The Vikings Reached North America Before Columbus
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Nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus ever sailed the ocean blue, the first Europeans to ever step foot in North America was a group of Vikings led by Leif Eriksson. Lief Eriksson’s own father, Erik the Red was a famous traveler before his son, establishing the first European settlement of Greenland. Supposedly, Erik the Red had also sailed from Iceland to Canada and encouraged his on Leif to explore new lands as well.
This led to Leif eventually discovering North America although he made no moves to take over the land or attack the Native American’s. For the most part, the Viking discovering of North America remained unknown long after Christopher Columbus took the credit as the first European.
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While for the most part, Vikings were very concerned with their hygiene and overall cleanliness, they seemed to put that all aside when it came to lighting fires. Their process would begin with collecting torchwood fungus from tree bark and then boiling it for several days in human urine. They would then pound the soaked bark it into a felt-like substance that was easy to transport and durable.
They had discovered that the sodium nitrate in urine would allow the material smolder and not just burn, allowing them to travel vast distances and start a new fire on the go. Not the first thing that comes to mind when starting a fire but the Vikings figured it out.
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Contrary to popular belief, Vikings didn’t just go around settling things on their own. In reality, they had an established justice system in order to resolve any disputes or crimes that came up. Norse culture knew this system as “Althing,” translated to mean “The Thing.”
Regularly, “The Thing” was held and a law speaker would hear people’s disputes. They would then settle these disputes either through peaceful means, usually done with the help of an objective third party, much like our court system today. However, in some cases, justice was decided through violence and occasional execution.
It’s easy to forget that Vikings were more than just raiders.
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Tattooing has been proven to have existed well before the Vikings,yet that doesn’t necessarily mean that Vikings had tattoos. Although people today demonstrate their Viking heritage by getting “traditional” Viking tattoos, it’s still not clear if real Vikings had these tattoos or if they are just ancient Norse symbols.
While in television and movies Vikings are often depicted as covered in tattoos, there still is no physical evidence that they practiced the art. Furthermore, considering that the Viking’s took pride in their cleanliness and were even a little obsessive about it, it may seem likely that they didn’t want to cover their skin with permanent markings.
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Although Viking men and women may not have been treated as equals, they certainly had more rights than other groups of women around the world. While they often were married around 12, expected to carry out motherly and wifely duties, they did have some basic rights and freedoms. These included having the right to inherit property, file for divorce, and even reclaim settlements if the marriage failed.
Although Viking males were the “man of the house,” the women controlled the entire domestic sphere. If her husband died, she inherited all of the responsibilities and roles that were once her husbands. Although it wasn’t all that common, there are also stories and legends of female warriors known as “shieldmaidens” that fought alongside Viking men.
Vikings Preferred Having Blonde Hair
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While most of the popular culture surrounding Vikings depicts them with blonde hair, that is something that they got right. For whatever reason, Vikings preferred the look of blonde hair and even based their definition of beauty around having it.
So, those that were born without blonde hair created a process in order to achieve the beloved color. They would use a strong soap that had a high lye concentrate in order to bleach their hair. On occasion, some Viking men would even bleach their beards to in order to have as much blonde visible as possible.
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Considering that the majority of life revolved around the ocean whether it be seafaring, raiding, or fishing, it was only appropriate that their burials would involve a boat. In the Norse religion, it was believed that great warriors would need a vessel to cross over into the afterlife and reach Valhalla. So, prominent Vikings and exceptional women would have the honor of being laid to rest in a traditional Viking ship.
Along with the body, the ship would be filled with weapons, food, treasure, and anything else they may need in the afterlife. In some occasions, slaves were even sacrificed and put on the boat as well to serve their masters in the afterlife.
They Never Wore Horned Helmets
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One of the biggest misconceptions about the Vikings was that they wore horned helmets into battle. However, this has been proven to be completely false. If they wore helmets at all in combat, they certainly didn’t have horns on them because there have been no artifact discovered to suggest this was something that Vikings wore.
The idea behind the horned helmets came from the Victorian era to romanticize the image of the Vikings. They were described as wearing these scary-looking helmets in order to make them seem as savage and horrifying as possible.
The Days Of The Week Are Named After Viking Gods
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Unknown to many people, the Norse gods worshipped by the Vikings are a part of our everyday lives. The days of the week are actually references to the names of specific gods. The great raven god Odin, also known as Woden, is now Wednesday, which literally means Woden’s Day. Tuesday and Friday are named after Tyr and Frigg, the god and goddess of war and marriage.
The most famous, is Thor, the god of thunder and strength, for Thursday. While much of Viking culture may be lost, it’s interesting that something as fundamental as the days of our modern week can be directly traced back to their belief system.
Vikings Weren’t As Giant As They Are Depicted
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Vikings are commonly depicted as being giant, muscular men with the ability to kill their enemies with one swing of an ax, however, that’s an over-exaggeration. They didn’t look like Rollo from the History Channel show Vikings or Chris Hemsworth in Thor. They were typically around 5 feet 7 inches and were leaner than they were burly.
Their size has been explained by their summer seasons being exceptionally short, leading to fewer resources and therefore less food. This lack of good weather is also what led the Vikings to go on raids in order to take other’s resources. Much like with the horned helmets, the description of the Vikings as being large was a way to make them seem much scarier than they were and paint them as almost inhuman.
The Viking Afterlife
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Though many modern religions believe in some form of heaven and hell, the Vikings had a totally different view of the afterlife. They thought that the way you lived life would dictate which of several afterlife realms you would go to after death. For the Vikings, the best place you could hope to go to was Valhalla.
This place was reserved for warriors that fought bravely and died bravely in battle. Next was Helgafjell, another place for admirable people that lived a fulfilling life. Hellheim, on the other hand, was a place for dishonorable people who didn’t die well, this could even mean dying comfortably of old age.
They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, Scotland (Caithness, the Hebrides and theNorthern Isles), Greenland, and Canada.
Their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a strong central authority appears to have been established in Jutland, and the Danes were beginning to look beyond their own territory for land, trade and plunder.
In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries. Communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway.
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Vikings brought LEPROSY to Ireland in the 10th Century as archaeologists find the Scandinavian warriors carried two strains of the disease to the Emerald Isle
Very little is known about how the condition arrived on the Emerald Isle and how lethal it was during the Medieval period.
Scientists say that the expansion of the Roman empire carried the disease around most of Europe and it was the Scandinavian warriors who brought it to Ireland.
Five skeletons were found with leprosy across the Emerald Isle, with three in Dublin.
Analysis of these three bodies revealed two of the individuals were from a colder climate, thought to be Scandinavia, and the other was probably from Britain or north Ireland.
Vikings carried the flesh-rotting disease leprosy to Ireland in the when they invaded in the 10th century, scientists have discovered. Five cases of leprosy were found in human skeletal remains and chemical analysis was completed on three of the bodies from Dublin. Two of these individuals were from a colder climate, thought to be Scandinavia
Research led by Queen's University Belfast, the University of Surrey and the University of Southampton say the finding adds to a growing body of information about the evolution and spread of leprosy in the past.
Professor Eileen Murphy, from the school of natural and built environment at Queen's University Belfast said: 'Relatively little is known of leprosy in Medieval Ireland.
As an island located at the far west of Europe, it has the potential to provide interesting insights about the historical origin of the disease.
'Ireland is of particular interest in the history of leprosy as it was never part of the Roman world nor underwent any significant occupation by later Anglo-Saxon settlers.'
Five cases of leprosy were found in human skeletal remains excavated from known burial sites.
Three of the individuals were from a cemetery in Dublin and two came from County Kildare and County Antrim.
The Dublin skeletons were chemically examined to understand their early life history and where they lived.
None were found to be local, with one believed to be British or from the north of Ireland.
Vikings tried to rule Ireland for centuries. The Vikings, however did not conquer the island - by the middle of the 10th century they failed to control the territory in Ireland (stock)
Leprosy is a long-term infectious disease which can result in the inflammation of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. In 2012, the number of chronic cases of leprosy was 189,000, down from some 5.2 million in the 1980s, with India accounting for more than half of all cases (stock)
The other two skeletons grew up in Scandinavia it found.
Professor Alistair Pike, archaeological scientist at the University of Southampton, said: 'The key to understanding the origins of these individuals were the oxygen and strontium isotopes in their teeth.
'These showed that two of the individuals came from an area that was colder and which had older geology than is present in the UK or Ireland, and best matched parts of Scandinavia.'
Further genetic analysis was done on the leprosy bacterium (M. leprae) strains themselves from two of the Dublin skeletons.
The strains date back to the early 10th century through to the 13th century and show the lepers were afflicted with two separate strands of the disease.
One had probable origins in Scandinavia (Type 3), while the other first developed in the Middle East (Type 2).
Professor Mike Taylor, Bioarchaeological Scientist at the University of Surrey, said: 'As past leprosy strains evolved, the genetic fingerprint of an archaeological case of leprosy can tell us about the possible movements of that individual.
'The two strain types discovered are highly similar to those present in cases in medieval Scandinavia, increasing the likelihood that this is the origin.'
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