Glossary

A	Ale	Beer.
	Amber	Fossilised tree resin found chiefly along the southern shores of the Baltic Sea and used to make jewellery and a variety of decorative objects.
	Amulet	An ornament or piece of jewellery worn as a charm against evil or for good luck.
	Anglo-Saxon	The culture of the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon language was called Old English.
	Anglo-Saxons	A people who migrated to and inhabited Britain from the 5th-century and whose control of England was challenged by the Viking raids and settlement.
	Antler	The bony branch-like structure growing from the skull of deer. Antlers are shed annually and have been used to make tools, weapons, ornaments and toys.
	Archaeologist	A person who investigates and studies the human past through the material remains and traces of it that have survived. Archaeology is the name of the study of these things (the word comes from the Greek meaning “speaking about ancient things”).
	Arm ring	An ornamental ring for the arm made of silver or gold. Arm rings (and neck and finger rings) indicated wealth. A generous Viking king would be described as “ring-giver”.
	Artefact	An object produced by human craft.
B	Bayeux Tapestry	The embroidery (not really a tapestry) made in England, probably at Canterbury, and now on display in Bayeux, Normandy in France. It tells in pictures the story of the Norman Conquest in 1066 and the events that led up to it. The Normans (Norse-men; men of the north) were originally from Scandinavia and the information the Bayeux tapestry gives about military equipment and tactics is very valuable.
	Berserk	Berserk nowadays describes someone who is in an uncontrollable violent rage. Viking warriors who were described as fighting in battle with wild frenzy and not much armour were called berserkers (possibly from the Old Norse words meaning “bear” and “coat”); they were sometimes depicted chewing the tops of their shields.
	Blank	A plain disc of metal on which designs are stamped in making coins.
	British Museum	A museum dedicated to human history and culture from its beginnings to modern times. It is located in London and its collection numbers over 8 million Artefacts, one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
	Britons	The inhabitants, along with the Picts, of the island of Britain prior to the migration and settlement of Anglo-Saxons (mainly in England) and Irish (in Scotland). By the time of the Vikings, the Britons were largely confined to Cornwall, Wales and Strathclyde.
	Bronze	Metal which is an alloy (mixture) of copper and tin.
	Brooch	An ornament attached to clothing with a pin, worn by Viking men to fasten their cloaks and by women in pairs to fasten their dresses.
	Bullion	Metal (especially gold and silver) mainly in the form of bars or lumps.
C	Carpentry	Cutting, working and joining of wood (planks, beams etc) into a structure.
	Chain mail	Armour made of interlinked metal rings, often called a mail shirt.
	Charm	An object to ward off evil and bad luck, like an Amulet, and also to give special powers.
	Clinker built	The description of ships and boats having external wooden planks overlapping each other downwards and fastened with rivets or clinched nails; “clinched” means that the head of the nails are bent sideways to secure them when they have been hammered through.
	Coin die	An engraved stamp for impressing a design upon a Blank to make a coin; the die is hammered onto the blank.
	Columbus	Christopher Columbus, the explorer who, in 1492, sailed from Spain and reached America (actually the West Indies). The Vikings reached America nearly 500 years before Columbus.
	Continents	The main continuous bodies of land on the Earth’s surface – Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, Australia, Antarctica. Through their travels over seas and down rivers the Vikings were the first people to reach 4 continents – Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
	Coprolite	Human or animal excrement that has fossilised (turned to a stony substance).
	Cremation	Disposing of a dead body by burning it.
	Curator	In large museums and galleries a curator is an expert who has responsibility for a particular group or collection of Artefacts or works of art.
D	Danelaw	A region of northern and eastern England (roughly equivalent to the whole of Northumbria, East Anglia and north-eastern Mercia) that was heavily settled by the Vikings and where many Old Norse place-names still survive. The term ‘Danelaw’ means the place where ‘Danish’ law was applied, but the region was never unified under a single Viking leader.
D	DNA	This is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a substance present in most organisms (humans, animals and plants). Analysis of DNA from samples of skeletons and other bodily remains can throw light on, amongst other things, the movement and settlement of groups of people. DNA evidence suggests strong Norwegian elements in the populations of north-west England and the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland.
E	East Anglia	A region and, at one time, Anglo-Saxon kingdom corresponding to the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and parts of the east Midlands.
F	Falcon	A small, long-winged, swift-flying bird of prey often trained to hunt to bring back food or just for sport.
	Fjord	An inlet or channel from the sea. The Scandinavian coastline, especially of Norway, is indented by many fjords which serve as natural harbours.
	Forge	A blacksmith’s workshop, containing a furnace (fire), where metal is shaped by heating and hammering.
G	Great Heathen Army	Term used by the Anglo-Saxons to describe the large Viking army that arrived in England in 851 and brought about great changes to the political map of Britain.
H	Hack-silver	Pieces of silver hacked (cut) from Ingots, coins, jewellery etc and used as a form of currency. (The Vikings also used hack-gold.)
	Hoard	An ancient collection of hidden treasure (coins, jewellery, precious stones, gold and silver objects etc).
	Hugin and Munin	The pair of ravens that fly over the world to bring information to the god Odin. In Old Norse, Hugin means “thought” and Munin “memory”. (Ravens are large all-black birds, the largest members of the Crow family.)
I	Iceland	An island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was first settled by Viking explorers in the late 9th century.
	Ingot	A (usually oblong) piece of cast metal (mostly gold or silver); “cast” means melted and then shaped in a mould.
	Isle of Man	An island in the Irish Sea between north-west England and Northern Ireland.
	Istanbul	The current name of the city in modern Turkey that was previously called Constantinople; Constantinople was the capital of the Christian Byzantine Empire, which lasted until the second half of the 15th century.
J	Jorvik	The Viking name for York. The city of York is now in the English county of North Yorkshire.
K	Keel	The timber structure running along the base of a ship on which the framework of the whole of the ship is built.
L	Leinster	One of the ancient kingdoms of Ireland, now a province in the east of the island.
	Lindisfarne	A small island off the coast of Northumberland in north-east England. Its monastery was attacked by the Vikings in 793.
	Linen	Cloth made from the fibres obtained from the flax plant. The sails of Viking ships were made of wool or linen.
	Longships	The long, narrow ships of the Vikings, powered by oars and a sail and designed for speed and mobility. They were able to operate in deep or shallow water and could carry a large crew of warrior sailors.
	Loot	To steal and carry off valuables after a raid. The valuables taken away can also be called loot.
M	Maldon	A town in Essex, close to the site of a major battle in 991 in which the Vikings defeated an English army. The battle is the subject of a famous poem in Old English called The Battle of Maldon.
	Mercenary	A fighting man who is hired for service in a foreign army.
	Mercia	A region, and former Anglo-Saxon kingdom, that roughly corresponds to the central part of England. It was bounded to the north by Northumbria, the east by East Anglia, the south by Wessex and the west by the territories of the Britons in Wales.
	Metal detector	An electronic instrument which detects the presence of nearby metal.
	Minting	Making coins by using Blanks and Coin dies. The place where minting is done is called a mint.
	Monastery	The buildings in which a religious community lives and works separate from the rest of society, spending its time mainly in prayer and study.
	Monk	A member of a Monastery.
	Munster	One of the ancient kingdoms of Ireland and now a province in the south of the island.
	Mythology	The collected myths of a group of people with beliefs, customs, history and rituals - that is, a culture. All cultures (for example, the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Greeks, the Norse) have a mythology. Myths are the stories they tell to explain the natural world, historical events and customs; they involve Supernatural beings and events (like gods, goddesses, and heroes and their adventures).
N	Norman Conquest (of England)	The process by which invaders from Normandy, led by Duke William (the Conqueror), conquered England. The Normans also conquered Sicily, parts of Ireland and, during the first Crusade, parts of the eastern Mediterranean in what is now Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
	Normandy	A region of northern France that takes its name from the Vikings (Norse-men; men of the north) who settled there in the 9th century.
	Norse	The early language, culture and peoples of Scandinavia are described as Norse.
	Northumbria	Region and former Anglo-Saxon kingdom that covered much of northern England and southern Scotland.
O	Odin	In Norse Mythology, the supreme god associated with many things including war, victory, death and also wisdom and magic. He is often depicted as a wise old man with one eye, accompanied by his ravens Hugin and Munin. He rode an eight-legged horse. In the Old English language he was called Woden and Wednesday is named after him.
	Old English	The language of the Anglo-Saxons. It was spoken from the 5th-century to the 12th-century.
	Old Norse	The language of the Vikings. It was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements from the 8th-century to the 14th-century. The Old Norse word “vikingr” means a pirate or raider and the word “viking” means a raiding expedition.
P	Pagan	The name given by Christians to people who had spiritual beliefs and rituals that were not Christian and who were considered uncivilised. They also called them “heathen”.
	Picts	A people inhabiting the north-eastern part of Scotland at the beginning of the Viking Age.
	Pillage / Plunder	To raid a place and steal goods and valuables – similar to Loot.
	Prehistory	The period before written records.
	Prow	The projecting part at the front (the bows) of a ship. Viking Longships had high pointed prows, often decorated at the end with a carved head of a creature or dragon, or with an elaborate weather vane attached.
Q	Queen of Denmark	The present Queen of Denmark is Queen Margrethe II. The Danish monarchy can be traced back over a thousand years and so among her ancestors are Viking kings such as Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth.
R	Reliquary	A container for relics. Relics are objects that are claimed to be the remains of religious figures (like saints) such as bones, pieces of clothing or other things associated with them.
	Roskilde	A city on the Danish island of Zealand. It is one of Denmark’s oldest cities, dating from the 10th-century, and was once the capital of Denmark. It is home to the Viking Ship Museum, which has at the centre of its collection the remains of five 11th-century Viking ships excavated from Roskilde Fjord. The ship Roskilde 6 (the longest Viking ship ever found) was the centre-piece of the British Museum’s Viking exhibition in 2014.
	Runes	The letters of the alphabets (runic alphabets) used to write various old Germanic languages, including Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon. These alphabets were known as “futhark” (after their first 6 letters). Runes are angular in shape using straight lines; this makes it easier for carving in wood and stone or scratching on bone etc.
S	Saga	Sagas are written texts in Old Norse (mostly compiled in Iceland, and mostly written between the 12th and 14th century) giving accounts of ancient Norse history, Viking adventures, kings, battles, feuds and other stories.
	Scandinavia	The area of northern Europe covered by the modern countries of Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
	Shaft	The wooden handle of a weapon or tool, for example an axe or a spear.
	Shetland	A group of islands north-east of northern Scotland. They were plundered, invaded and, in the 9th century, colonised by the Vikings. Shetland together with Orkney (a group of islands between Shetland and the Scottish mainland) was a province of Norway until 1472 when the islands became subject to the King of Scotland.
	Ship’s timbers	The wooden parts of a ship (planks, Keel, ribs, mast, frames etc).
	Sickle	A hand-held tool with a sharp curved blade used for harvesting corn or cutting grass or other plants.
	Slave	A man, woman or child who is owned by another person or group of people and is forced to work for them. Vikings captured people during their raids and kept some as their own slaves and sold a great number in foreign slave markets.
	Smithing	The trade of a smith; a smith is someone who makes objects out of metal. The place where he works is called a smithy or Forge.
	Soapstone	A type of soft rock (also called steatite) which is easy to carve.
	Sorceress	A woman who claims to use magic powers – a witch. It is thought that Viking sorceresses carried metal staffs (wands) which had strong powers and were used in magical rituals. It is likely that these sorceresses aided men on the battlefield by casting spells to protect them or make them stronger.
	Spindle	A device used in Spinning, usually made from wood, for spinning (twisting) fibres into a thread.
	Spindle whorl	A disc (made of wood, metal, bone or other material), with a hole through it, which is fitted onto the Spindle to vary and maintain the speed of the spin.
	Spinning	The act of drawing out and twisting fibres (wool, flax etc) into threads from which cloth can then be woven.
	Strathclyde	A region, and former kingdom of the Britons, that corresponds to much of modern Cumbria and south-west Scotland.
	Supernatural	A word used to describe things or beings that are not of this world, above the laws of nature, magical or unexplained (gods and goddesses, spirits, demons, ghosts, monsters etc).
T	Tara	The ancient seat of the high-kings of Ireland. The Vikings of Dublin suffered a serious defeat here in 980.
	Textile	A fabric or cloth woven from thread made by Spinning.
	Thor	In Norse Mythology Thor is a god associated with thunder, weather, healing and fertility. He is the son of Odin and is represented as armed with a hammer. In the Old English language he was called Thunor and Thursday is named after him.
U
V	Valhalla	The magnificent great hall, ruled by Odin, where Vikings who fell in battle were taken after death.
W	Walrus ivory	Walrus ivory comes from the tusks of the walrus, a large sea mammal. The Vikings hunted walrus and used and traded walrus ivory for carving into works of art, decorative items and other useful Artefacts.
W	Wessex	A region and former Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south-west of England, with its capital at Winchester. Alfred, as king of Wessex, resisted the Great Heathen Army in the 9th century and his descendants went on to become the first kings of a united England.
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Archaeology

The Viking Ship

Raiders and Conquerors

Weapons and Warriors

The Vikings in Britain

Social Life

Telling Tales

Looking Good

Trade and Industry

Work

Magic and Religion

Glossary