3/16/10 More More Viking Notes

• They would only use the stars to guide them


• They thought that the world ended because it was flat


• Rome falls in 476 and now we're moving into the middle ages


• The middle ages are start at the 14th and 15th centuray


• Vikings live in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark


• They were not Christianized in the early middle ages


• Ireland is one of the biggest Christian population


• They attack the British Iles in Ireland


• They are there between the 7th and 9th centuaries


• There are nine worlds in Norse mythology


• Midgard, Alfheimr,Svartaheim,Vanaherimr,Muspellheim, Jotunheimr,Nilfheim,Asgard,Hel


• We live in midgard and to the north of us is Alfheimr where elves live


• Svartaheim is where the black elves live


• Muspellheim is the land of fire


• Vanaherimr is the land of the heroes


• Jotunheimr is the land of the giants


• Niflheim is the world of ice


• Asgard is the good afterlife and you got go there if you were a hero


• Hel was the regular afterlife


• Ginnunggagap was the land farthest away and no one had ever been there


• There were three books that are important for this mythology


• The first is the Edda which is made up of two books. This book is the book of the gods.


• The first book is the poetic book and the second book is the Heimskringla is the book about the great kings


• The Yggdrasil tree was around at the beggining of creation


• A man hanged himself on this tree and then 9 days letter came back with the alphabet


• They used this alphabet for casting runes


• They were cut from tree and would have runes on them


• The second story was the story of a great battle at the end of the world between the gods


• The entire world would be turned into fire and this was called Ragnarok


• Then from the ashes would grow a new world


• The Heimskrigla was written by Snorri Sturluson. He wrote this much later then when they ruled


• The word saga comes from the vikings


• They would make beserkers by covering them by different animal hides


• Leif Ericsson found Iceland and he came to America


• This was 500 years before Columbus


• They would have boats for river journeys and open water