The preserved portion of the Viking ship from Gokstad, near Sandefjord (ninth century)
The immigration to Norway of many tribes may itself have taken place by sea. Thus the Horder and Ryger are certainly the same tribes as the “Harudes” (the “Charudes” of the emperor Augustus and of Ptolemy), dwelling in Jutland and on the Rhine (cf. Cæsar), and the “Rugii” west of the Vistula on the south coast of the Baltic (from whom possibly Rügen takes its name).[227] They came by the sea route to western Norway straight from Jutland and North Germany, and there must thus have been communication between these countries at that time; but how early we do not know; it may have been at the beginning of our era, and it may have been earlier.[228] But the fact that whole tribes were able to make so long a migration by sea indicates in any case a high development of navigation, and again it is on the Baltic that we first find it.
The Viking ship from Oseberg, near Tönsberg (ninth century)
The shipbuilding and seamanship of the Norwegians mark a new epoch in the history both of navigation and discovery, and with their voyages the knowledge of northern lands and waters was at once completely changed. As previously pointed out ([p. 170]), we notice this change of period already in Ottar’s communications to King Alfred, but their explorations of land and sea begin more particularly with the colonisation of Iceland, which in its turn became the starting-point for expeditions farther west.
We find accounts of these voyages of discovery in the old writings and sagas, a large part of which was put into writing in Iceland. A sombre undercurrent runs through these narratives of voyages in unknown seas; even though they may be partly legendary, they nevertheless bear witness in their terseness to the silent struggle of hardy men with ice, storms, cold and want, in the light summer and long, dark winter of the North.
Ships from the Bayeux tapestry (eleventh century)
The Norwegians’ appliances for navigation