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Norwegian Vikings Among the First to Raid British Isles
Archaeology Magazine ^ | Wednesday, December 31, 2014 | editors

Posted on 01/03/2015 10:28:24 AM PST by SunkenCiv

A new examination of ninth-century A.D. burial sites in the central Norwegian region of Trondelag has revealed they contain many more artifacts from Britain, such as brooches, drinking horns, and swords, than had been previously believed. "These graves are some of the earliest proof that we have of contact between Norway and the British Isles," archaeologist Aina Margrethe Heen Pettersen told Science Nordic. She argues that Vikings from Trondelag were among the first to voyage across the North Sea, and emphasizes that they were not simply bent on raiding. "Contact with the Anglo-Saxons means more than just violent pillaging. Drinking horns and swords are considered to be gifts in support of alliances. And scales that have been found suggest that there was trading between the Vikings and the people of the British Isles at the time." To read in-depth about some of the earliest Viking raids, see "The First Vikings."

(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; norway; unitedkingdom
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To: left that other site

The spam episode. I keep a can around in times of bad weather in case the power goes out for a long time etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8huXkSaL7o


21 posted on 01/03/2015 1:04:43 PM PST by rdl6989
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To: rdl6989

Well, I object to all this sex on the television.

I keep falling off!


22 posted on 01/03/2015 1:18:16 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Dead Corpse
I'll start off by saying, as I'm sure we all know, that "Viking" is a total misnomer, but for sake of encompassing brevity I will use it.

They've put burgonet helmets on Saxons more than once, here is but one example (season 2 ep9) ~~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a05AOYLIh8w

And again, the body-armor (having refreshed my memory with the above clip) does literally look like they got some kind of wholesale deal on the English armor from Braveheart (wasn't accurate for that either, but I digress).

Yes, the Vikings are beaten a couple times in the series, but in typical "bad-guy" fashion the Saxons lose scores of men to batter down the handful of scruffy heroes. As far as fighting well "for Saxons," in reality it would have been difficult, often impossible, to tell the two sides apart in a battle between Vikings and Saxons, unlike the Franks who never really took to shieldwall fighting (their armies being built around cavalry). There are many reasons that the Danes experienced so much success initially in their onslaught against Britain, but I'd say overwhelming prowess in combat was one of the least influential.

Small axes, arrows, knifes and so forth could and did indicate things about the person buried besides warrior status. Considering the domestic role women played in Viking society, the presence of multi-use tools certainly need not indicate that the person buried was a warrior.

Show me the skeletons buried with swords (a surer indicator of warrior-status, unlike more general tools like knives), the skeletons showing battle-damage (knicks etc.), buried in Britain or other places the Vikings would have gone on war-making expeditions, that have been identified as female. Unless significant finds have occurred since the last time I put a lot of study into the topic, I don't think you'll be able to present anything compelling.

As for Saxo...Much of his work swirls so thoroughly with legend that I don't think he can be used to support objective historical arguments -- why bother consider his talk of shieldmaidens, when we'd then also have to examine his talk of 7 years of preparations, hundreds of thousands of warriors, and thousands of ships at the battle of Brávellir? There were occurences of women taking up arms in times of desparation, there is no doubt. But in the context of the TV program in question, where women are presented as having an equal and unquestioned role in battle, absolutely not.

23 posted on 01/03/2015 1:30:26 PM PST by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: left that other site

That and Potato/Egg hash if you know what that is.


24 posted on 01/03/2015 1:59:04 PM PST by traderrob6
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To: traderrob6

Don’t know what that is...which is probably a good thing, LOL!


25 posted on 01/03/2015 2:01:06 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Dead Corpse

I enjoy the series, liberties or no-it would be so much worse if it had been produced in Cali...


26 posted on 01/03/2015 2:03:26 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: SunkenCiv
Shouldn't there be a rule?

27 posted on 01/03/2015 2:11:50 PM PST by Squawk 8888 (Will steal your comments & post them on Twitter)
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To: Texan5

Is there any truth to the rumor that the early Vikings traveled under the following motto:

Norwegian Bruise Lines?


28 posted on 01/03/2015 2:12:12 PM PST by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Its a shame that such waring, brutal conqueres let the muslims walk all over them today


29 posted on 01/03/2015 2:12:17 PM PST by ronnie raygun (Empty head empty suit = arrogant little bastard)
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To: Delta Dawn

Shhh! Don’t give the TV producers any more wrong ideas to muck up that show with.


30 posted on 01/03/2015 2:22:38 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
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To: left that other site

Actually it’s good, fry up a mess of potatoes....(American fry style) and dump in scrambled eggs at the end. Salt and pepper.

It’s filling and dirt cheap.


31 posted on 01/03/2015 2:45:55 PM PST by traderrob6
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To: traderrob6

That DOES sound good!

And Filling! :-)


32 posted on 01/03/2015 2:59:26 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
Season 2 Epi 9. Those look an awful lot like the Sutton Hoo helmets. Note the fully open face and hinged nape guard where a burgeonet has a one piece nape and a full face shield.

Most scale armor types don't change much from Roman times through to the Middle Ages. After all, how many different ways are there to affix small over lapping coins of metal to a jacket?

There are many reasons that the Danes experienced so much success initially in their onslaught against Britain, but I'd say overwhelming prowess in combat was one of the least influential.

LOL... Which runs counter to pretty much everything ever written about them. From every account I've read, they were not only physically impressive specimens, but their martial arts and tactics were extremely effective.

But in the context of the TV program in question, where women are presented as having an equal and unquestioned role in battle, absolutely not.

I never said it was common. But more sources than just Saxo mention Norse female warriors mixed with the men. Common? Certainly not. Especially not after Scandinavian rulers started "Christianising" their entire culture.

Looks like you have some more reading to do.

Invasion of the Viking women unearthed

This one starts on page 273. Includes photos and is annotated.

33 posted on 01/03/2015 3:04:52 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Real Cynic No More

Oh God

I quit watching that crap

The women propaganda

Tell me they don’t have a homosexual hero by now

Valhalla Rising....beautiful film

Last Viking film I liked....Mads Mickelson make ya “take the walk”

I love that guy....cool Dane


34 posted on 01/03/2015 3:11:05 PM PST by wardaddy (glenn beck is a nauseous politically correct conservative on LSD)
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To: traderrob6
Actually it’s good, fry up a mess of potatoes....(American fry style) and dump in scrambled eggs at the end. Salt and pepper. It’s filling and dirt cheap

My aunt would make that for breakfast when I visited. I loved it!

35 posted on 01/03/2015 3:11:47 PM PST by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.b>)
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To: Texan5

Agreed. It’s what I call “edu-tainment”. It contains just enough “fact” to get folks interested in looking up the realit behind the myths.

This is a good thing. Entertaining too, unless the fact that they used an anachronistic stich on their breeches ruins it all for you.


36 posted on 01/03/2015 3:25:40 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Dead Corpse
No offense, but that looks absolutely nothing like a Sutton Hoo helmet. Compare the screen-grab from the show with the picture of burgonet helmet --

"Most scale armor types don't change much from Roman times through to the Middle Ages. After all, how many different ways are there to affix small over lapping coins of metal to a jacket?"

There are more ways than most people would care to imagine. Suffice to say, the type of armor the Saxons use in the program is not accurate for the period. There would possibly be a handful of very wealthy nobles who had acquired some similar armor through trade from afar, but to say it would be not be common is the understatement of the century. Chainmail was the ubiquitious, domestically made armor of choice for those who could afford it -- and most could not.

"LOL... Which runs counter to pretty much everything ever written about them. From every account I've read, they were not only physically impressive specimens, but their martial arts and tactics were extremely effective."

A great deal of their reputation stems from them having been pagans slaughtering defenseless Christians in abbies and outlying villages -- they were thought to be some form of chastisement from God. Objectively speaking, the political situation in Northumbria was tenuous, with multiple men vying for the throne of the kingdom and weakening considerably. Once the Vikings gained a foothold by scooping up Northumbria, they were provided a base camp, horses, and supplies in East-Anglia, the people there preferring that to the fate of Northumbria. Mercia was weak and divided. In France, they faced stiff resistence, but the French kings preferred to pay the invaders off rather than fight them. In the 880's for example, after the residents of Paris heroically fended off a Viking attack, the French king granted the Vikings a large payment of silver and safe passage to the coast, rather than annihilating them. They garnered a lot of success simply because good men refused to stand up to them. Once the Christian kingdoms truly stood against them, the Vikings didn't hold out particularly long. The Vikings were exception travellers and fierce warriors, but the near-supernatural reputation they've acquired is based as much in legend as reality.

On the next topic -- Macleod's study has been extrapolated far beyond it's findings. The Vikings intended to settle Britain, so of course many of them brought their wives and children with them. It doesn't mean anything, except that. The study is unavailable to the public for general viewing, but I do know that the only female grave that supposedly contained a sword, in reality contained fragments of metal that some archeologists have conjectured were part of a sword -- hardly compelling.

37 posted on 01/03/2015 5:02:51 PM PST by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I knew the Minnesota Vikings were good at SOMEthing!


38 posted on 01/03/2015 5:37:17 PM PST by SgtHooper (Anyone who remembers the 60's, wasn't there!)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
I'm still suprised you are not all wee-wee'd up over none of the women wearing a Jorvik hood or hustrulinet, or the fact they don't appear to be wearing 2x2 twill woven fabric, and no one has yet been seen using a bronze earspoon.

Or had you must not gotten to those yet?

39 posted on 01/03/2015 5:58:59 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: SunkenCiv

Exquisite work there.


40 posted on 01/03/2015 8:02:52 PM PST by Bigg Red (Congress, do your duty and repo his pen and his phone.)
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