Going viking? Or being a viking? Dirty pirates? Or noblemen?
A short perspective on vikings as viewed from within their own time, and how today’s modern history may remember them wrong. Recorded during a walk with a Scotsman at Lindisfarne UK, the first known landing point of Norse vikings in Europe.
Listen to “Vikings: Dirty Pirates, Savages, or Noblemen?” on Spreaker.
QUOTES
‘It would be like a proud thing in my village, I’m a Viking. I go out. I’m like an explorer. I am a man of the sea, and adventurer.”
“We have lords and noblemen in this country. At some point in time, somebody had to earn that. Today they’re just born with these titles.”
“The British Navy had done exactly what the Norsemen and Vikings did, just a thousand years later.”
“If you were a Viking it was a way to become a nobleman. Not dirty pirate, savage, not at all. Yes, in that time, but we were all barbaric in that time, unless you were a monk, of course.”
“For many European raiders at that point in time they were a lot more aggressive, a lot more aggressive than the Vikings.”
SHOW NOTES
A Midlife Traveler Podcast; Season 1 Scotland Speaks
EPISODE: Vikings: Dirty Pirates, Savages, or Nobelmen?
Going Viking vs Being a Viking
So you were telling a story earlier about how Viking is not being a Viking, it’s going Viking…
Right. So there’s very very confused information about the word Viking, or Vik, when we sort of look at that … Tend to suggest that if you were a man from Vike, which was a south bay in Norway, you could choose to be a Viking or Viking, which would mean that you would go raiding. Raiding, adventuring by the sea. And the more you look at it, the more you can liken it to any other navy. It would be like a proud thing in my village, I’m a Viking. I go out. I’m like an explorer. I am a man of the sea, and adventurer.
Vikings and the British Navy – same purpose?
That’s not the way that history remembers them though, right?
No. Like British gentlemen were, Navel Officer … We have lords and noblemen in this country. At some point in time, somebody had to earn that. Today they’re just born with these titles. Somebody had to earn that and in order to earn that you would be a captain in the Navy and you found a new country, you murdered all the natives, you were successful in bringing back the gold. You were knighted, you were now a Sir.
The British Navy had done exactly what the Norsemen and Vikings did, just a thousand years later. They went around the whole world, murdered people, burnt down towns and cities, and they came home and they were written in the history books as heroes.
Going Viking was a way to become a nobleman
If you were a Viking it was a way to become a nobleman. Not dirty pirate, savage, not at all. Yes, in that time, but we were all barbaric in that time, unless you were a monk, of course. And there’s been much much writings from around eastern Europe, especially there’s Frankia that state from the kings that they would prefer to be raided by the vikings than their neighbors because the Vikings didn’t destroy, they didn’t burn down the orchards or the vineyards. Didn’t destroy their homes. And after Lindisfarne, the Vikings realize as well that eastern Europeans would yield. All they had to do was frighten them. They weren’t gonna fight back anyway. Generally, it was just smash and grab. Boom and grab all the gold, grab the good stuff, on the boat and off we go again. And for many European raiders at that point in time they were a lot more aggressive, a lot more aggressive than the Vikings.
The Vikings seem to be the more famous in history though, right? And here’s what’s interesting, is that we’re standing Lindisfarne, the place that literally on the airplane here I saw that episode in the Viking’s TV series.
Viewing Vikings through the filter of history
It became quite fashionable in the 1800’s. It because this romantic sway of Vikings, so people began to romanticize about it. I think also, as well, there was a sort of sense of mystique in this bloodthirsty society, which was never really … If we took any other society of that type, they would have been just as bloodthirsty. But we try to think of the Vikings in our time but that’s not possible. We have to think of ourselves in that time and the Vikings at that time. We would have been barbaric.