The Discoveries That Proved Everything Wrong About the Vikings

It’s been almost a thousand years since the end of the Viking Age. But its people still fascinate us today. For centuries, they were the diehard Scandinavians who raided, traded and ruled across Northern Europe. The legacy of their long-dead civilisation lives on – in myth, if not in memory.

The passing of time has cemented what we think we know. Legends tell of a brutal, bloodthirsty people, wearing horned helmets and raiding monasteries. Some of these stories are probably true, but others deserve a closer look.

Because, throughout history, finds have cropped up that shed new and interesting light on the Vikings. Things that make us rethink what we “know” about them. Books, films and television shows have all created stereotypes and assumptions. But a lot of them are just wrong. As ever, the truth is a lot more nuanced than fiction.

So today, we’re going to look at the real Vikings, and the discoveries that proved all of us wrong.

Debunking the Viking “look”

When we talk about Vikings, most of us imagine a certain aesthetic. It probably runs along the lines of a big, strong axe-wielder with blonde hair. Grubby, snarling, and in definite need of a bath. Maybe they have a bushy beard and a helmet with two horns sticking out of the sides.

Of course, when it comes to the helmet, we can put that to bed right now – we know they didn’t wear those. But actually, not all Vikings were the rough, tough, indestructible type either. Analysis of Viking skeletons has revealed a lot about what they really looked like.

According to Denmark’s National Museum, the physical build of a Viking was much like our own – just slightly more muscular because their work was more physical. And, from studying hundreds of skeletons found in Denmark, researchers can tell that they certainly weren’t always at peak physical fitness. There are clear signs that they’d have suffered from aching joints and dental problems, just like the rest of us. In other words, they were only human.

And interestingly, during Viking times, men and women looked more alike. Female skulls reveal features like prominent brow ridges, while males had a less prominent jaw than they typically do today. This meant that women appeared more masculine, and men more feminine. This ambiguity poses a problem for osteoarchaeologists, because it makes it harder to determine a skeleton’s sex based on skull features alone. Instead, they need to look at other areas, like the width of its pelvis, to make a final call.

Archaeology has also turned up some fascinating finds, proving Vikings took a lot more care over their cleanliness and appearance than we might expect. Items like tweezers, ear picks and tooth picks have all been found. In 1000AD, a Spanish-Arabic merchant traveller visited the Viking town of Hedeby. He described seeing both men and women wearing eye make-up to enhance their beauty.

In England, Viking men were apparently popular with local women due to their combbed hair, pleasant appearance, and comparative cleanliness. Hair does seem to have been a big deal – for men and women alike. It was usually long – especially for women – and well cared for. For men, beards were popular, and well groomed.

One man even took the name Sweyn Forkbeard, presumably in honour of his facial stylings. Among women, hair was often dressed and tied up. Depictions of Vikings in runic stones and bronze figures show people who are tidy and presentable. Combs are common Viking finds.

All the same, these were people who did need to be tough. The Icelandic sagas, written just after the Viking Age, describe men adept at running, jumping and throwing. Children were praised for growing strong and being physically fit. But this wasn’t just vanity or family pride: it was training that would be crucial to their future survival.

Viking women broke the mould

There’s a prevailing myth that Viking men went out to raid and conquer, while their womenfolk stayed at home. In many cases, this was true. We know that Viking wives were more geographically settled than their husbands, and they did labour as housewives and mothers. But it wasn’t always like that. Women in Viking societies had much more mobility and freedom than we might assume. Some of them were even fierce fighters.

In the 1870s, the archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe discovered the grave of a Viking warrior at what was once the city of Birka, in Sweden. It seemed a fairly typical warrior’s grave. The skeleton within was accompanied by grave goods like a sword, an axe, and a small iron knife. There were spearheads, arrowheads, and the remains of two sacrificed horses.

The finds would later be described as “the complete equipment of a professional warrior”. A silver coin found among the things meant it could be dated to between 940 and 950AD.

The “male warrior’s” grave was documented, given the designation Bj 581, and considered interesting, but standard. But, as you’ve probably guessed, Stolpe had made a mistake. Even osteoarchaeologists at the time should have been able to tell that this was a woman. It was only in 2017 that the truth finally came to light, when researchers at Uppsala University carried out genome testing on one of its teeth and arm bones. This confirmed that the remains were those of a woman.

This was a major leap in academic understanding. The fact that this archetypal Viking grave belonged to a woman redefined the mapping of gender roles in Viking times. No longer could we safely assume that all women stayed home.

But there was more, because this raised the possibility that not only could women fight, but they could hold power. Study of the items in the grave showed that the body wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill warrior, but a high-ranking officer. A set of gaming pieces was among her things, proving that she had knowledge of strategy and tactics. Her sword had been used, and showed the kind of wear that came from a skilled owner.

The 2017 study, led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, proved that “the individual in grave Bj 581 is the first confirmed female high-ranking Viking warrior”. Some remains had been found with weapons before, but never to this extent.

Technically, this shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was. Ever since the Middle Ages, stories had portrayed female Viking warriors. Some were described as “shield maidens” fighting alongside men, but one early text even had a female lead. Named Inghen Ruaidh, or “Red Girl”, she was said to have led a Viking fleet across the sea to Ireland.

The Greenlandic Lay of Atli – a poem written in the 12th century – contained the lines, “she took a naked sword and fought for her kinsmen’s lives, she was handy at fighting, wherever she aimed her blows.”

If you’ve watched programmes like Vikings and The Last Kingdom, it’ll probably sound familiar. Until this discovery, though, the characters were often dismissed as “mythological embellishments” by Viking scholars.

There’s also evidence that other women at least joined in with expeditions. Concave brooches worn by female Vikings have been found in many of the places we know their menfolk settled. Countries like Russia, England and Iceland. This leads to the obvious assumption that their wives or daughters went there too.

So, women could fight, and they could travel. But they could also work for themselves. Recent archaeology has found clear evidence of textiles industries dominated by female entrepreneurs. This story was largely missed by past archaeologists – partly because it wasn’t considered that important, but also because textiles just don’t last well. Naturally, cloth will decompose away long before something like metal.

But, in 2009, Michèle Hayeur Smith from Brown University started examining textiles fragments held in various collections. She found that beneath all the soil and dirt, there were pointers to a thriving, successful industry. While men were away, the women of a household wove fabrics that brought in serious money. Towards the end of the Viking Age, as silver became scarcer, these cloths were used as a form of exchange. They had a real, tangible value.

This doesn’t mean that women weren’t concerned with domestic work like cooking and housekeeping. But as a body of finds, these discoveries showed that their worlds might not have been as narrow as people once believed.

They weren’t all Scandinavian

We’ve already looked at their physical build, but Vikings’ bodies can tell us other things, too. DNA sequencing of remains found across Europe and Greenland has proven that not all Vikings were Scandinavian. In fact, as a people, they were far more diverse than we previously thought.

Research carried out by Cambridge University debunked a whole raft of assumptions. Firstly, it found that in some burial sites, so-called “Vikings” weren’t actually Vikings by birth. Skeletons found in Scotland proved to be those of locals who’d adopted the Viking identity. After their homeland was invaded, residents in Orkney had presumably taken on the incoming culture and identity.

There, typically Viking burials, featuring swords and other grave goods, contained bones with no Scandinavian DNA. Although, as a note here, the name “Scandinavia” actually came after the Viking period.

Instead, the DNA identified was local: genetically, the people buried there were Pictish. And this apparent flow of new “Vikings” went in other directions, too. Pictish DNA was found in Viking burials in Norway, showing that some Scots people went overseas. And skeletons found in Greenland included women originally from Britain.

We don’t know exactly how this all played out, and how or why these people travelled, but it becomes clear that there was a fair amount of intermingling going on. As the journal Science neatly points out, it seems that the term “Viking” was more of a job description than a genetic inheritance. You could be a Viking even without the blonde plaits.

This leads to another finding. The research concluded that many Vikings had brown hair, rather than blonde. And even Scandinavian Vikings had high levels of non-Scandinavian DNA. Some burials were identified as having Saami ancestry, which was an Indigenous group genetically closer to East Asians and Siberians. This suggests that even before Viking times, populations were moving back and forth across Europe.

Traders, as well as raiders

This evidence of travel takes us neatly to our next point. Because, although we often think of Vikings as violent raiders, this wasn’t always how they operated. There’s also evidence of them becoming major players in a global trade network.

At the Viking settlement of Birka, excavated grave sites revealed thousands of imported artefacts. These were exotic, valuable items, like Chinese silks, Islamic coins, and glass beakers. On the Isle of Skye, just off Scotland, the Storr Rock hoard, discovered in the 1890s, included silver coins identified as dirhams. These were found to have been minted by the Samanid Dynasty, in modern-day Uzbekistan. Because they’re so far from home, archaeologists have concluded they were probably traded for luxury goods.

The items found, across multiple sites, shows that Scandinavia’s trading arms stretched all the way to north-west Russia, to Byzantium, and to the Muslim caliphate. The Ocksarve hoard, found in Sweden’s Gotland, contains coins from the Byzantine Empire, which may have been paid in exchange for Viking slaves. Another theory is that Viking warriors served as soldiers in the empire’s Varangian Guard, offering military service as another form of trade. A bit like Viking mercenaries.

And, the sheer number of coins found in some hoards proves that these weren’t just random spoils from a raid. They’re more likely to have been large payments, made as part of a serious economy.

And if so, what were the Vikings themselves trading, other than slaves and warriors? We can find strong clues at the historic border complex of Hedeby, in present-day Germany. During the Viking Age, this was – confusingly – in Denmark, and stood as one of its most important trading hubs. Positioned between the Frankish Empire to the south, and the Danish Kingdom in the north, it became the place where two worlds met. The meeting point for continental Europe and Scandinavia.

When Hedeby was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century, it gave up a treasure trove of information. For more than 300 years, the site had been a thriving emporium. Archaeology proved that this had been a busy urban centre. It had roads for overland movement and a harbour for merchant shipping.

There were shipwrecked cargo vessels. And importantly, there were workshops, where artisans and craftspeople created items for sale. The people here were antler carvers, blacksmiths, toolmakers, and textiles workers. They used early forms of mass production, like moulds.

But there were other artefacts that had clearly been on longer journeys to get there. These finds showed that goods like ivory, pottery and – of course – large amounts of silver were coming into Hedeby. The discovery of weights, made from bronze and lead, tell us that traders used a standardised system for exchange.

And some of Hedeby’s residents were rich. Excavated tombs contained fine gold jewellery and gemstones. They hinted at a cosmopolitan mix of different cultures. So yes, Vikings undoubtedly went on raids, but they also created, traded, and stored up wealth. As Gareth Williams, Viking expert at the British Museum, has said, “their society was so much more than murder and violence.”

They had an advanced legal system

It’s tempting to think of the Viking Age as a chaotic, lawless chapter in world history. Admittedly, the Vikings spread terror by invading other territories. There, they flouted laws as they looted and destroyed. But they also had a complex and advanced legal system of their own. At home, they abided by laws and had clearly enshrined rights.

The Viking justice and administration system was tied to Things. We’re not talking a heap of vague “things” here, but the Viking noun ‘Things’. These were assemblies where free people – not slaves – would gather to make important decisions and settle legal disputes. They were like an early form of parliament or court, usually held outside.

We can still find traces of Things around Europe, in the spots where Vikings settled. If you see the place name ‘ting’, chances are it once held one of these sites. Locations like Tingwall in Orkney and Thingvellir in Iceland became places to gather. While they were there, they also traded and socialised.

Once a year, a General Assembly was held, lasting around two weeks. Known as the Althing in Iceland, this was the main assembly for the whole country, where laws were spoken and major announcements made. First held in 930, it’s the oldest legislature in the world. Standard Things took place more regularly, on a local level. They were led by a law-speaker: someone who was able to remember the laws, and remind everyone what they were. Not much was written down, so having a good memory was crucial.

We’ve already talked about the role of women in society, but in law, they had certain freedoms too. Viking sagas contain multiple accounts of women divorcing their husbands and remarrying. Icelandic sagas in particular refer to advanced divorce laws. For instance, if a Viking male abandoned his wife and didn’t sleep with her for three years, she could divorce him.

If he hit his wife three times or more, she could divorce him. If he lost his money and was plunged into poverty, she could – again – divorce him. Women could own and inherit property in their own right. While men were away, they were able to manage farms.

In lots of ways, Viking women got a better deal than their Medieval counterparts.

Despite this, repercussions for rule-breakers could be severe. As well as remembering laws, the law-speaker was in charge of handing down punishments. These ranged from “not so bad” to yikes, depending on the severity of your crime. Something like stealing from a neighbour would result in a fine.

For Vikings, everything had a value – known as its wergild or weregild – which then had to be paid back as compensation. And when I say that everything had a value, I mean everything had a value; even people. If you killed your neighbour’s wife, they could choose to take compensation for her life, rather than pursue any other line of justice. The amount you’d have to pay depended on the victim’s social rank and status.

Not everything could be settled with a fine, though. If you killed someone, but chose to admit it openly, you might be outlawed. This doesn’t sound too bad, but it meant being ostracised forever by your community. Outlaws were no longer cocooned by Vikings laws, either, meaning they could be killed without repercussions.

He – or she – was literally outside the law, and forfeited any rights, property, and protection. They often went to live in the wilds of the forests or mountains, desperately avoiding others in hopes of staying alive. A full outlaw was known as a “man of the forest” or “wolf”. If you just did something a bit bad, you might be sentenced to lesser outlawry, meaning you could return after three years.

Or, you and your family might be able to scrape together the wergild to buy back your place in society.

Other punishments were far worse. And this is where things get a bit more “Viking”. Let’s say you’ve insulted someone else’s wife. They’ll be within their rights to call for a holmgang: a deadly duel to restore honour, usually held on a small island or “holm”.

These weren’t 18th century gentlemen’s duels, where a small amount of bloodshed was enough to satisfy everyone. A holmgang could be brutal and often ended in death or serious injury. Killing your opponent in a holmgang didn’t count as unlawful, and carried no punishment.

Or, perhaps you might have been going on trading journeys but keeping some goods for yourself. Get caught and you could be literally tarred and feathered. As if this wasn’t painful enough, you’d then be forced to run between two parallel lines of men, who’d pelt you with stones. If you didn’t die in the process, your punishment was considered complete.

But a penalty you really wouldn’t want to pay was the trial by ordeal. There were different forms of ordeal, including picking a stone out of boiling water, walking over hot coals, or carrying a red-hot iron. If you healed and survived, you were considered to be protected by God, and therefore innocent.

However harsh the punishments, these laws and systems created a unified society. Most Vikings lived together peacefully. Multiple generations shared a longhouse and worked together on a family farm. It was undoubtedly a hard life, but it could also be pleasant. Unless you had the misfortune to be a slave, of course.

They enjoyed music and culture

If certain TV shows are to be believed, Viking “culture” was limited to fighting, tattooing and human sacrifice. There’s no doubt these were violent times, but the average Viking might not have been as bloodthirsty as we think. They could still appreciate the finer things in life, and even kick back with some tunes. Archaeologists have turned up a wide range of musical instruments from the Viking period, including horns, flutes, and various types of harp.

In a Viking settlement in York, they’ve even found Jorvik panpipes. These weren’t panpipes as we might imagine – rather than the huge bag and pipe arrangement, they were very small, made from boxwood, and designed to fit in your hand. They apparently worked by having air blown across the top; a bit like making sound by blowing across the top of a bottle. Obviously, this was tame compared to modern “Viking” music – it played between five and seven notes – but every Viking rocker starts somewhere.

And more seriously, of course, they’d all be playing together, so you’d have multiple instruments at one time. We can get a sense of their music from early songs that were written in runes. The earliest, which translates to ‘I dreamt a dream’ was actually sung in an episode of ‘Vikings’.

But when it comes to singing, the Viking people didn’t get rave reviews. The traveller I mentioned earlier might have admired their make-up, but he described the singing of those he met as “reminiscent of a dog’s howl, only even more bestial”. All the same, we can probably assume that the Vikings themselves enjoyed it. And there were probably cultural differences informing opinions here.

Another massive form of entertainment was storytelling. In fact, a lot of what we think we know about Viking history comes from these stories. Originally, they were spoken and shared as part of a rich oral tradition. This type of oral storytelling was – and is – the backbone of many different cultures, from the Celts to the people of sub-Saharan Africa.

A skald, who was a saga poet, was a highly respected figure in Viking society. These were professionals, who won hearts by affirming what it meant to be a Viking. And it was a skilled job. Skalds had to remember reams of stories and poems, and tell them in a way that captured people’s attention.

Their words were passed on from one generation to another, to prevent the tales being forgotten. Over time, their works were written down to become a distinct literature of their own – although this came later than the Viking period.

Skalds were also tricky characters. They could praise local lords – for a generous fee, of course – or they could help to tear them down. Reputation was everything to Viking rulers. Praise could help to gain and keep followers and build important alliances. Good poems basically preserved their achievements in amber, keeping them alive for future generations. If they were good enough, they’d also spread as more people retold the story. As part of this, skalds were the press and PR experts of their day.

But first and foremost, they were entertainers. During tough winters, they kept spirits up and brought people together. In Norse mythology, the god Odin took the gift of poetry by drinking mead. It was said that true poets and scholars were those Odin chose to bless by dispensing the same mead to. For this reason, they held an elevated status.

Because of this oral tradition, we might assume that Vikings couldn’t, or didn’t, write. But this isn’t strictly true. Literacy wasn’t widespread, and was more common among the elite classes, but it did exist. During the Viking Age, Norse people used a runic alphabet known as Younger Futhark.

This had only 16 characters, or ‘staves’, although there were different versions of some runes, and some might be carved back to front or upside down. Because characters were usually carved into a surface, Viking writings tend to be fairly short – it was a labour-intensive process.

Today, our sources for runic writings are things like large memorial stones. Dedicated to important people, they often include their names and their various achievements. Because they’re one of the only contemporary records of Viking history, they provide intriguing nuggets of information relating to events at the time. In Denmark, the Jelling Stone declares that Harald Bluetooth had “won all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian”.

Alongside runic inscriptions, some stones were decorated, showing what was essentially Viking art. The Sigurd Carving, found in Sweden, features scenes from the saga of Sigurd Fafnesbane, known as Sigurd the Dragonslayer. Pictures show the character of Fafnir, who has transformed himself into a dragon – or an enormous snake, depending on which version you read – being killed by Sigurd. Another character, the treacherous Regin, lies decapitated on the ground.

The story was one of many that would later influence JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series.

Music and storytelling were important parts of Viking culture, but during downtime, they also played games. Excavations have found preserved dice and board games pieces made from intricately carved wood and bone. Chess emerged at the end of the Viking period, and games of Nine Men’s Morris have been found in ship burials in Sweden and Norway. This was a two-player board game, in which each player aims to create rows of three pieces. It was a battle far less bloody than their usual MO.

Many of them were Christian

Our view of Viking religion is usually tied to Norse gods like Odin and Thor. At the start of the Viking Age, the Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, was the dominant belief system. Warriors worshipped these gods of strife, and believed that they needed to die in battle to reach Valhalla. But many people don’t realise that during the Vikings’ later years, many had converted to Christianity. Rather than appeasing multiple gods, they switched to just one.

This is a stark reframing of the Viking narrative. What happened to all those tales of raided monasteries and murdered monks? Well, this still happened, but it wasn’t the sum total of Viking activity.

For a large part of the Viking Age, the old beliefs endured. At this time, Christian buildings were simply valuable sources of treasure. In 793AD, the Vikings famously made a devastating attack on the church of St Cuthbert in Lindisfarne. They killed or enslaved its monks, looted its valuables, and burned its buildings.

A record made by survivors described how the Vikings came, with “plunder and slaughter” to destroy the church. It was a shocking act, striking right at the root of Christianity in Northumbria; “the very place where the Christian religion began in our nation”. It became one of many Viking raids around the coasts of Britain, Ireland and modern-day France.

So, it’s surprising that less than 200 years later, some of the most important and prominent Viking rulers would be leading the Christian charge. Of course, this shift didn’t happen overnight. It’s even suggested that some of the first introductions to the new faith happened because of those monastic raids. As items like crosses made their way back to Scandinavia, they exposed communities to Christian beliefs.

But there were practical reasons for integration. Even in the early Viking Age, Viking traders might wear a convenient crucifix to build bridges with Christian traders. Countries like modern Germany were already Christian, and other parts of Europe belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. When they got home, though, they’d revert back to “the old way”.

But, as kingdoms were conquered and changed hands, new rulers brought their own agendas. Danish kings like Harald Bluetooth were baptised, and slowly, the new ways spread. And so, from the 900s onwards, there was a transition period as elements of the two religions co-existed. We can see this in archaeological finds like the Mammen grave, in Denmark’s Central Jutland region.

Dating to 970 or 971AD, this lavish grave contained items that clearly show the merging of both religions. Although it’s a pagan-style chamber grave, it contained a wax candle, associated with Christianity, and an axe with motifs that could be either Norse pagan or Christian. A soapstone mould, found in Trendgaarden and dating from the same century, was used to cast both Christian crosses and pagan amulets in the shape of Thor’s hammer.

The hybrid approach to religion even comes through in Viking names. During the pre-Christian period, children’s names were linked to the gods or their enemies. We see choices like Thorsten, which is linked to the god Thor, and Orm, which references the Midgard serpent. As Christianity spread, Hebrew and Latin names came into the mix. In the 10th and 11th centuries, we start finding variations on names like Michael, John, and Esther.

Christianity also comes through in the Viking memorial stones I mentioned earlier. Many of these display inscriptions relating to the new religion. The large Jelling Stone even has one face dedicated to Jesus, with outstretched arms. Most contain Christian messages, asking for God’s protection over the dead person’s soul.

The saga of Erik the Red, which describes the Viking exploration of North America, sheds an interesting light on this period. In it, we meet Olaf the White, a Viking conqueror, who is married to Aud the Deep-Minded; a Christian. Erik the Red himself has a son, Leif, who is charged with preaching Christianity. He rescues and converts shipwrecked sailors, along with lots of other people.

This saga wasn’t written down until around the 12th century, so we can take it with a pinch of salt – but it does support the kind of religious climate we think existed at the time.

All of this leads us to the interesting truth that Vikings didn’t all conform to the brutal, Valhalla-loving, “death for glory” stereotype. They were baptised and given clean white clothes. They attended church. They were no longer permitted to eat horsemeat, or leave their unwanted newborn children outside to die.

But this doesn’t mean Christianity ushered in a new, peaceful era. In Denmark, willing converts were often allowed to keep elements of their old faith and merge the two. But in Norway, King Olaf the first burned pagan temples and killed those who wouldn’t convert. Even after converting to Christianity, he led one of his generation’s biggest Viking attacks on England.

It culminated in a major battle, the Battle of Maldon, which ended in the Vikings being paid off. Olaf’s men were given 10,000 Roman pounds of silver to leave in peace.

According to one monk, writing at the time, Olaf played a part in converting five countries to Christianity, but he also earned the moniker “horg breaker”, referencing his destruction of Nordic sacred sites. Old Viking habits die hard.

They settled in North America

For a long time, the evidence for Viking settlement in North America was shaky. Historians knew they’d reached the continent’s tip, but they didn’t know exactly when, and believed they hadn’t stayed for long. Descriptions of extensive Norse voyages to America, found in the Viking Vinland Sagas, were often chalked up to legend.

But, announced in 2021, fresh evidence changed all that. Archaeologists working at the Vikings’ so-called “temporary” settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, were finally able to provide a definitive date for their occupation. A new dating technique proved that trees felled by the Vikings had been cut down in 1021, giving a precise pinpoint in their timeline.

And work at the site showed something else. It hadn’t just been a short-lived settlement. It was a “base camp” for other expeditions. From here, researchers said, “other locations, including regions further south, were explored.”

This resurrects a theory that had already risen and fallen a few years before. In 2016, “space archaeologists” seemed to find evidence of a second Viking site, to the south of the first, in Newfoundland. At Point Rosee, satellite imagery showed what looked like a lost settlement. It was triumphantly described as a discovery to “rewrite the history of Vikings in the New World”.

These globe-trotting Scandinavians, it seemed, had extended their reach further than we’d ever thought. But ultimately, the finds didn’t stack up. Within a couple of years, serious doubt was cast on whether this was a Viking site at all.

Today, L’Anse aux Meadows remains the only confirmed settlement in North America. All the same, its study has been significant. Dating the camp to 1021 gives a known year for direct contact between the “Old” and “New” worlds. Before this, we knew that travellers had linked up various continents; some of them long before. But 1021 now marks the date when Vikings closed a loop around the world. With the Norsemen’s arrival, human migration had fully encircled the globe.

Conclusion

Like all lost civilisations, the Viking world had its secrets. Stereotypes and long-held assumptions can sketch a crude outline of who they were, but it’s archaeological legwork that really fills in the detail.

Vikings were strong and fierce, but took care of their appearance. They were often brutal, but could also be fair. They took slaves, but granted unusual freedoms. Their Age was a mass of curious contradictions.

Big discoveries, like lost towns and carved monuments, have confirmed or challenged chapters of Viking history. With evidence like runic inscriptions, we can give dates to rulers and landmark political moments. But the tiny details can be just as compelling. Pottery sherds trace trade lines across the sea, and metalworking moulds show how two religions lived side by side. It’s discoveries like these that bring the real history – and its real people – to life.

Even so, the old myths and legends will probably remain. And before we go, there’s just time for one more. You may even have been shouting it every time the word ‘Viking’ came up.

That’s right – it’s the name. We call them Vikings today, and this term has long been accepted, but technically it’s not quite right. The Old Norse term ‘vikingr’ originally referred to the act of piracy. You would “go viking”, rather than being a Viking.

But language, as ever, evolves. Eventually, the term’s use changed, so that it referred to the pirates or raiders themselves; they became Vikings. During their own time, though, people had all sorts of other names for them. In what is now Britain, for instance, they were called Heathens, Northmen, or just Foreigners.

But for the purposes of history, they’re Vikings. The sometimes-bloody, often-bearded, raiders and traders from the north.

Key Takeaways

• Vikings were not always the brutal, bloodthirsty people depicted in legends. They took care of their appearance and had a nuanced culture.
• Viking women had more mobility and freedom than previously thought. Some were fierce fighters and held high-ranking positions.
• Not all Vikings were Scandinavian. DNA evidence shows they were a diverse group, with many having brown hair and non-Scandinavian ancestry.
• Vikings were significant traders, not just raiders. They participated in a global trade network, exchanging goods with various cultures.
• Vikings had an advanced legal system with clear rights and punishments, including trials by ordeal and deadly duels to restore honor.

Sources

• Original Side Projects video: The Discoveries That Proved Everything Wrong About the Vikings
• Hero image source by Ivo Kruusamägi / openverse, by-sa.

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