View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Einar?

2. When the natives return for a third time, what happens?

3. What is morale like the last Winter in Vinland?

4. What does Thorgunna send to Leif in Greenland?

5. What trouble is there with with Sigrid's corpse?

Short Essay Questions

1. When food runs scarce, Thorhall disappears for three days. How and where do Karlsefni and Bjarni find him? What does he say he was doing?

2. Explain what happens during Thorstein and Eirik's trip to Vinland, and what they do for the crew at the end of it.

3. How do Haki and Hekja come to be on the expedition to Vinland? Where are they from?

4. What kind of place to Karlsefni and his men settle in for their stay in Vinland?

5. Explain why the small boat on Bjarni's ship would not sink while the large one was about to.

6. What does the corpse of Thorstein Eriksson say about the dead? What do the people do after hearing it?

7. Describe Thorhall and explain why he is on the expedition to Vinland.

8. What happens to those that stay in Bjarni's ship and those that leave in the small boat?

9. Describe the first two encounters that Karlsefni and his men have with the natives.

10. How does Freydis drive away the natives giving chase?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gudrid (Gudridur Thorbjarnardottir) is possibly one of the best documented and traveled women of her era. Do further outside research and write an essay about Gudrid.

Part 1. Who was Gudrid? Who were her family?

Part 2. What kind of person was Gudrid? How did this affect her life?

Part 3. Where did Gudrid travel during her life? How and why did she travel so extensively?

Part 4. What other major events happened during Gudrid's life and how did she handle them?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about many popular misconceptions about Vikings.

Part 1. What is the popular image of a Viking?

Part 2. What parts of the popular image of a Viking are wrong?

Part 3. Provide explanations or evidence that suggests that these popular misconceptions are not historical.

Part 4. What might historical Vikings have been like instead?

Essay Topic 3

Several times in the sagas we see a prophecy delivered and taken seriously. Write an essay about the Viking tradition of prophecy.

Part 1. Were the Vikings, in general, a superstitious people? Give examples. What, other than prophecies, did they believe in?

Part 2. How seriously did the Vikings take prophecies?

Part 3. What were some of the common ways for Vikings to receive prophecies?

Part 4. What evidence of prophecies is there in the Vinland Sagas?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,087 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample