The Vikings: it wasn't all raping and pillaging

Source: The Independent UK
By Arifa Akbar

For centuries, they have been stereotyped as marauding barbarians arriving in their helmeted hordes to pillage their way across Britain. But now a group of academics believe they have uncovered new evidence that the Vikings were more cultured settlers who offered a "good historical model" of immigrant assimilation.

The evidence is set to be unveiled at a three-day Cambridge University conference starting today, when more than 20 studies will reveal how the Vikings shared technology, swapped ideas and often lived side-by-side in relative harmony with their Anglo-Saxon and Celtic contemporaries. Some may have come, plundered and left, but those Vikings who decided to settle rather than return to Scandinavia learnt the language, inter-married, converted to Christianity and even had "praise poetry" written about them by the Brits, according to the experts.

The conference, entitled "Between the Islands", draws on new archeological evidence, historical studies and analysis of the language and literature of the period, and shows that between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Vikings became an integral part of the fabric of social and political life that changed Britain and Ireland far more profoundly than previously realised. The academics hope it will tip the balance still further in the "raiders or traders" question.

Scholars will argue that they should be seen as an early example of immigrants who were successfully assimilated into British and Irish culture. Their so-called "invasion" led, to some extent, to the creation of trans-national identities, a process that has particular relevance to modern Britain. Dr Fiona Edmonds, of Cambridge University's department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, said: "The latest evidence does not point to a simple opposition between Vikings and natives.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-vikings-it-wasnt-all-raping-and-pillaging-1643969.html

I'm not sure how "new" this interpretation is...

It was mostly trade and exploration.

Interesting fact: the Norse prided themselves as farmers more than warriors. This is particularly true of the Normans.

Great traders. GREAT Seafarers.

I believe Kiev was a Viking settlement.

Heck, people who feel the Kennsington Rune Stone is real believe they made it to MN in the 1400's


Peace
Noodleboy

As is Normandy.

with the battle of hastings and william the conqueror... so is the english monarchy

Saxon or Norman . . .

They were the original "western european" settlers in North America, anyways. No offense intended to those Native Americans who'd lived here for thousands of years prior intended. Some offense intended to Columbus and friends :P

http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/natcul/saga_e.asp

Really, the contact was pretty obvious. Then there's "papoose." American indian word? Grab your indoeuropean roots glossary ...I'll take a stab that it's original meaning was "unweaned child".

founder of normandy and the ancestor of William the Conqueror.

In 911 Rollo's forces were defeated at the Battle of Chartres by the troops of King Charles the Simple. In the aftermath of the battle, rather than pay Rollo to leave, as was customary, Charles the Simple understood that he could no longer hold back their onslaught, and decided to give Rollo the coastal lands they occupied under the condition that he defend against other raiding Vikings. In the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911) with King Charles, Rollo pledged feudal allegiance to the king, changed his name to the Frankish version, and converted to Christianity, probably with the baptismal name Robert. In return, King Charles granted Rollo the lower Seine area (today's upper Normandy) and the titular rulership of Normandy, centred around the city of Rouen. There exists some argument among historians as to whether Rollo was a "duke" (dux) or whether his position was equivalent to that of a "count" under Charlemagne. According to legend, when required to kiss the foot of King Charles, as a condition of the treaty, he refused to perform so great a humiliation, and when Charles extended his foot to Rollo, Rollo ordered one of his warriors to do so in his place. His warrior then lifted Charles' foot up to his mouth causing him to fall to the ground.

is for Vikings.

... I regard myself as 100% descended from Norsemen. The term 'Viking' is thought to be a derogatory misnomer when used to refer to the seafaring traders and explorers from Scandinavia.

can be traced to Iceland around the year 950. They left Iceland and returned to Norway.

It's all about how the victors write the history as propaganda. It many ways the barbarians were more civilized than the Romans and the Romans were more barbaric.

Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam. Spam. Spam! Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam. Spam. Spam! Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam.

Thanks for the heads up on "Barbarians." I look forward to the film from the Intellectual Python.

Heh. Spam and Vikings.

There was Shield Sheafson Scourge of many tribes a wrecker of mead benches....


Beowulf rocks.


Peace
Noodleboy

That's easy for you to say... :D

and we were sure a bunch of hellions. :) And a friend was just telling me that when Europeans were polled about marrying someone from another European county Norway was at the bottom of the list. Thank God that study has come out to make me feel better about the linage.

As a male Dane working in Norway from time to time, let me say that Norway would be high on my list.

Then the raping and pillaging description is more on target.



Peace
Noodleboy

Said I looked like the twin of his full-blooded relative (uncle or something) and he had to ask. Told him I was English, Irish, Dutch and German, so probably. And when I hitched the length of Norway I felt like I had come come. (But I felt that in India as well, so....)

:rofl:

:rofl:

Harold Hardraada (Hardraada=Hard counsel), Erik the Red, Ketil Flat-Nose, etc. My favorite is from an Icelandic saga, Eirik Ale-Lover!:-)

had a great time. I am entirely of Norse descent. Fram! Fram!

this more 'peaceful' version of the Vikings...

This was essentially the position Simon Schama presented in 'A History of Britain'

He seems to think the revisionists have taken things WAY TOO FAR based on the evidence of raiding in Britain.




Professor Simon Schama, who has been made a CBE, has taken British history to a wider audience with the success of his BBC Two series A History of Britain.

The accessibility of the 16-part factual series, which Schama wrote and presented, won him acclaim for being able to convey subjects considered dry by some in an engaging and original way...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1390893.stm

:)

That's beautiful.

:7 :donut:

Old English was an "inflectional" language that used word endings to convey syntactical information. Old Norse was the same. The problem was that the word endings didn't match. The result was the Scandinavian settlers spoke "bad English" with missing word endings that was passed on to their kids and rubbed off on the natives.

OTOH, sometimes I wonder if more word endings would help. As a native English speaker, sometimes I have to read something twice to figure out what part of speech a certain word means. It must be really hard for non-native speakers.

Another thing, the same word, many times, can be different parts of speech depending on how it's used.

My family is Scots and around the 1450s (I think), left the Borders and buggered off to the NE, to the Orkneys. They say that 80% of Scots have Viking blood, but it's much higher on the islands. If you look over the Orkneyjar site, you'll see that Viking culture predominates. There are stone circles, the language and folktales are heavily Norse, and (alas) you won't find kilts, pipes, or Gaelic there. I think as gnarly as Scots are, these may be more so than average. Those genes certainly have helped our family survive things that others probably wouldn't.

:D