• The name ‘Viking’ means ‘a pirate raid’ in the Old Norse language.
  • Around 500 years before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the American continent, Vikings had visited its shores, landing in what is now Canada in around AD 1000.
  • Among the many gods Vikings believed in were Thor, the god of thunder, and Loki, a cheeky mischief-maker who could shape-shift to become all different kinds of animals. What a beast!
  • The Vikings were expert boat builders and sailors. Keels – central spines along boats’ bottoms – made their 16 to 37m ‘longboats’ easy to steer, and because these were designed to float high in the water, landing on beaches was easy.
  • They loved to keep themselves clean and tidy. Several Viking excavations have turned up razors, combs, tweezers, and even ear cleaners. It turns out these savage warriors cared quite a lot about their personal hygiene. Historians also believe that the typical Viking citizen bathed at least once a week, far more than any other European group during that time.

Can you find some Fun Facts about the Vikings?
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5 comments on “Fun Facts about the Vikings

  1. The Vikings died out /ended when the raids stopped.

  2. The Vikings ate salted fish, pork, goat and alot of fresh bread. For dessert the Vikings will eat fresh fruit and a little honey on buttered bread. The Vikings came from three different countries of Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden.The Vikings died out when the raids stopped. At the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Norwegian king Haraldr harðráði was killed because he tried to reclaim a portion of England.

  3. 1 Vikings were invaders pirate raiders you may call them everyone feared them even them selves. The word Vikings means a pirate raid that comes from a old language called old Norse. People who off went raiding in ships were said to be “going Viking”

    2 The parts of Britain where most Vikings settled were northern Scotland and eastern England. For 500 years, from about AD 900, Vikings ruled the north of Scotland, the Orkney and Shetland isles and the Hebrides islands off the west coast. In Ireland, Vikings founded the city of Dublin.

  4. Days of the week are named after gods worshipped by Vikings. The god Odin, otherwise known as Woden, gives us Wednesday . Meanwhile, Tuesday and Friday are named after Tyr and Frigg, the god and goddess of war and marriage, respectively. Finally, and possibly most famously, the Norse god of thunder and strength Thor is for Thursday.

  5. Did you know that the Vikings Leader was called King Gruthrum? They took crowds of Viking’s and tried to “Get rid” of King Alfred the Anglo-Saxon King of England at the time.

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