Vikings were undoubtedly masterful sailors, but even they needed a safe place to rest and evade the hazards of the seas. The pit stops on Viking voyages have mostly been lost to time due to limited archaeological evidence, but this hasn’t stopped one researcher from retracing the trade routes that Vikings embarked on. 

Greer Jarrett, an archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden, has spent the last few years searching for answers to verify how exactly Vikings traveled on the seas. Having conducted his own sailing trials aboard boats tied to Viking tradition, Jarrett has identified a series of small, sheltered ports called “havens”. This discovery fills in a major piece of the puzzle when it comes to Viking sea travel, showing where Vikings stopped as they ventured up the west coast of present-day Norway. 

Jarrett’s Viking pursuits have been shared in a paper recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. In this paper, Jarrett explains how he relied on a type of sailing vessel called a clinker boat to emulate the Viking experience. Up until the 20th century, Nordic clinker boats were used for fishing, trade, and transport in coastal regions of Norway. 

“I can show that this type of boat sails well on open water, in tough conditions. But navigating close to land and in the fjords sometimes presents challenges that are just as great, but not as obvious. Underwater currents and katabatic winds blowing down from mountain slopes, for example,” said Jarrett, in a statement.

Between September 2021 and July 2022, Jarrett conducted 15 sailing trials and two trial voyages, accompanied by teams of students and volunteers. During the two voyages, the teams collected data on sea conditions and captured footage of land- and seamarks. They observed harbors in particular, focusing on how boats could approach them from the sea and what level of shelter they would provide. Jarrett also interviewed local sailors and fishermen who had knowledge of sea routes traditionally used in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The next stage of the process involved digitally reconstructing the relative sea levels during the Viking Age. The recreated RSLs were then combined with data from the trial voyages to determine Viking routes and havens. 

Read More: Medieval Solar Compasses May Have Guided Viking Sailors

Safe Havens for Viking Sailors

The trials and RSL reconstructions led Jarrett to hypothesize that Vikings traveled farther from the land than previously believed. On long voyages, they would have stopped at various points on the west coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula, including easily accessible islands. Considering criteria related to location and ease of access, Jarrett established four potential Viking havens along Norway’s coast. 

Havens offered Vikings temporary refuge from the hazards of outer coasts and inner fjords. The “transition zones” where havens were located had less sea swell than outer coasts, and had weaker tidal currents and winds than inner fjords. This made them the perfect place for Viking sailors to wait out bad weather, repair their boats, gather supplies, or congregate with other sailors. 

The Establishment of Viking Power Centers

Sailing routes and havens also led to the creation of power centers, where elites ended up living. Some power centers were located within transition zones, while others were not; this may be due to the need for arable land, an additional factor that was key to power centers. 

Raiders may have avoided power centers and instead sought separate havens, while traders may have either deliberately visited or avoided power centers based on their relationships with local magnates. Meanwhile, these magnates likely sent trusted subordinates to maintain control over maritime traffic.

All of this suggests a decentralized system of power along the coast. This influence runs deep, potentially explaining why places along the Norwegian coast don’t contain as much cultural capital as centralized areas in southern Scandinavia.

Jarrett’s travels ultimately shed light on the previously unexplored details of Viking sailing, demonstrating that they employed astute strategies to trade and travel.

Read More: Vikings Didn’t Just Raid and Pillage – They Had Diplomacy and Trade Networks, Too

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Jack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.