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Vikings: Myth, Saga, and Reality
Episode 42 • 8th August 2023 • Digging Up Ancient Aliens • Fredrik Trusohamn
00:00:00 00:52:19

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Vikings - many myths surround this era and the people of Scandinavia who lived during this time. Were they raiders, traders, or a bit in-between? Let's look into what a Viking was and what the word meant, and who could call themselves a Viking. As we will learn, it is less clear-cut than one might believe.

I will also talk about the Viking horned helmets. Are these accurate depictions? The answer might be surprising and have a strange connection to the Scandinavian Bronze Age.

Did the Vikings have tattoos, as in the famous TV show? What do we know about their body art? Is the Vegvisir a Viking symbol? And why should you make an appointment with your dentist instead of a tattoo artist to have the Viking look?

I'll also investigate why the sheep was one of the most important animals in Scandinavia and might have been the reason for the Viking raids and slavery. At last, we will learn that the Vikings might have based their society on their looks.

In Digging up Ancient Aliens, our host Fredrik uses his background in archaeology to discover what is genuine, fake, and somewhere in between in popular media, such as Ancient Aliens, Ancient Apocalypse, and many other places.

As usall you find sources and further reading suggestions on the episode's webpage: https://diggingupancientaliens.com/episode-42-vikings-myth-reality.html

In this episode:

When was the Viking age? 2:16

Who is a Viking? 10:48

Vikings and horned helmets 20:19

Tattoos 26:11

Wool and Steel 34:19

Classy Vikings 40:22

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The intro music is Lily of the woods by Sandra Marteleur, and the outro is named “Folie hatt” by Trallskruv. Visit Trallskruvs website here

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Transcripts

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Hi. Hello and welcome.

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And to digging up ancient aliens.

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This is the podcast where we examine strange claims about alternative history

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and ancient aliens in popular media.

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Do their claims hold water to an archeologist,

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or are there better explanations out there?

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This is episode 42.

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I'm your host, Fredrik, it is still vacation time here in Sweden

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when this is recorded and I don't really have access to my usual library.

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the Vendel and the Viking period in Scandinavia.

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If Andrew Kinkella could talk about his work on Mayans, cenotes

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on his show Pseudo Archeology with Andrew Kinkella I can spend an hour

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or so talking about the Vikings and the common myths, darn it.

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I'll talk about the beginning of the vandal slash

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Viking age.

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I will then talk a little bit about the horned helmets

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and that they actually are a real thing.

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We have just put them in the wrong period.

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Then I will go on and upset some of you.

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Maybe.

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By talking about the Viking tattoos and the magic.

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We will learn why the Vikings needed lots

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I want to show that the Scandinavian Society during this

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era was a constant beauty competition among men.

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Now remember that

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you find sources, resources and reading suggestions on our website.

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Digging up ancient aliens dot com.

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There you will also find the contact info if you notice

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any mistakes or have any suggestions.

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If you like the podcast, I would appreciate it if you left

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one of those fancy five star reviews that I heard so much about.

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Now, when we have finished with our preparation, let's dig in to the episode.

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So where do we start a story like this?

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As with any other tale, we might be interested

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in knowing when our account would take place.

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So when we speak about the Viking age, we discuss a relatively short

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chapter in Scandinavian history.

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For the purpose of our saga.

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and the even shorter branch of our tree of time.

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And it is, I believe, relatively unknown outside of Sweden.

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Perhaps.

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Now, when it comes to chronology, it's understandably easy to forget

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that there is no global Stone Age,

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Bronze Age or metal Age in general.

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For example, some of you may think the Iron Age would be the same across Europe

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and the Mediterranean.

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For example, in the Near East, by convention, the Iron Age lasted

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from the Bronze Age collapse around 1200

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B.C.E to about 500 B.C.E.

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Compare this to Central and Western Europe, where the Iron Age is

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defined to be between 800 BCE to year one BCE.

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Add to this mess Northern Europe, where the Iron Age last from 500

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BCE to 800 CE.

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To throw some more chronology your way.

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Here in Sweden we have split the Iron Age in a couple of sub chronologies

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starting at Pre-Roman Iron Age.

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Then we have Roman Iron age and migration period

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continuing through the Vendel period that is set to begin around 550 C.E..

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So while Sweden is enjoying an excellent Vendel period, the rest of Europe

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has already entered the Middle Ages.

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But when does the Viking age start then?

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It was June, but Cenric still used his cloak;

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the air was nippy, and one could easily believe it was March.

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His belly grumbled; while the monastery had been spared

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from the worst of the famine, they were not immune.

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Lunch had not been too long ago, but he was already longing for supper,

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he thought, while scurrying past the refectory for his work in the herb

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garden.

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The abbot to have been looking worried.

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But who could really blame him?

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Sandwich had seen the signs himself, the southern whirlwinds, the lightning

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cracking over the sky, and even worse,

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dragons flying in the horizon.

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And one could think they moved closer each time the lightning struck

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a sign of the devil.

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Well, no need to worry now, God have sent me a bit of sun

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and the wind is still.

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All will be well in God's hand, Cenric thought

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he pushed a shovel into the earth,

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But suddenly the tintinnabulation from the abbey’s bells boomed.

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It could not be.

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This had never happened, but in the distance

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he could hear the shouted warriors Lindisfarne

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was under attack.

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Today we usually put the start of the Viking age

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and at the raid of the monastery of Linden's

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farm in 793 CE.

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This monastery was located on a small island in Northumbria.

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At the time, it was an important place for the Catholic faith in Britain

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and many churches saw this location as their mother church.

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But the attack on Lindisfarne really etched into the minds

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of Britain.

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preserved in two of the surviving manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

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There's also a letter from the scholar

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Alcuin of York to Bishop Hege Bald in Lindisfarne.

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Alcuin wrote,The distress of your suffering fills me daily

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with deep grief When the heathen desecrated the gods sanctuaries

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and pour the blood of saints within the compass of the altar

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destroyed the house of our hope, trampled the bodies of saints in God's temple

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like animal dung in the streets.

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have started a whole culture, the start date is a bit up for discussion.

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We see a lot of proto Viking elements during the Vendel period

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and we might have to ask ourselfs if there's really a need to have

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a chronological separation between these two periods,

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because some of the typical elements we see among the Vikings

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seems to have been far spread and established lore in 700 C.E.

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and we know this due to the picture stone we have found on Gotland, for example.

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Gotland is an island in the Baltic Sea that, through

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the ages has been an essential hub for particular trade.

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were primarily associated with the Vikings were established on Gotland,

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far east of Denmark, Norway and mainland Sweden,

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most likely already during 700 C.E.

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and we find ten stones located in a small

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parish of Ardre on Gotland.

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Some where actually Rune Stones.

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And on those were a picture stones, one of which had become known

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as the Völunda Stone.

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and the Völundarkviða, a story that revolves around the smith Völund

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and his fate, after being taken captive Níðuðr, the lord of Njarar.

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Most scholars place this in the modern Swedish province

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of Närke today, in central Sweden.

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Scholars, however, will often refer to this as Andre

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eight.

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the eight legged horse and we can see Völund escaping on the third.

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We also see ships that gives us a bit of insight

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into how the Viking age sail might have looked as.

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But we have more stones still on Gotland we find in Lärbro

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perish four phallic shaped picture stones.

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Two of them, referred to as Stora Hammar

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I and III, have become somewhat famous due to their depictions.

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On stone one, we have six panels depicting mythological and religious functions

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on one stone.

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We have six panels depicting mythological and religious function.

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The panel that's maybe the most interesting is panel three,

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where it was usually thought of as a depiction of sacrifices.

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To the left, we can see hanging from a tree

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a man and to his right, we see another man bent over.

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another gentleman using what seems to be some sort of weapon on his back

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above the scene is a Valknut and the Raven.

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Could it be a blood eagle depicted on this stone?

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Well, we can't be entirely sure, but it can be all that human

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sacrifice was most likely quite important within the Viking society.

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Well, we can't be entirely sure, but it can be argued

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that human sacrifice was most likely quite important within the Viking society.

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And on the fourth panel, we can see what seems to be a reference to a story

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from, among others, Skaldarskaparmál about Hildr.

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we see two groups of warriors about to go to war against each other.

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On the left side, however, it seems as the group is led by a woman,

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and we find this scene again at a different picture

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stone in Smiss Parish on Gotland.

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And we will have to talk about the woman, the Warriors of Valkyries

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and the Amazons of the North in another episode.

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of Odin stealing the mead of poetry

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from the giants Gunnlöð and Suttungr.

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And it's interesting detail is that the eagle in

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the scene has a beard like Odin is supposed to have had.

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But it shows that what we would refer to as a Viking culture seems to have been

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the present before the attack on Linden so far and

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and that the period might have to be redefined among all scholars.

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So the beginning of the Viking age is a bit unclear.

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So let's move on to a different topic.

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Who would be considered a Viking if you would go online today

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on your social media site of choice and start to read discussion

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on the Vikings, you will hear a lot of claims being thrown around there.

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Some will tell you that Viking is not a culture, it's a job title

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and so in fame

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it is a culture.

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So how is it that is Viking job

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a culture or something more complex?

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The short answer is yes.

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When the archeologist or historian speaks about Vikings, we don't only talk

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about those who went on raids, we often talk about a culture.

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But since we have associated the start of the Viking age with raiding,

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it's not surprising that we have named it after Raiders.

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a group living primarily in modern Scandinavia.

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That's shared language, culture and religion.

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And we don't really know what Viking refer to them self as.

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So if you had asked UlfR or Gunnhildr, they would most likely

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just give you the location of where they lived.

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That's their, you know, epithets, so to say.

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we would have gotten a different answer if we would have asked the people

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living around the near the Vikings on what they call them.

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Most common, however, would be pagans or Gentiles.

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It seems like they were also called Danes in Britain.

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in today's France, the Vikings were referred to as Northmen or Dane.

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Now the Irish separated between Norwegian giants who they called Finngall,

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translated something like white foreigners and the Danes were referred

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to as Dubgall and translated to black foreigner.

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but spent most of the times going east where they got the name,

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such as Rús or varjag.You might heard of that Väring in the past.

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While the term Rus might sound like something

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more associated, to Russia, the origin of the time

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might be from Roslagen a coastal area north of Stockholm.

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in the Finnish language where Sweden is named Routsi.

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I'm sorry Finnish speaker The it could also originate

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from a rule or rowing since the Swedish Viking

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after travel on the rivers where sailing was not always possible.

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So they had to row instead to get further

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down on the rivers.

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What does it mean to be straight with you?

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There has yet to be an agreement on the word's origin.

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In the 18th century English we find the phrase wicing,

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but there are question marks.

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If this word has the same meaning as Viking.

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The word Viking also have a masculine and feminine form.

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so it's víkingr and víking.

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And it translates to Sea Warrior

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and the Oversea War Expedition.

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But it can also refer to a person's name or by name, in some cases to.

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So if you ask the Internet experts, they would most likely tell you

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that the words already come from these pirates hiding in bays or inlets.

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And in Sweden, as these are called, the beach.

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And it's a simple explanation, but not really satisfying.

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There are about five main theories for the origin,

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and the weak is just one of them.

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that they originated from the Norwegian Hamlet Viken,

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or is its name often the nautical term

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for a distance called Vika or week?

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It's one of the more unlikely origins of the word.

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The next contender is the Baltic word Vic

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originating from the Latin Vicus

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and would be translated to Harbor or market.

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Lastly, you could argue a connection with the word

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for travel or walking, which would be vikja.

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Now none of the above has really been proven yet

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and all of them have different flaws, some more than others.

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But if you hear someone making a claim,

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you can now put this in a larger perspective.

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Something more interesting is that Viking

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is most used for people who went west.

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I have not been able to find a runic text given the name Viking to people

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heading east so far.

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of Viking on the Runestone G370 in Hablingbo, Gotland.

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Hvatarr(?) ok Heilgeirr(?) reistu stein eptir Helga, f[ǫ]ður sinn.

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Hann var [v]estr farinn með víkingum.

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Hvatarr and Helga raised a stone

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in memory of Helgi, their father.

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He traveled west with the Vikings.

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with a masculine version.

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for war or plunder.

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Now, compare this to the feminine version where Vikings seems to allude

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more towards an expedition or journey, not necessarily war.

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For example, on

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Stone v g 61 Tóla setti stein þ[enna ept]ir Geir, son sinn, harða góðan dreng.

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Sá varð dauðr á vestrvegum í víkingu.

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stone in

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memory of Geir, her son, a very good valiant man.

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He was killed on the West way in the Viking,

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and we see the same word use as in the hour 330,

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where the author talk about courageous atom men who went west on the Vikings.

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As I mentioned, Vikings are mainly connected with the Western

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path, but exception exists.

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We find a stone in Scania named B or 334 that talks about the North.

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Note the feminine version of the tired term Viking

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father.

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Faðir lét hǫggva rúnar þessar eptir Ǫzur,

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bróður sinn, er norðr varð dauðr í Vikingu.

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Father had these runes cut in the memory of Assur

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his brother dead up north in the Viking.

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Then they have a strange text to add to this ever growing puzzle.

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It talks about Vikings and how the Swede protected the area against them.

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Here we see the masculine form of the world indicating that

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it's sea warriors that's led by a competing

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Jarl or Earl that the stone is referring to.

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It is from the later part of the Viking age, and it's written

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from a Christian perspective.

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the stone in question is the the U.

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617 and it goes as follow

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in loud home gear.

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"Ginnlaug, Holmgeirs

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dóttir, systir Sigrøðar ok þeira Gauts/Gauss, hon lét gera brú þessa

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ok reisa stein þenna eptir Ǫzur, bónda sinn, son Hákonar jarls.

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Sá var víkinga vǫrðr með Geiti(?).

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Guð hjalpi hans nú ǫnd ok sálu."

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and Gautr’s/Gauss’ sister.

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she had this bridge made and this stone raised in memory of Assur,

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her husbandman, earl Hákon’s son.

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He was the viking watch with Geitir(?).

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May God now help his spirit and soul.

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So there is a clear connection between the Viking and the warrior,

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not necessarily pirate, as some want to interpret the term,

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but we should note how it can also be used as

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a sea based exploration term.

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I believe, is the clear connection with Viking and heading westward.

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So can we settle the internet dispute

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about who can call oneself a Viking?

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If we use the Vikings definitions of the word, you need to be in the Navy

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or do a lot of sea based exploration to be calling yourself a Viking.

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But if you use the scholars and the researchers

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definition of the term,

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you would only need to participate in the practices and the culture.

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Associate it with the people living in the Viking age.

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And the meaning also will differ

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with depending on in what area you're using it.

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So to the Internet Vikings out there, feel free to call yourself a Viking,

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but please, please know that a person from the Viking age would most likely

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look at you and ask What by Balders balls are you doing

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The exception if is if you're a Nazi,

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then you're just a wasted bag of error.

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After the break, we will talk a bit about

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the origin of the horned Viking helmets.

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Stay tuned.

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Now, something that seems to be discussed quite frequently

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and brought up from time to time is

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if the Viking helmet had horns,

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which seems to be a lingering idea that never really go away.

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Even if these types of helmets is slowly disappearing

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from the public mind, it seems to be a glacial process.

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Sadly, the Vikings did not wear a helmet adorned with horns into battle

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while letting out the blood freezing roars that origin of the Horned Viking helmet,

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as we see them today on the telly or in the comics, have been traced

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by Robert Frank to Germany

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in 1876.

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Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungenn were in motion.

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This opera makes this Norse mythology with German medieval ideas,

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creating the long lasting idea that German heritage

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being connected to the Viking world.

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But while the stage was being billed to singers

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practices to customers whilst being created,

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Professor Carl Emil Doppler, was the costume designer of the opera,

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and he did something that had not been done before.

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There had not been a single drawing or depiction of Viking

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with horns on their helmet, but this would change rather quickly.

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The image spread like a cat meme and the horned helmet would be fine

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on advertisement painting, drawings and even dinner menus.

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While horns were new in 1870,

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the idea of Viking having lavish decoration on their helmets

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was far from a novel idea.

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the Vikings were a man wearing a winged helmet,

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taking the viewer's imagination into a place where these pagan worship

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to nature in a way instead with a complete freedom

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horned helmet, were reserved for Gauls and Britons.

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While nobody had previously depicted Vikings with Horn, maybe

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Doebbler was basing this on a new find or discovery.

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a Viking helmet with horns.

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But to make things interesting, horned

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helmets have been the thing in Scandinavia in the past.

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The issue is that the helmets are connected to the Scandinavian

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Bronze Age so that our finds of a helmet with horns.

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But they are not Viking and they were found in a Danish bog

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in 1942.

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set of a nearly identical twin helmets,

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and in 2019, part horror was found in one of the horns,

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allowing us to date the helmets we had C-14.

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The sample was about 20 milligram and the calibrated 14 result

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placed a helmet around thousand 6

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to 857 BCE,

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firmly within the late Nordic Bronze Age,

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where we find other objects that actually depict person

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with horned helmets.

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BCE contains a lot of figures adorning horned helmets.

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Actually, often they are in pairs and you could make a case

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for their depicting some sort of hero twins or twin heroes.

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But we also find these in groups or as lone individuals.

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On what we refer to as Fogdarp yoke,

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we see a pair of twins with horned helmets.

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Grevensvænge figures were a set of bronze figurines

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with horned helmets, and others were in acrobatic poses

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similar to depictions we find in the Minoan culture.

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We also see these horned figures on the Vestrup razor.

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We know some motifs that repeat with this horned warrior

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lifting ships in the air,

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so this might likely be connected to some story

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of the time.

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Helle Vandkilde and others have recently made a compelling case

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for this motif's origin in the Mediterranean.

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I think we need a bit more evidence before being able to say anything definitely.

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However, this shows

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that the idea of the Nordic people with horned helmets isn't impossible;

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we just need to put it on the people living 2000 years before the Vikings.

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And before you wrote me a comment.

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There are depictions of figurines with horns on the helmet

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from the Viking and Vandal ages.

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figure on a bronze matrix from Öland, dating to around 500 CE.

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Then we have three figures that might depict Odin, one

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found in Uppåkra in Scania, another on Levide Gotland,

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and a third found in Starya Ladoga, Russia.

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Nonetheless, there are nonetheless

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these are not the horns of cow are.

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we have not found an actual helmet with horns in from the Viking age.

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In Scandinavia, the Viking helmets were all built to be used in battle.

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It seems like helmets for ritual seem to not have been used in during this

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period compared to the helmets we find during the late Scandinavian Bronze Age.

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"They are dark from the tips of their toes right up to their necks—trees, pictures,

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and the like."

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he met in the Volga Bulgars capital in 922 CE.

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Ibn Fadlan didn't spend much time talking about the Rus body art;

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this is the only known description of what can be assumed

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to be Viking tattoo art.

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As you note, it is not much at all, and the wording ibn Fadlan use

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here is a bit ambiguous and could be simple body art with paint.

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Or it could be some sort of scarification where some substance with color

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has been added to the wounds.

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Unfortunately, it would have made things easier

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if we had found any tattooing tools preserved from the Viking

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or even earlier culture for that matter.

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But in other culture, tattoo tools are mostly made

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out of bone or other organic material that doesn't really last.

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The exception is, of course, the ancient Egyptians, who seems

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to have used some sort of needles made out of bronze.

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is that we find a lot of bone combs and other devices from the Viking age,

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and the soil on Gotland, for example, is excellent

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for preserving bone due to the salt rich dirt.

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So we find a lot of human skeletons and other bone tools.

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They're preserved in the very pristine state,

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but not something that we would be able to use as a tool

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for making tattoos has yet been found on Gotland or anywhere else

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in Sweden, for that matter.

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or tools made out of wood or other organic materials,

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which so unfortunately doesn't really preserve

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well in general and could be the reason why we haven't found any tattoo tools.

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Something worth mentioning is that we neither

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find the tattoo art on the Mummy is found in bogs around

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Denmark and Sweden, and I think it's worth bringing up here

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that the skin turns quite dark due to the natural processes in the marshes.

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but this could reveal

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any hidden tattoos on the skin.

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This method has been used with Scythian corpses frozen in the tundra.

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And we know that tattoos were around in Europe from, for example, Ötzi,

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who lived on the brink of the early

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Bronze Age there in northern Italy.

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As I mentioned, we have a witness talking about body

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art on what mostly was Scandinavian Vikings.

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However, we will need more evidence to be able, from a scientific perspective,

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to say that the Vikings really used and had the body art.

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Most of the, as I call them, Instagram Vikings who decorate themselves

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with these "viking tattoos"

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do not have a Viking tattoo.

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At most, they have a sort of reimagined cosplay of what

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the Vikings might have had.

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But in many cases, it's not even that but later reimaginations of Viking art.

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Take, for example, the Vegvisir symbol; I know it's

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a popular Viking tattoo, and supposedly, you won't get lost if you have it.

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by Geir Vigfusson in 1860.

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Vigfusson claims that he got this from

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an Icelandic text called Huld Manuscript.

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Now it seems as Vigfusson seems to have lost

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the original manuscript at one point or hear me out.

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He made the whole thing up and just based it on later

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Icelandic magical symbols.

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has a short book of 35 pages with magic

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signs from Iceland in its collection.

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They resemble a bit some of Vigfusson's depictions,

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but this book was written around 1600 CE.

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So a bit after the Viking age.

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This manuscript is fascinating because magic seems to have

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still been practiced and survived the witch processes

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in Scandinavia and Iceland.

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None of them are the Vegvisir, however.

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In my opinion, these symbols are a mishmash of later

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Christian thought and Viking-inspired art.

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I find it most likely that Geir made the Huld manuscript up later

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to sell his story when esoterism was on the rise.

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And if you like the symbol, nothing stops you from getting it tattooed on

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your body.

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you find online often have some runes written around the symbols.

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Nearly all I saw on my quick perusing had the Futhark written around them.

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Futhark is basically the Viking.

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ABC didn't order it.

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ABC they had it, the f, c.

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And so while it might be better than spelling out soup,

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I don't think that this rune

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has any profound meaning, so to say.

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that are not Viking tattoos and that you should not get.

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The chin tattoo is maybe the first that comes to mind.

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We find it, for example, with the Moari, called "Ta moko,"

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and among the indigenous people of Alaska and Canada.

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In Hän Gwich'in the chin tattoos are referred to as Yidįįłtoo

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the Iñupiaq call these marking Tavlugun,

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and in the arctic regions, it's named Kakiniit.

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And we should remember that these symbols

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have a deep meaning for the people within these culture.

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Often practices such as tattooing, religion

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and other tradition was outlawed by the governments of these areas

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and due to this they were almost on the brink

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of being exterminated and forgot them.

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please don't get the shame that if you don't belong to these groups,

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I've seen the tick tock filter that includes the mark

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and you're supposed to be Viking and you have it.

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And yes, don't just don't use it and waiting.

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Then you know what has the right to their culture

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and its rightful advanced practice.

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And there is Sarah evidence that the Viking would have these type

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of markings.

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we have about the Viking body art, they did not paint above the neck.

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So if you want to look like a Viking that A to root is a bit uncertain.

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To be honest, what we do know is that they did find that teeth

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usually we find horizontal grooves on the Viking teeth,

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bringing them a quite unique esthetic.

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If you want to be a Viking, you might have to do some dental work.

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Now if finding your teeth is a bit much for you

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and still want a tattoo with Viking theme,

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then I would recommend that you look up Peter Oakmund Madsen and his Tattoos

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studio, the Northern Black, and he has published a couple of books

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with the Viking inspired motifs that really catch the Viking art

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and adapting to are awesome.

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Welcome back.

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Most of you might associate the Vikings with the Fearsome Warriors,

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which have been the public perception for many years.

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But as research and or geology went forward,

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this picture has started to change.

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While the Vikings enjoy raiding a monastery

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or to another image has start to develop,

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the Viking were tradesmen who sold goods and services

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for silver, gold or other goods found up in the cold north.

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But the real truth is most likely that

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the Vikings were highly opportunists.

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They raided where the writing was good and traded,

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where the trade in would be the most beneficial for them.

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Now was this life of going out, raiding and trading the

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something that majority of the population enjoyed.

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I hear particularly online, that the Vikings were farmers

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just looking to expand their farm line.

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was most likely necessary for many to be self-sufficient, animal husbandry

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were more like it of being important for the society as a whole.

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As Professor Neil Price pointed out,

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the Viking society depended on wool.

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Most clothing were made out of yarn and maybe most important,

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the ships sail were entirely of wool.

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The ship technology were improving rapidly.

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This same look was the biggest key to the success,

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and it seems to have been introduced quite late up here in the cold.

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The north not earlier than 700 c e and these sayings were square

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and created out of wool strips.

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Soon together either horizontally or vertically to make them more wind resistant.

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They add the

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texture of tar or tallow, fat

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or other agrees substances on the sail,

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but how much wool what

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they need to create one of these sails.

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containing about one kilo wool per square meter.

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A medium sized boat would get away with, maybe an 80 square meter

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sail, that clocking about 50 kilos.

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Add to this

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math all the clothes the sailor needed for the open sea,

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and then of two sets of clothes later at land.

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And then they most likely had a research.

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They had tents and they had rugs and the amount of wool starts to add up here.

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And the Scandinavian ships during this time produce

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about one kilo wool per year.

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So to fit the ship with all the items required

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and a crew of 32 sailors or more,

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if it was one of the larger vessels, we would need a lot.

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We would need quite a big herd of sheep.

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Then we have all the work associated with creating the fabric.

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There was no machines at this time, so it's required humans

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to do everything from scratch to suit everything.

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Textile archaeologists have calculated a two person team could create

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one medium sized same in about one year

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if they work 10 hours every single day.

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As I mentioned, you would not go out without a backup sail.

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So we're up now in two years and four people.

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Then we need to add all the other stuff they would require.

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And some fleet during the height of the Viking age

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could over 200 ships.

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Calculations have been made and the amount of cloth used for sailing

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in Scandinavia might have been 1 million square meters.

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Remember one sheep, one kilo, one square meter, roughly

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one kilo wool, two millions of sheep.

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Not there's not sheep that intense.

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It is unlikely also that the three people were doing all this work

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and it might even explain the origin of training in Scandinavia

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to get slaves or thralls towards the textile mills

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and towards the later Viking age.

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We start to see farms merging together.

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Previously it was thought that maybe the farms consolidated due

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to migration or war or for other reasons, but it seems now as if families

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started to go together to get enough land for these sheep herds to have a Graceland

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and during this time we also

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start to find weaving huts on this premises,

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and they're often sunken quite far into the ground.

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And they seem to have been quite harsh environments to work in.

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It's hard to see a free woman spending 10 hours every day

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ruing the line lungs and eyesight in these little huts.

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So raiding probably became a necessity to support

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a textile production for the increasing ship production.

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So it seems as we Scandinavian to create a vicious circle for ourselves,

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The first just going and going and going.

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was everybody a warrior now most likely

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just trying to survive on their small farm land

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and even more probably have raised cattle and sheep

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to produce more sales to get more wealth for the community of the daybreak.

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How was the Viking society structure and was it important to be beautiful?

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We have mentioned the

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thralls here and the Scandinavian slave trade,

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but how did the Vikings structure their society, chemistry and classes,

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or were they all set as equal?

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the materials left to us, we can see three levels in the Scandinavian society.

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At the lowest we find the thralls or enslaved people

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who most likely comprised of fourth of the population.

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These were people without rights and freedoms

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and were kind of left to the whims of their masters.

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Then we have the free people

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who could vary from very prosperous merchant to,

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you know, the to go to cottage, barely scraping by.

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And these class made up the vast majority of the population.

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Lastly, we have the elites, the two percenters of the Scandinavian society.

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These classes quite an exciting origin story within the Viking mythology.

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If we read Rígsþula, we are offered quite the insight

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into the Scandinavian view on class and society.

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In this story, we follow the god Heimdahl, who wanders

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the earth in the disguise of Rígr.

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he meet an old couple called great grandmother and great grandfather.

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Rigr get served a heavy, thick loaf

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or bread than meat and sleeps between the old couple.

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For some reason.

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Nine months later, the great grandmother gives birth to a son.

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They name a thrall in the song this child is described as

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he began

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to grow and thrive as well on his hands.

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not on the knuckles, thick fingers.

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He had an ugly face, a crooked back long heels.

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Þræll was then, well,

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not married since he was a slave, but coupled with Þír.

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She was a slave girl with dirty

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feets, sunburned, and a bent nose.

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Þræll and Þír are then connected with

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specific tasks and labor within the saga.

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and with this position in the society

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on the lowest part of the hierarchy.

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And Rigr continue his journey with another couple in the hall

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with a cozy fire burning.

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and the grandmother and they were welcomed and in good physique.

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Again, Rigr was served food a bit better this time and slept between the couple.

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Nine months later.

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The son Karl, the name translate to householder, basically was born

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and this go to having lively eyes, red hair and a healthy color on the skin.

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this class is supposed to do a specific job.

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Lastly, Handel comes to the loft hall,

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a grand construction with its port beating south.

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The couple here is even more beautiful

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and dressed in fine their clothes than the previous couple.

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And there are John.

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And this time he aimed all the served roles at the birds

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and the best cuts from the pig on silver plates and get a fine wine,

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a meal again, since even the ultra wealthy didn't have a guest room,

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he endlessly between the man and the wife.

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surprise the son Jarl was born

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or Earl and dressed in fine silk and he had blond,

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beautiful hair, bright cheeks and piercing eyes.

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Earl grew up here on this benches.

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He began swinging Linden Shields feet.

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The bells ring, then the elm bow with shafts of arrow

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paralyzed javelin round this Frankish spears ride.

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Horses are John the hounds real saw

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some practice swimming

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from this saga.

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We can tell there seems to have been three crucial qualities for them.

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The Scandinavian Society appearance,

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your capabilities and your influence.

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While it is also interesting to note here that compared

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to the Greek pantheon number, a child of a girl

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would have extraordinary power and be a bit higher up within the society.

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This seems not to be the case here and they don't want to receive any special

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gift in the saga.

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between ibn Fadlan's description of Scandinavian hygiene,

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the archaeological record, sagas, and chroniclers like John of Wallingford.

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In comparison, ibn Fadlan has nothing

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nice to say about the Viking way of hygiene,

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but the archeological record indicates that they cared about their looks.

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A comb was a necessity in Scandinavian

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society; add tweezers, razors,

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and scissors.

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The statues we have found depict people with twirled mustaches,

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finely trimmed beards, and nicely cut hair.

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described the Scandinavians as follows.

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According to their contry's costums -

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in the habit of combing their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday,

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to change their clothes frequently and to draw attention to themsleves

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by means of many such frivolous whims.

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In this way, they besiged the married women's virtue and persuaded

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the daughters of even noble men to become their misresses.

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well affect your status and how far you could move within the society.

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Now there was mobility, so makes sense, especially if you could prove as capable

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and maybe increase your wealth and influence over the sphere.

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Mostly this nobility was refer to the people of the free men.

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Of course, elite could move down, not necessarily

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higher up since the wealth on top, but it happened also that enslaved

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people could be released from their bondage.

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We even have two rune stones from former or maybe

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current slaves that was ordered for them or others.

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For example, on Adelsö, just outside Birka,

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we find one stone carved on the order by Tolir.

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He refers to himself as Bryti, a

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special class of thrall,

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and he could claim this stone with his wife by right.

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but one could question if Tolir was now free.

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We also see walk on being mentioned

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who was probably the Jarl on orders during this time

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where Tolir raised a stone, so he must have been

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a quite important person within the society.

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Another example is in Denmark where a Toki the blacksmith raised a stone in memory

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of his former master who gave him freedom and gold.

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to the born free men.

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In some sense, the thralls would always be a thrall in the eye of the law.

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It might have been even worse for the woman

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since most of the slaves they'd have focused on sex trafficking.

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If you want to wash away the picture of the brave of Viking Warrior,

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you should really read ibn Fadlans account.

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I must warn you.

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And we will have to return to Viking Age

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to focus more on woman in this society.

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We didn't really get around to this now, and I see that we would need maybe

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a full episode discussing only the women

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and gender in the Scandinavian culture.

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And there's undoubtedly a couple of myths that we can expel there too,

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but this will be a later episode

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because next time we will be back investigating our alien overlord

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in one or another way.

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anywhere you can, such as iTunes, Spotify or to your friend at the trench.

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I would also recommend visiting digging up ancient ideas dot com to find more info

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about me on the podcast and you can find me on

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most social media sites I post quite frequently on Tik Tok for example.

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And if you have comments,

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curated suggestions or you want to write that email in all caps

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because you're upset about your Viking tattoos

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spelling soup, you find my contact info on the website.

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You will also find all the sources

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and resources to use this podcast in the website.

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This time you will mostly find further reading suggestion

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on some good resources on the Viking culture.

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Sandra Marteleur created the intro music and our outro is by the band

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called Trallskruv, who sings their song foliehatt.

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Links to both of these artists can be found in the show notes until next.

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Wait, wait, wait, wait.

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Don't forget hinted at a logical podcast network.

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And if you become a member, you get early releases.

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Whenever we managed to get that happen and you get bonus content

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and you get a lot more energy supporting all the shows on the network

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by becoming a member, I would highly recommend that

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you also get access to Slack channels and some other exciting stuff

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where you can share privately with me

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or Andrew Keller for that matter, if you want to bother him a bit extra.

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