Written by: Rushina Tamang - 26008, Grade VIII
Posted on: 14 February, 2022
Vikings are known as the people who were originally from Scandinavia. In the present day, Scandinavia is in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Vikings were from the 8th to 11th century. During that time, they settled in different parts of Europe. The time period where they raided different parts of Europe is popularly known as the “Viking age”. The vikings were very fierce and their mission was to conquer as many countries in Europe as possible. They established governments in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, the Baltic coast, and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in what is now European Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, where they were also known as “Varangians”. They used to travel using huge boats. They were the first Europeans to reach North America. They even conquered foreign lands. They were known to have many slaves. The culture they followed was known as Norse culture.
The Norse culture was divided into three smaller kingdoms : Denmark, Norway and Sweden. For most of the period of their existence, they followed Norse culture but eventually became Christians. They had their own laws, art and architecture. They usually worked as farmers, fishermen, craftsmen and traders. The language they spoke was Old Norse. During the Viking age, the present day Norway, Sweden and Denmark did not exist. All viking men were required to have their own weapons and carry them at all times. However, swords were rarely used in battle, they were mostly used as decorative items. They had a unique culture and unique traditions. Some of the traditions they followed are :
Every ninth year, the vikings celebrate a festival known as Yule. During this festival, it is customary for Swedish Kings to sacrifice men. They celebrate this festival at the Temple of Uppsala. The heads of nine men will be offered to the gods and their bodies will be hanging ou
in the temple’s sacred grove. This ritual continues for nine days. So 81 men will be sacrificed in total.
A draugr is a zombie in Norse mythology. It's not any ordinary zombie. It is a big, brutal, Viking zombie who has fabulously lye-eyed locks and horrible stench who likes to murder people, kill animals and destroy proerty. Vikings used to hide twigs in clothing or the recently deceased, place a pair of scissors on their chest or poke needles through the bottom of their feet as practices to prevent this being from rising.
Viking men decorated their teeth. Two dozen remains of Vikings from the Viking era have been discovered to have grooves that were filled into the surfaces of the front teeth. They used different dyes to color those grooves.
Viking men prefered to have blonde hair. They wanted blonde hair so badly that they used harsh soaps that had high lye content to bleach their hair.
Vikings were very hygienic. Even when we think of vikings, we think of large people who looked dirty. But actually vikings were obsessed with being clean. They used to have long and groomed hair. Both men and women had long hair.
They were known for having huge bodies. And strong muscular structure that complimented their beastiality. As they were very fierce. Even till this day, the people who had viking ancestors have huge bodies and long and huge hair. People who have viking genetics still look like their ancestors. The only difference is their style of living.
Reference : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikings
