The Skuldelev Ships were a series of five remarkably well-preserved ships recovered in 1962 from the Roskilde Fjord near Skuldelev. The five ships are believed to have been scuttled to form a blockade of the Fjord. Each of the ships represents a different type of vessel from the Viking Age, merchant vessels, fishing vessels, and warships.
This particular ship, known as Skuldelev 2, is representative of a large ocean-going warship. The wreck recovered, about a quarter of the original ship, was made of oak. The wood of the ship can be traced by analysis of its tree-rings to the Dublin region, and was cut around 1042. With a length of about thirty meters, a beam of just under four meters, a draft of roughly one meter, and a displacement of roughly twenty-six tons (when it was a complete warship), the warship would have been a seaworthy raiding and combat vessel.¹
This particular wreck is excellent in that, unlike some of the better-preserved ships found in royal burial sites at Oseberg and Gokstad, the Skuldelev ships represent ships being used in a non-funerary context. The Skuldelev ship, although not nearly as complete, represents a more ordinary ship, and would likely have been owned by a chieftain or low-ranking noble. The Skuldelev ships also show the gradual divergence in ship design (as they are quite late ship designs), with the merchant ships having a greater beam and shorter length while the warships were long and sleek1. While larger than the snekkja-style ships which made up the majority of Norse fleets, a larger ship of the skeid type would also have been a common sight.
Ships defined the Viking Age – the remarkable mobility they brought to Norse armies and merchants were what ultimately allowed for the trade, warfare, and settlement that defined the age. More than just tools, however, ships comprised an integral part of Norse culture – ship burials (or more frequently burials with a ship-shaped perimeter of stones) and the depiction of ships in contemporary Norse imagery shows the importance a ship, like Skuldelev 2, had in everyday life among the Scandinavians.²

Comment on this page