LESSON 7.2 How do we know about the Vikings?
LEARNING INTENTION By the end of this lesson you should be able to identify the origin, content, context and purpose of primary and secondary sources.
Tune in Did you know that the Vikings hardly used written language and rarely wrote anything down? So how do we know about them today? The answer lies in a mixture of runestones, sagas from their oral language, artefacts, buildings and archaeological findings. Most of what was written about the Vikings was from the people they attacked, which might lead to all kinds of questions. SOURCE1 is an example of runes being carved into stone. 1. What are some of the questions that you might ask about the purpose of the runestones? 2. List these questions and brainstorm where you might be able to find the answers to explain how useful this stone is to us as historians.
SOURCE1 A stone from Lingsberg, Sweden, with runes carved on it. The words commemorate a Viking called Ulfrik ‘who took two payments of geld in England’.
7.2.1 Runes and sagas The Vikings didn’t write much down until they became Christians in the 11th century. Before that, only Christian Church officials knew how to write. Vikings were pagans , so they didn’t have anyone to record their history. They used runes instead, which were carved on bones or rocks. Once the Viking Age ended, stories called sagas were written down. These were tales about Viking heroes, mostly fictional but with some real people. The oldest saga, Beowulf , was written in Old English by an English poet and set in Sweden and Denmark. It shows how Viking culture influenced Britain. Vikings were known for their attacks across Europe from the 9th to 11th centuries, which made people see them as fierce warriors. The people they attacked wrote down these events, because they were literate , giving us historical records.
154 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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