A key concept is that of time-distance, through which transport is perceived not in terms of the measured physical separation of places but by the time it takes to travel between them. Accustomed as we are to viewing geography through maps (which digitisation has not changed), it can be hard to grasp that England and Norway can be 'closer' in perceptual terms via water than an overland journey of thirty or forty miles. Recent Danish experiments in the Sea Stallion, a replica longship based on an eleventh-century example excavated near Roskilde, have demonstrated that with favorable winds it is easily possible to travel from Denmark to the east coast of Britain in just a few days. Weather permitting, a return trip of a fortnight or so is by no means impossible, emphasising just how closely connected the communities of the North Sea were to one another. When these kinds of calculations are applied within Svandinavia, the ubiquity of marine transport becomes clear. The rivers, fjords, lakes, and coastal channels of the North formed the primary means of movement in Viking-Age Scandinavia, but this travel did not have to be waterborne; a significant amount of journeying was made along the same routes in winter by means of ice transport. Sleds, sledges, and horse-drawn sleighs, including large examples made to accommodate several passengers, have been found in Viking-Age graves. Individuals used ice skates made of cattle bones bound to the shoes with hide thongs; the wearer moved forwards with the aid of a single stout pole much in the manner of a punt on a river. Both humans and animals used iron crampons, folded over and fixed to hooves or footwear. Skis were also used, single or double planks with tapered ends that were often richly carved and, again, propelled with a single pole. Of all the images associated with the Viking Age, one of the most powerful is that of their ships, especially the great dragon-prowed oceangoing vessels that have been popularised in movies and other media. However, it should be remembered that they represented just one of many kinds of watercraft utilised throughout the period. The most common Viking-Age vessel of all was the humble dugout log boat, a simple craft that could have provided almost anyone access to marine transport and communication routes. Hollowed from a single tree trunk, these could vary in size from a one-person runabout to a larger boat up to ten metres in length and with room for both people and cargo. These vessels are often overlooked in the wider literature on the Viking Age, but their original presence in large numbers testifies to the marine mobility of the time. Another relatively common vessel was the rowboat or skiff, owned perhaps by prosperous fisherfolk. The important farmers of a district might well have stretched to a sail-powered boat ten metres long or more.
- Neil Price, Children of Ash and Elm
