Discussion on the Vikings.

**IrishArmenian** · 06-19-2006, 22:13

Were not the Vikings and the Saxons from the same general stock. The Saxons, were of Norse desent, yes? I guess living on Britain must have made them soft. All joking aside, the Vikings are oddly distributed around Europe. If you count the Normans (I do), Viking desendants were in Sicily, Russia (it gets its name from Rus, or red hair, a trait known almost only to the Vikings), France, Britain and Ireland, in addtion to their native lands of Norway, Sweden and Finalnd (I could be wrong about their native lands. I am no Viking expert.) Do not forget they got high before battle that made them go crazy, or "beserk" if you will. They would kill everything and anything, including their own.

**The Wizard** · 06-20-2006, 14:51

The Saxons came from what is today Northern Germany. There are still numerous states in the Federal Republic named after them (Niedersaken and Saksen itself); they are still a German people like any other, such as the Bavarians or Swabians.

The Angles came from what is today mainland Denmark, as did the Jutes. Northern mainland Denmark is still called Jutland, and has a markedly different character than that of the area of, say, Copenhagen.

On the Vikings: they were what they were -- Germanic tribesmen. The Vikings are, by the very fact that their appearance, customs and everything else about their culture was almost anachronous when they began their feared raids, the most famous exponent of the Germanic tribal culture that was dominant in mainland Europe during the Great Migrations.

What I see described by Sirex1, for instance, is pure Germanic warrior culture. No, the Vikings were not so very different from the Franks, Saxons, Alemanni, Goths, and all the other mighty tribes that have gone down in history as the most glorious of barbarians...

**IrishArmenian** · 06-20-2006, 15:36

But like most Barbarians, their culture was not too strong, because the Vikings assimilated into other Cultures be it Irish (Dublin was originally a Viking colony), English, French (Normans) etc in a not-so-long time.

**Justiciar** · 06-21-2006, 12:16

But like most Barbarians, their culture was not too strong, because the Vikings assimilated into other Cultures

I wouldn't be so sure about that. They didn't simply melt in with the locals and forget their own culture, rather they often adapted it to fit their new enviroment (the Normans being a good example of this). Ever been to York? Their cultural impact there is still vaguely noticable.

**IrishArmenian** · 06-21-2006, 21:10

Originally Posted by Justiciar

I wouldn't be so sure about that. They didn't simply melt in with the locals and forget their own culture, rather they often adapted it to fit their new enviroment (the Normans being a good example of this). Ever been to York? Their cultural impact there is still vaguely noticable.

I have never been to York. Could I see a picture?

**Aenlic** · 06-21-2006, 21:29

The evidence of Viking culture in Eastern and Northern England is quite apparent nearly everywhere. You can simply grab a telephone directory from say, Yorkshire, and another from Wiltshire, and you will immediately see the difference. The number of names ending in "son" will be quite obviously more in the Yorkshire directory. It's a simple fact. Even after centuries, the abundance of names in the former Danelaw which have Scandinavian origins is undeniable, as compared to those areas which were not under the Danelaw.

The same goes for place names, and even local dialects. Look at the sheer numbers of place names with Viking endings, like "-by" and "-thorpe" in the Danelaw as compared to other parts of England. Those aren't the only Old Norse influenced place names, either. Anything ending in "toft" or "holme" or "kirk" or "thwaite" is Old Norse in origin.

As for language, the sheer number of words which are almost exact transfers from Old Norse, and are quite distinctly not of Saxon origin, is amazing. Next time you use the words angry or anger, you can thank the Vikings. There are thousands more just like it.

When a culture is around long enough to have a lasting and obvious effect on things such as family names, place names and local words, then I'd count that as evidence of a rather strong culture.