Book Description

Hi, my name is Dustin. My name means "Thor's stone" in the Viking language. I live in Scandinavia around AD 800-900. I also have a sister, Ragna. Her name means "giving advice," and boy, does she love to give advice. Our way of life is very different from yours. We had to become tough, strong, and flexible. We were Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes. Our families were farmers, traders, blacksmiths, and craftsman. Most of us lived on farms, even those who lived in towns had gardens and animals in their yards. Everything we needed and used had to be harvested or made by hand. Children had to plant and tend the crops. Also, in the cold winter months when no one really wanted to go outside, except when absolutely necessary, we kept our animals at one end of the long house with us. It did get smelly. Another job for children was cleaning out the poop and pee from the animals each day they were in the house. I have to say our houses were a bit stinky in the winter. Our house is a long house or what you would call a rectangular prism with a fireplace area in the middle and rugs/animal skins hanging to divide the rooms. Ragna and I had to comb our hair every morning, and we had to take a bath every Saturday. You may be wondering if we just walked around in animal skins all day or whether we actually had clothing that looks like it was made of cloth, read to find out. We Vikings are known for our ships. Did you know there are actually two kinds of Viking ships? They were called the longships and knarrs. Come along with me and learn about our lives.