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How do we know about the Vikings?

Text How do we know about the Vikings?

TLF ID M011214

This resource is about the Viking people and how we know about them. It describes all the known sources for the Vikings including physical evidence such as runestones and coins, and written evidence such as sagas, skaldic verses, monastic chronicles and letters. Place-names, language and DNA analysis are other sources of information about the effect of Viking settlements. It examines the reliability of each of the sources. The resource includes text and still images.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This resource is useful for addressing the Australian Curriculum: History historical skills in year 8 relating to drawing conclusions about the usefulness of sources. It includes a discussion about the existing sources of evidence about the Vikings in terms of their reliability and accuracy. Students examine the discussion about sagas, surviving letters and monastic chronicles considering who wrote them, when were they written, their purpose and audience, and draw conclusions about the usefulness of each resource.
  • This resource is valuable for the development of historical skills. Students design a table to compare the strengths and weaknesses of the different sources mentioned in the resource.
  • Monastic records were written by the victims of Viking raids, letters were written by monks with a particular view, ascribing religious reasons for the causes of the Viking raids. Students identify and describe the points of view, attitudes and values in primary and secondary sources in the resource.
  • The resource may also make a contribution to students attaining the history achievement standards in year 8 in relation to explaining different points of view in sources and has some relevance to the literacy capability and the critical and creative capability.
Year level

8

Topics Composers (Texts) Information literacy Historical sources Scandinavian history
Learning area
  • History
  • Humanities and Social Sciences

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  • Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  • Address: UNITED KINGDOM
  • URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk
  • Publisher
  • Name: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  • Organization: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: UNITED KINGDOM
  • URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Text
  • Image
Rights
  • Resource: BBC © 2012, except where indicated otherwise. You may download, copy and communicate this material for free, and use it in digital and hardcopy format for non-commercial educational use in Australian schools and TAFE institutions, provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the material. 'Interactive' image: © Education Services Australia Limited 2012. You may copy, communicate and adapt this image for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the image.