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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 ...
The England runestones (Swedish: Englandsstenarna) is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. [22] They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece runestones and the 26 Ingvar ...
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.
Viking longships were built with speed and flexibility in mind, which allowed Norse builders to craft strong yet elegant ships. Close to 28 metres long and five metres wide, the Gokstad ship is often cited as an example of a typical Viking ship. [37] Initially, Viking ships were all purpose vehicles. [38]
Ormrinn Langi in Old Norse (English: The Long Serpent; Norwegian: Ormen Lange; Faroese: Ormurin Langi) was one of the most famous of the Viking longships. It was built for the Norwegian King Olaf Tryggvason, and was the largest and most powerful longship of its day. In the late 990s, King Olaf was on a "Crusade" around the country to bring ...
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.