SECRET HISTORY OF THE VIKINGS

Forget what you’ve seen in Hollywood movies, everything youthought you knew about Vikings is about to change…

15 BIGGEST MYTHS BUSTED!

Myth # 1. Vikings were savage raiders

Think Viking, think hordes of uncultured savages who wreaked havoc around Europe from the 8th to late-11th centuries, pillaging villages, raping women and snatching land with bloody intent. While strands of truth fork pop culture’s brutal version of the Scandinavian tribe – they committed all of the above atrocities and more – it fails to tell the whole story. Seamen first, traders second, warriors third, is perhaps closer to the truth. The year AD 793 saw the first documented Viking raid, when an abbey in Lindisfarne, a small island in the northeast of England, was plundered. Monks were murdered. Treasures were stolen.

A library was burned to the ground. Some historians believe this event set the tone for how the Vikings would be perceived throughout Europe, during that period and beyond. “The Vikings were probably no worse than anyone else,” says Viking expert Gareth Williams. “These accounts are dressed up in the language of religious polemic. Many [of the stories] were borrowed from earlier accounts – from classical antiquity.” There’s also the suggestion that horrific tales of Viking barbarity were partly Christian propaganda, designed to discredit the new pagan migrants. All documented accounts of Viking savagery from the age would not have been recorded by the Vikings themselves – they couldn’t write – but by the Christian churches and monks.

Myth # 2. Vikings wore horned helmets

If they weren’t bareheaded, Vikings wore simple helmets made from leather and framed with metal, plus the occasional face guard. Not a single Viking horned helmet has ever been discovered. German costume designer Carl Emil Doepler is credited with creating the distinctive headgear in 1876, for a production of Wagner’s musical work, 'Der Ring Des Nibelungen' – which tapped into the prevailing revival of German Norse culture. “Imaginations were stirred by this image of something more powerful, something primal and pagan, out of the distant past,” says scholar Roberta Frank. The myth was strengthened during Queen Victoria’s reign, an era which saw the Viking Age romanticised, and Vikings given more noble, proud qualities. Today, the horned-helmet stereotype reigns in cartoons and movieland alike.

Myth # 3. Vikings were dirty and unkempt

Put aside the image of a grubby, wild-haired beast. In an time when it wasn’t uncommon for Europeans to bathe once a month, Vikings washed once a week – and were considered a bit weird for doing so. There’s evidence to suggest they were as groomed as today’s modern men. “Several archaeological fi nds have revealed tweezers, combs, nail cleaners, ear cleaners and toothpicks from the Viking Age,” says Louise Kæmpe Henriksen, a curator at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. Carvings discovered on a ship burial mound in Norway support the theory that Vikings had neat, trimmed beards. They also made their own soap from horse chestnuts, the fruit of a common European tree.

Myth # 4. Vikings ate off the land

When they weren’t sailing, the Norse people were adept farmers who grew barley, rye, oats and some basic vegetables, as well as raising domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. But an archaeological dig in Greenland in 2012 revealed that, if conditions dictated, Vikings weren’t afraid to vary their diet – with seals. “Even though the Norse are traditionally thought of as farmers, they adapted quickly to the Arctic environment and the unique hunting opportunities,” explains researcher Jan Heinemeier of Aarhus University. “During the period they were in Greenland, the Norse gradually ate more seals.” By analysing bone samples from Norse skeletons found on the icy land mass, the team estimated that 80% of the Vikings’ diet was seals.

Myth # 5. Viking women had no rights

“To assume that Viking men were ranked above women is to impose modern values on the past, which would be misleading,” says Viking author Marianne Moen. “Our perception of religion’s influence in the society is based on texts written hundreds of years afterwards, by men from a different and more misogynistic religion.” While there’s no doubt that the balance of power tipped towards men in Viking society – Viking girls were married as young as 12, and tended the household while their husbands were away – they had more freedom than other European women of the era, able to inherit property and request a divorce. Moen has studied Viking grave sites in the Kaupang region of Norway, and found that men and women were buried side-by-side, and female graves were equally as prominent.

Myth # 6. Viking weapons were unsophisticated

Vikings are often depicted wielding crude weapons such as clubs and axes, but in reality they were skilled weapon makers. Weapons were an essential part of Viking life. [The stash pictured left is displayed at a Viking museum in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany]. Men were always armed, and hung their weapons by their bed at night. While it’s true that only richer men could afford swords – they required more iron and were expensive to produce – Viking sword-making was second to none. Examples tended to be double-edged, about 90 centimetres long and were pattern-welded – meaning the iron and steel strips were twisted together then hammered into a blade with a hardened edge. Decorations were ornate, with names carved into the weapon. The sword was afforded such a high status, Viking men were often buried with them, a practice known as the ‘killing’ of a sword. Otherwise, swords were passed down from generation to generation.

Myth # 7. Vikings are large and blond

“The Vikings were on average 8-10cm smaller than we are today,” observes Lise Harvig from the National Museum of Denmark. “The skeletons archaeologists have found reveal that the men measured about 172cm (5’7”), while adult females average around 160cm (5’2”).” Strangely, studies on skeletons show male Viking faces to be more feminine than they are today, with less prominent jawlines, while female faces appeared more masculine. Short Scandinavian summer seasons meant that growing crops was challenging and resources scarce, and this could have impacted on their height – though 172 centimetres was more or less the average male height across Europe. As for the celebrated blond Nordic hair, while Vikings around the region now known as Stockholm carried the famous trait, genetic research shows Vikings in Denmark were mostly red-headed. Darker Vikings were known to bleach their locks blond using lye.

Myth # 8.  Vikings sailed around Europe

Simply geography dictated that the Vikings would conduct their initial trading jaunts close to home – hence the reason Britain and Germany were the first countries to be explored, followed by a gradual expansion to Ukraine and Russia through Europe’s river system. But as you’d expect with a tribe of keen travellers, the Vikings had broad horizons. Settlements have been unearthed in the sheltered fjords of the southern and western coasts of Greenland, where small warmer microclimates allowed them to farm successfully until the ‘Little Ice Age’ around 1400. Viking fleets also made it as far as the Middle East, meeting with Islamic traders and scholars. None of this would have been possible, however, without two major technological innovations. Firstly, the Vikings’ longships were fast and strong enough to cross open oceans yet light, shallow and nimble enough to allow beach landings and river navigation. The second essential piece of kit was the Vikings’ sophisticated wooden sundials: for trips to Greenland, Viking boats would skirt the Arctic Circle in summer months, when the sun shines for almost 24 hours a day. The sun compasses – an example of which was found in the ruins of a Benedictine monastery in Greenland in 1948 – helped the sailors find true north. “It is widely accepted that Norse people were excellent mariners. Now it seems they used much more sophisticated navigational instruments than we thought before,” says Bálazs Bernáth from Hungary’s Eötvös University.

Myth # 9. All vikings were pagans

It’s true that at the birth of the Viking Age in the late-8th century, the entire Scandinavian population were pagans. Their gods were many: Odin, flying his eight-legged steed; his hammer-wielding son Thor; the fertility goddess Freya. And they all lived in an alternate world known as Asgard. Yet come the end of the Viking reign around the late-11th century, Christianity had a firm foothold in the Scandinavian region, thanks in part to the Vikings’ travels. So what happened? One answer might be that the Vikings were open-minded when it came to religion and adopted Christianity as they moved across Britain and into Europe. Another is that Christian traders discriminated against pagans (and Muslims), and it made financial sense for the Vikings to convert. “Paganism and the new faith co-existed peacefully for years,” says Tracey Ann Schofield in her book Vikings. “Vikings simply counted Christ as one of their many gods.”

Myth 10. We know what the word 'viking' means

There’s no definitive answer as to the meaning of the word ‘Viking’, simply a series of good guesses based on existing evidence. The word is definitely an ancient one, appearing in both noun and verb forms on various rune stones. A popular theory among etymologists (those who study the origin or words) is that vikingr comes from Old Norse language meaning ‘freebooter’ or ‘pirate’, which itself is taken to mean ‘one who came from the fjords’. A vik is a creek, inlet or small bay. The word ‘Viking’ may also have geographic roots, as there was a specific bay in the south of Norway called Víkin. The word ‘Viking’ appears to have fallen out of favour during later medieval and Renaissance periods, but was revived during the Romantic era of the 19th century, when anything Viking-related became fashionable.

Myth # 11. Vikings were a unified army

Rather than one all-powerful collective, the Vikings were made up of various tribes: during the Viking era, Denmark, Norway and Sweden didn’t even exist. They departed on raids at different times, usually with different agendas. Conflicts between tribes were common in between overseas adventures. One of the most powerful Viking forces was known by the Anglo-Saxons as the Great Heathen Army, a mish-mash of Norse fighters from Denmark and Norway. Unlike Vikings of the late-8th century who embarked on smash-and-grab raids on British monasteries, the Great Heathen Army had its eye on seizing territory, landing in East Anglia in AD 865 and proceeding to conquer swathes of Britain.

Myth # 12. Vikings were superior fighters

You don’t conquer entire lands without some degree of battlefi eld prowess, whether tactical or physical. Similarly, you can’t build extensive trade networks across half the world if you’re dead. “When it came to actual battle, the Vikings were no more successful than their enemies,” says Gareth Williams, curator of a London-based exhibition named Vikings: Life and Legend. “Where they could, they tended to avoid combat. If you can get what you want without having to fi ght for it, that enhances your profits, and enhances the chances of you living long enough to enjoy the profi ts.” In fact, battlefield setbacks were more common than is popularly believed. A Viking warship found near Weymouth, UK, is thought to contain the remains of its entire crew, who were captured, stripped and then executed. An AD 896 excerpt from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle references a fleet of six Viking ships repelled by the locals, leaving only a handful of “very much wounded” survivors. Another repeatedly spun myth is that Viking bodies were heavily marked by battle wounds, but it’s diffi cult for scientists to confi rm this since superfi cial cuts or, say, a missing eye, can’t be detected on an ancient cadaver. “In male skeletons we have found examples of sword wounds in the hip, which the man has survived,” explains anthropological archaeologist Lise Lock Harvig. “It’s not as if all of them have lesions, but it’s not uncommon either.”

Myth # 13. Vikings wore tattoos

The Arab writer Ibn Fadlan, who met Viking traders in Russia’s Middle Volg in AD 921, described them as being tattooed from the tips of their fingers to their necks. He remarked how the artwork depicted trees and symbols. But other than this account, there’s little evidence to prove Vikings were decorated in tatts: there’s no word of them in any Viking sagas or poetry verses. On the other hand, physical characteristics such as hair colour and scars are mentioned. Also, the Arabic word used in Fadlan’s original text for ‘tattoo’ was more commonly used to describe mosque decorations than artwork on human skin. The debate over whether Vikings wore tattoos will be forever clouded by a simple scientific premise: unless preserved in ice, human skin does not survive after being buried for centuries.

Myth # 14. Vikings  buried dead on burning funeral boats

The only contemporary record of a funeral pyre being pushed out to sea in a blazing boat comes from the mythical story of the burial of Norse god Baldr, the son of Odin. There isn’t, outside of Hollywood at least, an iota of evidence to suggest fiery funeral boats ever existed. This, like many Viking myths, was invented in the 19th-century Romantic era. Important or wealthy Vikings were, however, sometimes buried in boats on land – such as the famous Oseberg ship, unearthed in a large burial mound in Norway – with sacrificial animals and gifts. A more everyday Viking burial would have involved burning a corpse in an open-air funeral pyre and then burying the ashes in an urn. Seven days after the ceremony, Norse people would drink funeral ale as a way of officially marking the death: only after getting tipsy could heirs claim their inheritance.

Mith # 15. All vikings did was trade and raid

As explained on page 12, Vikings were skilful farmers. In the complicated Scandinavian climate (mild summers, freezing winters), their lives depended on it. But historical artefacts prove they were also great all-round handymen, with knowledge of carpentry, the blacksmith trade and even basic veterinary science. The tools they needed to make repairs around their farms were made by their own hands. By the middle of the Viking age, artisans in the various tribes had become adept at stone-carving, making jewellery, pottery and weaving. And it was the goods produced from these practices that enabled the Vikings to become some of history’s most successful traders – not just a dirty, hairy bunch of rapists and pillagers.

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FACTS

Saturday was traditionally Viking bath day. Even now, Saturday is translated as ‘washing day’ in Scandinavian languages.

During cloudy days around the Arctic Circle, it’s thought Viking mariners used a common calcite crystal to locate the position of the
sun.

We have Old Norse to thank for many English words, including berserk (bersekr), rotten (rotinn) and anger (angr).

In 2014, a mass Viking grave containing 50 headless skeletons was discovered in an old quarry pit in Dorset, UK.

Today, one of the most popular Viking tattoos is the compass tattoo, or Vegvisir. But it dates from a 17th-century Icelandic magic book, not the Viking.

By Vince Jackson in "World of Knowledge" Australia, Issue 30, May 2016, excerpts pp. 11-17. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.