Wow, the Vikings were some seriously tough people!

[Brigid]

Watching that new show on History, and one of the first things that happens is a woman kills three would-be rapists with a set of fireplace tools.

[Demo_Chris]

1. You would almost think they would run out of rapists

[Hayabusa]

41. In medieval viking-land?

[Demo_Chris]

42. If Viking women are taking them out three at a time... yeah

[pipi_k]

2. Never paid much attention

to them until I started doing my genealogy and discovering that some ancestors came from Normandy, which we all know got its name from the Normans...or Norse-men...Vikings.

But yeah...I've been watching some older History channel shows on my iPad and they were some nasty bastards, it seems.

[Myrina]

3. Wouldn't you be tough & nasty if you were freezing your ass off ....

.... 9 months out of the year just trying to stay alive? I know I'd be REALLY fucking cranky.

[pipi_k]

6. I live

in New England, where it's been said we have 8 months of winter and 4 months of damned poor sledding


And yes...it makes me cranky.

[a la izquierda]

4. My husband's family also comes from Normandy...

But way, way back ( 1066).

[pipi_k]

7. He's lucky

to have been able to trace them that far back.

For years my son was under the impression that my father's family name ended up in England with William the Conqueror, living there for a few hundred years, then perhaps migrating back to France.

Unfortunately, when I did more research on the family name, it appears that it wasn't always what it is now...or what it was when that part of the family arrived in Canada during the mid 1600s. It was a whole different surname, and one of my ancestors took the name of the military unit he was in, which led to a complete changing of the family name to what it is now.

Anyway, that line originated in St Malo, France, which is in Brittany.


Another line...Roussel... came from Normandy. Which makes sense...Roussel = Red = Viking origins.

[a la izquierda]

10. Well, I've traced his family back to the 1400s.

They were Earls, so it was pretty easy, once I got back to the 1700s. It also helps that the men tend to have odd, or at least uncommon first names, and some military service. His family has been in America since the 1630s.
I've also traced another line of his family back to 17th century France. That ancestor was expelled as a Hugenot.

I'm a historian, so genealogy is a fun hobby.

[pipi_k]

18. How do you

find all this stuff out?

I know a lot of times people actually visit the archives in the areas they're looking for, which isn't possible for me.

I was using Ancestry.com but ran into lots of dead ends, or, worse...totally false information.

[grasswire]

26. I have been able to go way back on ancestry.

A couple of lines as far back as B.C.

Many other lines to the Middle Ages.

Oddly enough, the one I'm stuck on is my great grandfather in Ontario. Can't find his parents.

And yes, researching on ancestry has its downside, as there are a lot of errors and you have to confirm by other sources.

BTW, you know there is a genealogy group on DU?

[grasswire]

9. yeah, just the names of some of my ancestors are clues

The Skull Cleaver, for one.

If you want to see some of them, take a look at Rollo the Giant -- my grandfather, about 40 generations removed.

[OriginalGeek]

15. One of my favorite beers!

[grasswire]

20. OMG

That's my ancestor!

My fam members ruled the Orkney Islands for generations.

Thanks for that image!

[Brigid]

23. Some of my ancestors on my dad's side . . .

Came from the same clan as Macbeth. And I probably have pretty good dose of Viking blood, since both sides of my family came mostly from the British Isles. Isn't geneology cool?

[grasswire]

24. well, my ancestor was killed by Macbeth.

Malcolm.

[Brigid]

25. Feud time, methinks forsooth!

[grasswire]

21. can you buy that beer in U.S.? nt

[OriginalGeek]

30. yes

I get it at Total Wine and Spirits in Orlando, FL - they have a great selection of imports and craft/micro brews. I know they have several other locations but I don't know if they go out of Florida...hopefully you live in a state that allows you to buy big beers - it's 8.5% abv and will split your skull but you will love it.

http://www.sinclairbreweries.co.uk/skull_splitter.html

Skull Splitter is our strongest ale: which is named after Thorfinn Einarsson who was the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. Sophisticated, satiny smooth with a deceptively light character, it is a tribute to our colourful forbear.

[grasswire]

28. the name of the Skull Splitter is Thornfinn Einarsson

Born in Orkney about 890. Son of Sigurd the Stout Hlodvarsson, Jarl (Earl) of Orkney. Grandson of King Rogwald the Wise Eystenson, Jarl of More. Great great grandson of Ivar Halfdansson, King of Sweden.

[struggle4progress]

17. A fun Viking show between 957 and 963 was "Leave It to Skull Cleaver"

about idyllic childhood in the suburbs of Danelaw

[Art_from_Ark]

36. Featuring Skull, brother of Walleyed, son of Juneth and Wardlock,

and Eddye Haskellsson of Thornbutt, the maker of trouble.

[struggle4progress]

37. Those were such happy days!

[Art_from_Ark]

39. A 6-year run was pretty good, considering it was in the same time slot as this popular show:

[struggle4progress]

44. I'm afraid I'd forgotten about that show

my bad

[pipi_k]

27. Isn't it cool

how the family resemblance can carry on year after year...

Doing my own family I found a line that lived out in the midwest but is no relation whatsoever to any of my ancestors and I would have forgotten about it except that one guy's photo (from the mid 1800s) looked almost exactly like an uncle who was born in 1946.

They could have been brothers, that's how much alike they looked.

It's fascinating stuff!

[Brigid]

31. I once saw a photo of a Civil War soldier . . .

who was a dead ringer for Harrison Ford.

[ashling]

33. What about

Beaver Cleaver?

[Spike89]

5. Yeah, being half Norwegian I like to think so

However, I submit that anyone who could survive into adulthood in those days was tough. No real medicine, no "labor saving" devices to speak of, no electricy (heat and easy light)...I'm sure the "pampered" people were tougher than anyone in the US in the this century.

[Xithras]

8. She was a shieldmaiden.

Viking society was interesting. Most major decisions, including the election of kings, were made via the Thing, which was a democratic body that any free adults could vote in. All men were REQUIRED to participate. Women were not required, but could do so if they wished, and many did.

The same concept applied to combat. All men were required to be trained in combat so they could defend themselves, and to participate in wars ordered by their kings or Thing. Women weren't required to fight, but could do so if they wanted. If they did, they trained alongside the men and fought just as hard.

There's an interesting story about Leif Eriksson's pregnant sister, who was a shieldmaiden in Vinland when the Vikings attempted to settle North America. According to the story, the native Americans were attacking the Viking village and were driving the men back when she walked out of her hut and saw what was happening. Infuriated, she grabbed a sword off of a dead Viking, ripped off her gown, and charged into the fight screaming at the cowardice of the men who were retreating. The Native Americans were so stunned by the sight of a furious, pregnant, mostly naked warrior woman hacking down their men in full combat that most of them fled in fright.

[pokerfan]

16. Was?!

[Sekhmets Daughter]

19. That is fascinating...

I've read about the 'Berserkers' as well...a truly warrior culture.

[Yavin4]

29. A pregnant woman wielding a sword??!

I'd fucking haul ass as well.

[struggle4progress]

11. yeah, they were, like, a floating hell's angels troupe:

just imagine the dragonships lined up at a noisy seaside mead joint, loud music pouring out onto the wharf, and everybody being extra careful not to touch anybody else's boats

[Dr. Strange]

12. And yet, they haven't won a Super Bowl.

[Brigid]

14. Maybe they would . . .

If they could put that woman on the team.

[In_The_Wind]

13. Somebody had to do it!

[img][/img]

[datasuspect]

22. Yes, we are.

Wotan hath placed a hard heart in my breast.

[kwassa]

32. They founded Russia.

which is named after the Rus', a Viking group from what is now Sweden.

also, the city of Dublin started out as a Viking settlement.

They got around.

[cemaphonic]

34. Normans also unified just about all of medieval Italy south of the Papal States

Of course, their North American settlements eventually failed. Those Skraelings must have been some tough bastards.

[Xithras]

35. It was more a matter of numbers.

"Skraeling" referred to all of the native people they met, from the Thule southward, but the people who drove them back were a Native American tribe on Newfoundland. The sagas don't make it sound like they were particularly fierce warriors, but the Viking settlers could only come a few dozen to a boat. Digs at the village site in Newfoundland confirm what the sagas suggest, which is that there simply weren't enough Vikings to hold the land. At most, there were 100 or so Vikings in Vinland. While they were better armed and were able to hold the Natives off in every attack, a hundred people simply couldn't make a permanent stand against a native population that may have been twenty times their size.

The Vikings invaded much of Northern Europe because they poured in by the thousands. They took Iceland with much smaller numbers because that island was unpopulated. The Vikings who reached Vinland were just as fierce as the rest, but there weren't many of them, and those lands were already heavily populated with natives who weren't going to give up without a fight.

[cemaphonic]

38. Yeah, normally I'm a stickler over history vs. mythologizing too, but...

1) Lounge thread

2) The Inuit are given short shrift by history. If you're going to be known for one thing, "Gave the Vikings a black eye" isn't a bad one, even if it's a huge simplification.

[Xithras]

40. It wasn't the Inuit.

I had to look it up, but the people on Newfoundland at that time were the ancestors of the Beothuk, who were believed to be related to the Algonquins.

Technically the Inuit didn't exist on Canada's east coast when the Vikings landed. The people we now know as the Inuit still only existed west of the Hudson Bay. The tribes on the east coast were the Dorset (now extinct, wiped out by the Inuit), the Innu (which, despite the name, aren't related to the Inuit...and they still exist), and the Beothuk (now extinct, wiped out by later European settlers...they beat the Vikings, but they couldn't fight cholera).



Oh yeah, Lounge thread. Sorry

[many a good man]

43. They were our overlords!