The Vikings opened trade routes down the rivers of Russia to Constantinople. Investigate the importance of Viking trade and trading posts to the development of the modern states of Russia and the Ukraine.

Icelanders often boast of having the oldest parliament, the Althing, in existence. Investigate the origin and functions of the Althing and compare it to early attempts at self-government on the American frontier, beginning, perhaps, with the Plymouth Colony.

Many of the heroes of the lays in the Elder Edda are not Scandinavian, but came from tribes as far apart as Burgundy and what is now the south west Russia and the Ukraine. Investigate the theories of how these heroes and their stories came to have such a wide and devoted audience.

Norse raiding, trading and colonization could not have happened without the developments made by Scandinavian shipbuilding. Investigate Viking...