Vikings

From the ninth to the 11th century (roughly 793 to 1066 CE), there lived a Nordic culture of craftsmen, farmers, warriors, and explorers. But the most prominent trade that we remember to this day were their pirates, the men (and sometimes women) who traveled by sea and river to storm through unsuspecting medieval cities in Europe, Africa, and Asia and trek through North America. The culture and society they belonged to are referred to as “the Vikings,” just as the people of France were often referred to as the Francs and people in the U.K. are referred to as the British. But Vikings is a misnomer and a false representation of an entire group of people, whose origin dates to the Stone Age. In fact, they never used the term…

Their raids have long since ceased, but Vikings continue to invade our modern cultural landscape—spreading their influence in TV shows, video games, and other outlets. Along with the rise in fiction based (sometimes loosely) on the Viking Age, there has also been an increase in modern takes about the Medieval Norse. But the media and the opinions reflecting upon it often contain historical inaccuracies and subjective interpretation. That’s nothing new: There has always been a mixed understanding of who the Vikings were and what they represented, even just a century after their conquests. The following are two very different opinions on whether we should be celebrating the Nordic cultures.…

Before The Northman hit theaters in April 2022, viewers were warned of an impending Viking invasion. And the ads weren’t wrong: The film might have been the most Viking movie ever. There was vengeance! There was wrath! There was a Skarsgård! But as you likely know, it was a bit too late to light the warning beacons. The Vikings were already here. Since 2013, there have been six seasons of Vikings on the History Channel, not to be confused with Vikings: Valhalla on Netflix, which you might mix up with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, a video game released in 2020. And let us not forget Thor and Loki, both Viking deities, who have been wowing us since their Marvel debut in 2011. So why are we still so infatuated with a…

The legendary warriors and explorers were ahead of their time—and they can teach modern men some lessons too. I would have made a lousy Viking. I learned that while standing under an enormous antler chandelier in the Vikings’ Great Hall, on a sound stage outside Dublin. Lee McDermott, the trainer for the History series Vikings, puts me through a series of brutal drills before he shows me how they conquer the hand-to-hand combat scenes: one push-up, then a sprint across the 30-yard Great Hall, then two push-ups, then another sprint, then three, and so on—all the way up to 10. And then back down. After that he has me do it again, but with squat jumps instead of push-ups. I made it halfway through the squat jumps before I had…

1 There Is No Such Thing as a “Pure Nordic Bloodline” (and There Never Was) Any feelings of ethnic superiority spreading their genetic purity was definitely not what motivated the Norse exploration and conquests of the world they inhabited. The Medieval Norse themselves originated from the migrants who inhabited Scandinavia from areas such as the Baltic region, or areas known to be inhabited by the Goths. Once these habitants settled throughout the peninsulas, which became largely known as the Viking homeland, they allowed for migrants from other areas to inhabit their new regions with them for over a millennium, dating to the Stone Age. The Scandinavians of this area also shared their immediate world relatively peacefully with the seminomadic Sámi people (who still exist in the Sápmi region), with whom they…

No one knows exactly when the Viking Age started and ended. The lack of consensus regarding the timeline stems from the lack of written records by the Vikings themselves during that time. The Norse people had an oral tradition that transmitted their history through storytelling and sagas. These narratives provide invaluable insights into Viking culture and beliefs, but they often lack the specificity needed to pinpoint dates and events. Additionally, the written records that exist from this period are predominantly from sources outside the Viking sphere, such as chronicles from Anglo-Saxon England, Frankish annals, and Arab accounts. These external perspectives offer valuable glimpses into Viking activities, but they also introduce biases and limitations, further complicating efforts to establish a definitive timeline for the Viking Age. As a result, historians must…