Is It Wrong To Be Proud Of Viking Heritage?

[We Never Know]

That could be true (also possibly extinction by
absorption into the modern human genepool.)
Does this mean that all cultures are entitled to
pride, eg, confederate Ameristanians, Vikings?

I don't have the answer. But I'm seeing what
appears to be support for unvoiced answers.

I can't answer that for ya.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

But the question is about showing pride in
the ancestors. What if you descended from
a Confederate war hero?

My answer is the same -- neither pride nor shame. As you might imagine, having found my family only at the ripe old age of 70 -- and now I've tracked down more than 40 great-great-great-great-greats -- I am interested in them, but I'm neither proud nor ashamed of them. They were who they were. My father, for example, might be thought of as either a bit of a rake, or just a very lucky (or unlucky) teen, since I was born on April 1, 1948, I have a brother born to another girl on Sept 1, 1948, and dad married a third girl (quite pregnant) on Dec 4, 1948. I do not judge him, I am not ashamed for him.

What else can I say?

 

[We Never Know]

My answer is the same -- neither pride nor shame. As you might imagine, having found my family only at the ripe old age of 70 -- and now I've tracked down more than 40 great-great-great-great-greats -- I am interested in them, but I'm neither proud nor ashamed of them. They were who they were. My father, for example, might be thought of as either a bit of a rake, or just a very lucky (or unlucky) teen, since I was born on April 1, 1948, I have a brother born to another girl on Sept 1, 1948, and dad married a third girl (quite pregnant) on Dec 4, 1948. I do not judge him, I am not ashamed for him.

What else can I say?

Your dad was a busy fellow

 

[Quagmire]

I'm just proud of the fact that my early ancestors had the good sense to crawl out of the ocean.

It really is a nasty place.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Your dad was a busy fellow

Hey, so was my mother. I have, as this former orphan has found out, 16 half brothers and sisters. So just imagine how many nieces and nephews, great and great-great nieces and nephews that adds up to. It's frightening! I'm planning on hiding out come Christmas time.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Driving out violence with violence eh? And consider, without the brits, unless you are native American, who settled the country you wouldn't have had a country

They did break the peace after accepting a payment to leave Wessex alone, and resumed their plans to conquer Briton. Like in Ukraine today, peace isn't always an option.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

That potato famine was rough for sure and us on the mainland didn't help either. Personally i think you ancestors did the right thing...

What i am saying is without Brits there would have been no America to escape to.

At the time perhaps it was right. I'm looking at today amd the obscenely wealthy third world country that America is becoming.
It's more of a personal statement that I wished they'd stayed (excusing all the ontological questions about such a thing, though it's interesting to ponder).

 

[Revoltingest]

Don't bring facts into it. That is not allowed because it is only opinions. Right @Revoltingest

Dang, man....you wring the most fanciful inferences
from between the lines. No one has offered any of
the claimed "peer reviewed" evidence that counters
the my statement & question in the OP. It seems
that you object...but not in any meaningful way.

 

[Revoltingest]

Too soon.

Time sanitizes all sins, eh.

 

[Revoltingest]

Objecting to nothing in particular...

And yet you object with the accusation of my hypocrisy.
Your posts have been reckless & rude. So I won't be
wasting time going back over old & edited posts just to
better understand the drama.

 

[Revoltingest]

Bother @Revoltingest ? I wouldn't know.

She's in an odd mood today.
That happens to posters now & then.

 

[Revoltingest]

I can't answer that for ya.

I don't believe there even is a right answer.
It just seemed worth considering & discussing.

 

[Revoltingest]

What else can I say?

You've already said plenty.
I've no pride in my own family...nothing significant done
by any ancestor I know of. But even if one had achieved
some greatness, it certainly wasn't passed on to me.
Living family members are a mix of cretins, failures,
& productive citizens. Meh......

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

She's in an odd mood today.
That happens to posters now & then.

Oh well. Maybe we just didn't understand. Language barriers sometimes exist too.

Either way, coherence is a dish best served cold and not in the moment.

 

[Revoltingest]

Oh well. Maybe we just didn't understand. Language barriers sometimes exist too.

Aye, she speaks French, & I speak Revoltistanian
(which is nearly identical to English, but with more
ellipses, & fewer verbs.)

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Bother @Revoltingest ? I wouldn't know.

This was a joke.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Vikings preyed upon other countries, raping, killing, pillaging, & enslaving people.
Should this be overlooked or should the be vilified for it, as we do with the Confederacy?

I am just interested in them, mostly because the sagas and eddas are fascinating, in the sense that you can learn about 'western culture' absent contact with christianity, to some extent. And also, I am not sure that the christians of a thousand years ago were all that much better. Go read bede, you can find a story there about how they converted the isle of wight to christianity, which is fairly grisly.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Vikings preyed upon other countries, raping, killing, pillaging, & enslaving people.
Should this be overlooked or should the be vilified for it, as we do with the Confederacy?

I found both:

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Time sanitizes all sins, eh.

When the blood still stains the streets, it's hard to ignore.

 

[Revoltingest]

When the blood still stains the streets, it's hard to ignore.

3 days of rain here, & the streets are clean.