Research tends to change stereotypes, so, continuing to research real history, I decided to return to the so-called Vikings and the furor that the New Year's history blockbuster made among Russians made me return to this topic. Some probably read my opus "Dissecting Vikings …" in LJ, where I write under the nickname skunk_69 so this is the same I am, but official and within the bounds of decency. In this article I will talk about real Vikings, without fancy mountains of fabulous bullshit and legendary stereotypes, about ordinary people forced to survive in difficult conditions and that they were not monsters at all, and practically differed little from their neighbors in the Baltic Puddle … In general, as they say, please do not read the faint hearted.
So who were the Vikings?
The question is complex, and I will try to illuminate it as much as possible from different sides, but the Vikings were definitely not only Scandinavians, as they are represented in the fabulous pamphlets of the OI (Official History). How do Viking stories usually begin with us? Well, of course, with the "conquest of Great Britain and Ireland"! The Irish, who themselves, just yesterday, were just that rabble … they did not know any Vikings, but they knew very well and distinguished those who terrorized the Green Island and called them finn-gall and dubh-gall (fingals and dubgals), that is, in other words, Ireland conquered … the Gauls! From the OI, every student knows that the Gauls are some kind of mythical tribes that supposedly inhabited France, conquered everyone left and right … and then disappeared without a trace into oblivion,but for some reason no one pays any attention to the people who continue to live in the same place and bear the same name - these are the Dutch from Holland. Technically, the famous Gauls name was usurped by the current copyright holders of this brand only after the Napoleonic pogrom of the country. It is worth immediately focusing attention on the fact that the Irish clans clearly distinguished the alien white-haired fingals and practically their black-haired Dubgals who founded Dublin. Yes, of course, anyone can remind me that according to the official version of history, the Gauls and Vikings lived in general in different periods, and their history has been known to everyone for a long time, but for a long time I have not been satisfied with that lurid lurid story "which is known to everyone" and opening to myself, as I already understood, absolutely unknown story aptly named, to my deep regret for the British,historian Eric Hobsbawm "LONG XIX CENTURY" I began to understand how far real events took place from what I was taught at school and university, and I will not hide one of the biggest surprises for me was the convergence of various lines of different eras into one point, and this point was, no, not Rome and not Jerusalem, this point was HOLLAND. Here he is the engine of European progress! The very appearance of such European countries as France, England, Spain (and the United States) directly depended on the "campaigns" of these very Gaul-Vikings.this point was HOLLAND. Here he is the engine of European progress! The very appearance of such European countries as France, England, Spain (and the United States) directly depended on the "campaigns" of these very Gaul-Vikings.this point was HOLLAND. Here he is the engine of European progress! The very appearance of such European countries as France, England, Spain (and the United States) directly depended on the "campaigns" of these very Gaul-Vikings.
But let's start in order, start with the Irish … If there is at least relative clarity with the Dubgals, these are the neighbors of the Irish clans, with whom the Irish tribes could even communicate fairly tolerably without an interpreter, then the Fingals are also quite interesting because they are not only they were at enmity with the Dubgals, but they also fought among themselves in earnest (!), and the language of the Fingals was incomprehensible to the Irish. Writers of the 19th century, "honestly" sculpting literary prose, which later became "historical science", hung rather interesting labels on the tribes, associating them with modern peoples, and they sound rather abusive for the "Russian ear", so the Scots are Scots, the Irish are morons, the Danes are Dubgals, Norwegians - fingals, and Swedes - oh! about the Swedes is generally a separate conversation. Yes, childish nationalism is an illogical and shameless thing to the point of indecency, and reasonable arguments do not work here. Although even the speaking name Finngalla screams about the Eastern Baltic. If it's a secret for someone, then I will reveal the secret, in the west, the Finns were called in a crowd of tribes in tsarist Russia aptly called Chukhonts, and absolutely not paying attention to the fact that they are completely different PEOPLES Sami, Finns and Estonians, I see nothing shameful in the name used at the beginning of the last century and neglecting such a fashionable tolerance, I will also use this word. Later we will deal with the so-called. "Finns", but for now only about exemplary Germans - I am not afraid of this word VIKINGS!that they turn out to be very different PEOPLES Sami, Finns and Estonians, I do not see anything wrong with the names used at the beginning of the last century and, neglecting such a fashionable tolerance, I will also use this word. Later we will deal with the so-called. "Finns", but for now only about exemplary Germans - I am not afraid of this word VIKINGS!that they turn out to be very different PEOPLES Sami, Finns and Estonians, I do not see anything wrong with the names used at the beginning of the last century and, neglecting such a fashionable tolerance, I will also use this word. Later we will deal with the so-called. "Finns", but for now only about exemplary Germans - I am not afraid of this word VIKINGS!
And who are the most Vikings-Previkings among us? Yes, that's right - the Norwegians, so we'll start with them and help us with this, which has recently become wildly popular genetics. Moreover, I will not obscure the murky haplogroups in which the specialists contradict each other like Cain and Abel, but I will call everything clear to people labels, so it turned out that the exemplary Germans are Norwegians (I remind you that those who were appointed to the fingals) are 40% of Sami native origin, that is, the nomadic reindeer herders, and 20% … very similar to the Russian. This is the "banner" of the Viking movement. There are also problems with Denmark, not only did they borrow their name from the Dutch (Dutch), but also the northernmost island and province of Jutland is called Vendsyussel (Vendian susla province) where the Vendians lived,and the closest neighbors of the Wends on the island were the Tettel tribe - the prototype became famous all over the world, thanks to the complementary Nazi-fascist propaganda, the Teutons, thanks to which the province itself received the name Vendsussel-Ti.
A piece of the map of Scandinavia accidentally came across, I highlighted very catchy names in circles, as it turned out, the Roman Empire (Rommeriyeket) and Judea (Jutland), and the Ostrogoths (Ostrogothia), and the Visigoths (Westrogothia), and the Goths (Gotaland), and the Burgundians (Bornholm- Burgundarholm), and the Alans (Oelandia), and the Volga (Vulgo), and Gaul-Holland (Chalandia), and Finland (Funlandia), and Hellas (Ellumsussel), and Vendia-Vandalia (Vendsyussel), and Rugia (Rogaland), and Cimmeria-Cimbria (Kimbersussel) and many other well-known names are very compactly scattered in the territories of present-day Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I will not make any loud statements and assumptions yet, but in this regard, I also remember the mention of Homer's grave in the St. Petersburg area,and that Jesus Christ landed on the territory of the future Sweden (after he was expelled after a public crucifixion) in the town of Kristianstadt, remember the old name of the Norwegian capital - Christiania, and this capital was located in Rommeriiket (Rome?). Even more bad associations are evoked by the strange hegemony of Sweden (!) On the verge of the OE New Time. Inevitably, you begin to think about the validity of the "Norman theory" …
Promotional video:
And the most interesting thing is that after all this, TI claims that the Scandinavians are pure Germans! There are no more than 40% Germans, and then half of them are probably Dutch Gauls.
The fact that the so-called Pomors (and those who in the Baltic are called the people (?!) are Pomorians (part of the Poles nation) or Pomeranians (part of the German nation), and those on the White Sea … that's bad luck, the ethnographic group of Russians - Pomors, it's so easy cut lively into 3 parts without hesitation) participated in the Viking campaigns in general does not cause any doubts and this is regularly mentioned in the OI, besides, the Pomors always misunderstood each other with the Muscovites, but the soul always lived with the western neighbors soul. For a long time the Pomors had communication with the West. Thanks to ties with neighboring countries, as well as knowledge of European customs and orders, the Pomor community maintained their own democratic traditions, not imposed by capitals. The proximity of the Russian North to the Scandinavian countries has long played an important role in the spiritual and cultural life of the Pomors. Pomors and Norwegians (Norwegians) have worked together since ancient times at sea. There was even a common language - "Russenorsk" ("my sweat"), which was banned for use by the Bolsheviks in 1917 (it was forbidden to use the language (!), When, after the victory of the Bolsheviks, SUDDENLY it turned out that the Pomors were an indivisible part of the great Russian ethnos, period!) … But contacts with the Norwegians continued for some time. The last Pomeranian ship arrived in Norway in 1929. From year to year, the Pomors brought their goods to those Norwegian cities and villages where they had established business contacts. The Pomors used to communicate with Norwegian fishermen and merchants in Russenorsk, in which about 400 words are registered. The permanent core of the language consisted of approximately 150 words. About 50% of words are of Norwegian origin, 40% are Russian. The rest of the words are borrowings from other languages, in particular, English, Dutch, Low German, Finnish and Sami.
Now, relying on the data on the composition of the language and the origin of the Scandinavians, it is possible to roughly summarize the data and mathematically calculate the estimated percentage of the tribal constituents included in the volumetric name VIKINGI, or rather their northern subspecies called fingals. For ease of counting, the remaining 10% of the words that make up Russenorsk will be divided by 5 and we will combine English, Dutch and Low German, which did not differ much in the first half of the 19th century, into the group of Germans (6% in total), and Finnish and Sami into the group of Finns (4%)).
Further, we decompose 50% of Norwegians: of which 40% are Finns-Sami (i.e. 20%), 20% are Russians (i.e., again roughly, approximately 60% of Finno-Ugrians (6%) and 40% are Slavs (i.e. e. 4%)) and, not dividing the Dutch Gauls with the rest of the peoples of the future Germany, 40% are Germans (i.e., again, 20%).
The Russians 40% are also roughly divided, without highlighting the Iranian-Turkic component (which is not always uniformly, but always insignificantly, in different shares in the composition of both Slavs and Finno-Ugrians), the Slavic component by 40% (i.e. 16%) and 60 % the Finno-Ugric component (24%), we also neglect one percent of Russian Germans.
Now there is an opportunity to argue that the Northern Vikings (Fingals) are Germans by only 26%, by 20% they are Slavs, and by 54% they are of FINNISH ORIGIN! That is, the overwhelming majority of Vikings are Chukhonts !!! So even these rough calculations show that the Irish were still right, Vikings Fingals are often fair-haired Finns and at least they spoke 3 different languages, it's no wonder that the Irish, who are accustomed to Gauls-Dutch-Dutch-Danes-Dubgal could not understand them.
What did the Vikings really look like? Well, probably something like this:
That with the title photo will make an approximately correct picture. Now add axes, knives, clubs, harpoons to the guys, well, that's all. By the way, the photographs are the last quarter of the 19th century, imagine what happened in the beginning … Yes, despite the propaganda tricks describing the Vikings as armored swordsmen with shields, archaeological excavations of burials do not confirm this. Only 1/6 of the male burials attributed to the Vikings with weapons, with shields - 18%, with a sword - 9-11%, slingers - more than 20% (or maybe not slingers, lead balls are bullets in Africa), and practically in of all an ax, a spear or a harpoon, and the main feature of all male burials was a knife, quite long 26-36 cm long (i.e. a blade over 18 cm, obviously it is not possible to cut sausage and cut whistles from branches). Only a few chain mails have been found ALL THE TIME,And EVERYTHING !, sheepskin coats and sweatshirts - this is the armor of the Vikings, but about the famous horned helmets, modern historians generally shyly keep silent, the Vikings did not have helmets (and the horns only in the drawings are beautifully obtained and are worn comfortably) only an incomplete dozen of various unknown origins for all Viking »Headgear territories …
So, no matter how the Vikings were painted in the OI, according to archeology, the warriors were only 3-6% of the population, no more than in any other backward society of that time. And if we are to debunk the tales of the Vikings to the end, we will have to admit that as soon as the Vikings settled somewhere where they were left to their own devices, they almost instantly turned from formidable fighters-shakers of the universe into ordinary Chukhonts-cattle breeders, fishermen and coastal gatherers. On their farms, the Vikings eked out a miserable existence, starved and died out. So that you can imagine a Scandinavian farm - a row of houses with walls made of stone or sod bricks, sod roofs and plank facades. Such a farm looks more like a bunch of dugouts than a manor.
Here are a few excerpts where Vikings are described from an OI perspective by the most conscientious researchers:
“In a cramped living space - the so-called badstove - the ceiling was in the form of a gable roof. There were bunks on either side of the middle passage. Here the inhabitants of the farm spent their winter days and evenings at work in the dim light of a wick dipped in blubber. Sitting on a bunk, they scratched wool, spun or knitted. Smoky sloping ceilings were leaking, and we had to put troughs under the leaks. Fuelwood outside Sweden and Norway was scarce and had to be drowned with anything: fish bones dipped in blubber, the corpses of seagulls and the like. To keep warm, the window did not open. The room was always damp and cold. It smelled suffocatingly of blubber, rotten fish and urine - in the old urine they washed clothes and washed themselves, since the soap was unknown. In the same room there were sheep and dogs, and often sick people, for example,lepers - leprosy and smallpox were common at the time."
“The clothes of the Vikings are dominated by wool and dark color. The cloth was made by hand on primitive vertical looms. Basically, this work was performed without leaving home, women. The looms were usually a meter with a small width - this width determined the basic size of fabric rolls. For sewing clothes (including mittens), cloths were cut out of cloth and sewn together. Knits and buttons were rare. Some wore linen, but it was expensive and most often came from abroad."
“The men wore long shirts and trousers, and a cloak with a brooch fastening was great chic. The fabric was usually one of the four natural colors of sheep's wool - brown, black, gray, or white; the presence of a person's clothes of other colors meant that he was a rich man or a successful Viking. In Europe, styles and types of clothing changed over time, but throughout the Viking era, Icelandic women wore mostly a long dress, sometimes in a fold, on which a long apron was worn on top (front and back). He held on with the help of buckles attached to the dress in the front, just below the shoulders.
Despite all this depressing picture, the Vikings loved to take a steam bath, combed out lice with great patience and pleasure, and in general, compared to the rest of Europe, they were quite clean."
“The Vikings were short, no more than 170 cm, thick-assed, roughly cut and robust, reminiscent of today's Estonians. It's actually very difficult to determine the gender of a Viking Age skeleton, Harving says. “The skulls of women are a little more masculine than they are today. Of course, this does not apply to all skeletons from the Viking period, but in general, it is quite difficult to determine the gender of the Viking, those centuries. " She explains that women, at that time, just like men, often had pronounced jaws and eyebrows ", and add to this the pockmarks, in the vast majority of the population and ugly scars on men, since these lugs were very pugnacious and vindictive …"
I think very few people saw the "Vikings" from this side.
Author: SKUNK69