Viking Quiz for Kids
Viking Questions
- Vikings came from Scandanavia, can you name any of the three countries traditionally in Scandanavia?
- True or false? Vikings wore helmets with horns?
- Jorvik was a large Viking kingdom around which English city?
- What is the name of the enormous hall in Viking mythology where warriors believed they went to if they died in battle?
- Viking explorer Leif Erikson landed on which continent 500 years before Christopher Columbus?
- Vikings are often also referred to as what sort of men?
- Erik the Red was a viking who founded the first settlement on which large island?
- In 793, a Viking raid on which northeast English island is now often taken as the beginning of the Viking Age?
- Can you name the hammer-wielding thunder-god of Viking mythology?
- What is the name of the specialised Viking warships?
- The Vikings did not have sugar. What was the only sweetener known to the Vikings? They also used it to make a strong alcoholic drink called mead.
- Which Viking king of Denmark, England and Norway is there a legend about when he tried to turn back the waves?
- In Scandinavian folklore what is a shield-maiden?
- Which Viking leader is referred to as the last of the great Viking warrior kings?
- The Vikings often wrote down exaggerated stories - what word are these stories known by?
- Which language did they speak? It had an alphabet made up of characters called runes.
- In 878, which King of the Anglo-Saxons defeated the Vikings in battle and made them sign a treaty saying they had to keep to their own land in England? (This section of land was called Danelaw.)
- True or false? The word 'Viking' means 'a pirate raid' in the Norse language?
Answers:
- Denmark, Norway and Sweden (sometimes the Scandinavian Peninsula is said to include Finland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland)
- False, they didn't! (you only see Vikings with horned helmets in films and story books)
- York (Did you know that the last king of Jorvik was Eric Bloodaxe in 954?)
- Valhalla
- North America
- Norsemen
- Greenland
- Lindisfarne or Holy Island
- Thor
- Longships or longboats
- Honey
- King Canute
- A female warrior
- Harald Hardrada (he came to England to challenge Harold Godwinson, for the English throne. He was defeated and killed by Harold’s men at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.)
- Sagas
- Norse
- King Alfred the Great
- True
Did you know that some of the names of towns and villages in England have the Norse language in them? The Norse word 'by’ means farm or town, and the word 'thorpe' means 'village'. Examples are Whitby and Scunthorpe.