Hello! My name is Mrs. Tipping and I am really looking forward to learning with you today all about the Vikings.

And we're going to explore the question, why did they come to the British Isles? So, shall we get started? Let's go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe how Viking raids on the British Isles were part of a bigger story of seafaring and expansion.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to some keywords.

We'll be using these keywords during the lesson, so it might be a good idea to write these words down.

The keywords we'll be using today are fortified, expansion, seafaring, saga.

I'm going to say those again and I would like you to repeat them after me.

Fortified, expansion, seafaring, saga.

Good job.

Now let's think in more detail about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

Fortified means to provide a place with defences, such as walls, to protect it against attack.

Expansion often means becoming more permanent and larger in size.

Seafaring means regularly travelling by sea.

A saga is a story of achievements or events in history in Old Norse or Old Icelandic.

Pause the video here to make a note of the keywords, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

These are the learning cycles that we'll be working through together in today's lesson.

The Vikings in Ireland: early expansion, exploration and expansion.

In the first learning cycle, we will learn and explore about the Vikings in Ireland and the early expansion.

The first recorded Viking raids on Ireland took place in 795 CE when goods were stolen from monasteries on the islands off the north and west coasts.

Fast, manoeuvrable longboats made raiding possible and effective.

The timeline shows the Viking raids that were happening around the British Isles at that time.

So one of the first raids was at Lindisfarne Priory.

Then another raid was at Jarrow in Northumbria before the Viking raid in Ireland in 795 CE.

And then there were raids in Iona, Scotland in 802 CE and 806 CE.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

When did the Viking raids begin in Ireland, 795 CE, 794 CE, or 793 CE? Pause the video here, and when you're ready to get the answer, press play.

What did you think? If you said 795 CE, you're absolutely right, well done.

The Vikings raided religious buildings like monasteries, priories, and churches because they were filled with valuable objects that the Vikings could steal, keep, and trade.

Now, they also took people to be sold, and they became enslaved.

Enslaved people were traded and exchanged for other products.

For example, Viking farmers used enslaved people in the household, as well as for the hardest and most unpleasant work in the fields.

Enslaved people were not seen as people, but as commodities to be bought, sold, and exploited.

To continue raiding as much as possible, the Vikings began to establish camps on the major river systems. Dublin was one of the early fortified camps established by the Vikings in 841 CE.

The camp was named a longphort.

The longphort was located at the mouth of a river where the ships could lie with access to the open sea.

The camp was fortified with an outer wall in a muddy, boggy area, which was difficult to attack, and with a circular inner wall, which is similar to the walls seen in Denmark.

So this illustration of a map here shows the longphort in Dublin.

You can see how the sea flows into a river, and at that river is where the longphort is.

And that was fortified by walls and it was also in a really muddy, boggy area, so it was difficult to attack.

Very clever where they created the camps.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Which of these types of fortification was used in Dublin? The camp was surrounded by water, the camp was surrounded by walls, the camp was surrounded by fences.

So how was the camp in Dublin fortified? Pause the video here, and when you are ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? If you said the camp was surrounded by walls, you're absolutely right, well done.

Dublin is one example of Viking expansion.

To expand, firstly the Vikings sailed to explore new places, which they then raided for goods.

After raiding, they would start to trade and they would also then settle, which means they would stay and make their home there.

So you can see on this diagram below, it shows how the Vikings expanded, starting with exploring, raiding, trading, and settling.

Now, evidence of Viking expansion comes from burial sites.

Excavations at Kilmainham, an island bridge near Dublin, found silver, balance weights, and coins.

This evidence shows that some longphorts developed into settlements with trade.

A few longphorts only existed for a single winter.

Others lasted for more than 60 years.

That's a long time for a camp, isn't it? Although the Vikings were driven out of Dublin around 902 CE, they returned in 917 CE and they established a settlement, which eventually developed into the city of Dublin.

You can see in this image here a photo of collapsible scales and weights.

That's what the Vikings would've used to find out how much something was worth when they were trading it.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you fill in the missing words to describe Viking expansion? So you can see each of the words has the letter beginning.

So we have E, R, T, S.

Pause the video here, have a discussion with your partner.

Can you describe Viking expansion by filling in the missing words? When you're ready to continue, press play.

What did you think? How was your discussion? Well, firstly, Viking expansion involved exploring new lands, and then they raided those lands for the goods that they could find.

And then they started to settle and trade in those spaces.

Good job if you got that right.

This brings us to our first learning task.

I'd like you to match the events of Viking expansion to the correct date.

The dates are 795 CE, 841 CE, and 917 CE.

And the events are the Vikings established a fortified camp in Dublin, the Vikings settled in Dublin, the Vikings raided Ireland.

So, I'd like you to pause the video here, make sure you've got yourself a pen and some paper to match those dates, and give yourself enough time.

When you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Shall we take a look at what the dates and the events match up to? So, in 795 CE, the Vikings raided Ireland.

In 841 CE, the Vikings established a fortified camp in Dublin.

And in 917 CE, the Vikings settled in Dublin.

Well done for completing that learning task.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of this lesson.

We're going to take a look at exploration and expansion.

The Norse were seafaring raiders and traders from Scandinavia.

The Norse people who were warriors were referred to as Vikings, whereas those who were traders are usually referred to as Norse people.

Both the Vikings and Norse people explored the world, regularly travelling by sea to discover new places to raid, then settle, and trade within.

Have a look there at some of the Viking routes that they would take to explore the world.

Can you see Ireland on this map? That's it.

Close to Britain, and Ireland is where Dublin is where the Vikings first established that fortified camp.

Now, the Norse people, they travelled widely around the British Isles and European places such as France, Italy, Russia, and as far as Byzantium.

They later settled in some of these places.

In northern France, the Vikings were called Normans, Northmen, and in Eastern Europe, they were known as the Rus, or Redheaded People.

And the areas where they lived became known as Normandy and Russia.

So can you see how their names became the place names? From 870 CE, Vikings arrived and began to settle in Iceland and farm its land.

Let's take a moment to pause.

When did the Vikings arrive in Iceland, in 807 CE, 870 CE, or 877 CE? What do you think? Pause the video here, and when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

What did you think? If you said 870 CE, you're absolutely right, well done.

A Norwegian chieftain, which is a leader, Ingolfur Arnarson, brought his family to Iceland in 874 CE, settling on the southwest peninsula in a place he called Reykjavik.

The name Reykjavik loosely translates to Smoke Cove, as one of the first things Ingolfur saw in Reykjavik was steam from the hot springs in the region.

Many other families from Norway, Scotland, and Ireland followed Arnarson, and the Icelandic sagas, stories written 200 years ago, described this early settlement of Iceland.

After settling in Iceland, more Vikings discovered Greenland.

In 982 CE, Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder.

And during his exile, he explored the coast of a country he would come to call Green Land, Greenland.

In 985 CE, Erik persuaded a large group of people to settle in Greenland.

He led 25 ships from Iceland to Greenland.

However, only 14 made it to their destination.

Farming was difficult there, but settlers were able to raise animals and grow enough crops to feed them.

From Greenland, the Vikings were able to trade furs, wool, sheep, whale blubber, and walrus ivory.

Let's pause and check our understanding.

Can you retell the saga of Erik the Red and his discovery of Greenland to your partner? Now, remember, a saga is a story that's been told a long, long time ago.

So can you tell the story of Erik the Red and his discovery of Greenland to your partner? Pause the video here, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Well, your answer may have included something like this: in 982 CE, Erik was exiled from Iceland for murder.

During his exile, he explored the coast of Greenland.

In 985 CE, Erik persuaded a large group of people to settle in Greenland.

He led 25 ships from Iceland to Greenland, however, only 14 made it to their destination.

The sagas also tell the story of Erik the Red's oldest son, Leif Erikson, and his exploration as far as North America.

It's said that a seafaring trader named Bjarni Herjolfsson was sailing to Greenland when he was blown off course and saw many lands to the west.

Bjarni successfully made it to Greenland where he described his accidental find to Leif Erikson.

Around 1000 CE, Leif and a crew sailed across open sea, following Bjarni's description of his voyage.

When they reached the land, they called it Vinland.

Vinland is known as Newfoundland today in the country of Canada and the continent of North America.

They created a small settlement.

However, they were not the only people living in Vinland, as Newfoundland had already been home to Native People for thousands of years.

Because of hostility between the Vikings and the Native People, the settlement eventually failed.

In the 1960s, a Viking settlement was discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by an named Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband Helge.

Whether this is the Viking settlement mentioned in various sagas is still debated, but archaeology proves that the Vikings sail to North America 500 years before the famous explorer Christopher Columbus.

Let's take a moment to pause and check our understanding.

Can you place these events on the timeline? We have Erik the Red discovered Greenland, Leif Erikson discovered Vinland, the Vikings arrived in Iceland.

So pause the video here, give yourself enough time, and restart when you're ready to continue.

How did that go? Shall we take a look? So, in 870 CE, the Vikings arrived in Iceland, and it wasn't until 985 CE the Erik the Red discovered Greenland, and Leif Erikson discovered Vinland in 1000 CE.

Well done if you were able to place those events on the timeline.

This brings us to our final learning task.

Aisha and Lucas are having a discussion about Viking expansion.

Who do you agree with? Explain why you think this using what you've learned today.

Aisha says: "Viking expansion only involved exploring and raiding lots of different places like Greenland." Lucas says, "Viking raids are only one part of the bigger story of Viking seafaring and expansion.

It involved settling and trading in these places." So who do you agree with, Aisha or Lucas, and explain why you think this using what you've learned today.

Pause the video here, give yourself enough time, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

How did that go? Let's take a look, shall we? So, in this case, I agree with Lucas.

To expand, the seafaring Vikings sailed to explore new places like Greenland and Vinland, which they often raided for goods, but they then began to settle, build fortified camps, and trade in these places too.

Well done for completing that learning task.

Before we finish this lesson, let's summarise what we have learned about seafaring Vikings.

The first Viking raid recorded in Ireland was in 795 CE.

To continue raiding, the Vikings created fortified camps.

Dublin is one example of Viking expansion.

The Norse were seafaring raiders and traders who travelled and settled widely.

They arrived in Iceland in 870 CE.

Sagas tell the stories of how Erik the Red discovered Greenland in 985 CE and Leif Erikson discovered Vinland in 1000 CE.

Thank you for joining me in this lesson, and I hope to see you in the next one.

See you next time.