101. True or false: Vikings actually gave kittens to newlywed brides as an essential part of a new household.

1. True
2. False

102. In 930 CE, Ibn Fadlan encounters and observes Vikings from which country?

1. The Danes from Denmark.
2. The Swedes (the Rus) from Sweden
3. The Icelandic Vikings
4. Greenlanders from Greenland

103. How tall was the average Scandinavian, which was considered very tall for that time period?

1. 5’10”
2. 6’0”
3. 5’3”
4. 6’3”

104. What skill did the Vikings learn from the Sámi, the indigenous people in Eurasia who shared a culture with the Northmen?

1. How to hunt walruses
2. How to build ships
3. How to ski
4. How to build turf houses
5. All of the above

105. Which pre-Viking Age Anglo-Saxon burial site is depicted in this photo?





106. True or False? The Viking Age took place primarily in the dark ages.

1. True
2. False

107. Scandinavian women were said to have some of the most progressive rights out of any other nation of that time. What revolutionary right was included in these?

1. Women had a say in who they could marry.
2. Bride wealth that a woman brings into a marriage would leave with her if she were to get a divorce.
3. She owned 1/3rd of the land of her kin, and she could bequeath her lands in a will when she died.
4. Laws existed to protect women against rape.
5. All of the above

108. Feuds were prevalent in Scandinavian culture. One common way of appeasing the bloodthirsty vengeance of a wronged kinsman was wergild. What is wergild?

1. A battle fought when the moon was full.
2. A tithe of monetary compensation.
3. A smelted necklace of shame to be worn by the offending party for a period of time commensurate with the crime.
4. A blood sacrifice made to the wronged party by the offending party.

109. Which of the Scandinavian peoples were the last to convert to Christianity, and even still after they converted held human sacrifice for many years?

1. The Danes from Denmark.
2. The Swedes from Sweden
3. The Icelandic Vikings
4. Greenlanders from Greenland
5. A and B, they converted around the same time.

110. What is the leading theory as to why the Vikings disappeared from Greenland?

1. The hostile Inuit people native to the Northern regions of Greenland battled with them fiercely until they ran them out of Greenland.
2. Despite the name Greenland, a name created to entice people to come settle, the environment was so icy and hostile, no one wanted to live there.
3. They deforested the land building ships and clearing farm area, eliminating natural resources and creating infertile soil.
4. As the ice-age came in, the Greenlanders failed to adapt as their way of life consisted of hunting for their food and trading by going out on the oceans, which given the stormy climate was no longer feasible.
5. C & D
6. B & C

111. What legends surround Freydís Eiríksdóttir?

1. She alone stood to fight the indigenous people of Vinland when they came charging her encampment and won because she terrified them by baring her breasts and pressing a sword against them while shouting in a foreign tongue.
2. She was banished from Iceland, much like her father Erik the Red was from Norway, for the crime of murder.
3. She sought revenge on two brothers who offended her by goading her husband into taking his men to slaughter the brothers’ men. When they refused to kill the women, she took up an axe and did it herself.
4. She was a seafarer and explorer like her father and brother, and the only time she was not exploring was when she was pregnant. The moment her child was weaned, she was on the seas again.
5. B and D are true
6. A and C are true
7. A and B are true

112. The Vikings from which region attacked the British Isle first followed chronologically by which other Vikings?

1. The Danes and then the Norwegians?
2. The Icelanders and then the Danes?
3. The Norwegians and then the Danes?
4. The Swedish and then the Norwegians?

113. Which saga is purported to be written by or commissioned by a woman?

1. Laxdæla Saga
2. The Vinland Saga
3. Njal’s Saga
4. Fóstbrœðra saga

114. Which king of Wessex/England decreed St Brice’s day, 13 November 1002, that “All the Danes who had sprung up in this island, sprouting like weeds amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a most just extermination”?

1. Alfred the Great
2. Edward the Confessor
3. Edgar
4. Æthelred II

115. Slaves were a fundamental part of Viking culture that aided them in their farming endeavors. They even sold slaves on the market for riches. Who was their chief customer of slaves?

1. The French
2. The English
3. The Franks
4. The Arabs

116. What is the name of the Giant from whom Odin obtained the mead of poetry?

1. Baugi
2. Beli
3. Gulltopp
4. Angrboða

117. True or false? The Vikings, ever pious and superstitious would cast lots before going a Viking to ensure the gods were on their side and would protect them.

1. True
2. False

118. What year was Iceland fully colonized after being discovered as a promising stopping point on the way to raid the British Isle?

1. 795 CE
2. 1000 CE
3. 870 CE
4. 900 CE

119. True or false? The Vikings settled across 4 continents.

1. True
2. False

120. What was the name of Thor’s wife?

1. Frey
2. Frig
3. Sif
4. Sygn

121. Which god/goddess was the patron of the peasant class?

1. Odin
2. Thor
3. Freya
4. Balder

122. What is the power of the apples – arguably a possible source of Christian revision – that Loki steals from Idun for a giantess disguised as an eagle?

1. One bite unlocks knowledge
2. They give unbridled strength to those who eat just one apple
3. They grant one access to Asgard
4. They possess the power of unending youth

123. What grave site is depicted in this photo?





124. From what plant do we get linen?

1. Hemp
2. Hensbane
3. Flax
4. Rye

 

125. Who was the first Norseman to sight North America?

1. Bjarni Herjólfsson
2. Erik Thorvaldsson
3. Leif Erikson
4. Æthelred Unræd

Want to see the test with 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