Vikings: Egils Saga

Egil teachers notes (12 KB)
Egil resources (17 KB)
Egil pupils work (358 KB)
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Key questions in this lesson were:
• What did the Vikings value?
• What can we discover from sagas and poetry?

Learning objectives
• To introduce the class to another facet of Viking culture – their
literature, in the form of sagas and poetry.
• For the children to appreciate the value the Vikings placed on poetry,
on fame and reputation, on prowess in battle, and on material rewards.
• Literacy: To introduce the children to the beauties and intricacies of
Viking poetry and to provide a model for their own writing.

Background information

Who were the Vikings (and what made them tick)? We had five afternoons to explore this with our year 5/6 class.

We taught this lesson, dealing with Viking sagas and poetry, and Viking values, in Week 4. This was after the class had 'excavated' a Viking burial mound, conducted group investigations of aspects of Viking life, and discovered what place names could tell us about Viking settlement patterns.

by Jacqui Dean