Do people not understand Vikings?

[Ol Scratch]

Same thing can be said about the Mongols. Or Americans.

Or the British Empire.

[Deleted]

Boring? The sacked paris, sailed to maerika in open boats, acted as bodyguards for the byzantine emperor. Now meanwhile the chrisitian charlemagne is
busy slaughtering saxon children in the thousands because their parents wont turn to chrisitanity.

Entirely my point. Vikings are made out to be these heartless monsters while the rest of the world at that time, and long after, where even worse. THe only reason the vikings got this much bad press is because ALL Christians were against them. Christianity prevailed and remained, thus spreading their version of history for a thousand years.

[Vizardlorde]

It thought jomvikings were active members of the military of denmark and other scandinavian countries. And that pillaging and plundering was common when they invaded other countries and people equated pirates and raiders to jomvikings. Then again i know very little about scandinavian culture so i might be 100% wrong.

[Techno-Druid]

Boring? The sacked paris, sailed to maerika in open boats, acted as bodyguards for the byzantine emperor. Now meanwhile the chrisitian charlemagne is
busy slaughtering saxon children in the thousands because their parents wont turn to chrisitanity.

Are you by any chance neo-pagan?

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Also the christian crusaders pillaged christian towns on their way to the holy land, and on their return xD

They also killed Jews

[Hyve]

Vikings (TV Show) is amazing and does a lot of dispel some myths, but also exacerbate others. Viking history is really interesting and I loved studying it at school, but it's often something that gets glossed over, as the focus tends to be on Rome & World War 2.

Also the christian crusaders pillaged christian towns on their way to the holy land, and on their return xD

It's true. For anyone wanting to know a little more about History, or particularly the crusade mentioned, ExtraHistory (ExtraCredits) do an amazing job of it.

[Kuntantee]

Boring? The sacked paris, sailed to maerika in open boats, acted as bodyguards for the byzantine emperor. Now meanwhile the chrisitian charlemagne is
busy slaughtering saxon children in the thousands because their parents wont turn to chrisitanity.

The only interesting thing about Vikings is their mythology. The rest is usual stuff.

[Shadowferal]

Far too many people don't care to learn their own country's history, let alone understand some long dead culture from centuries ago on another continent.

[Independent voter]

Vikings had this Pagan ritual were they would hang one of every living thing from a big tree. Well they weren't living after they were hung. Goats, wolves, foxes, rabbits.

Two Christian monks reported it.

Vikings didn't become Christian for a long time. Well, at one point 3/4 of the populace were Christian but the King wasn't. Thing was back then if you had a Pagan government, the Pope wouldn't stop attacks against you, he would even encourage them. Why should a Pagan be King over all those Christians?

So rather than lose his kingdom to foreign invaders, the Viking king converted to Christianity.

[GennGreymane]

Kinda hard to understand them when they spoke another language and are all dead.


I do remember reading about one viking and his burial

He had a Menorah, a Shiva statute, and Buddhist prayer beads in his grave. So tolerant even back then Swedish viking!

[Doctor Amadeus]

Odin does not care for the color of your skin or where you are from
He only ask that you die with honor!
Also, almost every written source on vikings we have, are written by christians and Islamists.
They did not look favourably on the men from the North with powerful gods.

I am pretty fucking sure that was Marvel Comics and not Odin considering Vikings killed and slaughtered just as many people without mercy or reason as anybody in that region or the world or any place else.

[Techno-Druid]

Vikings had this Pagan ritual were they would hang one of every living thing from a big tree. Well they weren't living after they were hung. Goats, wolves, foxes, rabbits.

Two Christian monks reported it.

Vikings didn't become Christian for a long time. Well, at one point 3/4 of the populace were Christian but the King wasn't. Thing was back then if you had a Pagan government, the Pope wouldn't stop attacks against you, he would even encourage them. Why should a Pagan be King over all those Christians?

So rather than lose his kingdom to foreign invaders, the Viking king converted to Christianity.

Times like these make me wonder what would've happened if Christianity never went "mainstream" in Europe. Another religion took over or paganism still strongly persisted.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Hey man, there are still some in Norway to buddy....

Yep just like there some fucking werewolves in eastern Washington state.

[GennGreymane]

Also do not forget viking graffiti

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runic_...n_Hagia_Sophia

[Revi]

Much of the early impression came from English writings who hated them and later from Hollywood imaginations.

I think that very flawed perception is still what most people think is real.

[Lupinemancer]

It is true that Vikings did not wear horned helmets and in Scandinavia those are only used in funny moments.
But the fact that the Vikings were brutal warriors is true, however, many Vikings were also traders and not that violent.

[Kuntantee]

So you read heimskringla? You read about kings, how Norway was bound together by a horny king ( my ancestor) and
the poetry and wars that was fought? Here in Norway we go through quite abit of it in out schools, and I would
not say its more boring than any other history/saga you can find out there.

I didn't say it's more boring than other histories. I said it's the usual stuff and judging from your post, it does seem like usual.

[Noitatohtori]

Times like these make me wonder what would've happened if Christianity never went "mainstream" in Europe. Another religion took over or paganism still strongly persisted.

Would the Dark Ages have been so ''dark'' if Christianity didn't prevail in Europe? No on can say for sure, there was this one chart that very objectively claimed that we would be literally thousands of years more advanced in technology if this time period never happened.

Not sure if that would have really been the case, but an interesting thought none the less. A huge part of me wishes that religions would never have been a thing, that our forefathers in caves didn't see a comet crash down to Earth and started to fear something ''bigger'' than them. Yet, here we are, nothing to be done about it anymore.

[Doctor Amadeus]

So you read heimskringla? You read about kings, how Norway was bound together by a horny king ( my ancestor) and
the poetry and wars that was fought? Here in Norway we go through quite abit of it in out schools, and I would
not say its more boring than any other history/saga you can find out there.
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Yes, they killed indiscriminently as well, your point is?

That vikings mythology if no better or worse than any other lore full of contradictions, so if people happen to get it wrong or right in this case that is why.

[Independent voter]

Apaches were misunderstood as well.

Lots of other tribes hated Apaches with a passion.

After the Apaches were pacified a reservation was set up for them outside of a fort in Arizona. Some conflict broke out on the reservation. The US army went to restore order. Other Native American tribes offered to help the US Army, Pima, Hopi, Navajo. The disturbance was dealt with but the other Native American tribes didn't stop killing Apaches, they slaughtered all of them, women children infants. Their hatred of Apaches was very great.

But Apaches had their good points.

[Kalis]

Meh, Vikings are overrated.

They were all strong and tough when they fought monks and drunken Irish farmers, but they got a damn good thrashing when they came up against a bloke named Alfred who couldn't cook. Nancy boys the lot of them.