Viking Facts for Kids

Forget tiny triangles- a big Viking longship could sport a massive square sail, sometimes covering over 100 square meters! That's huge for a ship meant to be fast.

These sails were often made from rough, densely woven wool cloth (called vaðmál) or sometimes flax. Imagine weaving that much fabric just for one sail!

The mast holding this giant sail could be up to 13 meters (about 43 feet) tall! It had to be strong but removable, sitting right on the keel.

Because the sail was so big, it took many hands to raise and lower it safely when they needed to switch to rowing.

While many learned about Columbus, the incredible Viking explorer Leif Erikson got there first! He likely set foot in North America around the year 1000 CE.

He named the places he explored: Helluland (Land of Flat Rocks, maybe Baffin Island), Markland (Forest Land, perhaps Labrador), and Vinland (Land of Wild Grapes, likely Newfoundland).

The settlement archeologists found in Newfoundland, L'Anse aux Meadows, dates to around 990–1050 CE—right when Leif was sailing!

His crew needed a tough ship for the 1,800-mile journey from Greenland, taking several days on the longest ocean stretches.

You might picture Vikings wielding giant, clunky axes, but many war axes were actually light and fast! A two-handed Dane Axe could weigh as little as 1.2 kilograms (about 2.6 pounds).

This lightweight design, with a very thin blade, made it easy to swing quickly and stop it from getting stuck in an enemy shield or bone.

Single-handed battle axes were even lighter, often weighing between 0.9 to 1.8 kilograms (2 to 4 pounds). They were balanced for speed, not just brute force.

This meant Vikings could be super agile fighters, using the curved blade to hook an opponent’s ankle to trip them!

The Vikings seemed everywhere, but their homelands were sparsely populated! Estimates suggest Scandinavia had about 1.1 million people combined across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in the 9th century.

To put that in perspective, France had about 7.2 million people, and the Holy Roman Empire had over 11 million!

The main areas they lived in were small farms, and even their biggest towns like Birka or Hedeby only held a few thousand people total.

This lack of farmland might be one reason why so many energetic young people sought adventure and wealth overseas for kids to learn about!

The Vikings lived in a bullion economy, meaning the weight of the silver mattered more than what was stamped on it!

They got tons of silver coins called dirhams from places as far as Iraq through trade. These silver chunks were their go-to money.

If you needed to pay for something, you’d weigh out the silver—and if you were short? You’d use a knife to chop off a piece of a silver ring or coin! These pieces are called hack silver.

Gold was around, but silver was the real everyday money for most of their massive trade networks.

Vikings used runes, which were their alphabet, to carve messages on huge stones called runestones. They weren't just doodles- they were important memorials!

In Sweden alone, there are thousands, but one of the tallest, the Björketorp Runestone, stands at an amazing 4.2 meters (about 13.7 feet) tall!

That's taller than 14 kids stacked on top of each other! Imagine lifting that rock up to carve on it.

Many stones used the Younger Futhark script and often warned people not to break them, sometimes predicting 'insidious death' for anyone who dared!

Don't picture cartoon giants! The average Viking man was about 171 cm, or 5 feet 7 inches tall. That’s similar to many kids today!

However, skeletons buried with weapons were often 1 to 2 inches taller than others. Why?

It means the elite warriors, the ones who got the best food like more meat and dairy, grew taller and stronger than the average farmer.

So, while they weren't GIANTS, the best fighters were likely the best-fed members of their society!

If you think your dinner is boring, listen to this! An Arabic traveler noted that people in the trading town of Hedeby ate fish from a selection of 26 different types!

Their diet was super high in protein, about 30–35% of what they ate, thanks to fish like herring, cod, and shellfish.

This protein-packed diet was much higher than their European neighbors, which probably helped keep them strong and energetic for those long voyages.

Herring was a favorite, full of good things like Omega-3 fatty acids.

Forget just thinking about shield-maidens in stories—science found proof! The famous, weapon-filled warrior grave in Birka, Sweden, from the mid-10th century, contained the remains of a woman.

She was buried with a full set of weapons, including a sword, armor-piercing arrows, and two horses. This proves women could be high-ranking military leaders!

The DNA showed two X chromosomes and no Y chromosome, ending the debate. This wasn't a Valkyrie, but a real-life military officer!

This incredible discovery shows us that the Viking world was sometimes more open to women in power than other places at the time.

When Vikings raided big European cities, those places had tens of thousands of people! But the Viking towns themselves were small trading posts.

In the 9th century, major hubs like Ribe, Hedeby, and Birka together held only about 3,000 to 5,000 people.

That means a big Viking 'city' might have had fewer people than your school times 10! Most people lived on farms, not in big crowds.

This small urban population shows their strength was on the water, not in massive, crowded cities like we see today.