Vikings May Have Been More Social Than Savage

Science Daily ^ | October 1, 2013 | Coventry University, via AlphaGalileo

[SunkenCiv]

Academics at Coventry University have uncovered complex social networks within age-old Icelandic sagas, which challenge the stereotypical image of Vikings as unworldly, violent savages.

Pádraig Mac Carron and Ralph Kenna from the University's Applied Mathematics Research Centre have carried out a detailed analysis of the relationships described in ancient Icelandic manuscripts to shed new light on Viking society.

In a study published in the European Physical Journal, Mac Carron and Kenna have asked whether remnants of reality could lurk within the pages of the documents in which Viking sagas were preserved.

They applied methods from statistical physics to social networks -- in which nodes (connection points) represent individuals and links represent interactions between them -- to home in on the relationships between the characters and societies depicted therein.

The academics used the Sagas of Icelanders -- a unique corpus of medieval literature from the period around the settlement of Iceland a thousand years ago -- as the basis for their investigation.

Although the historicity of these tales is often questioned, some believe they may contain fictionalised distortions of real societies, and Mac Carron's and Kenna's research bolsters this hypothesis.

They mapped out the interactions between over 1,500 characters that appear in 18 sagas including five particularly famous epic tales. Their analyses show, for example, that although an 'outlaw tale' has similar properties to other European heroic epics, and the 'family sagas' of Icelandic literature are quite distinct, the overall network of saga society is consistent with real social networks...

[SunkenCiv]

Replica of Viking ship. Academics have uncovered complex social networks within age-old Icelandic sagas, which challenge the stereotypical image of Vikings as unworldly, violent savages. (Credit: © pemabild / Fotolia)

[SunkenCiv]

Slaves as burial gifts in Viking Age Norway?
Evidence from stable isotope and ancient DNA analyses
Journal of Archaeological Science via ScienceDirect
September 13, 2013 | Elise Naumanna et al
Posted on 09/28/2013 2:25:57 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3072247/posts

[SunkenCiv]

[Paladin2]

"challenge the stereotypical image of Vikings as unworldly, violent savages. "

Most Vikings were victims. Victims of Travel Agents who sold southern vacation trips but never got the destination accommodations negotiated.

Given that the ATMs of the day were Monasteries, the poor vikings made ATM withdrawals to be able to exist until transportation home could be arranged.

It's all a great misunderstanding.

[Winstons Julia]

It’s my understanding that when my ancestors were drunk, they were a pretty fun lot.

Short, though. I was AMAZED to see the door of a stave church and hear that it was actually person-height.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Graewoulf]

Bookmarked.

[vladimir998]

“Academics at Coventry University have uncovered complex social networks within age-old Icelandic sagas, which challenge the stereotypical image of Vikings as unworldly, violent savages.”

Who are these “academics” and where did they get their (apparently) worthless degrees? I ask because historians have already known this for a heck of a long time.

[vladimir998]

Seriously, have these people never studied prosopography before?

[vladimir998]

Scroll down here to see the average height of men in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/vikheight.shtml

[Charles Henrickson]

Icelandic is to the Scandinavian languages--Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish--kind of like what Shakespearean English is to modern English. Icelandic tends to preserve older forms and words, in large part due to the country's comparative geographical isolation from the rest of Europe.

At our recent Scandinavian picnic here in St. Louis, I met a professor who actually is an expert in Icelandic and Old Norse.

[gusty]

The Vikings ruled their realms like the Mob, La Cosa Nostra. As long as they got their cut, usually 10%, of all economic activity in the area they left everybody alone. Everybody had to kick up, right up to the boss (The King). However, when the envelopes were light, well my friend, that’s when they got violent. People got whacked, until they stopped holding out.

[Michael.SF.]

in large part due to the country's comparative geographical isolation from the rest of Europe.

Similar analogy can be drawn, for the same reason, between the French of the Quebecois vs. French as spoken in France.

[upsdriver]

Anything about Vikings in the Turtle Mountains of ND? Also, do you know anything about how they moored their boats? Three sided holes drilled in rocks?

[Charles Henrickson]

It’s my understanding that when my ancestors were drunk, they were a pretty fun lot. Short, though. I was AMAZED to see the door of a stave church and hear that it was actually person-height.

I've spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and seen a lot of the old buildings. Yes, people seem to have been shorter back then, but maybe not by more than a couple inches on average. Also, people in general were shorter in previous centuries--or I should say, we're taller now, probably due to advances in nutrition in the West over the last century or so.

I spent four months in Korea back in 1988, and at 6'3" I was literally the tallest person in the country I saw during that time. But now there are a number of Korean young men who are that tall. The health and diet of the country has improved and made a difference.

BTW, one other reason for low doorways and ceilings in old buildings in northern climes could be in order to heat the house and keep the heat in.

[Red Dog #1]

Indeed, they were simple impoverished undocumented immigrants. They deserve our compassion not nativist hate.

[mylife]

I dated a Swede that was a Social Savage.

[gusty]

Even true for the US. American English has more in common vocabulary wise with 17th and 18th Century England than today’s UK English does. If King George III came back to today’s world, he would have an easier time understanding the language in the US than England.

[Paladin2]

Vikings are obviously victims of racism.

[hosepipe]

Vikings May Have Been More Social Than Savage

---

May be........ EXCEPT for the rape, pillage and mass murders..
And then theres the slavery, hostage taking, ransomes, and arson..

The Vikes were pretty liberal in the sense of todays liberality..
They could have been democrats.. very progressive were they..
In the sense of social corruption, bribery, ideology and Mob Rule..
You know.................................. by Mobsters.. i.e. democracy..