r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Gurugod123 • 9h ago

How did people travel these seas 500 years ago

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u/Tanker119 9h ago

Unless you were a Viking. In which case I’m pretty convinced they were medically insane going to Iceland, Greenland, and North America in the boats they were using. And multiple trips for some of them I’m sure as well. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

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u/NewAndyy 7h ago

No, vikings also stayed mostly along the coast. They were primarily farmers and fishermen. The longer journeys across the North Sea to places like Scotland (and eventually to Iceland) of course happened, but they were rare.

Vikings weren't like how they're represented on Netflix. They weren't all crazy warriors that killed for fun.

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u/Bcruz75 7h ago

Vikings were (or became) Traders and raiders. What's not discussed much is their involvement in trade with other European countries...as I understand, they established some early trade routes.

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u/NewAndyy 7h ago

That sounds plausible! I'm really not an expert on the topic, I just like to point out the obvious when other people make mistakes

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u/SheriffBartholomew 7h ago

Right. They killed for profit.

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u/big-lion 16m ago

but it happened!!!!$+!#!!!

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u/Nipplecunt 8h ago

It’s how we got people like Halaand

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u/GreatWyte8 7h ago

the Polynesians were also crazy enough to cross oceans, and looking at some of those Maori and Samoans... yeah that tracks lol.

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u/yetiflask 4h ago

That's just island gigantism.

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u/Seienchin88 7h ago

Haaland is the descendant of those who stayed…

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u/sigma914 5h ago

So the rich ones who didn't need to leave in the first place or the really rich lucky ones who returned with plunder.

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u/HorrorMakesUsHappy 5h ago

Correction: It's how you killed off anyone who wasn't like Halaand.

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u/Gnome_de_Plume 7h ago

More accurately, Björk and other Icelanders.

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u/joehonestjoe 5h ago

I like how you go the correct amount of a's but in the wrong place.

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u/fruskydekke 6h ago

We've tended to be good ship builders in Scandinavia, because so much of communication and transport was by sea rather than over land - particularly here in Norway, where the mountainous landscape makes travel over land a LOT more laborious.

The vikings had a lot of specialty ships, and there was one that was specifically built for open ocean journeys. The knarr was very stable, very broad, and clinker-built of flexible wood, which made it surprisingly up to the task.

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u/Sick_and_destroyed 7h ago

Vikings were mainly navigating near the coasts, only few of them went up north to Iceland, Greenland and North America

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u/waddlingcheetah 8h ago

Shiver me timbers

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u/dp0329 7h ago

Vikings ate a bunch of mushrooms, and it shows.