*****Please take a look through this article on Viking inventions. Choose 2
inventions and research how they have been modernized today, about 1 page in
length. Include a modern-day picture of the inventions.
10 Amazing Viking
Inventions And
Innovations
by Gary Pullman
fact checked by Jamie Frater
Today, Vikings are known mostly for their ferocity as barbaric raiders who
lived to loot, pillage, and burn. They were formidable adversaries whose
merciless forays into Europe gave rise to a special prayer for deliverance
among their victims.
The Vikings were also phenomenal engineers. Their inventions and
innovations gave them an edge in battle, trade, and other pursuits, enabling
them to sail across oceans, seas, and inland rivers.
Although many of their technological marvels were related to battle, some of
their inventions and innovations revolutionized sailing and navigation. Others
were useful for personal and military travel through harsh environments or
bivouacking in cold, rugged terrain. One of their inventions reflects their
personal vanity and sense of self.
Each of these 10 amazing Viking inventions and innovations reflects the true
nature of the Norsemen as much as their prowess in battle, their piratical
practices, and their daring seamanship. They show another forgotten or
neglected side of the medieval Scandinavian character.
10Battle-Axe
Photo credit: replicaweaponry.com
Although early Viking battle-axes were simply axes used to chop wood,
this tool was modified over the years and became a battle-axe unique among
medieval warriors. The blade became larger and broader. A hook was added
to the lower end of the blade. In battle, the hook could be used to catch an
enemy by the foot or the rim of his shield. The axe handle became longer,
allowing Vikings to strike their foes from a greater distance.
Well-balanced weapons, the battle-axes were easy to use and effective in
inflicting wounds or causing deaths. Although some Viking stories include
scenes in which the axes are used as throwing weapons, such a tactic was
seldom, if ever, used in battle. However, it might be employed in retaliation for
injury.[1]
9Comb
Photo credit: york.ac.uk
Most Viking inventions and innovations were related to the hit-andrun military campaigns conducted during their raids and involved shipbuilding,
camping, combat, and other related practical enterprises. Despite their
penchant for waging guerrilla warfare, it seems that the Vikings were vain
about their appearance. When they sailed off in search of plunder, they took
with them the combs they created from deer antlers.
“You might expect these to be throwaway objects, but in some cases, they
were superbly decorated, and all were massively overengineered,”
archaeologist Steve Ashby said. He added that the combs were made of the
same material as specialized tools like polishers, saws, and rasps.
For Vikings, appearance was an important aspect of their identity. “They took
a great deal of care with their grooming and often carried combs with their
swords and knives on their belts. They frequently even took combs to the
grave,” Ashby explained.[2]
After the Norman Conquest in the 11th century, comb-making died out in
England. This may have been the result of the Forest Law, or perhaps antlers
became prohibitively expensive. But, in Sweden, combs imported from
Norway continued to be purchased and used.
8Keel
Photo credit: vikingskip.com
Roman and Celtic designs provided the bases for the earliest Viking ships.
These vessels were propelled by oars rather than paddles. In choppy waters,
such ships tended to capsize. They were also slow, so trips were usually brief
and followed the course of the shoreline.
During the eighth century, a Viking invention revolutionized shipbuilding and
maritime voyaging. The keel gave stability to Viking ships so that they became
seaworthy. It also became a base to secure the mast. Instead of relying on
oarsmen to power the ship, a huge sail of up to 245 meters (800 ft) was added
as an important propulsion method.[3]
With the keel, Vikings were no longer limited to short forays along the shore.
They were able to carry food, timber, and animals as cargo across distances
of 6,400 kilometers (4,000 mi) in the Atlantic Ocean.
7Longboat
Photo credit: asme.org
A marvel of engineering, the Viking longboat was unparalleled in
the medieval world. The Vikings enjoyed advantages in war, trade, and
exploration thanks to their ships’ flexible, durable designs and their ability to
sail in many different directions according to the wind.
Dr. William Short, who specializes in Viking history and culture, pointed out
that the ships’ especially shallow drafts enabled them to operate in shallow
water. So they could travel up river and “surprise people in places where no
one expected an oceangoing ship to appear.” From their homes in
Scandinavia, the Vikings journeyed as far west as Vinland (Newfoundland), as
far east as Russia, and as far southeast as a portion of the Byzantine Empire
(Turkey).
As a result using the beitass, a “spar that helped to brace the sail against
strong winds,” longboats could tack with changing winds, making them highly
maneuverable. Unlike other ships of the time, Viking vessels were also
amazingly flexible.
As Short points out, “They weren’t firmly nailed together, [so] they actually
bent with the waves rather than taking the full force of the waves and possibly
breaking.” Their ships’ flexible design was another characteristic that allowed
the Vikings to sail the open sea despite rough waves.[4]
6Magnetic Compass
Photo credit: quora.com
Using the mineral magnetite (aka lodestone), which is abundant throughout
Scandinavia, the Vikings invented one of the first magnetic compasses. The
Chinese were the only other culture to have invented such a compass,
possibly even earlier than the Vikings did.
Only when the other Europeans began to trade with China were they able to
obtain magnetic compasses from the Chinese. For 500 years, the Vikings
alone had this instrument among Europeans and they kept its existence a
secret. Using their compasses, the Vikings were able to sail across the
Atlantic Ocean despite the occasional presence of thick fog.
Neither the Vikings nor most other medieval mariners were able to determine
longitude well, if at all, but the Vikings were adept at reckoning latitude. They
knew that the Sun marked the east at sunrise and the west at sunset. They
also understood that, “at noon the Sun is due south [and during] months when
the Sun does not set below the horizon, the position of the Sun at midnight
indicates due north.”
This knowledge allowed them to employ their magnetic compasses in
navigation.[5]
5Shield
The Viking shield was like no other medieval buckler. In size, it was 75–90
centimeters (30–35 in). Used as a defense in combat, the shield also
protected the Vikings from winds and waves during their sea voyages.
The flat face, or board, of the shield was made of seven or eight planks from
firs, alders, or poplars. These woods were light and flexible. Rather than
directly joined to one another, the planks were probably anchored together by
other attached parts like the handle and leather cover. It is also possible that
the Vikings glued the planks together.[6]
The shield’s thin, flexible wood made it less likely to be split by the blows of an
enemy’s weapons. The wood’s thinness absorbed the force of impact, while
the supple wood’s fibers bound around the blades of a sword as it got stuck in
the wooden shield. This helped to block blows.
Viking warriors formed lines and overlapped their shields to form a defensive
“shield wall” that deflected enemy missiles and resisted penetration of their
ranks.
4Western-Style Skis
Photo credit: thornews.com
Vikings took time to enjoy skiing. Although the Russians and Chinese may
have invented skis before the Vikings did so, the Norsemen introduced
Western-style skiing. The word “ski” is derived from the Old Norse skio.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Scandinavian hunters, farmers, and warriors
often used skis. In Norway, 18th-century troops participated in competitive
skiing matches. In the 1700s, Swiss soldiers also trained and competed on
skis. These events were inspired by the Viking tradition of skiing for
recreational and transportation purposes.[7]
Even the Norse gods skied and walked on snowshoes according to
illustrations of Skadi (the goddess of bowhunting, skiing, winter, and
mountains) and Ullr (the god of snowshoes, hunting, the bow, and the shield).
3Sun Compass
Photo credit: ksl.com
The Vikings’ sun compass was a simple but ingenious navigational device that
allowed them to sail great distances. The sun compass consisted of a peg, the
gnomon, inserted through a hole in the center of a circular, wooden, or
soapstone plate known as the sun shadow board. The board was held
horizontally so that the gnomon stood vertically.
The shadow of the gnomon fell across the board. Its position was marked, and
the process was repeated every hour from sunrise to sunset. A line drawn to
connect the points made a hyperbolic curve, the gnomon line, which was
determined by the ship’s latitude, the Sun’s declination (height above the
equator), and the gnomon’s height.[8]
In navigating, the Vikings had to compensate for variations in the height of the
Sun at various times of the year. To offset the effects of their ship’s pitch, the
compass was left to float in a container of water held above the ship’s deck.
2Sunstone
Photo credit: Live Science
A calcite crystal (aka Icelandic spar) was found amid the wreckage of an
Elizabethan warship known as the Alderney ship. The vessel sank in 1592
around the Channel Islands.
The crystal’s location suggests that it may have been used as a navigational
device. Although no complete calcite crystals have been found at Viking sites,
a fragment of one was found at such a location recently. The two
discoveries—the fragment and the Alderney crystal—constitute the first
evidence that the Vikings’ fabled sunstone may have actually existed.[9]
Due to its shape, the crystal doubles an image by bending or polarizing
sunlight. By holding the sunstone so that the images merge, a navigator could
have determined an east-west direction even in heavy fog, under cloudy
conditions, or after the Sun had descended beyond the horizon.
Relying on a sunstone during conditions that precluded the use of a sun
compass, Vikings might have drifted north or south. But on the next sunny
day, they could have employed their sun compass to correct their course.
Using the instruments to complement one another allowed the Vikings to sail
in all sorts of weather and under both favorable and unfavorable conditions.
1Tent
Photo credit: tentsmiths.com
The Viking tent was plain, practical, and brilliant. Tent frames were discovered
on a buried, ninth-century Viking ship in Gokstad in Sandar, Sandefjord,
Vestfold, Norway.
The bottoms of a pair of crossed beams were inserted in each of two ends of
a square wooden platform. Then, a pole was run through each pair of beams
near their tops. Next, a rectangular piece of material 5 meters (17 ft) long by 4
meters (14 ft) wide was draped across the pole and its ends were secured to
the other two sides of the platform.[10]
The 3-meter-tall (11 ft) tent could be set up in minutes, and it provided its
users with a dry shelter with a wooden floor. There was even a decorative
element in the four dragons’ heads carved into the tops of the support beams,
two of which looked one way while their companions gazed in the opposite
direction.