Searching for the real Vikings

[Ferran]

Searching for the real Vikings
By: Dragana Vujanovic, Nasim Karegar, Josefin Nilsson and Björn Hedlund

Dirty and violent barbareans! What images of the Vikings are common in society today? How much truth is there in them?

PRESENTATION

”Violence! Barbareans! Aggresion!” was the answer an 18 year old american gave us when we asked ”What do you think about when you hear the word Viking?”
These kind of stereotypical pictures of the Vikings seem to be common in different corners of the world today. How much truth is there in these ideas? How common are they? Those are the question we will keep in mind when we write this essay.

It is important that the true picture will come forth. A false image that is wide-spread is dangerous since it lays ground for new prejudices.

We have decided to look at our theme from different perspectives. The commercial Hollywood with its classical picture of the strong, blond muscular man with a sword in his hand is one of them. In order to deeper understand these we focus on the sources that provide us with information about the Vikings.

One of our most imprtant sources about the Vikings in are texts from the Arabs. The monks were victims of the Vikings and their texts are also an important source.

We also want to look at the relationship between how the people that experienced the Vikings described them with how they are presented today. The Vikings did not leave any litterature for the after world, except short inscriptions on run stones. The sources that tell about the Viking era should sometimes be looked at in a skeptical way. That is important because most of them have been written.

ANALYSIS

Films and the entertaining industri has exploited the traditional myth of theVikings and have in that way contributed to the worldwide views of the Vikings. An example of that is demostrated in the movie ”The 13th warrior”(2). It presents the Vikings in a very typical way as violent barbarians without any conscience whatsoever. There are several Viking characteristics that are easy to trace when we read fiction stories and look at the popular movies like this.

The bad hygiene among the Vikings is one thing that is very obvious in this movie. Their washing routine is portrayed as extremely disgusting. All of the Vikings wash themselves in the same bowl of water, in which they all also spit. They are also very dirty in other in other apparent ways.

Another common stereotypical Viking that the film presents is the cold-blooded murderer who kills anyone he doesn’t like. They always wear a sword and are very willing to kill.

It is natural to ask the questions; how much truth is there in these images? Where do these ideas come from? We think it is important to put things in perspective when discussing this. Lets start out with the Vikings’ well-known and often displayed bad hygiene. It is interesting how many solid arguments there are to prove the direct opposite. Combs are the most common archeological findings in Scandinavia from the Viking era. That has not been the case in many other parts of Europe.

It clearly shows that the Vikings did care about their hair and their appearance, which is closely connected to hygiene. This argues for them being hygienically nice. Tweezers and ear ladle* were some other common things that have been found that clearly indicate that the Vikings washed themselves carefully.

Chronicles from this period written by the monks tell us that the woman on the British Islands preferred the Vikings because they washed themselves once a week. The Scandinavian word for Saturday is Lördag and it means, “washing day” (Lögardag). The British women seemed to prefer the cleaner Vikings to the British men. It wasn’t even common for people to bathe for months in some areas of the modern England.

What is the reason behind the myth of dirty Vikings then? We think the texts that Arabs wrote can be one reason. The Arab chronicler Ibn Fadlan (3) wrote about his encounters with the Vikings that he called the Rus. His chronicles are of great value for what we learn about the history. However, it is clear in some part that inaccuracies and Ibn Fadlans own prejudices have made imprints on the texts. Fadlans main source of disgust with the Rus bathing customs have to do with his Islamic faith. Arabs were very clean compared to most Europeans at that time. Islam tells you to wash yourself very carefully before you enter the mosque. Their general cleanliness is a result of this rule.

“The dirty Vikings” may be a true picture to some extent if we only compare with the Arabs at that time. That people believe they were dirtier then the general European population is a misconception. Exactly how clean the Vikings were is impossible to give a perfect answer. It is also very hard to measure. Sources that we have found clearly indicate the opposite though. One possible idea is that it varied a lot between Vikings from different places of the World a lot. We would also suggest that the Vikings that sailed around the world had a bad hygiene in contrast to how they are at home. That is easy to explain since the hygiene generally has been much worse on ships then other places. There are many understandable reasons for that; people tend to be less “fresh” when traveling and especially hundreds of years ago.

What about the violent and barbaric picture that is common. Everywhere in movies, literature and in other places is this picture presented. Violence is the first thing people mention when they are asked what they know about the Vikings. The movie The 13th Warrior is only one example of this. There are many other Hollywood movies that have helped to create the one-sided picture of them being wild beasts that raped and robbed.

We should look at other people that lived in other places at the same time, in order to understand these ideas about the Vikings. There are sources that say that Irish, English and Franks were at least as violent as the Vikings in their behavior (1). What is the reason for the exceptionally violent picture we have of the Vikings then?

We believe that they came from the Sea is one reason. They were the only ones that attacked that way and that was very intimidating for people. Their ships were designed so they could come close to the coast without spending to much time on using smaller boats. The sudden appearance of the ships decorated with wooden dragons and such scary things was one extra fearful factor.

That they even attacked and robbed churches and monasteries gave them a bad reputation. Local people of the places that they robbed were furthermore frightened when the Vikings attacked such holy institutions. The reason they robbed the monks was greed and not pure evilness. This was very efficient; they wanted money and they knew were to find it.

The monks were one of the few that wrote things down. Their chronicles and texts are full of negative reflections on the Vikings since they were the victims. It would be weird if they would write about the peaceful peasant Vikings since they only met the violent ones.

But the fact is that the majority of the people that lived in Scandinavia at this time were peaceful peasants. Only a small part of these people sailed to other places. It is unclear how many of the travelers that were involved in violent actions. Many of them were actually only traders. How much do we hear about the calm Vikings today? They are not always recognized in history books and in the pop culture.


Christianity claims it is a peaceful and anti-violent religion. This has however not always been followed by its believers. Christians were sent down to the crusades in Holy War to free Jerusalem. Many Christians said they killed in the name of their God. The Vikings had much more expressed violent religion and that had probably contributed to the violent remembrance. They openly admit killing for their gods, while many Christians were a bit more hypocritical. They killed

It is true that there are violent elements of the Viking era. They deserve to be remembered for other things as well though. We do not only associate the Roman Empire with its forceful and violent power. Why do we only concentrate on the violent aspects of the Viking society to a large extent?

Many experts claim nowadays that the Vikings actually enriched, rather than harmed the European civilizations. Another way to put it is that they were only better barbarians in a brutal time. The Vikings were not only masters in fighting, as some believe. They evolved into competent traders and politicians. They were craftsmen, shoemakers, locksmiths, poets and artists and maybe most importantly; they constructed beautiful and well-designed ships. The ships could sail into shallow waters such as rivers. Doctor in history (1) Lars Hermanson claims that the Vikings see-domination meant a change for the European societies. The Nordic countries, France and the British Isles were brought closer together, and developed a mutual cultural sphere.

It is not surprising that some people today wonder if the Vikings were racists when the media often equates skinheads with Vikings. They do this with a certain right because most nazi organizations glorify the Vikings and their religion. They consider the Viking era to be very important national history and this is a strong base for their patriotic and racist ideologies. There are however historical scriptures, written by foreigners that were in contact wit the Vikings. These texts speak against everything racists and nazis stand for, and even bring shame on their view of the Vikings. The Arabic chronicler Ibin Rustah wrote year 921 about the Nordic men’s relationship with foreigners and people of different color. He says: “ The Vikings meet their guests with respect and foreigners that seek protection of them are well treated, like all others that come to them. They never let any of their countrymen insult or oppress a stranger. Here follows a quote by the German historic Adam af Bremen (active in the 11th century) who also had written about the Vikings hospitality during the Viking era: “All Nordic men are hospitable, but the Swedes are the most distinguished in this reference. They see it as great shame to deny a person who is passing through lodging, and they also compete among themselves about who will have the honor to accept a guest. They show their guest kindness and offer them to stay for as long as they want. So what do the people with racist opinions who sympathize with the Vikings, really know about the Vikings? Have they ever strived to read a book about this subject? Have they ever even tried to create an objective and true image of the Scandinavian’s ancestors? The Vikings never were racists.

One final myth we would like to investigate in is one concerning the Viking’s appearance; their helmets with horns! This is the one single thing people always associate with Vikings even though they never wore them. This remains as an immediate recognition and a ridiculous cultural icon. The Christian monks considered the Vikings to be devils from hell, which is why the myth of the horns arose and spread across the world.

Conclusion

The Vikings are mostly known for violent and barbaric manners. We believe there is some truth in this kind of ideas, although it is exaggerated in many ways. The Vikings deserve to be remembered for many other things than their bad behavior. They enriched the world with an interesting culture and brought new ideas to new places.

Sure, some of them were violent at certain times, but so were and still are many other people around the world. We do not defend this kind of acts in any way. They are extremely awful. However, a culture should be able to have both positive and negative aspects without only being judged for the negative ones.


* We are referring to the Swedish word öronslev, which is a device for washing ears.

Sources:

(1)http://student.jmg.gu.se/veta/980502/vikingar_01.html

(2) The movie The 13th Warrior

(3) Ibn Fadlan; an Arabic chronicler wrote about the Vikings in year 921 C.E.

(4) National Geographic Edition #1, September 2000

(5) Book: “Vikingar” Gustav Trotzig, 1995.

(6) http://www.runegame.com/myth.php?loc=Viking_Facts

(7) Asterix and Obelix

Pictures: Asterix and Obelix



Source: http://www.intercollege.se/viking/Vi...%20Vikings.htm