Time Tangled Island: Viking Explorers

Factropica Fast Facts and quizzes

by Beth Rowen

Viking ship Related Links Viking Explorers Birds as Symbols and Omens Denmark

Try our Viking Explorer Quiz!

Factropica Fast Facts

• Vikings lived in Scandinavia, which is present day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
• The Vikings were the best shipbuilders and sailors of their time.
• If the direction of land was unknown, Viking sailors would release a raven into the air and follow its course.
• Viking warriors were buried with their weapons, but not their armor.
• Viking women could get divorced, own property, control their wealth, and join or lead raiding parties.
• Vikings used runes, a complicated system of symbols, to write their language. Each rune represented a different goddess or god.
• Vikings believed Valkyries, female warriors, watched over battles and decided who would die.
• Vikings believed their dead went to Valhalla, the banquet hall of the god Odin in Asgard.
• Leif Ericsson was the first European discoverer of North America, c. 1000.
• The last attempt by the Vikings to establish a colony in North America occurred around 1013 A.D.

• More from World History