Viking Day Part 3
The Norwegian Vikings found Iceland, Greenland and Vineland which we call America. The Swedish Vikings wanted to trade and headed to a city we now call Istanbul in Turkey. They had to cross another land and they did it in their ships?? Longships only needed a metre of water to sail in so they sailed up the rivers and then drag it out of the water and across the land to the next river until they reached the BLack Sea. THe locals called them the Russ and they were settling the first states of Russia. There was a Viking called Haftan who was sat in a church and he took a knive from his belt and scratched his name in a stone in Runes. The Danes came here not looking for land or to trade, but to rob, steal and raid. We had lots of metal here which they didn't have in Denmark . The Vikings neede metal to make things such as weapons , tools and locks. Metal such as steel was used to start fire. The class loved looking at the tinderbox and how flax, flint and metal were used to make fire. The Vikings thought this was magic, the kangaroos thought it was magic too!
we learnt about trading for example silver for a goat. Silver acted as money allowing them to trade wherever they went. Scales were used to weigh out silver when they were trading. At the same time the Saxons were living here they were turning their silver into coins by chopping up diver into same sixe pieces and stamping them. The amount of silver in the coin was worth 16 chickens. If only wanted 8 chickens they cut it in half. These were called the halfpenny , a fourthing ( farthing) if it was split into four.
Viking gods are the names of four of our days of the week Tia which is Tuesday, Odin which is Wednesday, Thor which is Thursday and Frejya which is Friday.
The monks had a secret weapon that defeated the Vikings a feather!!! They used them to write about the Vikings called the Anglo Saxon Chronicles.
The Vikings had slaves to work for them and to sell them. If they talked too much they pulled their tongues out! By age of 12 children would be getting married. Vikings came up with word husband- hus means hose and bond was the money paid.
