Story: On the Trail of Viking Shipbuilders in Oslo, Norway

The Vikings knew how to quarter-saw wood. It was already a jaw-dropping experience to stand in the same room with a massive Viking ships from the 9th century. But this detail in particular astonished me. And not surprisingly, none of the signage or literature at Olso, Norway’s Viking Ship Museum mentions this. But I could see it just a few feet in front of me where the characteristic ray and fleck patterns in the wood were unmistakable. The Vikings figured out how to cut wood so it would be as strong as possible.

Quarter-sawing wood is a technique still used today. It is generally more expensive and time consuming. It also creates more waste. The easiest and most efficient way to cut a tree into lumber is to lie it down and to make a series of horizontal cuts end to end, like sliced meat at the deli. This produces the greatest number of wide, flat boards. However, if you cut into the tree on the diagonal, stopping at the center before turning the tree for the next cut, the nature of the cut uses the grain to its best advantage, making the lumber incredibly strong and averse to warping. This bias cut also will produce beautiful patterns in certain kinds of wood. Those are the same tell-tale markings that I observed on the ancient ships preserved at the Viking Ships Museum. I had no idea this practice had been in use so long. But learning about these ancient masters of the sea was a process of constant surprise.

The Vikings are known to many as Norse seafaring warriors and explorers who traded, pillaged and colonized vast areas of Northern Europe for 300 years, from around the 8th to the 11th century. They were prolific explorers who traveled as far as the Middle East and even North America. Due mostly to written accounts of the terrified monks whose Monasteries they raided, the Vikings were widely regarded as seafaring barbarians. But modern historians hold a more nuanced view of these remarkable people. The Vikings are now thought to have been a sophisticated, technologically advanced people who were shrewd traders, expert craftsmen and shipbuilders, and who created a society that was surprisingly democratic for its time. Viking women were independent and strong, running the farms and households while the men were away at sea. Few if any Vikings wore the horned helmets so prominent in our modern misperceptions of them.

Viking ships were remarkably well-designed, making them perfectly seaworthy for long journeys on rough seas. Their ships were also cleverly adapted for their intended use. Broad, heavy ships with sails and extra room for cargo were used for long-distance exploring and trading expeditions. Narrower longships with shallower drafts and more maneuverability were used in battles or to explore smaller bodies of water.

Those on display in Oslo were not recovered from the bottom of the ocean but instead were found at various burial sites at farms around Norway. It is believed they had been used for many years at sea before they were put to use as burial vessels for prominent Viking citizens and/or royalty, who were generally buried with their most valuable possessions. Grave robbers probably plundered the burial sites and made off with the most valuable items of gold and jewelry. But the sites that produced the ships on display in Oslo, discovered in the late 19th century, were so well-preserved by the blue clay in which they were buried that even items made of leather and silk survived. Or perhaps credit is due to the Vikings and their craftsmanship, including their knowledge of how to get the best out of their materials, as to the reason their legacy of ancient exploration and advanced technology endures.