Georg Olaf Reidersen lives in the small Norwegian village of Gudvangen. The man calls himself a descendant of the Vikings. He looks like a stern, grey-bearded warrior in combat armor and wielding a sword. True, experts say that all this is nothing more than a set of Old Norse clichés.
- Not dirty and not horny
- What did the Vikings really look like?
- Viking women
- Drakkar - the pride of northern warriors
- Great Conquests
- Vikings discovering America?
- How did the Vikings appear?
- Viking gods
- Interesting facts
- Where did the Vikings disappear to?
- Norman theory of the origin of Rus'
- Ragnarok in Scandinavian culture
Not dirty and not horny
After all, the Scandinavians did not always rob foreigners. When they sailed to a large city, they behaved there in a very civilized manner, since this met their trading interests. They even began to massively convert to Christianity, because they were more willing to do business with fellow believers.
Viking horned helmets are another myth. There is not a single historical mention or archaeological find confirming the existence of such a headdress. It was invented by frightened priests, whose temples were attacked by the Scandinavians. Believers identified foreign warriors with the devil. So there was a bright and memorable image that Hollywood directors fell in love with.
The Vikings even served as the prototype of the ironborn from the sensational saga “Game of Thrones”. They live in harsh conditions, despise luxury, and raid Westeros. Gloomy islanders are adamant, insidious and completely devoid of compassion. The motto of the ruling House Greyjoy in the archipelago is “We do not sow”
Like the Vikings, the inhabitants of the Iron Islands worship their own deity, the Drowned God. Their religious creed “The dead cannot die” speaks of a complete absence of fear of death. All this is reminiscent of medieval Scandinavians who dreamed of saying goodbye to life as soon as possible and going to Valhalla. But most importantly, the Greyjoy people are shipbuilders and sailors. Their striking force is the fleet.
True, unlike the ironborn, the Vikings are considered warriors with giant axes. In reality, this is not so. In fact, the weapons of the ancient Scandinavians were quite miniature. The Vikings did not wear chain mail. In order not to get injured, they used the so-called “shield wall” – a unique design that shielded them from the enemy. The shields were kept at a distance from themselves, so that arrows and throwing spears, even if they broke through the shield, would not reach the body of its owner.
What did the Vikings really look like?
It is believed that the Vikings fought very badly, most often they went on campaigns to earn extra money. In the ranks of the formidable army, in fact, there were simple artisans and farmers, hunters and merchants.
According to one of the Danish archaeologists, a real Viking looked like a portrait that would obviously disappoint fans of brutal warriors. There is no vegetation on the face, and there is no mountain of muscles on the body. The Scandinavian was dressed like a typical medieval aristocrat: a short jacket decorated with loops, a nobleman’s hat made of skin, tight-fitting leggings and high boots.
The best Scandinavian warriors – berserkers – also did not look like killing machines. They did not apply war color to their bodies and did not fight half-naked. Though word of their easy victories went ahead of them. They were just big, strong people who diligently improved their fighting skills. But the stories that arrows bounced off a berserker, who was in a semi-mad state, and axes did not take him, are, of course, fiction.
Contrary to popular belief, the ancient Scandinavians were by no means dirty and smelly vandals, but lovers of hygiene. Among the artifacts at the excavation sites, researchers find tweezers and razors. The sagas say that the Vikings bathed every week. At the time, that was incredibly common. They were much cleaner than the then British and French.
British archaeologist Steve Ashby from the University of York studied hundreds of archives and found that such combs were taken with them on campaigns, and after death they were placed in the graves of dead soldiers. They were made from the horns of red deer and decorated with artistic carvings. Now experts are wondering: isn’t it too elegant for rude dorks?
Viking women
A traveler from Spain, At-Tartuchi, in his travel notes, spoke about a strange custom of the Vikings – to tint their eyes. He saw a similar sight in the Danish city of Hedeby in the 10th century. Based on all these discoveries, modern researchers have concluded that Scandinavian sailors could be … women – northern Amazons who used men for procreation, petty robberies and dirty work.
Birka was once the largest center of Viking trade. Now this area in Sweden is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. At the end of the 19th century, scientists discovered here the burial places of an unusual Scandinavian commander. Two skeletons of horses and a whole arsenal of weapons were found in the grave at once: a knife, an ax, a sword, a spear, a pair of shields and several arrows.
A playing board with figurines also told archaeologists about the high rank of the deceased. Similar ones were used in the development of the battle strategy. But the most surprising thing is that women’s jewelry lay next to the remains of a warrior.
Drakkar – the pride of northern warriors
In battles, the Vikings used the tactics of the so-called “pin strikes”. On their ships, they suddenly attacked the coastal cities in small groups, after which they suddenly fled. The confused enemy simply did not have time to pull up the ground forces to the place of the raid in time, and it was too costly to place garrisons along the entire sea border. The main advantage of the Vikings was their ships. The Hjortspring boat is on display at the National Museum of Denmark.
Researchers discovered the boat in the swamps of the Scandinavian island of Als in the early 20th century. The frame is over 2000 years old. It was this Celtic ship that became the prototype of the first drakkar.
Drakkars earned a reputation as the best ships of the early Middle Ages for a reason. Due to the special technology of laying and processing wood, they had a minimum draft. This made it possible to walk in shallow water – where no one expected the appearance of an armed vessel.
In addition, the Vikings are credited with the invention of the keel – a beam on the bottom, which made the longboat structure more stable. In a storm, such a ship practically did not capsize.
The speed and maneuverability of the Drakkars was provided by a unique lubricant. Before launching the ship into the water, it was rubbed on the outside with whale oil, manure and earth. This mixture smelled bad. Perhaps that is why the Europeans considered the Vikings smelly savages.
The Vikings had GPS, experts say. How else to explain their ability to chart a course without error? After all, the compass had not yet been invented at that time. They also did not have maps and astrolabes. A translucent mineral resembling a bar of soap is a mysterious navigational device used by the Vikings on their voyages. It was a fragment of calcite and helped to accurately navigate the terrain in bad weather. Scandinavians called it “sun stone”.
The secret of calcite is that it has the ability to capture sunlight through dense fog, thick clouds, and even for forty minutes after sunset. In the Middle Ages, a Scandinavian navigator looked at the sky through a stone and twisted it in his hands. Due to the effect of polarization, the beam was refracted and divided in two. Comparing them together, it was possible to understand where the east is and where the west is, and even then build a route.
Great Conquests
The Vikings sat on the English throne. In the 11th century, the leader of the Danes, Sven Forkbeard, invaded the country, laid siege to London and forced the townspeople to surrender. His son Canute the Great ruled three monarchies at once for three decades: England, Denmark and Norway.
England, Derbyshere, 1980. Near the city of Ingleby, archaeologists find mass graves of the Vikings – 59 burial mounds, each of which rests dozens of warriors. According to scientists, they served in the Great Pagan Army. In the 9th century, this army conquered almost all of Britain.
The grandiose army was led by Ragnar Lothbrok, which means “Leather Pants”. It was said that he had divine roots, could command lightning and control the sea. In 845, during an attack on Frankia, his army included 120 ships and 5,000 Vikings. To save Paris from destruction, King Charles the Bald paid Ragnar three tons of silver.
Ultimately, Ragnar Lothbrok was killed anyway. True, the literature says that after some time his sons staged a bloody massacre in Europe. Incredibly, the thirst for profit brought the Vikings even to Africa. There they served as mercenaries. But most importantly, it was the Vikings who discovered America. This happened five hundred years before Columbus arrived on the continent, approximately in the thousandth year.
Vikings discovering America?
USA, Minnesota, Saint Paul. In the very center of the city, next to the local Capitol, there is a monument in honor of Leif Eriksson. This Viking was the first to reach the shores of the American continent. Similar statues are installed in the cities of Newport News (Virginia), Boston (Massachusetts) and Milwaukee (Wisconsin). Moreover, every year on October 9, the country celebrates Eriksson Day – named after the famous Scandinavian navigator.
The fact that the Vikings were in America is evidenced by two sagas: “About the Greenlanders” and “About Eric the Red”. The legends mention the mysterious Country of Grapes (Vinland) in the western hemisphere of the Earth. Its reality is also indicated by a map that fell into the hands of researchers in 1957 in Barcelona. On yellowed parchment, the Hudson and St. Lawrence bays are drawn, as well as the islands of Iceland, Greenland and a certain Vinland. Disputes about the authenticity of the document do not subside until now. Despite this, today the artifact is insured for $25 million.
In 1960, the Norwegian ethnographer Helge Ingstad discovered in Newfoundland, near the village of L’Ans-o-Meadows, the camp of the ancient Normans. Three dilapidated buildings have been preserved in it: a forge, a weaver’s shop and a shipyard.
Leif Eriksson had only one ship and a crew of thirty at his disposal. However, before mastering Newfoundland, he managed to land on the Labrador Peninsula and on Baffin Island, thus establishing three colonies on the coast of modern Canada at once.
How did the Vikings appear?
Because of the rebellious elements on the territory of medieval Scandinavia, crops and livestock perished. To feed themselves, the Vikings were forced to master fishing to perfection. Subsequently, this helped them become excellent sailors.
When the climate returned to normal, there was a surge in the birth rate. To prevent overpopulation, the Scandinavians had to look for new lands. Experts say that today it is almost impossible to find a country on the map of Europe that the Vikings have not visited. But why were they always and everywhere lucky?
Viking gods
The supreme god of the Vikings, Odin, was one-eyed. This did not prevent him from being considered the patron saint of warriors. Odin selects the best of the best for his heavenly host. That is why he often does not save the heroes, but leads them to certain death.
In 2014, the American geneticist David Fowkes put forward a version that Odin was not a god at all, but just a progressive foreigner – the ruler of the Huns with the consonant name Uldin, who came from Asia. The Scandinavians worshiped the outlander because he had advanced shipbuilding, farming, and weapon-making technologies at his disposal.
A similar version was expressed by the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammatik back in the 12th century. In his book “Acts of the Danes”, he wrote that the Scandinavians mistook for the gods Thor, Odin and other people who brought them unknown technologies.
Interesting facts
For a long time, the Vikings were inferior in development to the Scythians, Romans and Celts. But at one point they surpassed them in almost everything. How did they manage to quickly master new knowledge and skills? Conspiracy theorists believe that representatives of an alien civilization actually helped the Scandinavians gain power.
The Scandinavian sagas repeatedly mention the all-powerful dwarfs who taught the Vikings. These could be the so-called “gray aliens”, distinguished by their small stature. The books claim that they were engineering geniuses and designed the Spear Gungnir for Odin. It could instantly destroy the enemy army and always hit the target like a laser-guided missile. Thor’s hammer was also a very powerful weapon.
Valhalla is described in legends as Odin’s palace with shining walls and a gilded roof. Perhaps this gigantic metal building was an orbiter. And the mythical bridge Bifrost, which connected the world of people of Midgard with the abode of the gods Asgard, resembles an interstellar corridor, a wormhole.
Proponents of the theory of alien contacts are sure that the Vikings went on long sea voyages not because of a lack of land, but to find their patrons, who suddenly disappeared.
Neo-pagans take over Iceland. In 2015, they built a temple in Reykjavik in honor of the gods of Norse mythology. His flock numbers about 3,000 people, this is a hundredth of the inhabitants of the island.
A memorial plaque has been erected in Iceland in honor of Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson. For twenty years in a row he was the high priest of the country. Today, hundreds of people come to the monument. No wonder, because in 1972 Reykjavik recognized neo-paganism at the state level. Adepts of his Scandinavian current, Asatru, revere Odin and Thor. Another direction of faith, Lokianism, is dedicated to the god of cunning and deceit. Loki is worshiped mainly by representatives of the creative class, since Thor is too simple for them.
Along with Iceland, there are representatives of neo-pagan Scandinavian communities in Denmark, Norway, Spain, Italy and Russia. But the largest one is in the USA. True, experts say that Americans are not interested in the revival of the Viking culture, but in money. The American entertainment industry has long been making money on different historical eras, skillfully manipulating facts, and sometimes forging them.
So, blacks and poor Mexicans, who in the 19th century were called cowboys and simply herded cows, were suddenly reformatted into valiant fighters against dirty and evil Indians. The image was invented from and to. Lasso was borrowed from the Spaniards, weapons from gunfighters – professional bounty hunters. A wide-brimmed white hat was generally created by marketers to advertise cigarettes. The image of the Vikings is the same fake that the West has skillfully promoted.
Where did the Vikings disappear to?
Surprisingly, historians still cannot answer the question of where the Vikings disappeared. Why did they last only three centuries? Their main home was Greenland. However, when in the 16th century European ships moored to its shores, they found only the ruins of unknown settlements there.
The official version of the disappearance of the Vikings is more than strange. In order to have a place to graze the sheep, they burned the forests on the island and were left without building materials and firewood to heat their homes. Eventually the cattle died out anyway when the grass and turf in the valleys ran out. So the Scandinavians lost their milk and meat.
But why didn’t the newly minted Greenlanders hunt walruses, seals and beluga whales, or at least just didn’t fish? After all, this fishery fed them for decades. Experts are sure that there was a huge cultural gap between the Vikings and the Inuit, the original inhabitants of Greenland. That is, their mixing is excluded. For five hundred years of being on the island, peoples met only a couple of times. Therefore, the extermination of one by the other is also unlikely. In addition, archaeologists did not find any weapons at all in the excavation sites, which means that they had nothing to fight with.
Maybe the Vikings never existed? In April 2017, archaeologists found indirect confirmation of this. A group of international scientists led by Anna Fedrigo scanned three swords from the National Museum of Denmark using the latest neutron diffraction method. It turned out that the weapon is decorative. Ancient blades are not forged from strong steel, but from brittle iron. In battle, after the first blow, it would simply break.
Norman theory of the origin of Rus’
According to Miller, Schlozer and Bayer, in the ninth century the ancestors of the Russian people called Rurik from Sweden to help them form the country. True, German historians preferred not to mention that there was no statehood in Scandinavia itself until the 13th century.
The Norman theory was exploited for hundreds of years. With its help, opponents of the Russian Empire and the USSR tried to denigrate the Slavs. It was argued that they are the descendants of bloodthirsty Vikings, a rabble without morality and morality, second-class people who must be eradicated without remorse.
Adolf Hitler wrote that the Slavs live only due to the fact that the state was created for them by the German superior race. The Fuhrer himself recognized the greatness of the ancient Scandinavians. The Wehrmacht even had a special military formation – the SS division “Viking”.
Western scientists continue to insist on their own today. Recently, they stated that the haplogroups by which kinship is established are partially similar among Russians and Vikings. Moreover, we allegedly inherited a certain gene of warriors from the Scandinavians, and therefore, according to the speculations of pseudo-historians, Russia has been uncompromising, intolerant and aggressive since the beginning of time. And only hardened criminals live in it.
The mentor of Prince Vladimir, the baptizer of Rus’, was a Varangian. For this version, critics took up arms against the domestic film “Viking”. Conspiracy theorists say that the West financed its production. They even claim that this is part of a global plan to distort the history of our country.
UK, York. Employees of the English Viking Center blow the Gjallarhorn – a giant horn that heralds the onset of the Scandinavian doomsday Ragnarok. Danielle Daglan, the historian who oversees the ceremony, is confident that ancient omens are now coming true.
In the Scandinavian epic “Edda” it is said that on the eve of the apocalypse all borders will be erased. Researchers interpret this as the advent of the era of the Internet. Ragnarok must be preceded by three very cold winters. According to some reports, right now our planet is entering another small ice age. The gigantic sea monster Jörmungandr is about to rise from the bottom of the ocean. By the way, in May 2017, a fifteen-meter squid washed up on the coast of Indonesia.
True, the British blow the Gjallarhorn every year. This is just an action to attract visitors to the Museum of Ancient Scandinavians. However, if the prophecies come true and Ragnarok comes, the debate about the emergence of our nation will subside. After all, there will be no one to lead them.
