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1. Archeological evidence.
Remains of towns, artifacts
and graveyards have been found.Read about glass
beads found in a Viking grave.
2. Church annals.
These are like diaries written by monks. They describe what
happens each year. They look a bit like
- 762 AD Vikings invade.
New king on throne. Bad harvest.
- 763 AD King's daughter
married. Big battle against nearest king.
- 764 AD Good harvest.
Eclipse of the sun. King dies
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is one of the most important of
these records (about 5 of them still exist). It has the
first mention of the Vikings. It was started in 892 AD,
and was written in Winchester cathedral. King
Alfred ordered it to be written.
These are the ruins of
Lindisfarne
Abbey on a small island off the coast of northeast England.
As it is directly opposite Norway and Denmark, it was the
first place in Britain to be raided by the Vikings. Lindisfarne
was attacked 3 or 4 times, and each time they killed some
of the monks and carried off treasure from the monastery.
3. Sagas. These are stories
about Viking warriors, wise-men and their families. They
are part fact and part fiction. They were all written by
Icelanders
and none were written down earlier than the 12th century.
 Here are two class projects on
Viking sagas.
4. Rune-stones.
These are big stones erected mainly in Denmark and southern
Sweden which were used as memorials. They have a special
type of writing on them which is called runes.
Problems With the Evidence
1. None of the written
evidence comes from Scandinavia, as the Vikings could not
write until the 10th century onwards, therefore the annals
only give us the idea which their victims had of them.
2. So much of it was written
such a long time after the event actually happened, and
the writers may have not been all that sure about what exactly
happened and in which year it happened. The saga-writers
were writing about events and people 300 years after the
event happened. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" records the
first Viking raid in 793 AD. But the entry was not written
until 892 AD. Think about how much trouble you'd have writing
a diary about what happened 20 years ago, never mind 100.
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