other crew members included a helmsmen, who steered the ship; a lookout who watched for rocks in...
TRANSCRIPT
Other crew members included a helmsmen, who steered the ship; a lookout who watched for rocks in shallow waters and a few spare men who took the place a tired
oarsmen or replaced one lost overboard during a storm.
The average longship owned by a nobleman carried a crew of twenty to thirty oarsmen. They rowed the ship when the
winds were slight or calm.
The Berserker
One Viking word that entered our language was berserk. It was used to name a type of Vikings fighter.
Sometimes this was done by shouting battle whoops,
sometimes it was done with the aid of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
As the longship neared a beach,
warriors, called
"berserkers" would go over
the side,
shouting and waving their swords in anticipation of a battle.
This too created fear in their enemies. Some berserkers were so worked up, they jumped too soon
and downed in water over their heads.
This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise
seemed impossible for human power.
This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its color.
and then the face swelled
and changed its
color.
With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great
rage, under which they howled as wild animals.
They bit the edge of their
shields, and cut down everything they met without
discriminating between friend
or foe.
When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which
could last for one or several days.
They used the sun's location above the horizon at sunrise to determine east, its position at noon to determine north and south and its location at sunset to determine west sailing directions. During foggy and cloudy days, they used a special stone called a "sun stone" to help them locate the sun's position. This stone, really a calcite mineral called Icelandic spar, would change color slightly as it was turned in the light. A certain color marked the position of the sun even through fog and cloud cover.
Finding Their Location By Night and By Day
Statue in Reykjavík, Iceland of the discoverer of the North American Continent.
