8 things you should know about vikings
Miscellaneous / / July 05, 2022
The whole truth about how the Scandinavians played hockey, what kind of pets they had and what strange rituals they performed.
1. The Vikings were so harsh that they kept bears at home
In general, the Vikings were happy to start ordinary domestic petsNorse Pets in the Viking Age / World History Encyclopedia - dogs and cats, and even took them with them on raids. True, if a fighting dog could still come in handy on a campaign, then why drag a cat there is unclear.
But the northerners were not limited to the animals familiar to us. They also kept at home bearsP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. Brown bear cubs were brought from the forest, tamed and played with. It was considered completely natural. A real northern warrior was not embarrassed by the potential difficulties of keeping a huge two hundred kilogram predatory beast at home.
However, you will not surprise anyone with a brown bear. What about white?
The Vikings of Greenland and Iceland really tried
tameP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings and polar bears. Own this pet was considered very extravagant and prestigious in society.However, later the northerners had to sell these predators to the menageries of European kings. It turned out that an adult polar bear roaming around the settlement brings more trouble than fun. In addition, laws were passed imposing heavy fines on owners who allowed their wards to roam unsupervised.
2. Vikings staged stallion fights
You may have heard that in medieval Europe a good horse was of great value, so only wealthy guys, all sorts of knights and lords, could afford to ride a thoroughbred stallion. But the northerners, who preferred to swim on wooden "horses" rather than ride on real ones, had their own opinion about these animals.
Yes, Vikings. easilyThe Viking blot sacrifices / National Museum of Denmark they sacrificed poor horses (often those that were taken from enemies in battle) and sprinkled their sanctuaries with their blood.
The killed equids were allowed to eat sausage, which in the rest of Europe at that time was considered barbaric.
But the most interesting thing for the Vikings was to use horses not for religious purposes and not in the food industry, but in the industry entertainmentPastimes of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age / Regia Anglorum. Everyone who is more or less familiar with the nature of wild horses knows that fights are not uncommon in their herds that end in serious injuries. The northerners took a couple of young aggressive stallions and set them against each other, forcing the horses literallyS. Solheim. Horse-fight and Horse-race in Norse Tradition / Studia Norvegica ethnologica et folkloristica fight to the death.
The stallions were driven into a fenced-in place of the fight, brought to a frenzy, demonstrating the heat mare, and then made bets, watching how the horses beat each other with their hooves and bite until exhaustion and death. It's like a cockfight, only the participants are bigger and yell "hoo!".
Usually fights were carried outS. Solheim. Horse-fight and Horse-race in Norse Tradition / Studia Norvegica ethnologica et folkloristica annually in August. Particularly dashing Vikings could also saddle the winning stallion, having ridden him without a saddle to show their prowess.
3. Vikings invented biathlon
The winters were snowy, and it was not very convenient for the Vikings to walk through the snowdrifts in boots alone. Therefore, they used skis, and not only as a means of transportation, but also as equipment for sports games.
ski racing wereP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings quite popular entertainment. So much so that in the Scandinavian sagas there was even the god Ull - the patron skiing and archery, as well as a connoisseur of the peculiarities of national hunting in the winter. The craft of an archer in winter was perfectly combined with the art of a skier.
We went skiing, overtook the dunces from the neighboring village, shot a partridge for the glory of Ull - consider the rest a success.
This "biathleteJ. de Vries. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte» Ull, by the way, is one of the oldest gods in the Viking pantheon, who became famous not only for his marksmanship. He had a magic ring that the other gods borrowed when they needed to swear some kind of oath. If they did not keep their word, the decoration would shrink and break the divine fingers. Therefore, Ull, who carried the ring when other Asgardians did not need it, was not only very honest - he also moonlighted as the god of justice.
4. Viking hockey sometimes ended in bloodshed
In addition to biathlon, the Vikings had a ball game called knuttlacreKnattleikr - The Viking Ball Game / Hurstwic. From Icelandic it is translated - you will not believe it - "ball game". The exact rules have not been preserved - the 9th century, whatever you want. But, apparently, it was such a hybrid of volleyball and hard ball hockey. They beat him with clubs, but it was not forbidden to grab him with his hands, and also, on occasion, to hit an opponent with a club on the ridge.
The matches took a long time, and the games, which lasted from morning to evening, were watched by huge crowds of spectators.
In the fight for the ball allowedP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings any tricks, including hand-to-hand combat, and during breaks, the players violently insulted and intimidated each other - especially ornate expressions were even recorded in the sagas.
Knuttlaker was played on flat surfaces, including ice, such as frozen lakes. For a comfortable run in this case, the Vikings lubricated the soles of the shoes with resin and sprinkled with sand. Sometimes athletes went into such a rage that they forgot about hockey and began to clobber each other with clubs until they lost consciousness.
The game differed from a real fight to the death only in that a tired player could ask for mercy and leave the field - this was not considered something very humiliating. The rule "Anyone can leave the game at any time" even recordedP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings in the book of laws "Graugaus" (Grágás) - the main Icelandic legal document of that era.
5. Vikings loved chess
Perhaps, after reading the above, you have the opinion that the Vikings are completely frostbitten savages who constantly created all sorts of game. But the northerners also knew more intelligent entertainment. Among them is a game with an unpronounceable name hnefataflGames and entertainment / National Museum of Denmark, or "Viking chess".
Unfortunately, the rules have not been preserved. Apparently, this occupation was so widespread that everyone knew them and it never occurred to anyone to write something down.
It is only known that in hnefatafl were playingThe Board Game at the Heart of Viking Culture / Atlas Obscura on boards of two types: 13 × 13 or 11 × 11 cells. Archaeologists have found intricately carved ScandinaviansP. Sawyer. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings boards, figurines and dice made of wood, stone, glass, amber and even ivory. The game itself was very popular from the end of the 8th to the beginning of the 11th century.
Curiously, hnefatafl translates as "fist and table."
Perhaps this is a hint that during the game the fists should be kept on the table. Or the Vikings were the first to invent chessbox - a hybrid chess and boxing, when we play blitz, then we beat each other in the face, and so on for several rounds.
6. Vikings manicured the dead
Viking funeral rites included cutting the toenails and handnails of the dead. What for? To delay the end of the world.
The point is that when will comeJ. Lindow. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs Ragnarok and the gods will start a war with giants and monsters, simultaneously demolishing all life from the face of the earth, Naglfar will emerge from the world of the dead of Helheim - a huge drakkar from the nails of the dead, full of jotuns, revived dead and other unpleasant servants of the goddess of death Hel.
Naglfar is so heavy that he cannot swim. But don't worry, before Ragnarok there will be a three-year Fimbulwinter winter, the oceans will freeze to the bottom, and the ship will slide on the ice like a sled.
Vikings believedJ. Lindow. Norse Mythology: A Guide to Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefsthat if the burial of the deceased with long nails is not allowed, then, you see, there will not be enough building materials for the ship, and the jotuns will not build a longship. Therefore, the nails of the dead were cut off and burned.
7. Vikings gave slaves derogatory nicknames
KnownKinder, Gentler Vikings? Not According to Their Slaves / National Geographicthat the Vikings considered slaves to be something like currency and did not hesitate to exchange prisoners for the necessary goods. In terms of law and law, slaves were treated more like pets in ancient Scandinavian society, so they slept in longhouses in the cattle bays with the animals.
This is not to say that the Vikings loved their slaves very much. According to the surviving sagas, they were given names like Bastard, Sloth, Stocky, Stinky and Hamlo.
There are also cases when, with the death of the owner slaves and especially slave girls were killed and buried with him so that he would not be bored in Valhalla.
8. The Vikings came up with criminal profiling
Imagine that you are a Viking, a ferocious berserk warrior. You earn your living by looting, raiding and kidnapping. You are a pro when it comes to separating your opponent's head from the rest of his body. But what happens when the hike ends and you return to your home village?
Bloodthirst is not something that can be simply turned off with one little act of will.
According toViking sagas criminal profiling / Independent.ie historian Tarrin Wills of the University of Aberdeen, the Icelandic sagas are full of descriptions of warriors with whom the authors advised ordinary hard workers not to mess with. About a man who was too fond of robberies and murders, vikingsJ. smiley. The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection they simply said that "he is not a very good husband and farmer."
In verse northerners describedJ. smiley. The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection typical neighbors who should be avoided. They have "broad forehead and a face, a thick beard, broad shoulders and a bald patch on the forehead. The skald-singers told about one particularly frostbitten grunt: “Egil Skallagrimsson committed his first murder at the age of seven and was interested in murder all his life. <...> Once, during a feast, he vomited on the warrior Armod, to whom he then tore out an eye.
So Viking sagas servedJ. smiley. The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection not only to glorify the exploits of the heroes, but also to describe the characters of the less pleasant members of society. A kind of warning to others, they say, stay away from that type.
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