Films, TV shows, books and games often attract Viking with bloodthirsty warriors, not washed in winged helmets (or horns), but this is nothing more than a model from the 19th century. The Viking people really are not any mythical creature and they certainly have no hilarious helmets. Livescience.com information portal dispel The most popular legends about Viking people.
The Viking wears a helmet with wings and horns
This legend originates from the work of German artist Karl Emil Depler, who described the German gods in such helmets in the outfit created for the Opera cycle of Richard Wagner in Nibelung Ring. Wagner was inspired by the German mythology, but that idea was clinging to the Scandinavi, and some of them were Viking. After that, Hollywood replicated the idea. But there is an alternative version: perhaps the wings and horns can be inspired by real helmets from Denmark, 900 BC on. – A thousand years ago the Viking.
The Viking has executed their enemies with a “bloody eagle”
Eagle Blood's implementation method is described in medieval scandina texts, but in fact it can only be a cruel idea, not used in practice. If you believe that the texts of some Sagas, among the Viking kings, are those who have executed their enemies, cut their ribs from behind and pull out their lungs so they look like poultry. In fact, in historical sources, there are two separate references about the implementation, but experts believe that Sagas's content can be exaggerated for the benefit of a dramatic effect. In addition, science has no archaeological evidence to testify for the existence of a bloody eagle of Muslims.
Viking is always the raids
It is undeniable that many Viking people are truly raids – but not always. They are also cunning traders and brave pioneers. Antiquities, such as Arabic money, show that the Viking transaction network extends from Byzantium to the British archipelago and the settlement area in Newfoundland Canada pointing out that they have come to the US in 1000. That is, nearly 500 years compared to Christopher Columbus. The Viking people are also famous for the trading of fur, fangs of Hai Ma and Amber. A number of modern historians believe that economic and cultural reasons for Viking's expansion are no less important compared to slavery attacks and arrest.
The Viking people are cruel inhumane
It is undeniable that the Viking is often a cruel person. However, they live in a harsh period, when many other societies are equally brutal. Although Viking's raids on the British Lindiffarn Island in 793 strengthened their negative reputation, brutal and massacre wars were popular in the Middle Ages. The cruelty is thought to be unique of the Viking people is probably the idea of the Victorian period.
The Viking is blonde
The prejudice that the Viking looks like Scandinavi stereotypes may arise due to racial theories about Europe of the 19th century. In fact, the Viking is quite a cultural group rather than the nation. Recent studies on DNA Viking showed a scandina gene mixture with residents in southern Europe, Slavs and even Sam. The Viking often go to remote lands, such as Byzantium and Arab countries, so some may have ancestors from these areas. Not to mention the fact that the analysis of the burial of Viking shows a lot of appearance features.
The Viking is a bad hygiene
In pop culture, the Viking often appear warriors that have not been washed, but in reality, they are quite clean people. Creates from their tombs, such as peaks, tweezers and brushes to remove sulfur, show that they take care of personal hygiene. And on the pieces of some objects of dishes with soap traces. Arab researcher Ahmad IBN Fadlan in 921 noted that the medieval Viking people in the east of Rus were washed every day – he considered this practice strange.