THE VIKINGS

The Vikings started going all over the place about 1,250 years ago.. They came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
The Vikings used boats to go everywhere. They kidnapped people for slaves to row their boats which was extremely hard work. They went to England, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and America as well as East Europe and north into Russia.
They Vikings were a bunch of marauders and they stole everything from the monasteries, - money and valuables like siver, gold, bronze and other things. They really liked to fight and they went to plenty of wars. Even the English kings used them as soldiers to sort out problems in many parts of England.
Later, the Vikings married into the royal families of England and France.
King Harold was the last true English King, but he was killed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 after fighting first the Saxons in the North of England and then ,running to the South to fight Willaim of Normanby.
The Vikings loved stories. They developed a huge library of myths and legends as a way of explaining the world to their children. This library is part of our heritage today.
Some Viking language is still used in English, because they established their own communities in England and the language got mixed into English and can still be heard today.

Written by Celts - Feo, Jason, Valerie, Wendy, Ashley and Andrew.
From Unit 5 "Ancient Civilizations"