Question

You are going to read an article about the Vikings. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each part (1-5) of the article. There is one extra heading you do not have to use.

A. Informative monuments
B. Heroic deeds
C. Scientific proof
D. Scarce information
E. A different way to inform
F. Negative characteristics

1____________
The Vikings have left many traces of their settlement which are still visible today. Archaeology provides physical evidence of their conquests, settlement and daily life. The study of place-names and language shows the lasting effect which the Viking settlements had in the British Isles, and DNA analysis provides some insights into the effect the Vikings had on the genetic stock of the countries where they settled. All of this provides valuable information, but the only reason that we have an idea of the 'Vikings' as a people is their appearance in the written sources.
2___________
Unfortunately, the value of the written evidence is limited. Not a lot of evidence survives, and much of what we have is either uninformative or unreliable. Many popular ideas about Vikings are nineteenth-century inventions. Others are the result of early historians accepting sources which modern scholars now regard as completely unreliable. In Scandinavia the Viking Age is regarded as part of prehistory because there are practically no contemporary written sources. Even in western Europe, the Viking Age is often seen as part of the 'Dark Ages', from which comparatively few historical records have survived.
3__________
Surviving accounts of Viking activity were almost exclusively written by churchmen. These include monastic chronicles, such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and similar Frankish and Irish Annals, which outline broadly what happened, at what date. There are also sources of a more directly religious nature, such as the much-quoted letters of Alcuin, and Wulfstan's famous 'Sermon of the Wolf', both of which chose to interpret the Viking raids as God's punishment on the Anglo-Saxons for their sins. Even the chronicles reflect the fact that the Vikings often attacked monasteries for their wealth, which created an obvious bias against them, and the hostile tone of these contemporary accounts has done much to create the popular image of Viking atrocities. However, modern historians have noted that the same sources show Christian rulers behaving equally unpleasantly, but without being condemned on religious grounds.
4_________
One of the reasons that we have so few records from the Viking Age is that the Vikings did not become familiar with the Roman alphabet (the alphabet we use today) until they adopted Christianity. However, they did have another form of lettering, known as runes. Runes were normally carved, rather than written, and were therefore mostly used for fairly short inscriptions. It is unknown how many people could read runes in the Viking Age. Runic inscriptions on pieces of wood from Bergen in Norway show that runes were used for all sorts of everyday purposes later in the Middle Ages, but no comparable evidence has survived from the Viking Age, and it is likely that few people were literate in runes. However, the fact that some Vikings were able to carve their names on their possessions suggests that the use of runes wasn't uncommon.
5____________
Most of the surviving runes are found on large memorial stones. Very often they only have the name of the person in whose memory the stone was carved, and the names of those responsible for having it made. Sometimes the name of the rune-carver was also given. Occasionally the inscriptions describe the achievements of the person commemorated, and refer to historical events in which they were involved. For this reason, runic inscriptions are a valuable source for Viking history. However, because they are so brief, they never give a very full picture, and often raise as many questions as they answer.

Answer 1

1. C. Scientific proof

The use of DNA analysis by Archaeologists to provide insight on the influence of Vikings would make Scientific proof a good heading here.

2. D. Scarce Information

This paragraph speaks on the lack of concrete information about the Vikings which points to scarce information about them.

3. F. Negative characteristics

Paragraph talks about the tendency to portray Vikings in a negative light due to their attacks on religious establishments.

4. E. A different way to inform

Vikings may not have used the roman alphabet which made history easier to record but they used Runes which means that they had a different way to inform.

5. A. Informative Monuments

Memorial stones were carved on by the Vikings to show the names of certain people and sometimes the events that these people participated in thereby making these monuments informative.