Notes on Vikings 3/16

• Celtic tribes lived in Gaul and some of Ireland
• They were often at war with one another.
• They shared a common religious practice
○ Religious leaders called Druids - earth-based religion
• The tribes became Christianized, and Ireland had become a center of knowledge about Christianity.

• There were Norwegian Vikings and Swedish Vikings
• 8 - 11 Centuries
• They believed in Val Hela, the after life.. Odin would greet them as heroes if they died in battle.

• Norse Mythology
○ Primary sources
§ the elder Edda (poetic) and the younger Edda (prose) written in 13th century
□ Myths of gods
§ Heimskringla - poet in the 12th century - Snorri Sturluson
□ Legends of the kings
§ Not written until after the Vikings are Christianized.
○ Nine worlds - we live on Midgard
§ Asgard - where the gods are
§ Hel - netherworld

○ Runes - Runic Alphabet
○ Yggdrasil tree

○ Ragnarok - battle at the end of the world, the entire world is going to be on fire. A new world will be born from the ashes.
○ Odin is the king of the gods.
○ WAR

• Eric the Red
• Leaf Ericson - founded North America


• The Vikings are from Scandinavia.
• Their civilization was complex and artistic
• They developed wonderful ships
• People were buried in their ships because death was a journey
• Agriculturally oriented people
• Life of survival - climate was colder, it was difficult to stay alive
• The technology of their ships was what allowed them to have such an impact on history.