A Viking Longship in St Magnus Cathedral

Here’s a magnificent Viking longship in stained glass in St Magnus Cathedral.

Viking longships were ships of war and built for raiding. Speed was essential, as was a shallow keel so they could go up rivers and into bays as well as across seas. Apparently the Vikings also built bulky passenger ships and trading ships called knarrs. The knarrs don’t fit many people’s preconceived notions of what the Vikings were like, so I’d never heard of them before. I don’t think there’s one immortalised in stained glass either.

Longship in St Magnus Cathedral - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)

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