Clever with boats. Before Columbus’ time, Norwegians bygde og seilte (built and sailed) the fastest, most maneuverable boats of the Viking and Early Middle Ages. It is no surprise, really, when one considers the sparce arable land and great åpent hav (open sea) that the Norwegians would become sophisticated seafarers-they simply had to make do with the resources provided to them. With an abundance of tømmer (lumber), it was no problem to find materials to build these incredible båter. Offshore fishing soon turned into distant voyages that required excellent håndverk (craftsmanship).
Vikingskipene (the Viking ships) were lange (long), trange (narrow), bygd av tre (wooden), og hadde to forstavner (and had two prows), en på baugen (one at the bow) og en på akerstavn (and one at the stern). Forstavnene were often carved into shapes such as et drakehode (a dragon head) eller hodet til et annet dyr (or the head of another animal). Accordingly, skipene had names that reflected the shape of forstavnene, such as ”Snake of the Sea” or ”Dragon Fire.”
The body of the boats were of course made of ved, but more importantly they were clinker-built, meaning plankene (the planks) overlapped each other. Not only did this provide exceptional holdbarhet (durability) and styrke (strength), but sauull (sheep’s wool) dipped in tjære (tar) was used to fill in the gaps mellom plankene (between the planks) to make the boats regnfrakk (waterproof)–flink igjen. Several other features that made these boats magnificent included kjølen (the keel) that allowed the boats to cut through the water quickly and provided stabilitet (stability) in rough weather. In clear weather with ingen vind (no wind), årene (the oars) were used to move the boats.
Nordmenn var veldig flinke med båter, ikke sant?
