Viking Ships and Exploration: The Norse on the Seas
Explore the longships, knarrs, and small craft of the Viking Age — clinker-built hulls, sails and oars, and the great Norse voyages from Newfoundland to Byzantium.
The Viking ships are the most distinctive technological achievement of the Viking Age, and the great voyages of Norse exploration are among the most remarkable feats of medieval seafaring. From the late eighth century to the eleventh, the peoples of Scandinavia built vessels that were the fastest and most manoeuvrable of their time, and they sailed them from the White Sea to the Black Sea, from the Hebrides to the rivers of Russia, and from the Faroes to the coast of North America. The Norse of the Viking Age were, in a real sense, the first modern seafarers, and the inheritance of their shipbuilding tradition is still visible in the modern world. The story of the Norse expansion is the subject of this page, and the wider political history of the period is treated on the Viking Age page.
The Viking Ship in Outline
The Viking ship is a clinker-built (lapstrake) vessel, with overlapping planks tied to a flexible frame by iron rivets. The hull is constructed first, with the planks overlapping each other from the keel upward, and the frames are then fitted to the inside of the hull. The whole structure is then fastened together with a system of iron rivets, with the heads of the rivets clenched over roves (small iron washers) on the inside of the hull. The result is a vessel that is both strong and flexible, and that can ride out the heavy seas of the North Atlantic in a way that the older Mediterranean plank-built ships could not.
The standard types of the Viking ship are the longship (langskip), the knarr (knörr), the snekkja (snekkr), the drekar (“dragon-ship”), the skeid (skeid), the busse (bussi), and the byrðingr (byrðingr). The longship was the warship of the Viking Age, with a high prow and a high stern, and with a single square sail and a set of oars. The knarr was the merchant ship, with a more rounded hull, a shallower draft, and a larger cargo capacity. The snekkja was a smaller longship, used for coastal raiding and for river warfare. The drekar was a dragon-ship, with a dragon-head on the prow, used for the great ceremonial voyages of the kings. The skeid was a great warship, larger than the snekkja and smaller than the busse, used for the great fleet-actions of the period. The byrðingr was a great transport ship, used for the long-distance trade of the Norse.
The steering-oar (stýri) of the Viking ship was mounted on the starboard quarter, and the Norse sailor was expected to know the names of the more than hundred specialised terms for the parts of his ship. The square sail (segl) was the principal means of propulsion, and the Norse sailmaker was a skilled craftsman who could produce a sail of woollen cloth (or, in some cases, linen) of great size and great strength. The mast (mast) was a single great pole, stepped in a block of wood on the keel and supported by a system of shrouds (reip) and braces (benda). The Norse shipwright was a master of his craft, and the ships he built were the basis of the great Norse expansion of the Viking Age.
The Oseberg Ship
The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) is the most famous of the Viking ship burials, and it is one of the supreme masterpieces of the Viking Age. Discovered in 1904 in a great burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold, southern Norway, the ship was excavated by Gabriel Gustafson of the Museum of National Antiquities in Oslo. The ship is dated to c. 820, and it is the burial of two women of high status, who had been buried with a great treasure of objects, with a number of animals, and with the ship itself. The ship is 22 metres long, 5 metres wide, and has a clinker-built hull with a beautifully carved prow and stern.
The Oseberg ship is a small longship, and it was probably not used for war or for long-distance travel. It is thought to have been a coastal vessel, used for ceremonial purposes. The ship is, however, the most beautifully decorated of all the Viking ships, with elaborate carvings of animal heads, tendril patterns, and figure-of-eight loops along the gunwale, and with a beautifully carved figure-head of a serpent or dragon at the prow. The figure-head is one of the great surviving examples of the Viking Age art tradition, and it is the model for the modern Viking ship reconstructions.
The Oseberg treasure is one of the most spectacular finds of the Viking Age, and it includes the great Oseberg cart (a four-wheeled cart of great beauty), the Oseberg animal-head post (a great wooden post carved in the form of an animal head), the Oseberg bedposts (a set of four great wooden bedposts carved in the form of animal heads), and a number of smaller objects. The Oseberg tapestry fragments are the only large piece of Viking Age tapestry to survive, and they show a procession of figures that has been interpreted as part of a heroic legend or a cult ceremony. The whole Oseberg find is a unique witness to the material culture of the Viking Age, and it is preserved in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo (now part of the Museum of the Viking Age).
The Gokstad Ship
The Gokstad ship (Norwegian: Gokstadskipet) is the most completely preserved of the Viking war-ships, and it is one of the most spectacular of all the Viking ship burials. Discovered in 1880 in a great burial mound at the Gokstad farm in Sandefjord, Vestfold, southern Norway, the ship was excavated by Nicolay Nicolaysen of the Society for the Preservation of Norwegian Ancient Monuments. The ship is dated to c. 900, and it is the burial of a man of high status, who had been buried with a great treasure of weapons, with a number of animals, and with the ship itself.
The Gokstad ship is a great longship, 24 metres long, 5 metres wide, and with a clinker-built hull of sixteen strakes on each side. The ship was propelled by a single square sail of about 110 square metres, and by sixteen pairs of oars. The ship could carry a crew of about 40 men, and it was one of the great war-ships of the period. The mast of the Gokstad ship is preserved, and it is a single great pole of pine, 13 metres long, stepped in a great block of wood on the keel. The steering-oar is preserved on the starboard quarter, and it is one of the great examples of the Viking Age shipwright’s art.
The Gokstad burial is one of the great princely burials of the Viking Age, and it is the burial of a man of the Yngling dynasty of Vestfold. The man was buried with a great treasure of weapons, with six dogs, eight horses, and a peacock (a rare and exotic bird that testifies to the wide trading networks of the period), and with a small boat of four oars. The Gokstad ship is preserved in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, and it is one of the most popular exhibits in the museum. A full-scale replica of the Gokstad ship, the Gaia, sailed across the Atlantic in 1893 to take part in the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The Ladby Ship
The Ladby ship (Danish: Ladbyskibet) is the only Viking ship burial to have been found in Denmark, and it is one of the most important of all the Viking ship burials. Discovered in 1935 in a great burial mound at the Ladby farm near Kerteminde on the island of Funen, the ship was excavated by Gudmund Hatt of the National Museum of Denmark. The ship is dated to c. 950, and it is the burial of a great chieftain who had been buried with a great treasure of weapons, with a number of animals, and with the ship itself.
The Ladby ship is 22 metres long, 3 metres wide, and has a clinker-built hull of fifteen strakes on each side. The ship was propelled by a single square sail, and by six pairs of oars. The ship could carry a crew of about 26 men, and it was a great longship of the period. The anchor of the Ladby ship is preserved, and it is a great iron anchor of the Viking Age, with a wooden stock. The prow of the ship is decorated with the figure of a great dragon, and the stern is decorated with the figure of a serpent. The Ladby ship is preserved in the Viking Museum Ladby near Kerteminde.
The Skuldelev Ships
The Skuldelev ships are five Viking ships that were sunk in the harbour of Roskilde in the eleventh century to block the navigation of the harbour, and they were excavated in 1962 by Ole Crumlin-Pedersen and the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The ships are dated to between c. 1030 and c. 1050, and they represent five different types of Viking ship: a great warship of c. 1030 (Skuldelev 1), a great warship of c. 1040 (Skuldelev 2), a small longship of c. 1040 (Skuldelev 3), a knarr of c. 1030 (Skuldelev 5), and a small fishing-boat of c. 1030 (Skuldelev 6). The ships are the most complete collection of Viking ships to be preserved, and they are the basis of the modern understanding of the Viking shipbuilding tradition.
The Skuldelev 1 is a great warship, 30 metres long, 4 metres wide, and with a clinker-built hull of sixteen strakes on each side. The ship was propelled by a single square sail of about 200 square metres, and by thirty pairs of oars. The Skuldelev 2 is a great warship of similar dimensions. The Skuldelev 3 is a small longship, 14 metres long, 3 metres wide. The Skuldelev 5 is a knarr, 17 metres long, 5 metres wide.
The Skuldelev ships are preserved in the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, and they are the centrepiece of the museum. The museum has built a number of full-scale replicas of the ships, including the Sea Stallion from Glendalough (a replica of Skuldelev 2, which sailed from Roskilde to Dublin in 2007), the Havhingsten fra Glendalough (a replica of Skuldelev 1, which has made several voyages), and the Kraka Fyr (a replica of Skuldelev 5, which has made several voyages to the North Sea and the Baltic).
The Norse Voyages of Exploration
The Norse voyages of exploration are among the most remarkable feats of medieval seafaring, and they are the basis of the modern settlement of the North Atlantic. The Norse of the Viking Age were the first Europeans to set foot on the mainland of North America, and they were the first Europeans to settle in Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroes. The voyages are described in the Íslendingasögur (Sagas of Icelanders), the Landnámabók (“Book of Settlements”), the Íslendingabók of Ari Þorgilsson (c. 1130), and the great Norse saga tradition of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The Faroes were settled by the Norse in the early ninth century, and the Íslendingabók of Ari Þorgilsson preserves the tradition of the first settler, Grímur Kamban, who is said to have settled in the Faroes around 825. The Orkneys and the Shetlands were settled by the Norse in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the Orkneyinga saga of the thirteenth century is the principal narrative source for the Norse settlement of the islands. The Hebrides and the Isle of Man were settled by the Norse in the ninth and tenth centuries, and the Manx kingdom of the period was one of the most powerful Norse states.
Iceland was settled by the Norse in c. 870–930, and the Landnámabók of the twelfth century preserves the tradition of the first settlers. The first settler is said to have been Ingólfr Arnarson, who settled at Reykjavík in 874. By 930, when the Althing was established at Þingvellir, the whole of Iceland had been settled, and the Icelandic commonwealth of 930–1262 was the first democratic political system in Europe. The Icelandic settlers brought with them their laws, their language, and their literary tradition, and they founded a society that produced some of the most remarkable works of medieval literature in any language.
Greenland was settled by Erik the Red around 985, and the Eiríks saga rauða (“the saga of Erik the Red”) of the thirteenth century is the principal narrative source for the Norse settlement of Greenland. The Western Settlement of Greenland, around the area of modern Godthåb (Nuuk), was the westernmost European settlement of the period, and the Eastern Settlement, around the area of modern Julianehåb (Qaqortoq), was the principal seat of the Greenland Norse. The Greenland Norse maintained a continuous settlement until the early fifteenth century, when the last records of the settlements disappear.
Vinland was reached by the Norse around 1000, and the Eiríks saga rauða and the Saga of the Greenlanders (both preserved in the Flateyjarbók of c. 1390) are the principal narrative sources for the Norse voyages to North America. The Norse settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland (excavated by Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad in 1960–1968) is the earliest known European settlement in the Americas, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The settlement was small and short-lived, and the Norse withdrew in the face of resistance from the indigenous peoples and the hostility of the climate. The wider Norse exploration of the North American coast is preserved in the sagas, and the place-names of the Norse voyages (Helluland, Markland, Vinland) are the first European place-names on the mainland of North America.
The Norse Expansion East
The Norse expansion east along the rivers of Russia is one of the great chapters of Viking Age history, and it is the basis of the great trading networks of the period. The Norse-Slavic Rus’ built a chain of trading settlements along the Volga route to the Caspian Sea and the markets of the Islamic world, and along the Dnieper route to the Black Sea and the markets of Byzantium. The Constantine Porphyrogenitus (De administrando imperio, c. 950) describes the Dnieper route in detail, and the Ibn Fadlan account of the Volga route (c. 922) is the most detailed description of the Norse world to survive from the Islamic side.
The Rus’ of Kiev built a powerful state that controlled the trade routes from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev (r. 980–1015) converted to Byzantine Christianity in 988, and the Kievan Rus’ became one of the great Christian states of medieval Europe. The Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev (r. 1019–1054) presided over a brilliant civilisation of which the Sophia Cathedral of Kiev (c. 1037) and the Gate-Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour at Veliky Novgorod (c. 1198) are the most famous surviving monuments.
The Volga route to the Islamic world was the principal artery of the Norse eastern expansion. The Norse traders sailed from the Baltic up the Neva to Lake Ladoga, and up the Volkhov to Novgorod. From Novgorod they sailed up the Lovat to the portage to the Dnieper, or they sailed up the Volga to Itil at the mouth of the river, and on to the markets of Baghdad and Samarkand. The Khazar khanate of the eighth and ninth centuries controlled the lower Volga, and the Norse traders paid tribute to the Khazars in order to pass through their territory.
The Norse in the Mediterranean
The Norse in the Mediterranean are the least known of the Viking Age diaspora, but they were a recurrent presence from the ninth century to the eleventh. The Norse Viking raiders of the period attacked the coasts of Spain (the Iberian Peninsula was attacked repeatedly between 844 and 1108), the Balearics (attacked 858–902), the French Riviera (attacked 859–972), Italy (Pisa was attacked in 860, the Liri was attacked in 902, Sardinia was attacked in 809–1015), and North Africa (the Norse raided the Maghreb in 859–861).
The Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperor was established in 988 by the emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025), and it became one of the most elite units of the Byzantine army. The Varangians of Constantinople were drawn from the Norse, the Rus’, the Anglo-Saxon exiles after 1066, and the Scandinavian and Icelandic adventurers of the period. The Harald Hardrada of Norway (r. 1046–1066) served in the Varangian Guard in his youth, and the Saga of Harald Hardrada in the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson is one of the great sources for the period.
Norse Navigation and Seamanship
The Norse navigation was based on a sophisticated system of landmarks, currents, and stars. The Norse sailor relied on the sailing directions (sigling), the land-merks (landamerki), and the sea-roads (sjóvegir) of the older tradition. The Norse sailor was also a master of the sun-stone (sólarsteinn), a piece of cordierite or calcite that polarises light and that can be used to determine the position of the sun in cloudy conditions. The sun-stone is mentioned in the Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar of the thirteenth century, and the use of the sun-stone as a navigational instrument is one of the great technological achievements of the Norse.
The Norse compass was a primitive instrument, and the Norse sailor did not have the magnetic compass of the later medieval tradition. The Norse sailor relied on the sun, the stars, the flight of birds, the swell of the sea, the colour of the water, and the landmarks of the coast. The Norse sailor was, in a real sense, the most accomplished navigator of his time.
The Legacy of the Viking Ships
The legacy of the Viking ships is one of the deepest inheritances of the modern world. The Viking ship was the basis of the great Norse expansion, and the Norse voyages of exploration are the foundation of the modern settlement of the North Atlantic. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, the Museum of the Viking Age in Oslo, the Viking Museum Ladby near Kerteminde, the British Museum in London, and the many regional museums of the Norse world preserve and exhibit the material remains of the Viking Age, and they remain the essential points of access for the modern visitor.
The modern reconstruction of the Viking ships has been one of the great projects of the modern Viking Age scholarship. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde has built a number of full-scale replicas of the Skuldelev ships, including the Sea Stallion from Glendalough (a replica of Skuldelev 2, which sailed from Roskilde to Dublin in 2007), the Havhingsten fra Glendalough (a replica of Skuldelev 1), and the Kraka Fyr (a replica of Skuldelev 5). The Gaia, a replica of the Gokstad ship, sailed across the Atlantic in 1893. The Snorri (a replica of a Greenland knarr) sailed from Greenland to Newfoundland in 1998, in commemoration of the Norse voyages to Vinland. The modern reconstructions have given a new appreciation of the Viking ships and of the great Norse expansion.