2007-10-15 15:02:21 · 10 answers · asked by Helllo 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I don't think they cared where they were going as long as there was a village to pillage!
2007-10-15 15:11:00 · answer #1 · answered by Hybrid 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The vikings where able to tell the directions from the stars and the sun. They didn't have written maps but they had instructions much like. Sail along the coast north untill you get to so and so (a landmark, town, river) then sail east for so many days until you see land. Follow the coast south and then east until you get to so and so.. etc. By this method they had well established sailing routes that where common knowledge. Some of the landmark points eventually turned into trading centres like the one where you take a bearing south on the coast of Finland.
There where also methods of establishing how close you where to land by knowing the currents and wildlife in the region and a weight with soft beeswax on the bottom. The weight would be dropped to the bottom and depending what kind of sand got attached to it they could say with local knowledge where they where. Also you got on idea on how deep the water was.
Modern methods rely on technology. Viking age methods relyed on knowing the waters and routes by memory.
2007-10-16 04:48:20 · answer #2 · answered by Otavainen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
While the vikings sailed before the development of the compass or the sextant they still had a good idea of there direction. By using the sun and moon they knew east and west north and south. Understanding these simple directions and using simple maps allowed them to navigate fairly well around Europe and the north Atlantic.
2007-10-15 22:41:10 · answer #3 · answered by old-bald-one 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some believe it was with sunstones, which was a means of using polarized sunlight. It is often talked about in legends and folk tales, though no proof has ever been found. The theory works, though, and modern scientists have been able to recreate such devices for navigation purposes.
Edit: at that time in history, the vikings were unfamiliar with the compass, a Chinese invention.
2007-10-15 22:07:58 · answer #4 · answered by steddy voter 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To get from Norway to Scotland and Ireland, they could do what is called Coastal navigation. To get to Iceland and Greenland, they read the sea (literally), watched for birds, flotsam and other things. We can only assume that they had the compass.
There had been a myriad of sailors before them tht ventured into the open seas without instruments
2007-10-16 08:09:13 · answer #5 · answered by Polyhistor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not just the Vikings, but sailors in the olden days sailed by the stars, a compass, and a sextant.
2007-10-15 22:06:07 · answer #6 · answered by th3_0n3_r1ng 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They used celestial navigation, the sun and the stars for latitude but they had trouble with longitude as did all ships until the 18th century.
2007-10-16 02:09:45 · answer #7 · answered by brainstorm 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They mostly traveled on rivers in narrow longboats. They went to Iceland and Greenland by making stops at islands along the way.
2007-10-15 22:14:55 · answer #8 · answered by DCFN 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
They were great sailors and ship builders.They were also great fighters.
2007-10-15 22:26:33 · answer #9 · answered by Elwood 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They knew how to use the sextant.
Kurt
2007-10-15 22:19:23 · answer #10 · answered by kmsmncs 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋