March 21, 2005

Viking Ships Have you ever wondered why the Viking tradition of boat building died out? The truth is, it didn't.

The tradition simply continued to develop until materials other than wood began to be common, in the early 20th century.

posted by Skrik 20 years ago
  • Fortreffelig!
  • Really? How?
  • This is quite common, actually. They find that while ship types tend to change with time, one kind of ship replacing another, boat building is often very conservative, and small boat designs will stay around for a long time virtually unchanged. In many places you can see small boat 'living fossels', esentially small scale coppies of large ships that died out centuries ago. Norse ships are a particularly spectacular example of this, because Norwegian boat builders have conciously maintained this beautiful design in small coastal trading vessesls. Up until the mid-twentieth century these were built for commerce. Now, presumably, they're constructed as pleasure craft, among other things. In certain parts of England, you can see local boat-building traditions that are directly decended from Norse ships. People kept on building the same kind of boat for centuries, with only minor modifications. Now, if you visit these areas, you can see people continuing to build Norse-type boats in modern materials like fiberglass.
  • I'm glad you chipped in, Mr Nought. Most of the vessels pictured in the link from the "more inside" are original (19th/ 20th century), restored, preserved, and used for educational and/ or display purposes.
  • I love these boats with a passion. New versions are being built today, in some cases by small shops working with museums, and still maintain the traditional forms and techniques.
  • I just want to say that this FPP is very classy. Thanks Skrik.
  • Have you ever wondered why the Viking tradition of boat building died out? Because they switched to Giant Robots! (27.5 MB .mov)
  • When I was in 7th grade, the big spring-semester project for my history class was to build a model Viking ship. On the due date, everyone's ship in turn got placed in a big metal tub to see if it would float. (Mine did. I got an A.) To this day, you can instantly tell whether someone went to my high school by the presence of a clinker-built two-foot-long cardboard Viking ship in their house. (And a large glazed ceramic plate shaped like a fish, but that's a whole nother story.)
  • Have you ever wondered why the Viking tradition of boat building died out? Because they keep getting burned to all buggery at Up Helly Aa and the boat builders gave up in frustration?
  • You got an A? Dammit! I only got an A minus-- mine floated fine, but the sides were all lumpy where I caulked it with candle wax. And I'm not sure the teacher appreciated the mock-Viking burial I assembled on the deck with my Luke Skywalker action figure as the deceased...
  • Great links indeed, Abiezer... inspered, I found the lyrics to the Up-Helly-Aa Viking songs. The first one may well win the award for Best Song About Vikings To The Tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" Ever. On preview: speedy!!!! Welcome oh welcome, old schoolfriend and new monkey! /hoisting a horn of mead
  • inspired, not inspered. damn.
  • Inspere those lyrics in my ear, whydon'tcha?
  • You have a Viking ship under a parking lot? Very cool. We only have a parking lot with our first Parliament buildings under it...
  • We have bunnies living under our parking lot.
  • Viking bunnies?
  • I know where there's a body under a parking lot