Vikinging was the “ summer job ” that these 8th-century Scandinavians began to do. Fara í víking mean “ going on expedition ” in Old Nordic, something they did in the summer months. They temporarily left their villages, leaving behind their occupations as farmers and ranchers, to seek out new lands and acquire impressive booties. Those who embarked each season on this job began to call themselves “ Vikings ” without knowing that they were besides coining the term that would provide a mention to their own people and that would, by extension, denominate an entire epoch .
Boats adapted to any sea
Plundering became their peculiarity thanks to their versatile vessels. “ Their warships were light and designed to be able to navigate up to one metre deep, so they could venture into rivers, marshes or approach the beach itself. There were riverbank carpenters under the command of an adept who personally chose the trees that had to be cut down. The see was never used, ” says the adept Manuel Velasco, author of more than ten Viking-themed books .
Although they besides used other types of ships, the most characteristic Viking vessel was the drakkar, “ dragon ” in Old Norse. Long and narrow— the largest recuperate has 35 meters in distance —the drakkar allowed them to move in places where there was very little body of water thanks to a very low conscription of scantily half a meter, an initiation for the time. Overlapping the boards that made up the ship ’ sulfur hull, as it was being built, made it very flexible. They were besides symmetrical ships, equally long in the bow as in the austere, which facilitated turning at great accelerate. These were ships made to transport people and to go very fast, which under favorable conditions could reach close to 30km/h ( 16 knots ).
The drakkar became the greatest military tool of the Scandinavians, as its characteristics allowed them to navigate both Atlantic and Mediterranean waters. “ Until well into the Middle Ages, the ships of the Mediterranean civilizations could not sail faithfully in the Atlantic, while the Vikings had long had ships adapted to any ocean, ” recalls David Fernandez Abella, an subaqueous archeology adept in medieval history .
Solar stones for orientation
In addition to the advantage that their ships gave them, the Vikings reached their objectives promptly because they knew how to orient themselves by the sun even on cloudy days. “ The use of a solar stone is known from the writings of monks, who mention it when talking about the Vikings. This rock reflects sunlight and, depending on the focus, indicates one ’ south placement, ” explains Irene Garcia Losquiño, an expert on the Viking long time, recently arrived at the University of Alicante from Upsala in Sweden. Losquiño continues : “ If you can see the sunday, it ’ sulfur easy to orient yourself. This solar stone was for situations in which there were clouds out at ocean, but besides for walking between mountains or through a forest on an overcast day. ”
frankincense, although they did not have a circumnavigate, “ on the high seas they could know their location thanks to the Iceland spar, a type of calcite, which works as a polarizer, revealing a slight glitter where the sun is, ” says Manuel Velasco. In their travels through the North Atlantic, the Vikings besides used to take cages with ravens, to release them and check if there was land nearby. If the birds did not return, they had found it. “ The adept pilots even knew how to interpret details such as the color of the sea to orient themselves, ” says Velasco.
Read more: How Maritime Law Works
Their innovative ships and the ease with which they ascertained their placement gave the Vikings a decisive storm divisor in the first round of attacks. Another advantage they had was that they assaulted their enemies with incredible ferocity when the struggle commenced. “ When they attacked, they produced immense terror because they were not afraid to die. They aspired to reach Valhalla—heaven for the Vikings—with their gods, but only those warriors who had died honorably in conflict could enter there. The Valkyries would only collect the brave warriors, ” says Losquiño, describing the typical scandinavian position towards conflict .
Resistant swords
not lone did they have a natural disposition for making war, they besides possessed the best weapons, Ulfberht swords, immune arms imported from the Rhineland ( the region in contemporary Germany ), which had a carbon proportion three times greater than that of early metals of the era. “ These are swords that we find everywhere there was a Viking diaspora. They became stylish, ” says Losquiño. The fame of the Vikings for being capital soldiers arrived all the manner to Byzantium where they were hired to flesh out the permanent royal guard of the emperors. Losquiño explains that : “ They were elect mercenaries who formed the Varega guard, known for being a military corporation composed chiefly of Vikings. ”
Read more: How Maritime Law Works
great explorers though they were, the Vikings have gone down in history more for their pitiless attacks. “ They gave rise to the black caption of the time for attacking Christian religious sites. however, as monks were the merely ones who knew how to write, one might say that their chronicles, without being delusive, were possibly a little exaggerated, ” says Velasco .
Regarding the far-flung idea that they wore helmets adorned with horns, Abella dispels the myth : “ There was the theme that they were demons, like the devil… and from there to adding horns and a tail was easy, but archaeologically there is no attest of anything even like. ”
