A
knarr is a type of
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
shipA ship is a large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and passenger capacity. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing, entertainment, public...
famously used by the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
s. The knarr (also known as
knorr or
knörr) is of the same
clinker-builtClinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks and, in the early nineteenth century, iron plates to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the individual planks...
method used to construct
longshipLong-ships were ships made and used by the Vikings to raid coastal and inland settlements during the Viking Age. The vessels were also used for long distance trade and commerce, and for exploratory voyages to Iceland, Greenland, throughout the mediterranean etc. Longship design evolved over several...
s, karves, and
faeringA faering is an open rowboat with two pairs of oars, commonly found in most boat-building traditions in western and northern Scandinavia. The word faering comes from the Norwegian word færing , literally meaning "four-ing", and referring to the number of oars.This type of boat, with two or more...
s.
The Knarr is the Norse term for ships that were built for Atlantic voyages. They were cargo ships with a length of about 54 feet (16m), a beam of 15 feet (4.5m), and a hull capable of carrying up to 24 tons.
A
knarr is a type of
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
shipA ship is a large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and passenger capacity. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing, entertainment, public...
famously used by the
VikingA Viking is one of the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far...
s. The knarr (also known as
knorr or
knörr) is of the same
clinker-builtClinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks and, in the early nineteenth century, iron plates to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the individual planks...
method used to construct
longshipLong-ships were ships made and used by the Vikings to raid coastal and inland settlements during the Viking Age. The vessels were also used for long distance trade and commerce, and for exploratory voyages to Iceland, Greenland, throughout the mediterranean etc. Longship design evolved over several...
s, karves, and
faeringA faering is an open rowboat with two pairs of oars, commonly found in most boat-building traditions in western and northern Scandinavia. The word faering comes from the Norwegian word færing , literally meaning "four-ing", and referring to the number of oars.This type of boat, with two or more...
s.
The Knarr is the Norse term for ships that were built for Atlantic voyages. They were cargo ships with a length of about 54 feet (16m), a beam of 15 feet (4.5m), and a hull capable of carrying up to 24 tons. It was primarily used to transport trading goods like walrus
ivoryIvory is formed from dentine and constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals such as the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, mammoth and narwhal....
, wool, timber, wheat, furs and pelts, armour, slaves, honey, and weapons. It was also used to supply food, drink, and weapons and armour to warriors and traders along their journeys across the
BalticThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
, the Mediterranean and other seas. Knarrer routinely crossed the North Atlantic carrying livestock and stores to Norse settlements in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
and
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
as well as trading goods to trading posts in the British Isles,
Continental EuropeContinental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands and, at times, peninsulas. Notably, in British and Irish English usage, the term means Europe excluding the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel...
and possibly the Middle East.
History of the Knarr
The only knarr found to be well preserved was in a shallow channel in
Roskilde FjordRoskilde Fjord is the fjord north of Roskilde, Denmark, and is located at . It is a long branch of the Isefjord.-Cities:The cities Frederiksværk, Frederikssund, Jægerspris, Jyllinge and Roskilde, , all have coastline at Roskilde Fjord...
in
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
of 1962 along with two warships, a Baltic trader, and a ferryboat. Archaeologists believe that the ships were placed there to block the channel against enemy raiders. Today, all five ships, known as the
Skuldelev shipsThe Skuldelev ships is a term used for 5 Viking ships recovered from Peberrenden by Skuldelev, c. 20 km north of Roskilde in Denmark. The remains of the ships were excavated over 4 months in 1962. The recovered pieces, which constitute 5 types of ships and have been dated to the 11th century,...
, are being restored at the
Viking Ship Museum in RoskildeThe Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde is the Danish national museum for ships, seafaring and boatbuilding in the prehistoric and medieval period....
.
The knarr might have been in use in colonizing Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. It was possibly the same kind of sailing vessel that the first European colonists used to sail to North America.
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