Vikings
Where can I find information about the Vikings?
Entry last updated: 13/01/21
Introduction
Around the 9th century AD, Vikings traveled from Scandinavia to raid towns and settlements around Europe and the United Kingdom. These seafaring warriors from Scandinavia (which is Norway, Denmark and Sweden) were also known as Norsemen, which means 'North-men'.
Websites
Lots of movies, TV shows and books have been inspired by the Vikings and their mythology, like the Thor movies, and How to Train Your Dragon. To find out about the real people and cultures that inspired them, check out these websites.
This website has facts and pictures on lots of different topics, including the Vikings.
- Scroll down the page to select History, and then find the link on Vikings.
- The images on the page will link you to different type of information such as Viking women, Viking children or Viking writing.
Tips: This site has been specially put together for schools to use. You'll notice you can use this site for other topics too.
Britannica School is part of the EPIC collection of reliable databases put together especially for New Zealand school students.
- You can choose what level of information you want to read, eg Primary, Middle (Intermediate) or Secondary.
- Search using the keyword 'Vikings'.
- Primary level has information about Viking life, conquests and the end of the Viking era.
- Intermediate level has a good amount of information about Viking life, like their longships that they used to sail, trading, education, government, religion and more.
Tips: To get to the EPIC resources you will need a password from your school librarian first. Or you can chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians between 1 and 6 pm Monday to Friday and they will help you online.
This website is run by BBC, a reliable British news agency, so the information should be accurate.
- Search for your keyword 'vikings'.
- Choose the first result called Vikings (KS2 level).
- Click on each heading to find out who the Vikings were, how they fought, as well as trading, daily life and more.
Tips: We can't watch most of the videos on this site because of where we are in the world. Luckily there are transcripts that we can read instead - look under the play button of each video to find a link that says Transcript.
This is the official site of the History Channel. You will find information about Vikings here.
- First select Topics from along the top of the page.
- Then go down till you get a list of topics, and choose Exploration.
- Now look at Vikings.
Tips: Websites that have .com or .co in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. This website belongs to A+E Networks, a media company. Check their About us page to find out what the company’s mission and values are.
HowStuffWorks is a really good website for finding out how all sorts of things work. Often the articles we find will go over multiple pages, so we need to click through them to find more info. We can learn more about who runs the website by reading the About page.
- Search with the keyword 'vikings'.
- Go down past the ads and choose the article How The Vikings Worked .
- There's also a podcast called How The Vikings Worked.
Tips: You will notice advertisements on some of the pages asking us to buy something or telling us to 'click here'. It’s best to ignore these ads and focus on the information we’re looking for.
Books
There have been many books written about the Vikings - check out your local public or school library to see what they have.
Some recommended titles are:
- Black Back! : Vikings by Nancy Ohlin
- Viking! : myths of gods and monsters by Kevin Crossley-Holland
- The saga of Erik the Viking by Terry Jones, Michael Foreman
- The last viking by Terry Deary
- The Vikings by Gillian Chapman.
SCIS no: 1850786
