Hi! After hesitating quite a lot between several topics, I finally decided to talk a bit about history and to debunk some popular myths about Vikings.
According to popular beliefs, Vikings were bloodthirsty, violent warriors with horned helmets who had no sense of mercy nor pity. But how true is this statement, exactly? Well, first of all, I am sorry to announce that the horned helmets were never a thing, especially at war. Granted, you'd look scarier in them, but is it really worth it to add some more weight onto your head? If they ever existed, they were worn only during some ceremonies, but we don't have enough proof to acknowledge, or not, their potential existence.
What about violence? At first, most Norsemen were simple landowners who earned money through trade with the other Nordic territories (since Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were not countries yet and there wasn't just one single big Viking tribe. There were several of them). However, they began to develop some interest for the outside world - that is, outside of Scandinavia - and thus started exploring the lands beneath them. From traders, they became explorers.
There are two things that we always have to keep in mind when discussing history: where are our sources from and are they reliable? Usually, it's the victorious ones that will write down how the battle they just won went - the losers are probably too busy counting their casualties to find some time for an epic storytelling session anyway. However this time, the opposite happened. When the Vikings arrived in Great-Britain, they found some monasteries on their way, that they decided to attack in order to steal some valuable objects that they could later sell for money. What the Vikings really wanted was money, and not to mass murder a bunch of monks because being violent was the Middle-Ages trend. As the attacks multiplied, the monks decided to write down what was happening to their colleagues: a full regiment of tall and pagan men they've never seen before arrive out of nowhere to destroy God's house. Obviously, in their eyes, these Vikings were the incarnation of Satan: who in their right mind could possibly even think of destroying or robbing a monastery? Since religion held a very important place in society in the Middle Ages, being a pagan was one of the worst sins possible. Monks thus tended to emphasize the brutality of the Norsemen in order to make them look as devilish as possible. People had to fear them and to think of them as violent and cold-hearted idiots. But were they really stupid? The answer is no. In fact, they were pretty smart people, especially when it came to sailing. Indeed, they had invented one of the best boat types available at that time, which had allowed them to discover Iceland, Greenland, and a bit of Canada (the present day province of Newfoundland).
Vikings didn't only pillage and then go home, taking with them what they had just robbed. After some time, they decided that it would be more intelligent to settle down in order to reduce the travel time between the stealing and taking home parts. So this is what they did, settling down all over Europe - research shows that there even are some traces of newly-converted Muslim Vikings in Southern Spain - and blending with the local population already present there - blending so well that they even abandoned their Old Norse language to pick up French instead, and later influencing the English language to make it more Latin and YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, YOU FAKE VIKING!
So, were the Vikings violent? Yes, but who wasn't at that time? Were they as violent as they are thought to be, though? The short answer is no.
Mila
According to popular beliefs, Vikings were bloodthirsty, violent warriors with horned helmets who had no sense of mercy nor pity. But how true is this statement, exactly? Well, first of all, I am sorry to announce that the horned helmets were never a thing, especially at war. Granted, you'd look scarier in them, but is it really worth it to add some more weight onto your head? If they ever existed, they were worn only during some ceremonies, but we don't have enough proof to acknowledge, or not, their potential existence.
What about violence? At first, most Norsemen were simple landowners who earned money through trade with the other Nordic territories (since Sweden, Norway, and Denmark were not countries yet and there wasn't just one single big Viking tribe. There were several of them). However, they began to develop some interest for the outside world - that is, outside of Scandinavia - and thus started exploring the lands beneath them. From traders, they became explorers.
There are two things that we always have to keep in mind when discussing history: where are our sources from and are they reliable? Usually, it's the victorious ones that will write down how the battle they just won went - the losers are probably too busy counting their casualties to find some time for an epic storytelling session anyway. However this time, the opposite happened. When the Vikings arrived in Great-Britain, they found some monasteries on their way, that they decided to attack in order to steal some valuable objects that they could later sell for money. What the Vikings really wanted was money, and not to mass murder a bunch of monks because being violent was the Middle-Ages trend. As the attacks multiplied, the monks decided to write down what was happening to their colleagues: a full regiment of tall and pagan men they've never seen before arrive out of nowhere to destroy God's house. Obviously, in their eyes, these Vikings were the incarnation of Satan: who in their right mind could possibly even think of destroying or robbing a monastery? Since religion held a very important place in society in the Middle Ages, being a pagan was one of the worst sins possible. Monks thus tended to emphasize the brutality of the Norsemen in order to make them look as devilish as possible. People had to fear them and to think of them as violent and cold-hearted idiots. But were they really stupid? The answer is no. In fact, they were pretty smart people, especially when it came to sailing. Indeed, they had invented one of the best boat types available at that time, which had allowed them to discover Iceland, Greenland, and a bit of Canada (the present day province of Newfoundland).
Vikings didn't only pillage and then go home, taking with them what they had just robbed. After some time, they decided that it would be more intelligent to settle down in order to reduce the travel time between the stealing and taking home parts. So this is what they did, settling down all over Europe - research shows that there even are some traces of newly-converted Muslim Vikings in Southern Spain - and blending with the local population already present there - blending so well that they even abandoned their Old Norse language to pick up French instead, and later influencing the English language to make it more Latin and YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, YOU FAKE VIKING!
So, were the Vikings violent? Yes, but who wasn't at that time? Were they as violent as they are thought to be, though? The short answer is no.
Mila
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