Norse Ships & Mythology

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Collin Tally Medieval Modern History Donald Stillwell 11/22/11 Norse Ships/Mythology Say the word Vikings and immediately the thought of pillaging, raping, and plundering come to mind. The Vikings were an absolute savage group of people. The term Viking is normally used to refer to Norse people who were fighters, traders, merchants, explorers etc. The Vikings were believed to have lived from anywhere in between the 8th to the middle of the 11th century. The Vikings are an incredibly fascinating people and a lot of their cultural facets are very unique and amazing. The mythology, craftsmanship and engineering feats were just a small part of the rich vibrant history of the Norseman. The Vikings were mainly known for their rather brutal and unethical attacks from city to city, but another thing that Vikings are extremely famous for is their ships. Most people would assume that the Vikings only had one type of ship but that is incorrect. There were different types of ships that the Vikings engineered and built and each one was unique in its own right. When people think of Viking ships they think of very big ornate ships. While that is not incorrect that is not entirely the whole story. Vikings were mostly seen in boats instead of the massive ships that are more commonly thought of. The most common boat that was seen was called the Faering. The Faering was more often than not about nineteen feet long and were mostly used to cross rivers, lakes, etc. This boat had lots of different uses such as fishing, transporting people or animals. The term Faering is a literal way of saying four oars. This type of boat is still seen today where each rower has two oars each and act as the propulsion and steering for the boat. The most commonly recognized ship of the Vikings is their longship. A longship could have up to forty four oars which meant the ship would have to be
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