76. Which was NOT true about Ivarr the Boneless?

1. ***Father-in-law of Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye
2. Son of Aslaug
3. Son of Ragnar Loðbrok
4. One of the leaders of the Great Heathen Army
5. One of the executioners of the East Anglian king, Edmund the Martyr

77. Which is true about Folkvangr?

1. ***A meadow where half of those that die in combat go upon death
2. A song sung by the skalds to provide good fortune
3. The name of Freya’s Seiðr form of magic
4. The name of the tree Odin hung from for nine days

78. Which of the following was NOT a major slave trading center for the Vikings?

1. Dublin, Ireland
2. ***Reykjavik, Iceland
3. Birka, Sweden
4. Hedeby, Denmark
5. Kiev, Ukraine

79. Which of the following animals were NOT raised on Viking farms (probably)?

1. Pigs
2. Sheep
3. Goats
4. Cattle
5. Horses
6. ***Ducks
7. Geese
8. Chickens

80. Which day of the week was NOT named after a figure in Norse/Germanic mythology?

1. ***Monday
2. Tuesday
3. Wednesday
4. Thursday
5. Friday

81. Our day of the week, Saturday, was called Laugardagr in old Norse, meaning:

1. ***Bath Day
2. Timber-cutting Day
3. War Day
4. Rest Day
5. Odin’s Day

82. What were Fire fungus, urine and Sodium Nitrate used for?

1. Cleaning clothes
2. Curing intestinal maladies
3. ***Starting a fire
4. Ingredients for smoked pork
5. Curative for sexually transmitted diseases

83. Who was the Norse god of skiing?

1. Baldr
2. ***Ullr
3. Vonn
4. Freyr
5. Sif

84. Who was the author of the Poetic Eddas?

1. Hans Christian Anderson
2. Saxo Grammaticus
3. ***Snorri Sturluson
4. Ahmed ibn Fadhlan
5. Thorstein the Red

85. Who was the Viking king killed at Stamford Bridge in 1066 AD?

1. Harold Godwinson
2. Harald Fairhair
3. Harald Finehair
4. Harald Hårfagre
5. Harald Bluetooth
6. ***Harald Hardrada
7. Holger Dansk

86. Which was (probably) NOT a factor signaling the end of the Viking era?

1. The Scandinavian countries’ evolution toward nation-states
2. ***An incremental culture shift due to an influx of settlers from Ireland and Scotland
3. The discovery and settlement of Iceland and Greenland
4. The conversion of Northern European populations to Christianity
5. The rise of nation-states in England and France

87. What was a hangeroc?

1. A rocky outcropping towering over crashing surf
2. ***A type of Viking woman’s dress
3. A storage shelf in a Viking longhouse
4. A staff weapon of unknown design mentioned in the sagas
5. A result of excessive drinking

88. What was a housecarl?

1. Steward of a longhouse responsible for the health and well being of the household
2. One of the strakes riveted to the keel of a longship
3. A hand axe with langets, supports above and below the point of attachment to the handle
4. ***One of the household troops of the 11th century Danish kings of England
5. A two-wheeled cart used primarily for hauling grain

89. Who was Harold Godwinson’s father?

1. ***Godwin, Earl of Wessex and Kent
2. King Knut the Great
3. Gytha of Wessex
4. Edward the Confessor
5. Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria

90. Which was true about William the Conqueror’s death?

1. He died from an Anglo-Saxon arrow to the eye
2. He was killed by two Norman knights under orders from the pope
3. ***His corpse was too large for the tomb, and when attendants forced the body into the tomb it burst, spreading a disgusting odor throughout the church
4. He died of malnutrition brought on by a siege of his castle
5. He was buried within the White Tower, now known as the Tower of London

91. Which river was probably NOT a significant trade route for the Vikings? (Modern country names)

1. The Seine, in France
2. The Dnieper, in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine
3. The Volga, in Russia
4. The Thames, in England
5. The Rhine, in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands
6. ***The Ouse, in Ireland
7. The Danube, in Germany and 10 other countries

92. Which of the following is NOT true about dwarves in the Norse sagas?

1. Dwarves are pitch-black in appearance
2. They are noted for being extremely skilled smiths and craftspeople
3. ***Their height varies with their skills at the forge
4. They live underground in Svartalfheim
5. Four of them supported the sky
6. They forged Mjollnir, the hammer of Thor

93. Which of the following is true about Skidbladnir, a ship which belongs to Freyr?

1. It needs no steeringboard
2. ***It always has a favorable wind
3. It was crafted by elves from the lands to the west
4. It was crafted from mighty beams of oak
5. Its sail is woven from the finest of spiders’ webs

94. Which was true of the long, golden hair of Sif, Thor’s wife?

1. It could be extended to whatever length she wished
2. Its glow healed any wound
3. It moved independent of any wind
4. It braided itself
5. ***It was crafted by dwarves

95. Who is usually recognized as the greatest Viking king?

1. ***Canute Sweynson
2. Harald Hardrada
3. Æthelstan
4. Sveyn Forkbeard
5. Olaf Tryggvason

96. What is crucially missing from this (supposed) Viking solar compass?

1. A calcite crystal
2. A silver central dial
3. ***A gnomon
4. Moss from tree bark
5. A leather strap

97. What is FALSE about the interior symbol?

1. It is called a Vegvisir
2. It is a symbol for protection against getting lost
3. ***It is ringed by the Viking Age Younger Futhark
4. It is recorded in a manuscript from 1840 from a lost earlier manuscript

98. What is a garboard?

1. The structure along the full length of the right side of the starboard side of a longship
2. The point on a longship where the steering board attaches
3. The wooden pole attached to the lower end of the sail of a longship for tacking
4. ***The strake attached to the keel of a longship
5. The bench on which guests to a longhouse sit

99. Which of the following is NOT true of Gudrid Thorbjarnarrdóttir?

1. She was an Icelandic explorer
2. She appears in the Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders
3. She and her husband Thorfinn Karlsefni, led an expedition to Vinland
4. She had a son named Snorri Þorfinnsson, believed to be the first European birth in the Americas outside of Greenland
5. She married three times, to a merchant named Thorir, Thorstein Eiriksson and Thorfinn Karlsefni
6. ***She undertook a pilgrimage to Constantinople
7. Gudrid knew a seeress’s songs of enchantment and sang them with admirable skill

100. Which was NOT true of the story surrounding the death of Baldur?

1. Baldur was the god of light and purity
2. Frigg went around to everything in the world and secured from each of them an oath to not harm her son
3. Loki tricked Hoder into killing Baldur
4. ***Hoder was the blind son of Freyr and Frigg
5. Hoder and Baldur were brothers
6. The arrow (or dart) was made of mistletoe
7. Hoder was killed by Vali, the god of Justice in retribution
   - Or –
8. They are ALL true

Want to see the test without the answers? Click here.

Sources (among many others):

• Dr. Jackson Crawford, YouTube Lecture Series
• Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology
• John Grant, An Introduction to Viking Mythology
• John Haywood, Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age
• Judith Jesch, Women in the Viking Age
• lifeinnorway.net/norwegian-trolls
• Niels Lund,ed., Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred -
  The ventures of Ohthere and Wulfstan
  together with the Description of Northern Europe From the Old English Orosius
• Fiona Macdonald, 100 Facts - Vikings
• norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/
• NOVA, multiple episodes
• Neil Price, Children of Ash and Elm - A History of the Vikings
• Wikipedia.com

  © For information contact Jack Garrett at info@vikingsofbjornstad.com