Resources
The Last Viking book trailer
The Last Viking hand-outs
You are welcome to print out these hand-outs for personal, non-commercial use in your home, school or library.
- Colouring-in: The Last Viking cover (pdf, 655KB)
- Colouring-in: Title page (pdf, 430KB)
- Colouring-in: Becoming a Viking (pdf, 606KB)
- Colouring-in: Odin and Thor (pdf, 655KB)
- Colouring-in: Keep Rowing Men (pdf, 606KB)
- Colouring-in: Preparing for Battle (pdf, 655KB)
- Handout- How to Read Runes (pdf, 315KB)
- Activity- Rune Puzzles 1 (pdf, 400KB)
rune puzzles 1 solution (pdf, 425KB)
- Activity- Rune Puzzle 2 (pdf, 335KB)
rune puzzle 2 solution (pdf, 385KB)
Books
First in a series of books by Cressida Cowell.
The website has a few cool activities: there’s a ‘Train Your Dragon’ game, a ‘Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons’, and a ‘Learn to Write Dragonese’ feature.
Was adapted into a very popular film, released in 2010 (see Films on this page).
Websites
A list of sayings that ancient Vikings may have used. Boys in particular will love these.
Make your own longship from paper. Download the pdf, print out onto card, cut out the pieces, and assemble according to the instructions. Easy. Free resource from Canon, the camera and printer company.
UK National Maritime Museum- Viking classroom resources
Great selection of handouts. on everything from longships and trade routes to Viking dress and clothing dyes. Colouring-in sheets too. Very handy.
Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark
To read the Teacher’s Guide, click on ‘Education’ up the top, then ‘To The Teacher’ on the left.
The website features many printable activities related to navigation, ships, and Norse life in general- but the recommended age for most activities is 10 years and up.
Translate words into runes automatically using this free resource. We adapted the translation on this website for the borders in The Last Viking.
When you type letters into the website, you will have to substitute every C for a K. It won’t let you translate C for some reason- who knows why.
The website automatically substitutes a few letters for other letters: K instead of Q, Y instead of J, U instead of V, and CS instead of X.
Plus it has an extra rune we didn’t use, which translates to the letter combination EL.
Movies
How to Train your Dragon (2010, rated PG)
The computer-animated film based on the book of the same name (see Books on this page).
Enter the site, and click the Activities link at the top of the screen. There’s a heap of handouts for kids including colouring in, dot to dots, tic-tac-toe and mazes – even 3D dragons to print and construct.
Thor (2011, rated M)
No useful activites here, but the trailer is amazing.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who according to IMDB interpreted the story as “a Norse/comic book twist on William Shakespeare’s Henry V”.
Totally brilliant guys! Best of viking bravery for a fabulous and triumphant launch!
Cheers Jo, thanks
It will be a wild and wooly night. I’m looking forward to seeing a sea of Viking helmets filling the Literature Centre
I am a class teacher and about to emabrk on a Vikings topic with my class and was very excited to see your book. I also thought that children would be keen to follow the links that you have provided on your website. After checking the links I was horrified to find that the link regarding Norse proverbs leads you to an offensive, racist website, metapedia. If this was intentioonal then I will not be using the webiste again. If it was an accident then I would ask thast you please check your links thoroughly before advertising thenm on your website.
Hello Lisa,
it was definitely not the intention of anyone associated with this blog to promote an offensive, racist site. We were unaware of the full nature of the metapedia site, having only visited the one page that listed the Norse proverbs. The link has now been deleted from this page. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Hey James,
I’d not heard of metapedia, so just went to have a look to see what Lisa was referring to, and what a shock! Here we are, two child-like creators of children’s books having fun with Viking lore, while trying to get across a worthwhile anti-bullying message, and the biggest bunch of really unpleasant bullies all connected to this site emerge right in the middle of our gentle world.
From what I can see, like most bullies everywhere, there seems to be a serious lack of human kindness among most of them, and a definite shortage of empathy for anyone who is not exactly like themselves. The saddest part here, though, is how many contributors they have. It is as if they have learnt nothing at all from history. Just the 20th century alone has had enough hatred, wars and bigotry to deeply stain our memories. I don’t understand how anyone could overlook what happened to millions of people throughout Europe in WWII because of a lack of understanding of others, and be involved in a site like this that has no compassion, no humour, and certainly no heart.
One can only hope that Knut’s new friends, the Norse Gods, find out about metapedia and, like in the book, bring forth thunder bolts down upon their unkind heads.
James and Norman
Thank you for removing the link from your website. I had not heard of metapedia before following the link from your website. Wonderful as the web is, it is a reminder of the need to always check websites that we use.
I now feel happy to refer children to your website.
Lisa
Congratulations on the shortlisting of your beautiful book! Thank you so much for the wonderful images and resource links. The pdfs on boats and voyages are fabulous!
Thank you!
Cheers Catherine, glad the resources will be useful. Have a happy CBW
James
We are from Thirroul PS and have just read ‘The last Viking’. We thought it was awesome. We have cracked the code on the front cover and are now working on the others! Thanks Norman & James!
From Mrs McGuinness and 4B
Hello Mrs McGuinness and 4B Viklings,
glad you enjoyed it and had fun with the rune messages. The message on the front cover comes from a very famous warrior called Nelson Mandela, who has the brave heart of a Viking.
Thanks for emailing,
James
Hi Norman,
2G really enjoyed The Last Viking and have a question. Is your last name a Viking name?
We are already looking forward to reading ‘The Lost Vikings!
All the best for Book Week,
from 2G
Congratulations, I liker very much, interesting an fabulous resources and illustrations. Kind regards from Spain
No problems Monica, glad it’s been useful for you. James
Hey there are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create
my own. Do you require any coding knowledge to make your own blog?
Any help would be really appreciated!
Hey there. Yes, we’re using WordPress.com; free, and no coding required!
Though I understand that if you are using WordPress.org, it’s different- you’ll need a separate server to house the blog, and you’ll need coding knowledge.
Check out the help and support section of WordPress.com for more details.