The Viking Longship: How They Were Invented, Built and Used
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At the dawn of the 9th century, the Viking Age had begun. Coastal towns and monasteries across Western Europe fell victim to brutal raids, their treasures plundered and people carried off as slaves. This age of war and trade would last for the next 300 years, and the key to Nordic success was the viking longship.
The speed, maneuvrability and shallow draught of these predatory vessels allowed the vikings to navigate coastal waters, and run their ships on to isolated beaches, from which to launch surprise attacks on nearby settlements. Before any local force could organize and retaliate, the vikings were long gone. These ships carried mighty invasions that carved out new Kingdoms across the British isles. They plundered as far as France and Italy. However, the longship was used for other purposes. Viking traders were able to navigate the rivers and lakes of Russia, reaching as far as Byzantium. The longships carried settlers that colonized the North Sea Islands, even a temporary colony in North America.
However, these waves of expansion and trade were nothing new. Scandinavia had traded with the Mediterranean since the bronze age. Warlike peoples such as the Cimbrians, Goths and Saxons all ventured out of Scandinavia to establish new realms across Europe. The viking age didn't come out of nowhere - neither did their ships. Thus, to understand the viking longship, we'll have to start from the beginning.
Sources
The Viking Longship - Osprey Publishing
The Vikings - Osprey Publishing
Ship and Society: Maritime Ideology in Late Iron Age Sweden - Gunilla Larsson
Den Långa Medeltiden - Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist
Image sources:
By L. Mahin - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Roskilde ships: www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/bes...
By museaindrenthe.nl/collectie/ob..., CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Andreas Mensert - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Aivar Ruukel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By uploaded with permission from User Lanzi by Ra'ike on de.wikipedia - own work from User Lanzi on de.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By RMO - Rijks Museum voor Oudheden, Leiden, the Netherlands - hdl.handle.net/21.12126/15568... see www.rmo.nl/onderzoek/fotoserv..., CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By DI Richard Resch - de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Be..., Copyrighted free use, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Nationalmuseet, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Sven Rosborn - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Trollhead - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) - Own workBased upon a drawingReference : Jean Taillardat, La Trière athénienne et la guerre sur mer aux Ve et IVe siècles, 1968, in : Jean-Pierre Vernant, Problèmes de la guerre en Grèce ancienne, Éditions de l'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, coll. Points, 1999, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Karamell - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Islandmen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
0:00 Introduction
4:50 Construction
11:32 Karvi
13:29 Longships
16:52 Knarr
18:20 Conclusion
19:26 help
#history #shipbuilding #vikings #vikingage #ironage #ships
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I love finding a great history channel for a new perspective, and it's even better when I find one that is just in its infancy. From the UK, so much of our own history is impacted by the vikings, but it was never really covered much in school. Really happy to learn more about how these people impacted our countries and cultures, and about their own growth and development as a people.
Important stuff! Looking forward to thje next one
Sincerely, Derredc
In my opinion History continues to underestimate the impact that Scandinavian Culture had on the World. There is nothing more beautiful nor deadly than a Viking Longship.
Bubonic plague is probably more deadly, and certain women, some birds, and many, many sculptures are definitely more beautiful, so based on common sense and personal experience, I have to disagree with your 2nd statement. I also disagree with your first statement. The outside world had a bigger impact on "Scandinavia", than Scandinavia has had on the outside world. Way, way, way more.
He omits several things. The wood was from a tree that grew where they were, and not in other places. But mainly, the curve of the boat comes from putting the boards underground with fire and leaves that steamed the wood and bent all the pieces into the same shape. Ships were designed to hydroplane so it would go fast with far less effort.
3:12 - No, you're a little wrong here. The way of clinker building was found out long before iron was used to join the planks. That is why any iron rivet used for clinker building, even today, is called a "seam", or a "boat seam", and not a "nail" or a "rivet". In the beginning the planks were actually sewn together, and we find evidence of this in Bronze age constructions, early Iron age ships (like Halsnøybåten, 450 AD), as well as in Saami built craft of a much later date, even up to our own time. The planks of a boat or ship of this construction were originally joined together with strong, slender roots, or with sinews, horse hair, or long fragments of whale bards. This made the hulls more flexible, and so, more seaworthy, and the building technique was exactly the same: One plank overlapping the other, and with some swelling material to keep the joint watertight, as you mention. The iron rivets, however, came much later, and has indeed given the name to the building technique, clinker built, as we call it today. So, in that you're right. But that was, as I've said before, several hundreds of years later. Originally the planks were seamed, or lashed, together, not clinked with iron. Just for your - and other's - information. 🙂
i have a video of bronze age sewn boats already uploaded
Great video!
One detail I always found interesting about these ships was their choice of ballast: Small round stones. Normally this would be a concern in that if the ship heels too far the ballast could shift and help capsise her, but the explanation I've heard is that they were deliberately small so they could be easily flung overboard to raise freeboard in an emergency and if the ship did capsise they would roll overboard, hopefully allowing the ship to right itself again.
I'm sceptical this would happen before the ship flooded but that's the theory I heard.
Interesting note on the ballast, thank you.
I've sailed ships descendant from the viking ships.
They will indeed roll off.
The wood floats on its own, even when the ship is full of water (although your cargo will be lost)
When the ballast rolls out you can turn that boat around while floating outside the ship.
We did exercises with small boats in school, intentionally capsizing, getting back to the boat, turning it back around, getting into it and bailing out the water then jumping back out into the cold water and swimming ashore (in desember, with sea ice on the shore).
In fact, flint was often used as ballast. We don't have naturally occurring flint in Finland, but we have some old waterway sites where dumped ballast flint can still be found.
Very good video, thank you for that. There was a big differerence between the danish, norse and swedish ships, the danes and the norse were mainly for deep seas, and the swedes for rivers and inland travel. And they went very far..
I am quite priveleged where I live, 5 km north of here, is a sailing replica of an iron age warship, build by the methodes and with the tools from back then, and 15 km south of here, is the longship "Seppe Als" They are both used to teach people of what i took to travel back then.
Amazing video as always, real and in-depth information without the BS. Thank you
Great content as always. Very much looking forward to your next video.
Quality as always. Takk så mycket!
This might be the best video on the topic I've found. Good overview
Wow nice video mate, I didn't even know about the ropes sewn into the sails to stiffen them!
keep it up, I'm now off to see a whole bunch more of your stuff!
Thanks for the content bro. Hope your channel grows rapidly.
Great video, excellent illustrations and content ! Wished they had your videos when l attended school 45 years ago . Thank you !
Thanks for this great video on technology history.
Nice video, concise and informing
I'm looking forward to your video!
About the sails being striped: This may in fact not have been only due to dyeing or overlay ropes, but from spinning the yarns.
When making yarn, twist keeps the fibers together. Almost all modern commercial yarn is S-twisted. You can probably see the effect in your bed linen, the way the whole sheet twists slightly so that it's very difficult to get the corners to match up exactly.
In the iron age fabrics were sometimes woven alternating S- and Z-twisted yarns, to avoid or at least lessen this skewing. As far as I know we don't have big pieces of preserved sailcloth to prove this, but the technique was known in clothing fabric and it would make sense to use it here. The different directions of yarn twist create a pattern that becomes clearly visible in light, even when the colours are the same.
A checker pattern would naturally come from a diamond twill weave, in addition to those reinforcement ropes. In fact, it would make sense to me to purposefully weave a diamond twill sail, because this would provide "guidelines" in the fabric for getting those ropes straight!
Very interesting with that different weaving techniques.
Any sail would have been sown together by many pieces of cloth, because the cloth can't be any wider than a manual loom, wich is usually no more than two feet.
One theory of the diagonal checkered sail, is that these would have been made by two layers of cloth, with the long strips of cloth weaved together in a basket-weave style. There is an experimental reconstruction of a sail like this in the historical museum in Stockholm.
This would have been a very sturdy sail, but the technique wastes a lot of material.
The amount of work that goes into spinning the yarn, weaving the cloth and making a sail is about equal to building the ship itself, so it would have been a huge investment.
Fascinating! As always 😁
Thank you for making this video.
I learned a ton 👍
Very interesting
Fascinating, excellent video.
Truly amazing video. So glad I found this channel. For the algorithm.
Thank you for this video! I had never heard of the Knarr, fascinating.
Great video. I learned a lot. From Ireland.
Incredible video!
love big much, time. very enjoy and alo inform. Big thank and smil from Norway viewer :)
Liked it a lot!
Very informative.
Information, love it
From Charlottesville, Virginia, USA: Thanks for sourcing and condensing this history! I have five percent of Scandinavian DNA and 3 percent of Norwegian DNA, so I feel at least some connection to this culture and its past.
There was no "Scandinavian" dna in those days. Danes held almost exclusively "Yamnaya" genes + some influx from the South of France and the Iberian Peninsula.
Norway is part of scandinavia
No hate mate but this is the most hilariously American thing you could say
Imagine feeling a connection because you have 5% DNA from ancestors you never even knew. By the same token we should all feel a special connection to Africa because that's where we are all from.
I really don't get the American obsession with trying to think of yourself as from a certain county because your great great great grandfather was from there.
You are American, isn't that good enough?
@@thetoyyya6890 what is there to love and respect about America's contribution to the world? White People are immigrants to America, we have only been here a few hundred years.
Thank you 🤙🦘
lovely first video to watch and find gour channel with. New sub!
European shipbuilding owes so much to Norse innovation. Adding the use of copper nails instead of iron really settled the matter, more or less, for hundreds of years.. Nice one! ⭐👍
Yes
One fiber that is no longer talked about is Linen. Linen fiber has been used for thousands of years. Linen is my go-to fabric on a hot day. It is tough and strong. One of the few fibers that is stronger when wet. It is good UV protection and Transports body moisture away from the core, cooling the body. Linen does not cling to the body. It naturally wrinkles creating air spaces creating ventilation. It can be blended with wool a fabric called Linzy woolzy.
Did remember watching a video of a replica viking longship travelling across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Norway.
There have been several such voyages through the years. Some have been successful and some have had misadventures.
The build quality, as well as historical accuracy varies a lot with these projects.
The Viking ship museum in Roskilde are the foremost experts in building Viking ship replicas, and they have made this journey with some of their ships.
Great video! Now I must build a viking ship with toothpicks and hang it in my room. Can't wait
Because the Scots also adopted the same design, the Gaelic word for ship was "long", as in the tune name, "An long reuvagh", the reiving ship.
'If you strike your sails, you are a slave to the wind. Let her drive.'
The Brendan voyage demonstrated the seaworthiness of skin on frame boats. The Inuit still use the Umiak with outboard motors, as well as the smaller kayak. Skin boats have been and continue to be seaworthy in the most challenging conditions. I am enjoying this program very much, but the comment that skin boats were unseaworthy had to be challenged.
One only has to look to the lug rig, not to far away from a square sail of 18 19th century ,luggers were very handy vessels though quite different to a Viking ship hull ,think there windward ability were much greater than we give them credit for ,Viking ships were the greatest inovation of there day, the success of Nordic culture is testiment to this
Oh NICE!
With a Danish grandfather fromOdense I admire the then innovative lap strake construction of the longships. Strong and flexible when it needed to be in heavy seas.I've seen the real ones in museums ands too in reconstructed longships.
If visiting the "Danish Ship Museum" in Roskilde (Also a fine architecture), with a the largest collection of found viking ships from a huge find in the fiord, with different sizes ships, they are constantly building exact copies of the ships in the Museum for testing and also for the public to sail, if wanted. For the sizes of the woolen sails they looked to Norway, where northern fishing boat used "square sails" till before the turn of the last century and they could compare the marks from rope wear on the old ships to the fishing boats, and by that find the used size sails. And some years ago they found an even larger ship (From end to end of the keel in the find) during later excavation, and the longest ship ever found! It is presently exhibited at the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen, for lack of space in the existing Museum.
Because of the rising water they have made plans for a move to a higher ground, so it may be a common museum for all the ships, later on?
They are ships! Float on water, don't they?
@@peterblake4837 Well hardly in the present state 😄. The museum owns a huge waterhose to be filled with water in front of the building and windows, for protection during storm and high water, but is has come close to disaster several times! So they have a contest for a new home, further in land and higher up. Hopefully also with room for the latest found "Super Ship" (A viking ship on steroids!), found to the side of the Museum and presently at The Danish National Museum. I do expect they will build a full size ship from that also, as the other copies based on ships from the collection?
Wait...I know this voice. :)
Glad I clicked play, because I know its going to be a topnotch video.
*Edit- Oh and subscribed!
Great information, and I love the funny quips. I can confirm that I was pimp slapped by a tree branch recently, just like you described.
many such cases
Fahring fishing boats are rotting in boat sheds along the fjords of Norway. They are beautiful little 'Viking' ships ..... it's so sad to see them not cared for.
Buy one and rehab it.
@@spacelemur7955 The more you want it, the more they want to keep it....even if it's going to rot. They don't need your money.
@@johnburman966 You humans are different than we lemurs. We'll give ripe, sweet and juicy fruit away for a quick humpa humpa in the foliage. For rotting fruit we are glad if anyone wants it.
The sails are very thick. In museums, they are still intact. I figure the sails absorbed water, and that is how they had water to drink.
An indication of the impact the Viking Age ships had on the culture of northern Britain is that the [Scottish] Gaelic word for "ship" is (the Old Norse word) "long."
*_S'e long a tha seo._* _This is a ship._ *_Chaidh sinn air luing._* _We went by ship._
Nordic history is interesting on a personal level for me, as I'm a direct descendant (by three family lines) of Israel Åkeson Helm, one of the founders of the colony of _New Sweden._
I always wanted a detailed representation on the Nordic-Hanseatic trade connection, which Bergen was a station of. The city´s main brewery still carries its name, Hansa.
Hansa's most tasteful beer today is Ipa mango if you ever want to try. Born and raised in that city
Mora as built in Bruges, queen Mathilde was the daughter of the Flemish count. a large portion of William's army was Flemish. at the time the duchy of Normandy and the county of Flanders shared a border, basically cutting their leige, the king of france, off from direct control of the northern coasts of France.
Good stuff, and thank you, but the background music interferes with hearing clearly, even though it's low volume.
Use it for transitions, but not for long narrations please. Thanks.
Obviously, those travelling on these ships had little or no protection from the elements, other than the canopy seen on the last drawings in your video. Winter travel must have been a challenge.
I'd suspect that traveling was very much reserved for the favorable times of year, with the ships probably barely in use in autumn and winter.
@@scelonferdiYep. Knowing the North Sea though, even the most favorable seasons probably had so many storms
The Vikings are great ship builders and invaders Sutton Hoo ship burial museum in England is worth a visit we have name Places and words in English named after the Vikings glad they came a great Race a great video thanks [ the men at Arms Books are great For History and Prints ]
8:15 only two oars?? For a boat that long? That had to be exhausting
The original Higgins boat
I want to sail around with a bunch of friends.
How do you spell the ship type at 15:04? Google thinks im trying to search skate shop
Sorry, "Skeith", will add subtitles when I can
Admire all your videos, but wish their were fewer ads.
that is how i make money so you can watch them for free lmao
I don't want a Viking to split my skull in half, down the middle. Don't split my brain in half. I don't deserve to die this way. Have mercy on me. Don't force me to stop living. Don't make me die. Let me live.
If i ever gonna play starfield i am gonna make the viking longship types in starfield ship builders
Is this the same guy that narrates Gold and Gunpowder?
Yup, those men would have been cranky after traveling in such conditions. Ready to rampage.
I didn't know that the Normans were still so Norse.
Marines.
Heard name "clinker" come from clinking sound of riveting nails..
THE LONG BOAT ARE A COPY OF THE OLD GREEK SHIPS OF A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE.
The construction methods for longships vs Mediterranean bronze age galleys, which predate the rise to prominence of the bronze age greek city states let alone the iron age city states, are considerably different.
Of course, Greece, and specifically Athens, are heavily associated with a specific kind of galley called a trireme, but even then, construction methods, and even form, were different. Triremes had ram bows, for instance, while longships did not.
@@spudgamer6049 For a start they where not called galley, the Galley comes with the Romans and Carthaginians, The Greeks and Roman used to trade around the coast of Europe and middle east they ships were not war ships but merchant vessels and did not need tho have horn in front of the ship or to be a trireme.
@domenicozagari2443 then perhaps you can tell me what they were called? I'm assuming they would have had to have been some kind of merchant vessel.
The primary warship in the Mediterranean from the ealiest know times until at least the mid 2nd millennia AD was something we would classify as a galley, though the term galley appears to be of greek origin. Admittedly, eventually, the construction methods on them did shift to be closer to how long boats were built, but that was long after the rise and fall of both the bronze and iron age greek city states. The famous Athenian navy was based around polyremes, probably primairly triremes with a few higher counts as major units and some lower counts as scouts and auxiliaries. Carthage and Rome, as well as the Roman civil wars, were also primairly fought with polyremes. After the civil wars that marked the beginning of the Roman empire, it no longer had any rivals for control of the med, and galleys got smaller again for a time because the big how poly counts were not needed against pirates.
Edit: and the maritime skills of the Greeks is something I'll easily acknowledge. They had colonies all over the Mediterranean. Indeed, the first punic war happened in large part due to greek colonies on Sicily, and it is very likely that Rome had to lean heavily on its subjugated Greek "alllies" in southern Italy for the skills to both build and maintain its navy in that war. I'd be unsurprised if the Greeks managed to sail out of Gibraltar and along the coast of Africa and Europe.
However, my understanding, which admittedly could be wrong, is that their cargo ships were built using similar methods to their warships, which is why I'm asking you what we today label the ship type you're talking about, so I can do some research on it. I originally made the comparison between galleys and longships because both were warships first, and trade and exploration vessels second.
👍
6:55
They didn’t have to worry about the doldrums
The question here was always going to be how intrusive the music would be. It ended up being unbearable.
I also love cheese
smoke cheese MMMM But it must be a sharp cheese with a tang and not too sweet.
"Dragons or other beasts...." Uhh, those are clearly a bunny and a puppy wearing glasses 😑
"were used for other purposes"
Were MOSTLY used for other purposes!
"neither did these people have writing"
FALSE. It has by now been well established that the use of runes for writing was extremely COMMON in the historical north.
The problem is that the material used to write on was perishable(bark, wood, and probably vax), and worse, that it was probably a traditional thing to throw the bark that was written on, on the fire after their use was over and done, meaning only a tiny amount of writing survived.
The only questions is how far back the use of runes became something most or even everyone knew.
It was recently found that runic literacy in Sweden was widespread and normal all the way up to the early 19th or late 18th century.
Claims have been made that runic literacy in the Nordic nations were probably among the highest in the world in medieval times, because it was literally something that most people knew, even including slaves.
do you have any further reading on rune literacy?
@@balticempire7244 Hmm, that's a good question...
Mostly it's from reading articles and archeological news over the last 20 years.
The primary important finds were two occasions of bundles of bark with extremely varied writings on them, one in Sweden and one in Russia, that in both cases had survived by falling next to a hearth in what was likely a tavern, so the dryness and warmth helped dry them out and preserve them, rather than being burned up as was probably the intent.
IIRC both those finds happened around 10-20 years ago. One of them might even be back in the 90s.
Then more recently, 5-10 years ago maybe, there was someone who did a major research paper about runescript use in the Nordic nations, focused on how long it remained and how widespread it was.
.
There's been more, but i'm afraid i just mentally collect and piece together such info and only rarely save the sources.
I have too many interests...
I know at least one of the finds of those discarded rune tablets were mentioned in regular news on TV though, as it was a big find.
Sorry for not being more helpful about it, i know it sucks.
I generally just hope and wish people can find the sources themselves once they know what to look for.
I have a video on runes coming up eventually so anything you have would help.
@@balticempire7244 I can try to look, but don't expect anything, it's just too long ago for me to remember where i read the articles.
I can't understand half of what you say. Please Enunciate.
The Roman's were no match for the superior vikings on water they were the ultimate pirates who later taught the elizabethan navy piracy
Ship building fools. I commend you
Recent comprehensive genetic mapping of human remains from the era of Nordic expansion has largely twarthed the prevailing (mis)conceptions of the "vikings". The word was used to describe a sea-warrior or a pirate. Common denominators like vikings, Scandinavians anf Norsemen make no sense. The Danes, Swedes, Götes and Norwegians were distinct and separate people's, generally hostile towards each others. The main dynamics of the era is concentrated to the lands of the Danes, to Öland and the Åland Islands. It's too often ignored that these peoples lived under very different natural conditions and shared little more than language, some religion and some fashions and material culture.
you're not adding anything new to the discussion. when deep-diving into singular topics concerning cultural trends it is necessary to organize groups of people and paint with a broad brush. you can then specialize if you want to discuss the individual components of this group, but when discussing a wider trend, not necessary. for example, it is called "western colonialism", even though only a few select nations in the "western world" were involved. additionally this is a light, entertaining video for an audience where I have to assume any viewer might be new to the topic
Immigrant song Led Zeppelin.
There's a reason God didn't make me rich ha ha. Cuz id build this! Just for the lulz. And I throw 40 of my closest homies on it with multiple kegs of beer and things that make noise
Replace 'warriors' with terrorists and thieves. Truth hurts!
Replace your name with loser and dork, how does that truth feel 😂
the way englisch is spoke here is hardly to understand.
Keep practicig
I have no problem.
If you can't understand this clear of pronunciation, you don't know spoken English very well.
😂😂😂
more Saxon propaganda here
It's sad that people are so obsessed with the word viking.
yeah because I'm sure everyone will understand what I'm talking of when I use "Late Iron Age Scandinavians"
@@balticempire7244 Even the Late Iron Age Scandinavians used the term VIKING LONGSHIP for the ships they used to go viking in. So this is one of the rare occasions where the word VIKING is actually correct. Keep up the great work!
Another "viking" video....sigh
Then go watch something else
Bra och informativ video,dock var pratet en aning för snabbt...iallafall för en gammel göbbe som jag...🥸