VIKINGS : RECREATION

Q. WHAT DID VIKINGS DO FOR RECREATION??

A. they like to play games, have fun, crafty people , playing sport, feasts, really art – make

sculptures,

CHILDRENS & GAMES

GAMES THE VIKINGS PLAYED

• The Vikings played a lot of board games and dice games.

• nine men morris.• Backgammon.• fox and geese.• Chess.• The only game that the Vikings played back

then, that we still play, is backgammon, and chess.

Nine men morris

Course of the game - Each player has nine pieces, either black ones or white ones. White opens the game. The aim is to get all of the opposite opponent pieces.

Dice game - Backgammon

FOX AND GEESE

The orange marble represents the FOX. The white marbles represent the GEESE.

CHILDRENS CHILDHOOD =]• The Viking sons were raised to become warriors.• The female Vikings were raised to help their

mothers with the house labours including farming.

• Children learnt History from stories and to become an adult, a child had to be over 16 years of age and sometimes when they reached the age, their family would take them for a ceremony and have a celebration while thanking the gods.

• Like during the Viking times was very hard mainly because of the frozen weather which would sometimes render farming useless and subsequently kill many farm animals including cows

CHILDRENS GAMES =]

• Although the children's in the Viking times would have spent many time with their parents, they also found some time to play.

• Many of the board and dice games found from this period would have been equally popular amongst children as adults.

• Adults enjoyed many games and pastimes as we know from literary and archaeological sources. Then, as now, children were likely to have copied their elders and so probably participated in many of the sports and physical games popular at this time.

CHILDRENS MUSIC =]

• Many children may have learned to play simple musical instruments such as bone or reed whistles or wooden pan-pipes, as well as singing and dancing.

• Children also probably took part in another popular pastime, challenging each other with riddles.

Reed whistle

(bone)

Wooden panpipe

CHILDRENS TOYS =]

• Carved wooden animals, usually about 10 - 15cm long. Horses were the most common animal to be carved in wood.

• Carved wooden swords were well known, they were usually very accurate copies in wood of real swords.

VIKING ART =]• Viking art are all sophisticated, intricate, abstract

and sometimes not so appealing to the eye.• Their art appears on lots of things such as; brooches,

swords, pendants, helmets, metal, stone, wood, clay, silver and gold.

• Animals, Vikings and Gods, music, hunters and kings were the main inspirations for some of their artworks. Extremely handy at woodwork and carpentry, Vikings would carve out intricate, detailed interlaced patterns which looks slightly distorted.

• As technology grew, Vikings started to chip and carve out of silver and gold instead of more basic material such as wood and stone. The two principal forms of Viking art are jewelry and rune stone carvings.

VIKINGS FEAST =]

• Vikings loved to celebrate..., what better why to celebrate than to hold feasts. festivals, partying, having a great time and drinking beer?

• All members of the Viking society were welcomed at feasts to prove that they were generous and humble to others of the community..

• Feasts were often held when Vikings have had a successful hunting party or to honor their gods.

• Vikings knew how to throw a great feast, they can often last for more than a week!

• During feasts, competitions, sports and games were played, mostly resulting in a bloody, sickening mess to be cleaned up afterwards.

• In a family feast, a family would gather around and sacrifice a horse, horsemeat would then be spitted and roasted like kebabs.

Winter Sports!

Winter activities.

In the times the climate in Scandinavia was warmer than it is today. For the Viking men in winter was largely a time for leisure. They repaired their tools and weapons and taught there little children how to fight and ski. Tales and legends of cross-country tours from those days of up to 500 km. are still remembered in Scandinavia today.

Vikings ski club.

Skiing and sledding. when the Vikings went skiing, they skated on a frozen lake

and rivers using ice skates with blades made from carved bone or antlers. If you wanted to get around when there was snow on the ground you had to know how to ski.. Skis were also used during the hunt in the winter. A skier's equipment always had one long and one short ski and a long pole. The long ski was used for gliding, the short ski to make you move forward. Animal fur was put on to the bottom of the short ski to make it easier to climb uphill. A good skier would master the climbing of hills and mountainsides as well as going downhill. When they were skiing downhill they had to be able to avoid or jump over obstacles.

Wrestling

WRESLTING

Wrestling was the most widespread of sports during the Viking.

It was practiced in all classes of society. Women participated in wrestling too. Wherever Vikings gathered wrestling was a part of the entertainment.

Crude WrestlingThese matches were crude and wild. The challengers were extremely powerful

The strength of these men is the basis for legends of how these giants wrestled with supernatural creatures. The struggles were decided by pinning either from the front or in a back throw. Another method of pinning the opponent when nothing else helped was to chop off both of his legs

Free-style was little different from today. In Glima strength wasn't as important as technical skill and balance. The combatants brought each other down with lightening quick moves and tricks as much with the feet as with the hands.

RIDDLES ON

VIKINGS (:

1. I'm by nature solitary,scarred by spearand wounded by sword, weary of battle.I frequently see the face of war, and fighthateful enemies; yet I hold no hopeof help being brought to me in the battle,before I'm eventually done to death.In the stronghold of the city sharp-edged swords,skillfully forged in the flame by smithsbite deeply into me. I can but awaita more fearsome encounter; it is not for meto discover in the city any of those doctorswho heal grievous wounds with roots and herbs.The scars from sword wounds gape wider and widerdeath blows are dealt me by day and by night.

2. Wob's my name if you work it out;I'm a fair creature fashioned for battleWhen I bend and shoot my deadly shaftfrom my stomach, I desire only to sendthat poison as far away as possible.When my lord, who devised this torment for me,releases my limbs, I become longerand, bent upon slaughter, spit outthat deadly poison I swallowed before.No man's parted easily from the objectI describe; if he's struck by what fliesfrom my stomach, he pays for its poisonwith his strength - speedy atonement for his lifeI'll serve no master when unstrung, only whenI'm cunningly nocked. Now guess my name.

3. A woman, young and lovely, often locked mein a chest; she took me out at times,lifted me with fair hands and gave meto her loyal lord, fulfilling his desire.Then he stuck his head well inside me,pushed it upwards into the smallest part.It was my fate, adorned as I was, to be filledwith something rough if that person who possessed mewas virile enough. Now guess what I mean.

4. A strange thing hangs by man's hip,hidden by a garment. It has a holein its head. It is stiff and strongand its firm bearing reaps a reward.When the retainer hitches his clothinghigh above his knee, he wants the headof that hanging thing to find the old holethat it, outstretched, has often filled before.

BIBLIOGRAPHY =]• Microsoft Student Encarta

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vikings/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/vikings/index.shtmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings

• http://www.regia.org/pastimes.ht• www.regia.org/games.htm

• Answer to riddle 1. Shield 2. Bow 3. Helmet 4. Key

THE END By

Carmen, Regina,

Rebecca and Evan