A long black boat, floating a red flag with a large black raven upon it, glided through the fjords and out to the open sea. At its prow stood a dragon’s head; at its stern was the animal’s tail. Along its sides, which looked like the body of a huge beast, were rows of big round shields painted red, black, and white. Behind those shields, on each side of the long boat, sheltered from the sprays of water, sat forty men who rowed the boat. So the old ship of the sea kings which now stands in the museum had glided in the long, long ago. Those old kings of the seas who sailed such boats are sometimes called Vikings. They got that name from the waterways which are now called fjords, but which were called _viks_ in the early days. The Northmen who kept their boats along the viks were called _Vikings_. Nearly every Northman in those early days had a boat. They needed boats to go about on the fjords, but they also loved the open sea and sailed out upon it. Finding the material with which to make a boat was an easy task, for many great trees grew on the mountainsides of their lands. Some of the ships that sailed on the seas reached the shores of other lands. In those lands the Vikings saw shining gold and silver and sharp weapons of bronze. The Northmen had no such treasures in their land. After hearing about such riches, the Vikings were not content without them. Some of the braver ones said, “We will sail our boats to those lands and take the rich treasures for ourselves.” So the Vikings became sea rovers, or pirates, as sea robbers are often called. Those early Vikings believed that the riches of the world belonged rightly to the people who were strong enough to take them for themselves. During the long winters, the Vikings stayed at home. In the daytime, they mended their boats, or built new boats. In the evenings they gathered around the feast table and listened to tales of adventures at sea. But when the warm days of sunshine came, they hastened to plant their crops and then to sail away to rob their neighbors. The Vikings had no instrument with which to tell the direction they were sailing. They had no glasses through which to sight land. They took big birds, called ravens, with them on their boats to help them. When they wanted to find land, they would turn loose one of the birds. The raven would fly to land. By following the bird, the seamen too found land. [Illustration: THE OLD VIKING SHIP REBUILT] When one of the dragon-like ships came near the shores of another land, the people on the shores were filled with fear. Sometimes they tried to keep the robbers from landing on their shores. Then the Vikings would get their battle axes and their shields and fight their way into the land. They were cruel fighters. Often they left whole towns in ruin—people dying, and homes and crops in flames. For years the Vikings kept up their life as sea robbers.