Northern European Boats and Boatbuilding in the pre-Viking Iron Age

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Thursday, July 11th, 2013
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

The famous longships of the Viking age were not a sudden invention. Though they were a vital force in propelling the Norse forward in exploration, trade, and conquest, their design can be traced back to over a thousand years before the first Viking raids. In this presentation, Dan Dalby of the living history group Project Germani will discuss the evolution of boats and boatbuilding in Northern Europe in the Iron Age. The earliest logboats will be examined, and the evolution traced from a simple dugout canoe to the earliest lapstrake warships. Construction methods will be discussed, and replicas of woodworking tools from Iron Age Scandinavia will be displayed. The tactics of war and raiding used by the Germanic builders of these boats will be examined in detail, and how these influenced warship designs in the 1000 years of history leading up to the Viking age. Famous ship discoveries from bogs in Denmark, such as the Hjortspring and Nydam ships will be examined in detail, as well as the military equipment that was sacrificed with them.

About Dan Dalby:
Dan Dalby is a 19 year old student from Cobble Hill. In 2011, following a summer of participating in Iron Age living history and reenactment events in Germany, he founded Project Germani on his return to Vancouver Island. The group has since expanded to include around a dozen members, focusing on the portraying the lives of the Germanic Tribes and the Romans in the 1st cen. CE. Dan is one of the major craftspeople in Project Germani, and has produced dozens of replicas of Iron Age tools, weapons and personal equipment, as well as numerous examples of Germanic pottery.