Viking Ship Museum – förlag

“A wealthy man in Denmark, citizen of the town of Schleswig, built a large ship at great expense. And the king of the country decided to join company and take part in the profits. And after he had made good half of the costs, he owned a corresponding part of the ship …”The medieval Hanseatic merchants are famous for their maritime trade network, which extended across Northern Europe from the 13th century onward. The rare quote above sheds light on a less known period, beginning in the late Viking Age, when large, elegant cargo ships were built and sailed across the sea by Scandinavian merchants.This volume presents the earliest archaeological evidence for specialised merchant seafaring in Danish waters. The cargo ship-finds of Eltang Vig, Lynæs, Karschau and Haderslev are explored in detail in order to illuminate the technology and style of a dynamic age of maritime enterprise and cultural transformation.

How was the Norse Navigator able to shape his course across the North Atlantic long before the invention of the magnetic compass? This book tells the story of the Viking Sun Compass and how it allowed the Vikings to sail across the Atlantic. In 1948, the Danish archaeologist C.L. Vebæk found the remains of a small wooden disc at the Viking Age site of Uunartoq in Greenland. Since then the Master mariners Carl V. Sver and Sen Thirslund have interpreted this find as a navigational instrument. This book is the essence of more than forty years of archaeological studies, discussions and practical sea-going experiments. The author gives a full account of the history of the find and demonstrates convincingly how Viking Age Navigators could make use of this and other simple devices in order to find their way across the vastness of the Northern Atlantic.

The military operations of Scandinavian societies in the Viking Age depended on their ships. Different types of ships were used in order to transport troops and war supplies. Some ships were designed to conduct the speedy transport of large numbers of troops, while others were specialised cargo vessels used in military operations as carriers of supplies and sometimes troops as well. This book examines the building and use of ships for warfare in 11th century Denmark. The subjects are addressed through detailed analyses of aspects such as resources, organisational structures and naval warfare. The outcomes are a more informed understanding of 11th century Scandinavian military organisation, shipbuilding and resource management.