SCANDINAVIA – The Vikings are a popular group in modern media. However, for the most part, they are often misrepresented, leading to confusion about them and what actually happened in history. In the end, the Vikings are a group bathed in mystery for most people.
Let’s start at the beginning. For the purposes of this article, I will be referring to the Nordic group of raiders as Vikings, but the word víking was originally an activity, not a person or group. Before the Vikings, there were scattered groups of Germanic tribes that inhabited the majority of central and northern Europe. There were a variety of these tribes, but the most well-known, aside from those that became the Vikings, were the Franks, Goths, Saxons, Vandals, Angles, and Lombards. The groups that assimilated into what became known as the Vikings were the Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Geats, and Gutes, who were all located in Northern Europe.
The Viking age lasted from around 793 A.D. to 1066 A.D. The first major invasion was upon the monastery at Lindisfarne, known as the “Sack of Lindisfarne.” There marked the beginning of over 200 years of raiding and war. “The attack on Lindisfarne was unprecedented and horrified those who wrote of it” (Lindisfarne). The final battle of the Viking age was the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Viking raids were characterized by the swift landing of the Viking longships, followed by quick and destructive attacks. After they took what they wanted, they slipped back into the mist and sailed away.
The Vikings were known as the best shipbuilders of all time, with their sleek and fast longships that were perfect for lightning raids. They were long and thin, and along the sides of the boats, they kept their round shields while they rowed. At the front of most Viking ships was a carved dragon head made to both inspire fear in others and to ward off sea monsters. The ships could hold between 30 and 100 people, depending on the size and origin of the ship.
Most modern interpretations of Vikings depict them with massive axes, leather or fur armor, and wearing horned helmets, but this strays far from what they actually looked like. We know for a fact that they never had horned helmets, at least for combat. There are a few iterations where they had horns on their helmets for ceremonies, but they were too cumbersome for actually wearing during war. On their person, they would wear chainmail or cloth, and they occasionally had fur capes or lining, but they were never as savage looking as people would think. And while they did use axes, they were much smaller, more like hatchets. It was also just as likely that they would be armed with a spear or sword. While not horned like its fictional counterpart, the actual Viking helmet was just as impressive, consisting of a semi-conical headpiece with a portion that jutted down to protect the eyes. Occasionally, they would wear chainmail that draped their entire face and neck, both protecting the warrior and terrifying their opponent.
While they were known for being warriors, they also had important lives at home. Raiding was more of an expedition than a lifestyle. When at home, they would often be found fishing, farming, trading, blacksmithing, crafting, or cooking. A majority of Viking groups lived along the coasts in fjords where they could easily set sail for a raid, so fishing was a key component of their life. Unlike most cultures, including the United States for most of its history, the Vikings gave women a large number of rights, including owning land, running farms, and even divorcing their husbands. “So, it was good that Scandinavia was a pioneering region when it came to equal opportunities. The Viking woman could choose a husband and later decide not to marry him after all, if she so wished” (“Women”). As mentioned before, they were never as savage as they are commonly thought to be. Bathing and hygiene were incredibly important to the Vikings. According to Museum Nord, the Vikings bathed at least once a week on Saturday, known as Laugardagr, or washing day. This is often compared to other European cultures, which some say cleaned themselves only once a year, but it may have been more often, but never to the extent of the Vikings.
Another important part of the Viking culture was their religion. Often referred to as paganism, the Vikings’ religion centered around the worship and reverence of the Germanic and Nordic deities of Þórr (Thor) and Óðinn (Odin). Óðinn, known as the Alföðr, or Allfather, was the leader of the gods and one of the creators of the universe. It was said that he watched the world from his throne, Hilðskjálf, and sent the Valkyrjur on his behalf to take the worthy dead to Valhöll, where they could battle forever. Þórr, also known as the Thunderer and the God of Thunder, was the son of Óðinn and was the protector of the Æsir. The pantheon of Norse gods was divided into two sections: the Æsir, the gods of warfare, and the Vanir, the gods of seiðr magic. The Æsir hailed from the realm of Ásgarð, while the Vanir came from the realm of Vanaheimr. In Norse mythology, the entire universe is composed of the massive tree Yggdrasil, and on its branches lie the nine realms. There are Miðgarðr (Earth), Ásgarð, Vanaheimr, Jötunheimr, Álfheimr, Svartálfheimr, Hel, Múspellsheimr, and Niflheimr. In today’s English, their spelling is slightly different, but this is how the Vikings would have known them. There are a variety of different gods that have roles in the fables, but the most important, besides Þórr and Óðinn, are Baldr, Týr, Loki, Freyja, Freyr, Heimdallr, Njörðr, Iðunn, Sif, and Frigg. Other notable characters are Ýmir, Surtr, Mímir, Angrboða, Brokkr & Eitri, Hrungnir, and Hel. In Norse mythology, Loki was not the brother of Thor as depicted in modern media, but was actually the blood-brother of Óðinn. Loki had three monstrous children born of the giantess Angrboða. There was Jörmungandr, the world serpent, who wrapped the entire earth and was the mortal enemy of Þórr. Fenrir, the giant wolf who bit Týr’s hand off. And Hel, the ruler Hel, or Helheim, the place for those who did not die in battle (Gaiman; H.A. Guerber; Sturluson).
Nordic languages are interesting because they all contain special characters that are foreign to most English speakers. Some people might recognize the special letters ö or ä from German. These make distinct sounds, with ö sounding like if you made an “O” shape with your mouth, but tried to pronounce “E.” It’s confusing for non-native speakers, but there are a lot more difficult ones to say. Ä is pronounced like “eh.” These letters are used by Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. Iceland also has more special characters. There is ð, which sounds like the “th” sound in “the,” while þ sounds like the “th” in “thing.” While technically they would be the same thing in English, they make distinct sounds, but ð later turned into d because it looked similar, so now many names are mispronounced. There is the letter æ, which can sound like “eye,” and possibly like the a in “cat,” and can also be found in Old English, but is still used in Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands. There are the accented letters like á, ý, é, í, ó, and ú. Á sounds like “ow,” ý sounds like “ee,” é sounds like “yeh,” í also sounds like “ee,” ó sounds like “oh,” and ú sounds like “oo.” Norwegian has some special characters as well. There is å, which sounds like “aw,” while ø sounds like “ur.” Å is used by Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, while ø is only used by Norway, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands.
The Vikings did not speak Norwegian, Swedish, or Danish, but spoke a language that we call Old Norse. It was written in special runes but is closest to modern Icelandic. Unlike English and most European languages, it was not written from left to right in the top left corner. For most of the really old runestones, it was instead written right to left and started in the bottom right corner. But there were no concrete rules for writing, so it varied over time. An example of this would be an excerpt from the Rök runestone in Sweden, “ᚢᚾᚢᛊ᛫ᚾᚨᛁᚷᛁᚨᚠ᛫ᛏᚨᚠ᛫ᚱᛁᚦᚨᚠ᛫ᚾᚾᛁᚱᚨᚹ᛫ᚾᛇ᛫ᚱᚨᚦ᛫ᚱᚨᚾᚢᚱ᛫ᚨᛞᚾᚨᛏᛊ᛫ᚦᛟᛗᚨᚹ᛫ᛏᚠᚨ”
This runestone contains information about the end of the world, or Ragnarök. This end-of-the-world battle, also referred to as the Twilight of the Gods, is the mighty battle between the gods and their mortal enemies, the Jötnar, as well as Loki and his children, Jörmungandr and Fenrir, and Surtr, the primordial fire giant. In the end, all the gods and giants are killed except for a few who build a new world together.
Most of these stories about the gods and their adventures were compiled by Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda around 1220 A.D. However, there are likely many stores that were lost to history. Before Sturluson, most of these stories were told orally, most likely around fires or while traveling. Most of the deities depicted in the stories were personifications of real-world things. For example, Þórr was the personification of thunder and the sky, while trolls and giants were the personification of mountains and rocks.
While most people may not know any of this, the impact of the Vikings and their culture can still be seen today. Everyone knows the days of the week, but few know that most of them were named after the Norse gods. Tuesday is Týr’s day, or the day of Týr. Wednesday is Woden’s day, or the day of Woden. Woden was the Old English version of Óðinn or Odin. Thursday is Thor’s day or the day of Þórr. Friday is Frigg’s day, or the day of Frigg. Also, a lot of English comes from Old Norse and Germanic languages from the interaction that they had with the native Britons.
Even if people have a general idea of what the Vikings are, few could even name a single one. The most famous of them is undoubtedly Leifr Eiríksson, more commonly known as Leif Erikson. Hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus was born, Leifr and his crew discovered North America in 1000 A.D., more specifically, the region of Vinland in Canada. Leifr was also a devout Christian, to the annoyance of his father, who remained pagan. But there are a number of other heroes throughout the Northmen’s history. There was Eiríkr Þorvaldsson or Eiríkr Rauði, commonly known as Erik the Red, the father of Leifr. He was the one who sailed west from Iceland and found Greenland. There was also the legendary Ragnarr Loðbrok, the king of Scandinavia and the one who led the Great Heathen army against Anglo-Saxon Britain and the Siege of Paris. There was Ívarr hinn Beinlausi, the son of Ragnarr, who continued the conquest in England. There was Knútr inn ríki, the ruler of the great North Sea Empire. There was the massive Göngu-Hrólfr, who stood at seven feet tall and invaded West Francia, creating the Duchy of Normandy. And finally, there was Haraldr Blátǫnn, the king who united the Norse lands and brought Christianity to the lands.
Haraldr Blátǫnn is commonly known in English as Harald Bluetooth, and many would immediately think of the useful function available on devices today, which allows headphones and other devices to connect wirelessly. If you look closely at the Bluetooth symbol, you might notice that it looks like a runestone. That is because it is, sort of. It is the combination of two runes, ᚼ and ᛒ, which stand for H and B respectively, the initials of Harald Bluetooth. It should be noted that this is in the Younger Futhark set of runes rather than the Elder Futhark.
So, the question is: where did all these misconceptions come from? Well, there are a number of reasons why they appear to us this way in the modern age. The reason they are frequently thought of as savage and crazy is that a large amount of history regarding them was compiled by their very victims, the English. It makes sense that they would try to dehumanize them as much as possible so that they would be hated. Most of the historians never saw the other side of the Vikings and only saw their brutal war methods. Another reason is Richard Wagner’s operas, where the Vikings are depicted wearing horned helmets, likely inspired by one of the ceremonial helmets uncovered. Apparently, the image stuck so well that it carried on for over a hundred years. “Wagner was so successful that even Christians started to imagine horns on the Vikings and other primitives (Carnes). The most obvious reason that people don’t know what the Vikings were really like is pop culture today. There are a variety of games, shows, movies, and books that fantasize about what the Vikings were like, leading to misrepresentation. A few examples of this include History Channel’s Vikings, How to Train Your Dragon, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor. However, while the Norse Sagas of the God of War games are a creative and alternate interpretation of Norse mythology, they remain surprisingly faithful to it. While these iterations of Vikings and Norse mythology are great, they aren’t very accurate.
I couldn’t possibly explain everything about the Vikings and their history in this article. But at least you have a better idea of what they were like now. If you want to learn more, I have a number of resources that I can list. If you want to learn more about Norse mythology, I would recommend Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman as a starting point. He compiles the most important stories into a well-flowing narrative that is enjoyable to read. But there is also Helen A. Guerber’s Tales of Norse Mythology and the original Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. If you want to read about archaeology surrounding Viking artifacts or about the daily lives of the Vikings, I would recommend the Museum of Denmark website, the JORVIK Viking Centre website, or the book Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price. If you want to learn about runes and Old Norse, you could use A New Introduction to Old Norse by Michael Barnes and Anthony Faulkes or the Old Norse Online website.
Works Cited
Lindisfarne.penelope.uchicago.edu/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo- saxon/lindisfarne/lindisfarne.html.
“—.” National Museum of Denmark, en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric- period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/the-people/women.
Gaiman, Neil. Norse Mythology. W. W. Norton and Company, 2017.
Guerber, H. A. Tales of Norse Mythology. 2017.
Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Penguin UK, 2005.
Carnes, Tony. “Richard Wagner, Mythologist of the Horned Vikings.” A Journey Through NYC Religions, 2 July 2024, nycreligion.info/richard-wagner-mythologist-of-the-horned- vikings.
wolvie_74. “Viking Ship Drakkar Sailing.” Pixabay, 26 June 2021, https://pixabay.com/illustrations/viking-ship-drakkar-sailing-6366228/
