The Vikings were the people who lived from the eighth to the eleventh centuries in Scandinavia. They came from the regions that are today called Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. During the Viking Age, they sailed across most of Europe, raiding and spreading their influence.
Raiding and searching for new and fertile land to settle on were perhaps the most important reasons they had before deciding to jump into one of their tall ships and set sail. The Vikings loved sailing and exploring so much that they eventually discovered new lands such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland. In fact, they sailed as far west as the coast of Canada, and what is known today as Newfoundland.
When the Vikings weren't sailing and looking for new and fertile land, they loved trade. Vikings traded all kinds of things on their expeditions, such as jewelry, tools, and furs. But slaves were probably a bestseller.
1-What language did Vikings speak?
The Vikings did not speak Danish, Norwegian or Swedish, they spoke a language called Old Norse (Danish: oldnordisk). Because the Vikings loved to travel and meet new people, their language slowly spread to other societies. In fact, Old Norse was one of the most spoken languages throughout Europe in the 10th century. The language can be heard from Vinland in North America to the Volga in Russia.
This language had a major influence on other languages as well, and languages such as English and Russian still contain words that originate from the Viking language. However, there were, of course, different dialects, the Danes and Swedes spoke Old East Norse, and the Norwegians spoke the Old Northwest dialect.
Today no one in Scandinavia speaks the Old Norse language, each country has its own language. However, most people can understand each other, for example, a Danish can understand Norwegian, and a Norwegian can understand Swedish.
Icelandic is the closest of the Norse languages to Old Norse, possibly due to its extreme isolation in the central North Atlantic. So if the Vikings somehow time traveled in our time, it is likely that only Icelanders would be able to understand what he was saying.
2-How do Vikings write?
Unlike most other countries in Western Europe that used the Latin alphabet, the Vikings had their own alphabet consisting of runes called the Lesser Futhark. This is something we know because many runes have been found throughout Scandinavia from this time period. The inscriptions on these rune stones are all written in runes. These ancient inscriptions describe everything from honoring ancestors to showing off personal achievements.
3-What did the Vikings believe?
At this time in history, Christianity was spreading rapidly throughout Western Europe by the sword, however, it did not fully make its way into Scandinavia. The Vikings were still pagans and had their own religion. Unfortunately, we don't know what they call their religion or whether it has a name at all.
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