--- title: The Middle Ages begin: the Vikings — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The Middle Ages begin: the Vikings», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The Middle Ages are the thousand years in Europe between the fall of Rome, around 500, and around 1500. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / The Middle Ages begin: the Vikings # The Middle Ages begin: the Vikings Lesson 20 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/0/) — The Middle Ages are the thousand years in Europe between the fall of Rome, around 500, and around 1500. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/1/) — People later called them a gap in the middle, but they built cathedrals, universities and new inventions, so they were not just dark and stupid. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/2/) — The Vikings were Norse people from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/3/) — Going viking meant going on a sea raid, but most Norse people were farmers, fishers and traders, and they never wore horned helmets; that came from opera costumes in the 1800s. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/4/) — Their longships were light and fast and could sail up shallow rivers, so Vikings could appear far from home without warning, like a speedboat that also fits in a stream. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/5/) — From 793 they raided, traded and settled across Europe. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/6/) — They settled in England, Ireland and Normandy, founded Dublin, reached Iceland, Greenland and even North America, and in the east they travelled the rivers to Constantinople and helped found Kyivan Rus. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/7/) — By the 1000s their lands were Christian kingdoms, and the Viking Age faded. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/9/) — Vikings were Norse people from Denmark, Norway and Sweden; viking really meant going on a sea raid, and most Norse people were farmers, fishers and traders. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/10/) — Vikings did not wear horned helmets; that idea came from costumes in a 19th-century opera. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/11/) — Viking longships were light and fast, with sails and oars, and could cross the sea and sail up shallow rivers. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/12/) — In 793 Vikings raided the monastery of Lindisfarne in England, and this is often called the start of the Viking Age. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/13/) — Vikings settled in England, Ireland, Scotland and Normandy in France, and founded Dublin as a town. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/14/) — Many English words come from Norse, like sky, egg, knife and Thursday, which means Thor's day. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/15/) — Vikings settled Iceland and Greenland, and Iceland's Althing, founded in 930, is one of the oldest parliaments still working. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/16/) — Around the year 1000 Leif Erikson sailed to North America, which the Norse called Vinland, and a Viking site has been found in Newfoundland, Canada, but the Norse did not stay there for long. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/17/) — Norse traders from Sweden travelled down the rivers of eastern Europe, traded with Constantinople and Baghdad, and took part in founding the state of Kyivan Rus; historians still argue about how big their part was. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/18/) — Vikings believed in Odin, Thor with his hammer, Loki the trickster, and Valhalla, the hall of fallen warriors; Marvel's Thor and Loki are very different from the old myths. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/19/) — Vikings wrote with runes, letters of straight lines made for cutting into wood and stone, and runes were mostly writing, not magic spells. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/20-the-middle-ages-begin-the-vikings/20/) — By the 1000s the Norse lands had become Christian kingdoms and raids faded; in 1066 a Norwegian king was defeated in England, and the Normans, descendants of Vikings in France, conquered England the same year. - ← previous: [The Aztecs and the Inca](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/19-the-aztecs-and-the-inca/) - next →: [Castles, knights and cathedrals](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/21-castles-knights-and-cathedrals/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)