Roskilde Viking Ship Museum

Our first stop after leaving the ferry was the town of Roskilde, which is not far west of Copenhagen. The town has a great Viking ship museum, with both actual Viking ships in the museum, and some 'modern versions' and re-creations outside.

This one is named after the town!

A re-creation in production, with the typical 'hand-tools' used to make it on the walls of the workshop.

The original boards of a real viking ship, fitted to a modern stem-piece.

These ships were found at the bottom of the Roskilde Fjorde in a specific position. It is thought that the ships were sunk in the Fjord in case of attacks on the Viking Community in Roskilde. These ships were able to be seen, and if Attackers were coming in, they would crash into the sunken ships. Only the Vikings knew where the deep narrow passage to get through to land was.

This is what it would have looked like! The shields from the Vikings were not hung over the sides when the ship was sailing, as they would have fallen off. - When the ship was in the harbour they would be displayed like this as a 'calling card' to let others know who it was that was parked in the harbour.

This model is of the Sea Stallion Ship. (see link for more information about the recent voyage...very interesting). The Sea Stallion is the worlds largest reconstruction of a Viking Ship. The original ship awas built by the Vikings in Ireland in 1042. In 1072 the ship was sunk in the Roskilde Fjord.

Look! A couple of Vikings!

Dressed for the winter! Those Viking eyes are pretty scary!

A Couple of fierce Vikings with their shields.

We really enjoyed seeing the viking ships, getting the boys hands-on, seeing the video of the recreation of a recent voyage (the Sea Stallion that sailed from Ireland to Roskilde), and seeing the recreations in construction.