A research project of Vikings_m6u4project课文原文
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A research project of Vikings The Foreword
The reasons I choose the Viking as the theme of my research report are varied.Mainly because the Viking‘s history is not so well-known and popular as that of the ancient Roman, ancient Greece, Celts and others, therefore there is a incentive for me to finding out more that many people may not know.Also, before working on this report, the first impreion of Vikings to me is the figure of pirate and dragon.I would be more interested in the kind of culture which is well-known as pirate.This report is divided into five parts;they are The Viking Age, The Viking Society, The Viking‘s Art, The Viking‘s influence to the World and The Viking Longships.The Viking Longships is an extra topic that I add into, for that I think a seafaring nation must advanced in shipbuilding techniques.Introduction
The term Viking originating from Old Norse vikingr is used to refer to the Scandinavian explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates.Those Scandinavian people traveled widely in Europe and the North Atlantic islands from 8th to the mid-11th century, during which the period is also called the Viking Age of Scandinavian history.In my researching, I found the Vikings are famous with their longships(their ship-building techniques will be illustrated below), by which they travel as far east as Constantinople and Volga Ruia, and as far as Iceland, Greenland ,and Newfoundland(a large Canadian island off the east coast of North American), and as far south as Al Andalus(parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims).This period of Viking expansion forms a major part of the medieval history of Scandinavia, British, Ireland and the rest of Europe in general.The most important primary sources for information on the Vikings are different sorts of contemporary evidence from Scandinavia and the various regions in which the Vikings were active.The Scandinavians did write inscriptions in runes, but these were usually very short and formulaic.The Viking Age
The period from the earliest recorded raids in the 790s until 1066 is commonly known as the Viking Age of Scandinavian history.The Viking‘s impact to Europe can be seen from the aspect of their descendents, for that the Normans were descended from Danish and Norwegian Vikings who gained the overlord ship of Normandy in 10th century.From the geographical aspect, besides Scandinavia, the territories under North Germanic dominance, Scandinavian York, parts of Mercia and East Anglia should be included as be aigned as the ―Viking Age‖.Viking navigators opened the road to new lands in all directions and made many independent settlements in the Shetland, Orkney, and Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and L‘Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in about 1000 A.D.According to the archaeologies, several important trading ports during the Viking Age included Birka, Hedeby,Kaupang, Iorvik, Starava Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev.It also has been pointed out that the Viking reached the city of Baghdad, the center of the Islamic Empire according to discoveries of the Viking‘s trade goods.Also, to the east, the Kievan Rus, as the original Ruia was also firstly settled by the Vikings.When it came to 11th century, the Viking age was about to end.The reason of the Viking Age‘s dead is relatively clear comparing to its raise.The Viking raiders‘ enthusiasm of expanding to outside lands played a key role in the ending thought it also made the Vikings at the very beginning, because the Scandinavia were subjected to a variety of new influence at the same time.With the Viking homeland‘s Christianization, thus the end of the Viking Age for the Scandinavians also marks the start of their relatively brief Middle Age.The Viking Society
Social claes
Viking society was made up of three distinct claes-landowning nobles, freeman and slaves.Vikings warriors mainly consisted of the noble and freeman claes.Though Vikings were famous for their brutish nature-to the people they raided but when they weren‘t out burning, pillaging and enslaving, Vikings homed to their farmland, where they were strict social claes, governing daily life.The claes of the Viking society were consisted of three claes, they were Boendr, Freeman and Thrall.The Viking nobility were called Boendr.They were the strongest and richest in society.Unlike other feudal societies in Western Europe, that a Bondr had no direct overload.They were a fiercely independent cla.The next social cla referred to as the Freeman.This was the most broad and varied group of Viking society.Freeman were generally made up of men who were born into that cla, though some might be freed slaves, since upward mobility was allowed in Scandinavian society.Freeman were composed of fishermen, shipwrights, metal workers, carpenters, craftsmen and farm workers.The lowliest cla in Viking society was the slave cla, called Thralls.Thralls did the lowliest work and were treated no better than a dog or horse.A Viking slave could purchase their own freedom.Their owners could give them a plot of land to work, thereby saving money to put toward their freedom.The Viking Life The men who were called Vikings, typically came from the Boendr and Freemen claes.Each spring and summer these men would leave home for months at a time to sail the seas in search of riches and glory.In the fall and winter, when the seas were too dangerous to cro, the Vikings would return home to their village or farms, where they farmed, hunted and gathered.Hunting was plentiful, thanks to great expanses of forests in Scandinavia.Farming was just as important to Viking society.Barely, oats, rye and hops were all important crops for the Vikings, providing much food for the long winter months.Viking Society was similar to other Western European societies during the Medieval Ages.However, Vikings maintained fierce independence that became their trademark on and off the battlefield.The Viking’s Art
Viking art has many elements in common with Celtic Art, Romanesque art and East-European(Eurasian)Art.There are six main styles;Oseberg, Borre, Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike and Urnes style.The Jelling style is named after the Jelling royal grave where the Jelling stones are located, and features prominent animal designs.As might be expected among a race of aggreive outdoor warriors, Viking art tends to be more functional and symbolic, rather than contemplative or expreive.And since Vikings were often moving from place to place, most Norse art consists of portable artworks, such as decorated drinking horns, body amour, pagan icons, paddles, and a wide range of objects used in daily life.That said, their wood carving and sculpture displays great inventivene and level of skill, and Viking artists have left a rich legacy of extravagant animal ornament.Besides, their metalworking was also of a high quality.As might be expected among a race of aggreive outdoor warriors, Viking art tends to be more functional and symbolic, rather than contemplative or expreive.And since Vikings were often moving from place to place, most Norse art consists of portable artworks, such as decorated drinking horns, body amour, pagan icons, paddles, and a wide range of objects used in daily life.That said, their wood carving and sculpture displays great inventivene and level of skill, and Viking artists have left a rich legacy of extravagant animal ornament.Their metalworking was also of a high quality and both influenced and were influenced by Celtic metalwork art.Early Viking art focused on jewellery and weapons, while later craftsmen are known for their silver-work and runestones.Norse art also survives in the form of small-scale carvings in amber, jet, bone, walrus ivory and, occasionally, wood.Moving away from the visual arts, the Viking interest in riddles and rhyme led to a rich tradition of poetry and story-telling, as celebrated in Old Norse epic sagas.But perhaps the greatest Viking achievement is the longship, whose ingenuity and effectivene have raised it almost to an art form.In summary, the imaginativene and intricacy of Viking arts and crafts contrasts strongly with the other image of the pillaging barbarian.Norse craftsmen excelled in woodwork and metalwork, engraving and adorning brooches, weapons, implements, and ship timbers with a huge variety of animal forms and intricate patterns.There was hardly a material to hand which Viking craftsmen had not stopped to beautify or enhance.The Viking’s Influence to the World The Viking‘s influence to the world is significant which developed and deepened with their expanding speed.Literally, what extent the world received the impact of the Vikings is hard to measure, but several vivid examples can be listed as an indication.From the geographically aspect, the Vikings sailed most of the North Atlantic, reaching south to North Africa and east to Ruia, Constantinople and the Middle East, as looters, traders, colonists, and mercenaries.Vikings under Leif Erikon, heir to Erik the Red, reached North America, and set up a short-lived settlement in present-day L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.From the aspect of Viking‘s descendents, studies of genetic diversity provide some indication of the origin and expansion of the Viking population.Both male and female descent studies show evidence of Norwegian descent in areas closest to Scandinavia, such as the Shetland and Orkney Islands.Inhabitants of lands farther away show most Norse descent in the male Y-chromosome lines.High percentages of Norse inheritance—tracked through R1a1 haplotype signatures—were also found among males in Wirral and West Lancashire.This was similar to the percentage of Norse inheritance found among males in the Orkney Islands.From the aspect of Viking‘s influence in 20th century‘s politics, the figure of the Viking became a familiar and malleable symbol in different contexts in the politics and political ideologies of 20th-century Europe.In Normandy, which had been settled by Vikings, the Viking ship became an uncontroversial regional symbol.Scandinavian Vikings were portrayed in Nazi Germany as a pure Germanic type.The cultural phenomenon of Viking expansion was re-interpreted for use as propaganda to support the extreme militant nationalism of the Third Reich.In communist Ruia, the ideology of Slavic racial purity led to the complete denial that Scandinavians had played a part in the emergence of the principalities of the Rus', which was supposed to have been founded by Slavs.The Viking Longship
Longships were a kind of ship using for sea-sailing made by Vikings from Scandinavia and Iceland for trade, commerce, exploration and warfare during the Viking Age.The longships‘ design evolved over many years which began in the Stone Age and continuing to 9th century.The longships appeared its complete form between the 9th and 13th centuries.The character and appearance of these ships have been reflected in Scandinavian boat-building traditions until today.The average speed of Viking ships varied from ship to ship but lay in the rang of 5-10 knots and the maximal speed of a longship under favorable conditions was around 15 knots.The longship is characterized as a graceful, long, narrow, light, wooden boat with a shallow draft hull designed for speed.The longship‘s shallow draft allowed navigation in waters only one meter deep and permitted beach landings, while its light weight enabled it to be carried over portages.Longships were also double-ended, the symmetrical bow and stern allowing the ship to reverse direction quickly without having to turn around.Longships were fitted with oars along almost the entire length of the boat itself.Longships were the epitome of Scandinavian naval power at the time, and were highly valued poeions.They were often owned by coastal farmers and commiioned by the king in times of conflict, in order to build a powerful naval force.While longships were used by the Norse in warfare, they were troop transports, not warships.In the tenth century, these boats would sometimes be tied together in battle to form a steady platform for infantry warfare.They were called dragonships by enemies such as the English because they had a dragon-shaped bow.The Norse had a strong sense of naval architecture, and during the 8th–11th centuries, they were advanced for their time, compared to other European nations(earlier shipbuilding techniques, for example those of Mediterranean peoples, such as ancient Greece and Rome.)There are many types of longships, as listed below.Karvi: The Karvi are the smallest veel that is considered a longship.A ship with between 6 and 16 benches would be claified as a Karvi.These ships were considered to be ―general purpose‖ ships, mainly used for fishing and trade, but occasionally were commiioned for military use.The Gokstad Ship is a famous Karvi ship, built around the end of the 9th century, excavated in 1880 by Nicolay Nicolyasen.It was approximately 23 metres long with 16 rowing positions.It is believed that while its main purpose was coastal voyages, it was capable of safely croing the Atlantic Ocean.Snekkja: The snekkja, meaning 'thin and projecting,' was typically the smallest longship used in warfare and was claified as a ship with at least 20 rowing benches.A typical snekkja might have a length of 17 metres, a width of 2.5 metres, and a draught of only 0.5 metres.It would carry a crew of around 41 men(40 oarsmen and one cox)
The Norwegian snekkjas, designed for deep fjords and Atlantic weather..Snekkjas were so light that they had no need of ports – they could simply be beached, and potentially even carried acro a portage.The snekkjas continued to evolve after the end of the Viking age, with later Norwegian examples becoming larger and heavier than Viking age ships.Skei: Skei, meaning ‗that which cuts through water,‘ ships were larger warships, consisting of more than 30 rowing benches.Ships of this claification are the largest longships ever discovered.Dreaker: Drekar are known from historical sources, such as the 13th century the Saga of Rollo.Here, the ships are described as elegant and ornately decorated, and used by those who went raiding and plundering.According to the historical sources the ships' prows carried carvings of menacing beasts, such as dragons and snakes, allegedly to protect the ship and crew, and to ward off the terrible sea monsters of Norse mythology.Bue: Bue ships were large longships, capable of carrying more cargo and paengers than Skei ships.The Ormen Lange is an example of a Bue Ship.It was the most famous ship of King Olaf Tryggvason.It is believed to be 45 metres long with 34 rowing positions.The Famous Longships: The Oseberg ship and the Gokstad ship – both from Vestfold in Norway.The Ormen Lange(“The Long Serpent”)was the most famous longship of Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason.The Mora was the ship given to William the Conqueror by his wife, Matilda, and used as the flagship in the Norman conquest of England.The Sea Stallion, the largest Viking ship replica ever made, is a new 30 metres replica of the Skuldelev 2, and sailed from Roskilde, Denmark to Dublin in summer 2007 to commemorate the voyage of the original.In the winter 2007/2008 The Sea Stallion has been exhibited outside the National Museum in Dublin.In the summer 2008 the Sea Stallion returned to Roskilde on a route going south of England.The Nydam ship(c.350–400)is a burial ship from Denmark.This veel is 24 meter long and may have had its mast and sail removed for burial.The ship shows a combination of building styles and was propelled by oars.
