Vikings and their legacy

 

Much had been said, published and portrayed about the inhabitants of Northern Europe between the years 600 and 900 of the current era.  The process during which these people turned from pagans to Christians is shrouded in the cloak of the Dark Ages. 

They had been stereotyped as filthy barbarians as well as expert seafarers, traders, artisans, and blacksmiths.  Let us revise history to better understand these people.

From now on, we will address Vikings as Nordics, let us explain.  The inhabitants of Scandinavia descend from Germanic tribes living in East Europe and Western Asia.  We cannot be completely certain, but Scandinavians emigrated to what we call Russia today, Northern Europe and Britannia.  During the years 300 and 900 they interacted with three major civilizations; Iberians, Romans (wrongly called Byzantines) and Muslims.  All three of these civilizations describe them as filthy, barbaric, unscrupulous, and opportunistic; never calling them Vikings.  No other description is found from contemporaneous cultures.

The conventional means of transportation used by Nordics were the “Long Boats.”  The design of these ships dates to the Phoenicians, three millennia before.  Mediterraneans built these flat bottom ships with no keel to enter shallow and narrow rivers one way to be able to return without turning it around.  This ancient design is not Nordic, perhaps copied or “acquired” from Iberians that were direct descendants of Romans, Greeks, and, of course, Phoenicians.  Most reports of raids from Nordics are reported in rivers all over Europe.  They did go to Britannia hired by Britons to help against Picts (Scotland’s tribes).  Bad luck followed Romanized Britons because Nordics became a pest themselves.  After a few decades, Britons hired Saxons and Anglos (two Germanic cultures) to fight Nordics and Picts in exchange for lands.  That is how England was born. 

Let us return to “Longboats.”  As I mentioned before, they had no keel, and its bottom was flat.  A keel on a concave hull is needed for forward displacement as sails trap wind from any direction, also to keep the ship from skidding or flipping sideways on open waters.  This will make the most likely route for Nordics to enter Britannia from France at the closest stretch between the continent and the island, specially because currents in the North Sea have an easterly direction making it impossible for Nordics to sail west from Scandinavia.  Taking into consideration all these reasons, I must say that Nordics were great river travelers, but not seafarers.  No one knows when or how they reached Greenland if they ever did.

My last topic leaves the strongest evidence for Nordics being seafarers out.  This is the ruins found in L’Anse Aux Meadows in Canada.  There is a big problem with this village being of Nordic origin.  To start, no village like this one is found anywhere in Scandinavia.  On the other hand, the village arrangement is compatible with villages from the Iroquois tribes in North America.  Not only is the village not compatible with Nordic Villages in Europe, but also there is no forge or agricultural exchange.  If Nordics reached America and returned to Europe to tell the story, where are seeds and animals brought with them?  Finally, the only mention of Nordics traveling to “Vinland” is in what is known as the “Sagas.”  A set of writings in Latin or using Latin letters accredited to scholars and monks writing oral history that happened centuries before during the Dark Ages when not many knew how to read or write.  I will say with real confidence that the ruins in L’Anse Aux Meadows is a “Tourist Trap.”

I will address three more topics, first, were they traders?  If that is so, with whom?  No evidence had I found of any trade agreement between Nordics and any other culture.  We find these trades in civilizations like Ghanaians, Malians, Zimbabweans, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Chinese, Indians, Mexicas, Olmecs, Mayans, Koreans, Vietnamese, and even Polynesians and Caribbeans, millennia before.  But none from Nordics.  They got everything from pillaging and raids.  Second, did they forge?  Not one forge from 300-900 had been found in Scandinavia. Everything found has questionable dating. Lastly, did they create artifacts? Why make what you can steal?  Nordes' axes, swords, shields, pikes and jewelry are compatible with Roman's. (Constantinopla) 

To conclude my analysis, I will have to say that the only characteristic or stereotype that we can corroborate with contemporaneous sources is that they were Barbarians.  As I see it, they were a bunch of tribes with little in common and not even a common language.  Filial tribes that only cared about opportunities to raid and pillage others with total unscrupulous behavior.  They were the human race that took the longest to develop a true civilization, if they ever.

jrs

PS, search Viking axe and Byzantine axe. They are the same