One of my favorite trips we went on was to Copenhagen, Denmark because we went to the Viking Ship Museum. We saw old Viking ships. We did some Viking crafts, like wood cutting and weapon making. I got to make my own miniature Viking ship and Viking weapons. I made a sword. I had a choice to make an axe or a sword. Now I kind of wish I chose to make the axe because the axe was so much cooler.
Viking ship at Roskilde Viking Museum, Denmark
I love Norse mythology and old Viking legends. Vikings were the original explorers. The Norse men explored Scandinavia and Europe by the seas and rivers. They traded and raided all over Europe. The Vikings were like the British, because they took over everything on that side of the world. They conquered everything before the British – from 793 to 1066 AD.
The Vikings didn’t keep written records so almost all of the history is written by their enemies. Vikings were seen as brutal invaders. But I think they were just misunderstood. There are a lot of misunderstandings about the Vikings that I learned about in Denmark:
Vikings discovered America before Columbus. But Columbus gets the credit because no one wanted to admit that Vikings conquered the world. Like I said, they were the original explorers!
Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets. Some guy in the 19th century made Viking costumes for the opera with horned helmets. Artists painted pictures of Vikings with horned helmets. But there’s really no evidence they wore helmets with horns at all. It was all made much later for drama.
Vikings weren’t filthy dirty and stinky. Archaeologists have found evidence of combs, tweezers and other tools for grooming used by the Vikings, so they probably had really good hygiene.
We always hear about how the sun never sets on the British empire and how Britain conquered the world. But the Vikings did it first.
