“The Vikings are brilliant! The longboats were awesome” “The Vikings were fierce, vicious and merciless” “I love Loki – he’s the god of mischief and so mean” “The Vikings ate a lot of meat, but they ate fruit and vegetables as well.  The carrots were purple then and they used honey instead of sugar."

The Vikings have proven to be a rich and rewarding topic for the Dragons this term.  So far, the children have explored and answered questions about the Viking age and have looked in particular at the Viking invasion of Britain over 1,000 years ago. Key questions included:

Who were the Vikings and where did they come from?

Why did they raid British shores, and why did some of them settle here?

How did they live, and what was everyday life like for most Viking settlers? What made Viking longships so successful?

What can we learn about their beliefs through our reading of Norse myths and sagas?

What do we know about the Vikings in Britain? What evidence do we have they were here?

Excerpts and illustrations from children’s work this term:

On Viking beliefs: I’m going to tell you about the Norse gods and goddesses. I really liked the stories about the gods doing crazy and strange things. We learned about Odin, the god of wisdom and the All father. He gave up his eye to gain wisdom. Freya was the goddess of love, war and death. The Vikings believed that when they died, they would go to Valhalla.  There they would feast all night and battle all day.

On Viking Long houses: I liked learning about Viking Longhouses mainly because I knew 0% about Viking normal life before this term…. Viking longhouses had no windows, so it was dark.  Actually, it wasn’t dark, because there was a big fire in the middle. They used oil lamps too, which could set things on fire. The animals had a different room in the longhouse.   

I liked learning about Viking Longhouses because it was fun to learn how different everything was in the Viking age. Many families lived in one room. They didn’t have any windows and there was no light except for an open fire which they used for cooking. Instead of sleeping in normal beds, they slept on benches around the room. Vikings settled here in Britain partly because the weather was warmer than their homes in Scandinavia. Some Vikings came to raid monasteries because they owned gold.  They also wanted to kill monks!

On Viking food: I liked learning about Viking food because it was fun looking at the differences between Viking food and modern day food. For example, the Vikings actually ate cake (well it was oatcake, but still cake).  

On Viking Longships: Viking longships were quite clever, because the stern was the same as the front of the boat.  This meant that they had an easy escape route because they could just sail backwards!