V as in Viking - abc-Wednesday, Round 6 - V / Alphabe-Thursday - V

This is my 8-year old son, Erik, who has been kind enough to help me with this post.

It is Wednesday, June 16th (even if I started this the day before yesterday) and both Mrs. Denise Nesbitt's abc-Wednesday and Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday have the letter 'V' as this week's assignment. Without even opening a dictionary, there was one word that came immediately to mind: VIKING. Instead of coming up with many different V-words, I am going to try to stick with just one word, 'Viking' and see what I can do with it.

'Varning för Vikingar' means 'Beware of the Vikings!' These are my son Erik's drawings.

Since 'Viking' or the 'Vikings' or the 'Viking Age' is a subject that could fill several books, I have decided to limit my study of the Vikings to just a few things that an eight-year-boy might deem important.

The Vikings were people who lived in Northern Europe from about 700 to 1000 A.D. (Take a look at this map of their travel-routes. Courtesy of Wikkipedia.)

They were tradesmen or pirates who travelled widely and who loved beautiful and intricate jewellery! They got a bad reputation for some of their methods of trade though (plundering, killing, burning villages, taking hostages with them and making them slaves at home). But whatever they did, they left their mark and are remembered. So why not use this name for a company that makes rubber boots?

Or why not use it for the name of a company of cruising ships/ferries that sail on the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland? This one sails in our bathtub:

The very word 'Viking' seems to mean 'daring', 'surprise attack', 'fast get-aways on small light-weight ships that could be carried from one river to another', 'the ultimate tourist' and generally really 'tough characters' with bad personal hygiene! Yes, and they were our ancesters too!!! (If you have Scandinavian ancesters, that is.) So here are are more of my son, Erik's Vikings:

I did the basic outline drawings from the illustrations in this book and then my son Erik coloured them and then I cut them and made the stands for them. (Quick and simple 'paper-tin-soldiers'! I've made lots of them!) Photo of two viking warriors from page13 of the Swedish transaltion of Viking, Eyewitness Guide (1994) [See Amazon-widget on sidebar.]

The manufacturers of toys and popular culture for children are quick to cash in on anything that stirs the imagination of little boys. Look at this page from a Lego-catalog:



Take a closer look at these guys:

Images from LEGO.com






Take an even closer look at this mini-Viking's helmet, it has horns!

On behalf of my eight-year-old son, Erik, and the historians and archeologists that have studied this area and period of history, the Vikings/Norsemen did not have horns on their helmets. Their helmets looked like the helmets that the men wear in the photo from Viking, Eyewitness Guide. The few written accounts (see Wikkipedia's article-Viking-here) and pictorial materal (such as the Bayeux Tapestry ) from that time, show that they had simple helmets without horns. Here is one of Erik's Vikings with a simple, hornless helmet:

But the Vikings did fight dragons, sea-monsters and giant squids!

Let's not forget that the Vikings could write and used letters called runes to carve in wood or stone. This is what their alphabet looked like:

There are lots of Runestones left in Sweden that often tell about a relative who was left behind in a country far away. (Look at 'Rokstenen' on my R-post.) These are photos that I took of the front and back side of a model that I have of the runestone, Rokstenen.

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I am beginning to feel a little guilty, because, this is a jewellery-blog and I haven't said that much about the Vikings love of silver and gold adornments! Sorry. But the age of the Vikings is a big subject. Too much for just one blog post. We'll have to stop here.

Seven-ringed collar from Möne in the Gold Room at the Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm, Sweden

And thank you Erik, for being such a good sport!

Here are some links to museum and encyclopedia sites for those who would like to know more:
Wikipedia/viking
Historiska museet
There are also books listed on the right-hand sidebar.

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Best wishes,

Anna

First Commenter:
Wanda of
Brush Strokes from the Heart

For more V-words at Mrs. Nesbitt's abcWednesday please click here.
For more V-words at Mrs. Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday please click here.

Read some last thoughts about the Vikings here.