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Time Tangled Island: Viking Explorers

Factropica Fast Facts and quizzes

by Beth Rowen
Viking ship

Viking ship

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Try our Viking Explorer Quiz!


Factropica Fast Facts

  • Vikings lived in Scandinavia, which is present day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
  • The Vikings were the best shipbuilders and sailors of their time.
  • If the direction of land was unknown, Viking sailors would release a raven into the air and follow its course.
  • Viking warriors were buried with their weapons, but not their armor.
  • Viking women could get divorced, own property, control their wealth, and join or lead raiding parties.
  • Vikings used runes, a complicated system of symbols, to write their language. Each rune represented a different goddess or god.
  • Vikings believed Valkyries, female warriors, watched over battles and decided who would die.
  • Vikings believed their dead went to Valhalla, the banquet hall of the god Odin in Asgard.
  • Leif Ericsson was the first European discoverer of North America, c. 1000.
  • The last attempt by the Vikings to establish a colony in North America occurred around 1013 A.D.

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The deadliest lightning strike ever hit a Boeing 707; the plane then crashed killing 81 people.

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