The real Vikings: history, archeology and mythology

[christine73]

A place to share interesting facts and finds about the real Vikings history, archeology, and mythology.  

[wanderingstar78]

A really incredible article about how long Scandinavians have been trading with far-off cultures

www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.707620?v=FB36077E706EF857155BE36F897EFDC5

Beads Found in 3,400-year-old Nordic Graves Were Made by King Tut's Glassmaker
Cobalt glass beads found in Scandinavian Bronze Age tombs reveal trade connections between Egyptians and Mesopotamia 3,400 years ago — and similar religious rituals.

Philippe Bohstrom Mar 09, 2016 10:29 PM


An elaborate glass bead with amber embedding found in a 3400-year old Danish grave turns out to have come from ancient Egypt. Roberto Fortuna and Kira

Stunning glass beads found in Danish Bronze Age burials dating to 3400 years ago turn out to have come from ancient Egypt – in fact, from the workshop that made the blue beads buried with the famous boy-king Tutankhamun. The discovery proves that there were established trade routes between the far north and Levant as early as the 13th century BCE.

Twenty-three of the glass beads found in Danish Bronze Age burials by the team of Danish and French archaeologists were blue, a rare color in ancient times.

“Lapis lazuli was the most precious gemstone in Nordic Late Bronze Age. Blue glass was the next best thing," Jeanette Varberg, who is associated with the research, told Haaretz. "In the north it must have been almost magic. A piece of heaven." (Lapis lazuli is a deep blue semi-precious gemstone.)

The blue beads aren't the only evidence of trade between ancient Denmark and the region. Altogether 271 glass beads have been found at 51 burials sites in Denmark, the majority of which originated from Nippur, Mesopotamia, about 50 km southeast of today's Baghdad in Iraq.

Buried with beads

One of the blue glass beads was found with a Bronze Age woman buried in Olby, Denmark, in a hollowed oak coffin wearing a sun disc, a smart string skirt decorated with tinkling, small bronze tubes (a decoration on the cords, placed at the front of the skirt), and an overarm bracelet made of amber beads. She had evidently been quite well to do.


One of the blue glass beads was found with a Bronze Age woman buried in Olby, Denmark, in a hollowed oak coffin.Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ulsem

Another blue bead was found in a necklace together with four pieces of amber, in the burial of another woman.

The 23 blue glass beads were analyzed using plasma-spectrometry, a technique that enables comparison of trace elements in the beads without destroying them.

The analysis showed that the blue beads buried with the women turned out to have originated from the same glass workshop in Amarna that adorned King Tutankhamun at his funeral in 1323 BCE. King Tut´s golden deathmask contains stripes of blue glass in the headdress, as well as in the inlay of his false beard.

Glass beads were a luxury adornment in ancient Egypt. They were not especially prevalent, except in the graves of the elite where the selection was choice but limited in quantity. It may seem inexplicable how cobalt beads fit for kings could end up in Nordic burials. But Kaul Flemming and Jeanette Varberg speculate that the two ancient lands traded the luxury glass beads for amber.

“Denmark is rich in amber and it was the primary exchange item from the North,” said Varberg.


Amber, which is fossilized tree resin, was associated with the Sun God - in both ancient Egypt and the Nordic areas, it seems. Moshe Gilad

Nordic amber in Mycenae

The Egyptian and Mesopotamian glass beads found in the graves in Denmark indicates that trade was established already 3000 years ago, and conversely, Nordic amber has been found as far south as in Mycenae, Greece and at Qatna, near Homs in Syria.

Together with other finds such as Cypriot copper found in Sweden, the picture of an elaborate trade system emerges. Also, Nordic amber beads as well as beads made of Egyptian glass and copper ingots formed part of the precious cargo of the ship wrecked at Uluburun, outside the coast of Turkey.

“The glass beads travelled along the same roads as the amber. The glass came from Mesopotamia and Egypt to the North while the amber came from the north and reached the most distant part of the Mediterranean and even beyond,” Kaul Flemming told Haaretz.

However the glass exchange almost stops around 1177 BCE - probably due to attacks by the Sea Peoples.

“Trade systems in the Eastern Mediterranean seem to have collapsed around 1200 BC, which must have been due to troubled times, perhaps war and strife, and the emergence of the Sea Peoples. This collapse can also be observed in the Nordic burials. Fewer glass beads seem to have reached the north,” said Flemming, and adds, “However an interesting phenomena occurred at the same time in Italy. In the Po Valley, new workshops arose, where they turned glass into glass beads. There are also large workshops where they processed Nordic amber from natural lumps into finished gems.”


The women buried in ancient Denmark were interred with jewelry, such as this blue glass necklace. Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ursem

Sun Worship a Global Matter

The Danish researchers believe the blue glass beads deposited in the graves had religious significance. Also, glass and amber seem to be closely linked, in the North as well as in the South. “The glass and amber beads were found closely together, part of the same piece of ornament, as a part of a necklace or at the left arm,” says Flemming.

The juxtaposition of the glass and amber was not coincidence, the archaeologists believe. Particular social values would have been conveyed by wearing the two substances together: it was people at the highest levels of society who controlled the collection and distribution of amber, benefited from its export, and who were the receivers of the valuable and exotic glass beads.

Beyond the social signal, Varberg  and Flemming believe that glass and amber beads may have shared symbolic or magical values that made it beneficial to carry them together.

The translucent, golden amber would probably have conveyed solar symbolism.

According to Greek mythology and legend, amber was the tears of the daughters of the sun god Helios. Or, according to the Greek author Apollonius of Rhodes,
amber was the tears shed by the sun god Apollo when he was visiting the land of the Hyperboreans (ancient Scandinavians) and heard about the death of his son.

Generally, the color blue was associated with the heavens and with water, sea, lakes and rivers. In Ancient Egypt, blue was more specifically associated with life and rebirth, and represented (the fertility of) the Nile, the heavens, and also the primeval waters from which the sun, Ra, was born or created. Thus, in Egypt the color blue was related to creation myths, as well as to the re-birth of the sun every morning.

“If we allow ourselves to consider such mythological and connected magical properties of glass and amber in the Bronze Age North, then it should not be difficult to recognize the magical values of these materials being enhanced when carried closely together, says Flemming and adds, “In a mysterious way, the color of amber and the color of the glass might have – when working together – provided a sort of a narrative of the myth related to the eternal voyage of the sun: In the heavens, in underworld depths of the waters including the sea.”


A glass bead found in a 3400-year old Danish grave turns out to have come from ancient Egypt.Roberto Fortuna and Kira Ursem

“The sun cult in the Nordic bronze age has resemblance to the Egyptian religion," concludes Varberg. "And yes, I see clear evidence of ideas travelling along the same exchange routes as amber and glass."

Imported glass beads from Egypt and Mesopotamia have also been found in Israel. Roni Hoofien at Tel Aviv University is constructing a new typological system and tracing manufacturing techniques and raw material provenance using the beads assemblage of Tel-Azekah, in the Judean Shepelah. “Because of the close proximity of Tel Azekah to Egypt, we believe that the glass beads were imported from Egypt," she said.

read more: www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.707620?v=FB36077E706EF857155BE36F897EFDC5

[christine73]

Since Ivar the boneless stole the show and proved to viewers why he went on to become one of the most fierce and brutal Vikings in history.  I thought this was an interesting find regarding Ivar, and his possible medical condition.

[christine73]

Great find ohva.

View From Space Hints at a New Viking Site in North America
By RALPH BLUMENTHALMARCH 31, 2016




Douglas Bolender, left, and Sarah H. Parcak, right, looking for evidence of a Viking presence in Point Rosie, Newfoundland. If confirmed, the site would be the second known Viking settlement in North America. Credit Greg Mumford

A thousand years after the Vikings braved the icy seas from Greenland to the New World in search of timber and plunder, satellite technology has found intriguing evidence of a long-elusive prize in archaeology — a second Norse settlement in North America, further south than ever known.

The new Canadian site, with telltale signs of iron-working, was discovered last summer after infrared images from 400 miles in space showed possible man-made shapes under discolored vegetation. The site is on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, about 300 miles south of L’Anse aux Meadows, the first and so far only confirmed Viking settlement in North America, discovered in 1960.

Since then, archaeologists, following up clues in the histories known as the sagas, have been hunting for the holy grail of other Viking, or Norse, landmarks in the Americas that would have existed 500 years before Columbus, to no avail.

But last year, Sarah H. Parcak, a leading space archaeologist working with Canadian experts and the science series NOVA for a two-hour television documentary, “Vikings Unearthed,” that will be aired on PBS next week, turned her eyes in the sky on coastlines from Baffin Island, west of Greenland, to Massachusetts. She found hundreds of potential “hot spots” that high-resolution aerial photography narrowed to a handful and then one particularly promising candidate — “a dark stain” with buried rectilinear features.

Magnetometer readings later taken at the remote site, called Point Rosie, a grassy headland above a rocky beach an hour’s trek from the nearest road, showed elevated iron readings. And trenches that were then dug exposed Viking-style turf walls along with ash residue, roasted ore called bog iron and a fire-cracked boulder — signs of metallurgy not associated with native people of the region.

In addition, radiocarbon tests dating the materials to the Norse era, and the absence of historical objects pointing to any other cultures, helped persuade scientists involved in the project and outside experts of the site’s promise. The experts are to resume digging there this summer.



A lump of what scientists say is bog iron ore, and one of the samples being tested from the possible Viking site at Point Rosie. This roasted ore is a sign of metallurgy not associated with native people of the region. Credit Greg Mumford
“It screams, ‘Please excavate me!,’ ” said Dr. Parcak, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who won the $1 million TED prize last year for her pioneering work using satellite images to expose the looting of ancient Egyptian antiquities and is using it to globally crowdsource new archaeological sites from space.

The NOVA program will stream online at pbs.org/nova in the United States at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Eastern time, (along with a BBC program in England), and will be broadcast on PBS at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Given the dashed hopes of previous searches and the many spurious claims of Viking presence in the Americas, scientists on the project as well as outside experts have voiced caution.



One of the satellite images used by Sarah H. Parcak to identify potential Viking settlement sites along North America’s Atlantic coast. Darker areas were seen as potential structures. Credit DigitalGlobe
“Tremendous, if it’s really true,” said William Fitzhugh, director of the Arctic Studies Center and Curator in Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington. “It wouldn’t be unexpected,” he said, but added that he wanted to see the data.

“There’s no lock that it’s Norse, but there’s no alternative evidence,” said Douglas Bolender, a research assistant professor at the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archeological Research and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, who joined the expedition. He said a buried structure there could be a smithy for longboat nails and weaponry, another strong indicator of Viking presence.

“It would just be logical that there’s more than one site,” said Gerald F. Bigelow, a lecturer in history at Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and a specialist in archaeology of the North Atlantic.

Davide Zori, an assistant professor of archaeology at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., and a specialist on Viking expansion in the North Atlantic, called the find potentially “very important.”

Much depends on what else is found at the site. In archaeology, context is everything. A famous prehistoric site in Brooklin, Me., yielded an 11th century silver Norse coin but it is believed to have landed there through trade and not as proof of Viking settlement.

Master shipbuilders and seafarers, warriors, traders and raiders, the Vikings boiled out of the Scandinavian fjords starting around the 8th century, marauding through Asia and the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The Vikings focused particularly on the British Isles, and west to Iceland and Greenland, as memorialized in oral narratives and later recorded as the sagas by 13th-century Icelandic monks.

Around 1000, Leif Ericson led an expedition to what became known as Vinland at the northernmost point of Newfoundland at L’Anse aux Meadows (the name an obscure corruption from the French) where explorers starting in 1960 discovered remnants of an extensive colony, including dwellings, a forge, and carpentry workshop — the Vikings’ first and so far only known landmark in the New World. They appear to have been routed by indigenous people the Norse called Skraeling.

One intriguing find was the seeds of a butternut tree, which did not grow that far north and hinted of travels to milder climates in the Gulf of St Lawrence. But evidence of other Viking settlements has been lacking.

Dr. Parcak (pronounced PAR-kak) began her research by using a commercial satellite called WorldView-3, belonging to the company DigitalGlobe, to search known Norse sites on minuscule Papa Stour in the Shetland Islands of Scotland. Using the near-infrared spectrum invisible to the human eye, the satellite detected buried walls, and digging yielded a carnelian bead from India similar to those found at other Viking sites. Dr. Parcak then focused her satellite search on thousands of miles of coastline from the Canadian Arctic to New England.

After two weeks of digging at Point Rosie, an unexpected find in a flooded trench excited the explorers — several seeds, or perhaps blueberries, which were hurriedly sent for testing. The dates came back wildly off — 700 years after the Vikings, maybe even contemporary. They seem to have migrated onto the site much later.

“You feeling nervous, Sarah?” a NOVA reporter asked Dr. Parcak.

“No, I’m not,” she said.

www.nytimes.com/2016/04/01/science/vikings-archaeology-north-america-newfoundland.html?_r=1

[wanderingstar78]

How exciting! I wish I could look at those images and see something...but for me, it's like trying to see Elvis' face on a piece of toast!

[davischristinem]

Interesting Article on Christian Origins and The Vikings

Found at:  www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/oldest-viking-crucifix-uncovered-in-denmark/ar-BBseC8Q?li=BBnbcA1

Oldest Viking Crucifix Uncovered in Denmark

by Tia Ghose for LiveScience


© Viking Museum at Ladby A stunning, solid gold crucifix unearthed by a hobbyist with a metal detector may be the oldest Jesus on a cross in Denmark.

A solid-gold cross depicting Jesus with his arms outstretched may be Denmark's oldest crucifix, dating back more than 1,100 years.

The gorgeous pendant was unearthed in March by a hobbyist with a metal detector. Found in a field on the island of Funen, Denmark, the Viking jewelry piece may have been worn by a Viking woman, according to the Viking Museum at Ladby, where the pendant was on display.

"It's a completely sensational find that dates back to the first half of the 900s," Malene Refshauge Beck, a curator and archaeologist at Østfyns Museum, told the Danish newspaper DR Nyheder. "This object will definitely need to figure in future history books as it could alter the period when it is believed that Danes became Christian." [Fierce Fighters: 7 Secrets of Viking Seamen]

The stunning find was pure chance. Dennis Fabricius Holm, a metal detector hobbyist living in Aunslev, Denmakr, was enjoying a few hours off work by doing scouting in the empty field outside a medieval church. He encountered a gold pendant, and posted a photo of it to social media, where others suggested he contact an archaeologist, he told the Danish newspaper.

"I got off early on Friday, so I took just a few hours, I went around with my metal detector and then I came suddenly on something," Holm told DR Nyheder. "Since I cleared the mud and saw the jewelry, I have not been able to think of anything else."

The Viking bling is about 1.6 inches (4.1 cm) long and shows a man with outstretched arms. The Jesus figure is crafted out of filigree gold pellets and gold thread and weighs 0.46 ounces (13.2 g). The weighty cross likely belonged to a wealthy woman, though it's not clear whether the woman was Christian or whether a pagan Viking was showing some stolen goods, according to the museum.

Rare find

The Viking trinket is rare in a number of ways. It's unusual to find such a delicate and expensive piece of jewelry intact in an open field. While archaeologists had found fragments of crosses in Viking burial ships, those dated to later periods, were made of silver and were smaller that this discovery. A very similar cross, dating to about the same time period, however, was found in Sweden.

Dating to the first half of the 10th century, the new find predates the A.D. 965 Jelling Stones, which include Harald Bluetooth's rune stone. That stone, which tells of King Harald's conversion of the Danes to Christianity, was previously thought to be the oldest depiction of Christ on a cross in Denmark.

The medieval church near the field dates to the 1200s, but other rare objects, such as a rune stone, have been unearthed in the area before, according to a statement. That suggests the church may have been founded near an ancient Viking settlement.

The new find pushes back the date at which Christianity entered the region, Beck said.

"Over the last few years there have been more and more signs that Christianity was spread earlier than previously thought – and up until now, this find is the clearest proof of that," Beck told DR Nyheder.

The popular conception is that manly Viking pirates pillaged and terrorized Europe for centuries before converting to Christianity and settling down to a sober life of praying, farming and churchgoing in the 11th century. Over the last several decades, archaeologists and historians have realized the reality was much more complicated. For instance, most Vikings were only part-time pirates and had day jobs as farmers. Viking women came along on adventures, too. And many Vikings didn't simply loot and run, but established far-flung urban centers that are still occupied today, such as the city of Dyfflin, or Dublin, which was founded by Vikings.

The new find was on display during the Easter season at the Viking Museum at Ladby, but has since been sent for preservation work, according to the statement.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

                        

[ohva]

www.economist.com/news/united-states/21700686-after-prospering-quietly-150-years-scandinavian-americans-and-their-ancestral-lands?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/founding_vikings

Scandinavian-Americans-Founding Vikings

After prospering quietly for 150 years, Scandinavian-Americans and their ancestral lands are more popular than ever
Jun 18th 2016


Honey, I’m home

IN HIS glowing description of bilateral relations between Norway and America, Kare Aas, Norway’s ambassador in Washington, DC, has only a couple of quibbles. “Americans don’t recognise that a Norwegian discovered America long before Columbus,” says Mr Aas. Indeed, almost 500 years before he left for the New World, a Viking ship steered by Leif Eriksson crossed the Atlantic and reached North America, where the Norsemen remained for one winter. “They should also eat more fish,” adds Mr Aas—whose country is the world’s second-largest exporter of seafood.

Relations between America and the Nordic countries have never been better. In May, for the first time, Barack Obama hosted a Nordic summit in Washington with the leaders of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Their talks about Russia’s expansionism, the fight against Islamic State, climate change and refugees went so well that, as Mr Obama commented, “There was probably too much agreement.” The lovefest was mutual: the Nordics were delighted by their welcome at the White House.

Scandinavia is popular even in the campaign for the presidency. Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, said in the first primary debate last October that America should look to Denmark, Sweden and Norway “and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.” (Mrs Clinton replied that she loved Denmark, but “We are not Denmark.”)

Bjorn Lyrvall, Sweden’s ambassador, says he is flattered by the attention, but some Scandinavians are slightly irritated by Mr Sanders’s praise. According to Daniel Schatz, a visiting fellow at Columbia University, his country’s economic success is due to its sound institutions and social cohesion, rather than the welfare state so admired by Mr Sanders. During the heyday of Swedish socialism and big government, Sweden’s economic growth actually fell from second in the world in 1970 to the second-lowest in the OECD in 1990. The country recovered only after it decentralised, deregulated its economy and lowered its punishing tax rates.

More than 11m Americans claim to have Scandinavian ancestry. This pales against the 46m who say they have German roots or the 33m who trace their ancestry to Ireland, but the 5m Norwegian-Americans are roughly equivalent to the whole population of Norway. No country, except Ireland, lost as high a percentage of its population to America as Norway. The scope of Swedish immigration is similarly vast: between 1880 and 1920 around 20-25% of the population left for America.

Swedes and Norwegians left their homelands to escape grinding poverty, restrictions on religious freedom and the compulsory military draft. Arable land was scarce and few other jobs were available. The mass exodus, the often harrowing journeys and tough new beginnings made a deep impression on their collective psyche. “Giants in the Earth”, a novel by Ole Edvart Rolvaag, a Norwegian-American, describes Norwegian homesteaders’ hardscrabble life in today’s South Dakota, and was a great success both in America and back in Norway. A tetralogy by Vilhelm Moberg about Swedish emigration to America is among the bestselling novels in Sweden. Former members of Abba, Sweden’s foremost pop troubadours, based “Kristina fran Duvemala”, a symphonic extravaganza, on his novels.

Most Scandinavian immigrants managed to build better lives as farmers, mostly in the upper Midwest, where the landscape and climate resembled home, as fishermen on the north-west coast or with jobs in rapidly industrialising cities. Chicago was an especially popular destination for Swedes. “Chicago was the second-largest Swedish city after Stockholm at the turn of the 20th century,” says Lennart Pehrson, an expert on Swedish emigration to America. The new arrivals were hardworking, disciplined and more literate than other immigrant groups. Many worked in construction; it was said that the Swedes built Chicago. Andrew Lanquist, for instance, built two much-loved landmarks: the Wrigley Building on the Chicago river and Wrigley Field, the principal baseball park.

Some of the newcomers from the North succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Charles Walgreen, the son of a Swedish immigrant, set up Walgreen’s, America’s largest chain of drugstores. Swedish-born Johan Nordstrom created Nordstrom, an exclusive retail empire. Eric Wickman founded Greyhound, America’s biggest bus line. Alexander Samuelson, another Swedish immigrant, designed the curvy Coca-Cola bottle. On a gastronomic level, much of the cinnamon in American baked goods can be credited to, or blamed on, Scandinavians.

According to a study from the Institute of Economic Affairs, Swedish-Americans are considerably richer than the average American—as are other Scandinavian-Americans. The poverty rate of Americans with Swedish ancestry is only 6.7%, half the national average. Swedish-Americans are better off even than their cousins at home: their average income is 50% higher than theirs, a number used by opponents of the Swedish model as an argument against the shackles of big government.

Their success in America seems solidly grounded in old national virtues. They have more trust in each other and in government; they tend to obey rules (leading to many jokes about “squareheads” and “dumb blondes”). The Protestant work ethic is strong: in Minneapolis in particular, the number of Lutheran churches is striking. Scandinavian-Americans also display a keen civic sense, whether in shovelling snow or helping elderly neighbours, from which everyone benefits.

There have been ups and downs in diplomatic relations over the years; but Russian expansionism is now bringing America’s security policy closer to the Nordics, even though Sweden and Finland are not members of NATO and, at least in theory, are non-aligned. On June 8th Ash Carter, America’s defence secretary, and his Swedish counterpart, Peter Hultqvist, promised to co-operate more closely in a statement of intent signed in Washington.

If Mrs Clinton wins in November, the honeymoon between America and the Nordics is likely to continue. Under Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the presidency, relations would probably sour: even though Mr Trump used to pretend his ancestors were Swedish, rather than German, because he thought it would make him more popular.

From the print edition: United States

[ohva]

www.thevintagenews.com/2017/01/26/viking-rulers-of-normandy-the-normans-in-france-and-england/2

Viking Rulers of Normandy: The Normans in France and England


Jan 26, 2017



The Normans, from the Old Norse for ‘north men,’ were the descendants of indigenous Scandinavian seafaring pirates and traders called Vikings, who colonized the northwestern part of France in the early 9th century AD.

They ruled the region known today as Normandy until the midpoint of the 13th century. The most illustrious of the Normans, William the Conqueror, invaded England in 1066. William vanquished the resident Anglo-Saxons; after William the Conqueror, several kings of England, including Richard the Lionheart, Henry I, and Henry II were of Norman blood and ruled both England and Normandy.



Following is a list of the rulers of Normandy, some of whom, in addition to ruling Normandy, also reigned over England.

Rollo, the Walker, 860-932, ruled the Norman duchy from 911-928, he married Gisla, the daughter of Charles the Simple.

William Longsword reigned from 928-942.

Richard I, the Fearless, born 933, ruled Normandy from 942-996, married Hugh the Great’s daughter, Emma.

Richard II, The Good, reigned over Normandy from 996-1026, married Judith.

Richard III ruled Normandy from 1026-1027.

Robert I, The Magnificent, or The Devil, reigned Normandy 1027-1035. He was Richard III’s brother.


Norman expansion by 1130 Photo Credit

William the Conquerer, 1027-1087, ruler from 1035-1087, also King of England after 1066, married Matilda of Flanders.

Robert II, Curthose, reigned over both regions from 1087-1106.

Henry I, Beauclerc, born 1068, King from 1100-1135.

Henry II, born 1133, reigned both regions from 1154-1189.

Richard the Lionheart ruled Normandy and England 1189-1216.

King John, John Lackland, reigned from 1199-1216, eventually lost Normandy to King Philip II of France.

The Vikings arrived from Denmark and began raiding in the territory today known as France around 830AD. They found that the current rulers were in the midst of an ongoing civil war. Because the current weakness of the Carolingian empire made it an attractive target, there were several groups, including the Vikings, who were prepared to strike and conquer land and people.

The Vikings used identical strategies in France as they did in England – plundering the monasteries, demolishing markets and towns, imposing taxes or ‘Danegeld’ on the people they conquered, and killing the bishops, which disrupted religious life and caused a severe decline in literacy.

Obtaining the direct involvement of France’s rulers, the Vikings became permanent settlers, although many of the land grants were merely an acknowledgment of actual Viking control of the region.

Temporary villages were first founded along the coastline of the North Sea; arising from a succession of royal grants in Frisia to the Vikings from Denmark. The first of these royal land grants was bestowed to Harald Klak in 826 when Louis the Pious granted him the county of Rustringen to use as a refuge. Succeeding rulers did the same with subsequent Viking leaders, usually with the aim of placing one Viking in a position to defend the Frisian coast against other possible invaders. In 851, a Viking army spent the winter on the Seine river and while there, joined forces with Pippin II, and the Bretons, who were the primary enemies of the king.


The Bayeux Tapestry, chronicling the English/Norman battle in 1066 which led to the Norman Conquest.

The principality of Normandy was established by Rollo (Hrolfr) the Walker, a leader of the Vikings in the early 10th century. The Carolingian king, Charles the Bald, relinquished land to Rollo in 911, including the lower Seine valley, with the Treaty of St. Clair sur Epte. This was extended to include ‘the land of the Bretons,’ by 933 AD, and became what is known today as Normandy when the French King Ralph granted the land to Rollo’s son, William Longsword.

The Viking high court, based in Rouen, was always a little unstable, but Rollo and his son William Longsword did their best to bolster the duchy by marrying into the elite families of the Franks. There were several crises in the Norman duchy in the 940s and 960s, particularly upon the death of William Longsword in 942. When he died, William’s son Richard I was only 9 or 10. There were conflicts among the Normans, in particular between the Christian and the pagan groups. Rouen remained as an underling to the Frankish kings until the Norman War of 960-966, when Richard I fought against Theobald the Trickster.

Richard I defeated Theobald, and new conquerors pillaged his lands. It was the point in history when ‘Normans and Normandy’ became a formidable constitutional influence in Europe.

Succeeding to the duchy throne in 1035 was William, the 7th Duke of Normandy, the son of Robert I. William married Matilda of Flanders, who was his cousin and to appease the church for doing so, he built two monasteries and a castle in Caen. By 1060, he was building a new power base in Lower Normandy, where he began assembling supplies and manpower for the Norman Conquest of England.

Archaeological proof of the Viking existence in France is unusually slight. Their villages were mainly fortified hamlets, consisting of elevated earthwork-protected sites called mottes and an enclosed bailey surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. These hamlets/villages were not that different from other such villages in France and England at that time.

The reason for the lack of proof of precise Viking existence could be that the earliest Normans tried to fit into the dominant Frankish society. But that didn’t work out too well and in 960, Rollo’s grandson Richard I promoted the notion of Norman ethnicity, in part to petition the kinship of the new allies appearing from Scandinavia.

But that cultural ethnicity was mostly limited to kinship formations and place names, not materialistic culture and by the end of the 10th century, the Vikings and their culture had virtually integrated into that of medieval Europe, About Education reported.




Family tree of the early dukes of Normandy and Norman kings of England


The majority of what we know today of the early Dukes of Normandy comes from Dudo of St. Quentin, a historian whose patrons included Richard I and Richard II. He portrayed an ominous representation of Normandy in his best-known work ‘De moribus et actis primorum normanniae ducum,’ written between 994-1015.

Dudo’s writings were the foundation for future Norman historians, including Robert of Torigni, William of Poitiers (Gesta Willelmi), Orderic Vitalis, and William of Jumièges (Gesta Normannorum Ducum). Other existing texts include the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

[christine73]

Great post ohva. I love reading up on all the real history of Vikings. The show has made learning more about Viking history so much fun and so interesting.

[ohva]

This is a longish article from Smithsonian, so I'm only posting the link. But it's interesting about the theories of why the decline and extinction of Vikings in Greenland.

Why Did Greenland’s Vikings Vanish?

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-greenland-vikings-vanished-180962119/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia

[ohva]

www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/31/10-discoveries-shine-new-light-vikings/


10 Discoveries that shine new light on the Vikings

10. Writing the Ending of Viking sagas.


Norsemen landing in Iceland Source:Wikipedia/public domain

There are two primary sources that we have about the Viking expeditions to the New World: The Saga of Erik the Red and the Saga of the Greenlanders. The information written in these sagas wasn’t put into writing until several hundred years after the fact, so they must be taken with a grain of salt. The information given tells what the Vikings were after when they set out and what they did when they arrived, but not what happened after they left.

The two sagas differ on a few things: for example, they both tell different tales of what happened to Thorfinn Karlsefni. The Greenlanders state that Thorfinn moved to Glaumbaer, Iceland, but Erik the Red claims that he moved back to his original family estate. Until recently, Erik the Red’s account was seen as the more accurate of the two, though new findings are pointing a finger towards the Greenlanders as the better historians.

Researchers found a huge longhouse buried underneath the earth in Glaumbaer, in 2002. The layer of rock around the floor dates the structure to around 1104 A.D. Researchers have determined this by examining discoloration caused by an eruption of Mount Hekla. The longhouse measures 100 feet by 25 feet, which suggests that it was owned by someone very powerful – like Thorfinn Karlsefni. The design of the house is Viking in origin but has the structure of contemporary houses found in places like Newfoundland.


It is not 100 percent certain that Thorfinn owned the longhouse, but the facts do line up with it. According to the tales, Thorfinn and his wife left the New World to settle somewhere in Iceland. It would be an incredible historical achievement to find the settlement where they raised a clan and lived out their days.

9. L’Anse Aux Meadows


L'Anse aux Meadows Source:By D. Gordon E. Robertson - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

It has also been a long-time debate on who was the first to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Newfoundland seems to be the front-runner as the oldest European presence in North America (Canada).

The sight is beautiful and well preserved; it also seems like it was used until at least 1500 A.D. The buildings were built in the contemporary style that would be found in Iceland or Greenland. Findings have also shown that it was not only a settlement of the Vikings, but the area may have been used by people as far back as 3,000 B.C.

There are 13 buildings from the Viking era: a forge, eight houses, and what look like four buildings used as workshops. There have been discoveries of domestic items such as nails and buckets along with forged pieces of ironworks. The archaeologists have yet to determine how long Vikings used the settlement or if it was just a seasonal outpost, but it was given the name “Leif Camp” because of its connection to Leif Erikkson.


8. Teeth Filing



Source:By Linea Melchior, Toomas Kivisild, Niels Lynnerup, Jørgen Dissing – doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002214, CC BY 3.0,

We all know that body modification is not a new idea, but most ancient cultures had tattoos or piercing, the Vikings took it to a whole new level of pain, however. In a mass grave of Viking warriors discovered in Dorset, England, Oxford archaeologists have found that the teeth of the dead soldiers have been filed with patterns in them. The designs were so intricate that they believe it took a craftsman in filing to do it. The process would have been too difficult to do on your own, and most likely too painful as well.

According to the Swedish National Heritage Board, there is an enormous amount of teeth with similar markings in the Viking Cemetery at Kopparsvik, Gotland. The procedure seems to have come into popularity around the 10th century; the etchings are all different and seemed to be up to the person receiving them. Some teeth only have one to two markings while others have up to four. It is not clear whether it was a status symbol, for showing how great of a warrior they were, or intimidation. Archaeologists have also said they most likely would have filled the filings with charcoal or other materials to make them stand out.

7. Sunstones


Sunstone Source:By ArniEin - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12518599

According to legends, Vikings were such amazing sailors that they could locate the sun, even on cloudy days, always capable of navigating by it. This may seem farfetched, maybe even impossible but new findings have shown that it was more likely than you might think.

If you have ever seen the TV series ‘The Vikings’ on the History Channel, then you may have seen something called a Sunstone. This is a crystal called Icelandic spar, and it is what the Vikings used to navigate the seas. When the stone is held up to the light, the Sun will hit it, and the light will react in different ways depending on where the Sun is positioned. They could even do this on cloudy days – though they would have to look a bit harder.

The light is depolarized when it comes into contact with Icelandic spar. If you hold it up to the light and the move it away it creates a visual phenomenon called Haidinger’s brush. The light from the Sun briefly turns into a yellow line and points in the direction of the Sun, even on cloudy days this would be accurate down to one degree.

The only example of Icelandic spar being used in sea voyages that we have found is on a ship from a Spanish Armada that was sunk in 1592 A.D. Even after magnetic compasses had been invented the Icelandic spar was still very useful, especially since other magnetic objects would not interfere with it.

6. Viking Burials

When we think of Viking burials the image that comes to our minds is most likely a warrior laid to rest in a boat, his sword in his hands and then covered by his shield, the ship set ablaze before drifting off into the water where he will then be taken by the Valkyries and escorted to Valhalla. A discovery in the Scottish highlands shows that this is not always the case, however.

The burial site was dated to around the 10th century; it is the final resting place of a Viking who was most likely revered by his companions. Buried with him were his weapons, a drinking horn, a whetstone from Norway, and a pin from Ireland. The artifacts were identified by the iron left behind after the wood had long rotted away. Surprisingly, he was also buried in a traditional Viking boat; it too had decayed, but the indentation and iron rivets that were left were what tipped off archaeologists. Archaeologists have yet to determine what the man was (there are guesses he was a chieftain or maybe a man that was very skilled in navigation) though they are certain this type of burial was only given to the most revered of men.

The Peninsula – much easier to access by sea than by land – was also home to burial sites going as far back as 6,000 years.

5. Viking Establishment of Dublin


Dublin Source:By J.-H. Janßen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21796463

The city of Dublin, Ireland is rich with history and some of that is ancient Viking history. The Vikings settled into what is now Dublin; it must have been paradise on earth compared to the harsh climates they were accustomed to.

Much of Europe and North America was explored by the Vikings, but they eventually settled in Dublin. It would make a perfect winter home with its lush forest cover, mild climate, and river. Here they would also repair their ships and set up a network for trading.

There has been a staggering number of Viking artifacts discovered around Dublin. Temple Lane (which has been called the oldest street in Dublin) was created by Viking settlers. The earliest foundations of Dublin Castle date back to the Viking era, and many swords have been found near Christ Church Cathedral. In an area just south of the River Liffey there is a huge concentration of buildings that seems to be the center of a Viking settlement. The buildings include houses and shops where commodities were made, such as leathers, textiles, and jewelry. There is also evidence of amber-working near the same area.

There have also been more than 50 Viking graves excavated around Kilmainham; the bones show that Vikings from Scandinavia were buried alongside Vikings that lived farther west in Ireland or Scotland.

4. Viking Slaves


Viking slaves

Many believe the Vikings were an egalitarian society where all men and women could be equal: some of the best warriors were shield maidens, who would fight alongside their husbands when they went to war or on raids. But recent excavations have proven this to be false.

While home, Vikings were farmers, working the land but they did not do so alone. When they went on raids, they were hoping to find treasures but were also looking to bring back slaves (called thralls) to use themselves or sell/trade with. Burial sites that were dug around 1015 A.D. had shown that when the Viking died, so did their thralls. The thralls were beheaded and buried with their Viking masters.

There was also a definite class structure which dictated how the thralls lived. The thrall’s diet was mostly fish while the upper class ate more red meats and vegetables. Fish was cheap and plentiful while the meats that the upper class ate had more of a religious and spiritual property.

3. The Strange Planning of Viking Cities



What comes to your mind when you think of ancient or medieval cities? Most likely it is a giant walled city where everyone lived in the walls with the upper class living in a defined space. Well, new findings have shown that the Vikings did things a little different.

The newly discovered town which sits in northern Germany is a stronghold that was once thought only a myth. Sliasthorp was rumored to be where ancient Danish and Viking kings lived, beginning with King Gudfred. The city dates back to around 700 A.D. and was most likely lived in until around 1,000 A.D.

There were about 200 homes at the site, along with all the artifacts you would think you would find including coins and jewelry. There was a 98ft longhouse was used for military purposes. The site housed the rich and powerful of the civilization along with the military. There were no merchants or craftsmen who lived there; all of the lower class lived in nearby Hedeby, is located 2.5 miles away.

Hedeby was founded about 100 years after Sliasthorp; it was a port city and meant to be a trading hub. If you wanted to visit Hedeby, you would have to get permission from those that lived there, showing there was a clear divide between the classes, who were separated by such a distance on purpose. Based on the distance and positions of the cities it was most likely a carefully thought out plan for future urban growth and development.

2. They’re Older than We Thought



June 8, 793 is the date when the first documented Viking conquest took place; it was the siege of a monastery off the coast of England. A dig on the island of Saaremaa in Estonia suggests that the culture existed a lot earlier than we think.

In a mass grave that held two boats and 33 men, all Scandinavian men and all looking like they had been killed in a failed raid. The site has been dated to around 700 A.D. to 750 A.D., a bit earlier than the attack on the monastery.

They also found the remains of a much larger craft, powered by sails instead of the traditional oars. This would push back the timeline on when the invention of sailing came about, letting us know that the Vikings were the masters of sea travel before we thought they were.

A little of what might have happened was pieced together by archaeologists. They speculate that after sailing 100 miles the Vikings got into a skirmish, and the remaining warriors gathered their dead for what looks like a ceremonial burial. They quickly entombed the bodies with their ships and covered them with their shields, and broke or bent their swords.

1. Contact with Native Americans

Not only did Vikings settle in what is now Canada, but researchers have also found that they have multiple interactions with the Native Americans of the area.

Artifacts have been recovered from the aforementioned L’Anse Aux Meadows and Newfoundland on the other side of Notre Dame Bay. The artifacts were used by the Vikings to light their fires, and since we know that the area was also inhabited by Native Americans, it is logical that the two groups had interactions.

In Iceland, a DNA analysis was taken of a group of families and determined they had a DNA marker that indicates that somewhere in the past, they had a female ancestor of Native American blood. The DNA is unique, so it is very unlikely that it developed in two different parts of the world independently. The marker has been traced back at least 300 years, meaning that most likely the Vikings brought a Native American woman with them when they returned home.

[wanderingstar78]

deadline.com/2017/09/borgmcenroe-call-me-by-your-name-toronto-1202164130/

Viking warrior found in Sweden was a woman, researchers confirm
Louise Nordström
8 September 2017


File photo of a Viking-inspired helmet. Photo: Ludvig Thunman/TT

Have researchers finally discovered Sweden's real-life version of Lady Brienne of Tarth or Xena the Warrior Princess? New evidence suggest they actually have…
For more than a century, archaeologists and historians have assumed that the remains of a person found buried along with arms and horses in one of the most spectacular graves discovered in the Viking Age town of Birka, in Sweden, belonged to a man. Turns out they were wrong. Osteology- and DNA tests now show that that he has always been a she, and she was most likely a powerful military leader.

“It’s actually a woman, somewhere over the age of 30 and fairly tall too, measuring around 170 centimetres,” Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, an archeologist at Uppsala University, told The Local of the findings that were published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology on Friday.

“Aside from the complete warrior equipment buried along with her – a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows, a battle knife, shields, and two horses – she had a board game in her lap, or more of a war-planning game used to try out battle tactics and strategies, which indicates she was a powerful military leader. She’s most likely planned, led and taken part in battles,” she said.


What the grave may have looked like. Illustration by Evald Hansen based on Hjalmar Stolpe's excavations at Birka in the 19th century (Stolpe 1889).

The grave, which Hedenstierna-Jonson describes as the world’s “ultimate warrior Viking grave”, was discovered and excavated by Swedish archeologist Hjalmar Stolpe at the end of the 19th century. Because of the “manly” warrior equipment found in the grave, it was just assumed – rather than proven – that the remains were that of a man.

But a few years ago, Anna Kjellström, an osteologist at the Stockholm University, brought out the remains to study them for another research project and noticed that something was amiss. The cheekbones were finer and thinner than that of a man, and the hip bones were typically feminine. An osteological analysis was carried out, lending even more support to her suspicion.

Now, however, a DNA-analysis has been carried out, clearly confirming that the Viking warrior was indeed a woman.

“This image of the male warrior in a patriarchal society was reinforced by research traditions and contemporary preconceptions. Hence, the biological sex of the individual was taken for granted,” Hedenstierna-Jonson, Kjellström and the eight other researchers behind the study, wrote in their report.


Another drawing of what the grave may have looked like. Illustration: Þórhallur Þráinsson (copyright: Neil Price)

“Though some Viking women buried with weapons are known, a female warrior of this importance has never been determined and Viking scholars have been reluctant to acknowledge the agency of women with weapons,” they said.

Hedenstierna-Jonson said the woman was likely a warrior herself.

“You can’t reach such a high (military) position without having warrior experience, so it’s reasonable to believe that she took part in battles.”

Hedenstierna-Jonson described it as a fantastic find, but said it is unlikely to completely up-end historians’ view of the Viking society as being patriarchal, mainly constituting of male warriors.

“It was probably quite unusual (for a woman to be a military leader), but in this case, it probably had more to do with her role in society and the family she was from, and that carrying more importance than her gender.”

Hedenstierna-Jonson said that since the first indications came through that the warrior was a woman, the researchers have been met with a fair share of skepticism, with critics questioning whether the bones analyzed are actually from that specific grave.

“I think that’s because of how we view history, and many of us would like to think that we live in the best (and more gender-equal) of worlds now.”

[wanderingstar78]

www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1003965/vikings-season-5-spoilers-floki-dead-Gustaf-Skarsgard-history-series-real-life

Vikings season 5 spoilers: How did the real Floki die?
VIKINGS season 5 ended with uncertainty over whether Floki was alive or dead. But how did the real viking the character in the History series is based on really die?
By SAMUEL SPENCER
PUBLISHED: 22:26, Wed, Aug 15, 2018 | UPDATED: 22:39, Wed, Aug 15, 2018

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Vikings season 5

The first half of Vikings season five ended with Floki (played by Gustaf Skarsgård) seeming to offer himself up as a human sacrifice in an attempt to bring peace to his land.

However, viewers will not know whether the character goes through with killing himself until the History hit (which airs on Amazon Prime in the UK) returns in November.

The character of Floki is based on a real-life viking who was born in the ninth century. Can looking at his life and death help reveal what will happen to Floki when the show returns this autumn?

Who was the real Floki?
In history (as opposed to History, the channel that airs Vikings in the US), Floki was called the rather harder to pronounce Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson.

The historical person is mostly known because he was the first of his countrymen to sail to Iceland deliberately.

According to legend, while two Norsemen had landed there accidentally, Floki sailed there by following a raven.

In fact, that’s where he got part of his name - Hrafna is Norse for raven.

HOW TO WATCH VIKINGS ONLINE


Floki is based on a real life Viking (Image: HISTORY)

He let three ravens fly. Two returned to him, and he followed the third, knowing that it did not return to the boat because it has spotted land.

Legend also says he is the man who gave the country its name, after he hiked to the top of a mountain after arriving and saw the land covered with winter ice. Hence ‘Iceland’.

He returned with his men to Norway, telling them the land was not much use for the vikings.

Something obviously charmed him about the island, however, as he would eventually return to live there.


The real-life Floki ended his life in Iceland (Image: GETTY)

The real life Floki, however, has little in common with his TV counterpart.

Where the fictional Floki is best friends with Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), it is doubted whether the two knew each other in reality.

For one thing, it is not certain whether Ragnar Lothbrok was a real person or more like a Robin Hood a King Arthur figure, based in mythology rather than any true person.

And where TV Floki is romantically linked with Helga (Maude Hirst), real Floki had a wife called Gro who he lived with in Iceland with their two children.


The real life Floki and Ragnar are unlikely to have known each other (Image: HISTORY)

How did the real life Floki die?
In a show full of glorious and violent deaths like Vikings, Floki’s real life demise would not fit in at all.

Whereas TV Floki may be nobly sacrificing himself to the gods, the real life Floki died of (for the time) old age on Iceland.

Fans of the show may find out whether the screen version of Floki will get such a peaceful end when Vikings returns later in the year.

Vikings season 5 part 2 will begin on November 28 at 9pm on History

[wanderingstar78]

Some info on the Viking settlement of Iceland

www.inquisitr.com/5241279/vikings-season-5-heres-what-really-happened-when-the-vikings-discovered-iceland/