Viking ships

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A modern replica of a Viking ship. This ship is of the Snekkja longship type.

Viking ships were a marine vessels of a particular designs used and built by the Vikings during the Viking Age. 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. They were clinker built, which is the overlapping of planks riveted together. Some might have had a dragon's head or other circular object protruding from the bow and stern, for design, although this is only inferred from historical sources.

In the literature, Viking ships are usually seen divided into two broad categories, merchant ships and warships. These categories are overlapping however, as some kinds of merchant ships, built for transporting cargo specifically, were also regularly deployed as warships. The majority of Viking ships were designed for sailing rivers, fjords and coastal waters, while a few types, such as the knarr, could navigate the open sea and even the ocean. The Viking ships ranged in the Baltic Sea and far from the Scandinavian homelands, to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Newfoundland, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Africa.


The ship has functioned as the centerpiece of Scandinavian culture for millennia, serving both pragmatic and religious purposes and its importance was already deeply rooted in the Scandinavian culture when the Viking Age began. Scandinavia is a region with relatively high inland mountain ranges, dense forests and easy access to the sea with many natural ports. Consequently, trade routes was primarily operated via shipping, as inland travel was both more hazardous and cumbersome. Many stone engravings from the Nordic Stone Age and in particular the Nordic Bronze Age, depicts ships in various situations and valuable ships has been sacrificed as part of ceremonial votive offerings since at least the Nordic Iron Age, as evidenced be the Hjortspring and Nydam boats for example.

The Viking kingdoms developed into coastal cities, all of which were deeply dependent on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea for survival and development. Control of the waterways was of critical importance, and consequently advanced war ships were in high demand. But in fact, because of their overwhelming importance, ships became a mainstay of the Viking pagan religion, as they evolved into symbols of power and prowess. Throughout the first millennium, respectable Viking chieftains and noblemen were commonly buried with an intact, luxurious ship to transport them to the afterlife. Furthermore, the Hedeby coins, among the earliest known Danish currency, have ships as emblems, showing the importance of naval vessels in the area. Through such cultural and practical significance, the Viking ship progressed into the most powerful, advanced naval vessel in Viking Age Europe.[2]


A faering is an open rowboat with two pairs of oars, commonly found in most boat-building traditions in Western and Northern Scandinavia, dating back to the Viking Age.[3]


Knarr is the Norse term for ships that were built for Atlantic voyages. They were cargo ships averaging a length of about 54 feet (16 m), a beam of 15 feet (4.6 m), and a hull capable of carrying up to 122 tons.[4] Overall displacement: 50 tons. This is shorter than the Gokstad type of longships, but knarrs are studier by design and they depended mostly on sail-power, only putting oars to use as auxiliaries, if there was no wind on the open water. Because of this, the knarr was used for longer voyages, ocean going transports and more hazardous trips than the Gokstad type. It was capable of sailing 75 miles (121 km) in one day, held a crew of about 20-30, and knarrs[5] routinely crossed the North Atlantic in the Viking Age, carrying livestock and goods to and from Greenland and the North Atlantic islands. The design of the knarr later influenced the design of the cog, used in the Baltic Sea by the Hanseatic League.




Animal head from Oseberg ship.





The Karve were a small type of Viking longship, with a broad hull somewhat similar to the knarr. They were used for both war and ordinary transport, carrying people, cargo or livestock. Because they were able to navigate in very shallow water, they were also used for coasting. Karves had broad beams of approximately 17 feet (5.2 m).

Ship construction









Culture and traditions

One Viking custom was to bury dead chieftains in their ships. The dead man’s body would be carefully prepared and dressed in his best clothes. After this preparation, the body would be transported to the burial-place in a wagon drawn by horses. The man would be placed on his ship, along with many of his most prized possessions. The chieftain’s favorite horses, often a faithful hunting-dog and occasionally thralls and households, were sacrificially killed and also buried with the deceased. The Vikings firmly believed that the dead man would then sail to the after-life. An example of a Viking ship burial was excavated near the Danish village of Ladby and can be found on display here.

Burial of ships is an ancient tradition in Scandinavia, stretching back to at least the Nordic Iron Age, as evidenced by the Hjortspring boat (400-300 BC) or the Nydam boats (200-450 AD), for example. Ships and bodies of water has held a major spiritual importance in the Norse cultures since at least the Nordic Bronze Age.

Preserved ships




Viking ship replicas are one of the more common types of ship replica. Viking, the very first Viking ship replica, was built by the Rødsverven shipyard in Sandefjord, Norway. In 1893 it sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition. There are a considerable number of modern reconstructions of Viking Age ships in service around Northern Europe and North America. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, has been particularly prolific in building accurate reconstructions of archaeological finds in its collection.

See also


  1. Eldar Heide (2014). The early Viking Ship types (Sjøfartshistorisk årbok 2012. 81-153.)
  3. What is a norse færing? (
  5. Plural of knarr is knerrir.
  7. Ervan G. Garrison: . A history of engineering and technology: artful methods, p 111
  8. Lapstrake hull schematic
  9. Stephen Batchelor (30 April 2010). Medieval History For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 101–. ISBN 978-0-470-66460-5. Retrieved 2 July 2013.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
  10. Richard Hall, The World of the Vikings (New York, 2007), 55.
  11. Hall, The World of the Vikings, 54.

External links