name is fairly easy to read on the coins). He was described by chroniclers of his own time as not getting any good advice from his courtiers - he was Un-Advised (in Old English Un-ræde). This has been mistranslated by later historians, who call him the Unready, in the sense of being ill-prepared. In fact he was not so much ill-prepared as totally out-classed as a general, first by King Svein Forkbeard of Denmark, and then by his son Cnut; and foolish, in thinking that if he tried to buy the Danes off with large sums of money, they would go away. Instead they simply kept coming back for more, and eventually took over the whole kingdom.

* replica of a silver arm bangle: a very popular form of decoration for both men and women, in Scandinavia or in

England (where this one was presumably stolen from).

* replica of a gold ring: gold was not as common in Scandinavia as silver was.

* replica of a gold necklace pendant: reproduction of an actual item found at Vindinge in Denmark. Probably of local manufacture. The wheel shape may have religious significance. (Swastika motifs were perhaps just as common, but not very suitable for use in a school project - but next time you buy some incense sticks off a Hare Krishna devotee, just have a look at what is printed on the back of many of the packets. )

* piece of real Baltic amber: always very popular with Scandinavian peoples. A piece like this one, with lots of individual features, could be used as a good-luck charm; or else kept to be later mounted in a piece of jewellery.

* necklace of polished stones. Used mainly amongst ordinary folk who could not afford much gold or silver. Possibly of some use also when bartering for furs with native peoples such as the Finns and Laplanders - or even the inhabitants of Vinland. This necklace is the right size to fit a child, or a small woman. (The brass clasp at the back, which unscrews, is not really historically accurate, but is hopefully strong enough to survive use in a classroom !)

* three pieces of "hack-silver": the Vikings may have liked bright colours, and all kinds of jewellery and decoration, but they were also a highly practical people. If they came across objects made out of precious metal, which were not especially beautifully-made, they were quite prepared to cut them up and use pieces of them like money, as payment for whatever they wanted to buy on their travels. Here we have the remains of two silver arm bangles: presumably it was easier to fit them into the purse if they were hammered down a bit first, with the blunt edge of an axe; and then half of one of the bangles was cut off, in order to pay for something.

* small silver chalice: presumably borrowed from a church somewhere in England or Ireland. This kind of chalice would have been used to hold Communion bread to give to the congregation, whilst the priest (and he alone) drank the holy wine from a much grander drinking cup, possibly made of gold. The design has been blasphemously copied, many centuries later, by a certain well-known chain of British restaurants, who use such vessels to serve prawn cocktails.

* brass ash-tray in the form of a whale: thought to be from Greenland, early to mid 13th Century. Such artefacts such as this, and the famous Kensington Rune-Stone, conclusively prove the success of Leif Erikson’s successors in continuing the task of exploration down the North American sea-board, perhaps as far as modern New England and Virginia. Unfortunately little was known in those days of the dangers of smoking high-tar cigarettes, particularly in the centuries before the invention of effective filters, so this may well also go some way to explaining the unfortunate disappearance of the last Greenland colonists, some time after 1410 AD (the date of the last recorded return-voyage to there from Iceland, and tragically only some eighty years before the continent was re-discovered by Christopher Colombus).

Selected extracts from Snorre Sturlason’s writings

 


Updated 01.01. 2000 by The Viking Network