The Vikings

The Vikings were seafaring people from Scandinavia (modern-day Norway, Sweden and Denmark) who were active from roughly the 700s to 1000s CE. While often remembered for raiding, they were equally skilled traders, explorers and settlers, using advanced shipbuilding to travel as far as North America, the Middle East and deep into Russia.

Key terms

Scandinavia:

The region covering modern Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

Viking Age:

The period from roughly the 700s to 1000s CE.

Longship:

A fast, shallow Viking ship built for both sea travel and river raids.

Questions

1. 1. The Vikings lived a very long time ago, roughly:

   • 100 years ago
   • Over 1000 years ago
   • Last century
   • Yesterday

2. 2. Vikings were skilled at building:

   • Ships
   • Cars
   • Aeroplanes
   • Skyscrapers

3. 3. Vikings mainly travelled by:

   • Foot only
   • Sea, in ships
   • Car
   • Plane

4. 4. Scandinavia includes modern-day countries like:

   • Norway and Sweden
   • Egypt and Libya
   • Japan and China
   • Brazil and Peru

5. 5. Real Viking helmets, unlike in movies and cartoons, did NOT actually have:

   • Metal
   • Horns
   • A strap
   • A shape

6. 6. The term 'Viking Age' refers to a specific period of:

   • One day
   • History
   • The future
   • A single year

7. 7. Vikings sailed to raid, trade, and:

   • Settle in new lands
   • Build spaceships
   • Fly planes
   • Nothing else

8. 8. The Vikings came from which region?

   • Southern Africa
   • Scandinavia
   • Southeast Asia
   • South America

9. 9. Vikings were especially known for their skill in:

   • Desert farming
   • Seafaring and shipbuilding
   • Mountaineering
   • Space navigation

10. 10. The Viking Age is roughly dated to:

    • 700s–1000s CE
    • 1500s–1700s CE
    • 3000 BCE
    • 1900s CE

11. 11. Besides raiding, Vikings were also known for:

    • Trading and settling new lands
    • Building pyramids
    • Inventing paper
    • Founding Rome

12. 12. Which of these did Vikings trade, alongside raiding?

    • Furs and silver
    • Cars
    • Computers
    • Plastic

13. 13. Vikings settled in new lands including:

    • Iceland
    • Antarctica
    • The Moon
    • Mars

14. 14. A key reason Vikings could travel so far was their advanced:

    • Shipbuilding
    • Cars
    • Roads
    • Aeroplanes

15. 15. Which statement about Vikings is most accurate?

    • They were only violent raiders and nothing else
    • They were skilled sailors who raided, traded AND settled new lands
    • They never left Scandinavia
    • They lived only 100 years ago

16. 16. Viking longships were specially designed to:

    • Sail both open seas and shallow rivers
    • Only float in lakes
    • Fly through the air
    • Travel underground

17. 17. Why is it inaccurate to describe Vikings as 'just raiders'?

    • Because they never raided at all
    • Because they also traded extensively and settled in new lands like Iceland
    • Because they lived only in cities
    • Because raiding never happened in history

18. 18. Vikings reaching as far as Baghdad to trade shows that they:

    • Never travelled far from home
    • Had extensive trade networks stretching a long way from Scandinavia
    • Only travelled by land
    • Avoided all contact with other cultures

19. 19. The Viking Age is generally considered to have ended around:

    • 1000s CE
    • 100 BCE
    • Today
    • 3000 BCE

20. 20. Which of these is a myth (not historically accurate) about Vikings?

    • They built ships
    • They traded goods
    • Their helmets had horns
    • They came from Scandinavia

21. 21. What made Viking ships especially useful for both raiding AND trading?

    • They were slow but very large
    • Their shallow design let them sail rivers as well as open ocean
    • They could only be used once
    • They had no sails