The Reality of Vikings

The Vikings Painting by Robert E Gebler

Who were the Vikings:
Vikings, the seafaring people who explored, traded, settled and raided as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as Nekor.




Vikings’ other names:
The Vikings were known with different names among different nations such as:

• By Germans, they were known as Ascomanni or ashmen
• By Gaels, they were known as Lochlanach (Norse)
• By Anglo-Saxons, they were known as Dene (Danes)
• By Slavs, Byzantines and Arabs, they were known as Rus or Rhos.

However, the Vikings were also called Varangians by Slavs and Byzantines.


Vikings’ Age:
790s to 1066 is announced as the Vikings Age of Scandinavian history which is the period from the Vikings earliest recorded raids until the Norman conquest of England.

However, the pictures of Vikings among most of us often differ from the complex picture pulled out from written sources and archaeology. This misconception in our mind about Vikings might be the cause of media and visionary resources we were grown up with like movies, animations or etc…
Here is the list of the most common myths about Vikings:


Vikings were a nation!

Many of us believe in Vikings as a nation. However, Vikings were  not a nation but different groups of traders, explorers and warriors who were led by a chieftain who ruled of a small area. The word, Viking is an Old Norse word from people participating in a seafaring.


Vikings wore horned helmets!

Gjermundbu helmet, the helmet you can see above, is the only helmet from Vikings still available, which doesn’t have horns. All depictions of Viking helmets dating to the Viking age, show helmets with no horns and the only authentic Viking helmet that has ever been found does not have them either. There are two or three representations of ritual processions where warriors wear helmets with protrusions ending with stylized bird heads or resembling to snakes, but even the ritual use of the horned helmets by Vikings remains unproven. However, It should be noted that the Norse god Thor wore a helmet with wings on it, which do look somewhat similar to horns.


Vikings used a massive double axe!
Base on Lindisfarne tombstone we can see Vikings used axes as their weapons but they were a very different type of axes than suggested by modern popular culture. However, it should be remembered that no double axes has ever been found from early medieval Europe. Vikings were actually skilled weapon smiths and their axes were light and used single-handed. On the other hand, using a method called pattern welding, the Vikings could make swords that were both extremely sharp and flexible.


Viking were big and blonde!

Historical records show that the average height of Vikings was 170cm tall which cannot be considered big among people. Vikings were great at absorbing people, and many people who had been kidnapped as slaves, became part of the Viking population in time. As a result, in Viking groups, there were people from Italy, Spain, France, Russia and Portugal.


Vikings armies were thousands!

According to P. Sawyer, the historical and archeological evidences the size of Vikings’ ships may have had the capacity of having fifty to sixty men on board. This means the Vikings army would be numbered as hundreds not thousands.


Vikings drank from skull cups!
This myth began from Runer seu Danica literatura antiquissima by Ole Worm, published in 1636 and reprinted in 1651. It was written Danish warriors drank from the “curved branches of skulls” which when it was translated into Latin, it was mistakenly translated as “from the skulls of those whom they had slain”. The fact is, however, no skull cups have ever been found in excavations from the Viking Age.


Vikings were dirty!
In England, because of their custom of bathing every Saturday, Vikings had a reputation of excessive cleanness. Ibn Rustah, a 10th century Persian explorer, explicitly notes the eastern Vikings’ cleanness.
In fact, combs, tweezers, razors and “ear spoons” are among some of the most frequent artifacts from Viking Age excavations. What’s more, Vikings also produced soap.


Vikings were exceptionally barbarian and bloodthirsty!
Vikings indeed were sometimes very violent, but we should remember that it really was the violent age and non-Viking armies were not any less bloodthirsty than Vikings. For instance, Charlemagne, who was Vikings’ contemporary, virtually exterminated the whole people of Avars. At Verden, he ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons. Vikings certainly were not as bloodthirsty as many Christians of their time.


Vikings did nothing but pillaging!
Vikings did pillage many lands. However, plunder was only one among many other goals of their overseas expeditions. Because it was actually only a very small percentage of the Vikings that were warriors; the majority was farmers, craftsmen and traders. The Vikings colonized peacefully many places such as Iceland and Greenland, and were international merchants of their time; they peacefully traded with almost every county of the then-known world.


Vikings were hated everywhere!
Vikings indeed were hated somewhere, but they were respected by some regions. Charles the III, the French King, gave his daughter to the Viking chief Rollo. He even gave Vikings the land they had already settled on in France. However, France was protected by Vikings in return.



Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings#Common_misconceptions_concerning_the_Vikings
http://listverse.com/2009/04/21/top-10-misconceptions-about-the-vikings/
http://www.vikingrune.com/2009/02/top-ten-myths-about-vikings/
http://www.vikingrune.com/2009/01/viking-helmet/
http://www.rosala-viking-centre.com/history.htm
http://www.vikingdenmark.com/viking-history.html