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The true Viking warships, or langskips, were long and narrow, frequently with a length-breadth ratio of 7:1; they were very fast under sail or propelled by warriors who served as oarsmen. [6] In Scandinavia, the longship was the usual vessel for war until the 12th–13th centuries.
Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, [ 1 ] but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexible boats, with symmetrical ends with true keel .
Depiction of Vikings sailing a longship from c. 1100 [1]. Vikings were active in Brittany during the Middle Ages, even occupying a portion of it for a time.Throughout the 9th century, the Bretons faced threats from various flanks: they resisted full incorporation into the Frankish Carolingian Empire yet they also had to repel an emerging threat of the new duchy of Normandy on their eastern ...
Viking expansion was the historical movement which led Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, to sail most of the North Atlantic, reaching south as far as North Africa and east as far as Russia, and through the Mediterranean as far as Constantinople and the Middle East, acting as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries.
The longboat usually had the largest passenger carrying capacity out of a ship's boats. Longboats were used by both warships and merchant ships. [1] [2]: 43 A longboat was fitted so that it could be propelled either by oars or by sail. The oars were double-banked - with two oarsmen on each thwart, each using an oar on their own side.
[47] [48] Sweyn continued his raid in England and in 1004 his Viking army looted East Anglia, plundered Thetford and sacked Norwich, before he once again returned to Denmark. [49] Further raids took place in 1006–1007 then Sweyn was paid over 10 000 pounds of silver to leave, and, in 1009–1012, Thorkell the Tall led a Viking invasion into ...
The Norse exploration of North America began in the late 10th century, when Norsemen explored areas of the North Atlantic colonizing Greenland and creating a short term settlement near the northern tip of Newfoundland. This is known now as L'Anse aux Meadows where the remains of buildings were found in 1960 dating to approximately 1,000 years ago.
The second book of Henry Treece's Viking Trilogy, The Road to Miklagard, published in the late 1950s describes a Viking voyage through the Mediterranean to Constantinople, where the main characters are taken as slaves and later become members of the Varangian Guards. They eventually make their way back to their home village via the trade route.