The Brutality of Vikings

[Balthazzar]

Seems a common notion, but then was any culture in our history any less brutal than they?

Sometimes I can identify them as more refined than other cultures, but not without severity in thier ways.

Can we make some comparisons of common understandings between cultures as they relate to the "brutality" of ??????

 

[Revoltingest]

I've long found it odd that people scorn US Confederates
for their supporting slavery. Yet people take pride in
Viking heritage of slavery, robbery, murder, & terrorism.
Is it the stereotype of horned helmets that makes it OK?

 

[ChristineM]

I've long found it odd that people scorn US Confederates
for their supporting slavery. Yet people take pride in
Viking heritage of slavery, robbery, murder, & terrorism.
Is it the stereotype of horned helmets that makes it OK?

No pride in it but that's the way it is.

Just like everyone else we cannot choose our ancestors

 

[Revoltingest]

No pride in it but that's the way it is.
Just like everyone else we cannot choose our ancestors

I addressed only those who expressed
Viking heritage pride.

 

[ChristineM]

I addressed only those who expressed
Viking heritage pride.

Ahh ok. Seemed you were being general rather than specific

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Seems a common notion, but then was any culture in our history any less brutal than they?

Sometimes I can identify them as more refined than other cultures, but not without severity in thier ways.

Can we make some comparisons of common understandings between cultures as they relate to the "brutality" of ??????

First, viking was more of a job title and udescription among the Norse. It meant pirate. They were mostly young, rambunctious men out of for loot, land, slaves and women, but they were still Norse, and the Norse yiu wouldn't say at first glance were sophisticated or civilized but they were. To some they were so clean they were viewed as vain. They had art and literature, excellent blacksmiths, top class ships and master sailors, traders and bards, chroniclers and laborers, they (even the men) wore eye liner, arm bands of silver and gold were known ti be distributed as merits as honor by lords to their subjects, they even had a form of what we'd call battle rap known as flyting, may have invented death metal growls and did it all while surviving a harsh, inhospitable environment.

 

[The Hammer]

First, viking was more of a job title and udescription among the Norse. It meant pirate. They were mostly young, rambunctious men out of for loot, land, slaves and women, but they were still Norse, and the Norse wouldn't say at first glance were sophisticated or civilized but they were. To some they were so clean they were viewed as vain. They had art and literature, excellent blacksmiths, top class ships and master sailors, traders and bards, chroniclers and laborers, they (even the men) wore eye liner, arm bands of silver and gold were known ti be distributed as merits as honor by lords to their subjects, they even had a form of what we'd call battle rap known as flyting, may have invented death metal growls and did it all while surviving a harsh, inhospitable environment.

Yup, that about covers everything I would have.

 

[Balthazzar]

The Romans made practice of crucifixion, which involved scourging, nailed by hand and foot to wood, then suspended from the ground, then to be speared in the side, placed in a catacomb or burned. If still alive, the victim would suffer even greater in the catacomb of starvation, infection, suffocation, and dehydration until the crucifixion was accomplished.

The English would burn people alive, cut off heads, place on stretchers ripping limbs from the body and pulling out entrails from the gut as the victim lay in agony until death.

Viking brutality seems mild in comparison to these.

The English are no strangers to conquest nor the Spainards, nor are they exempt from the pillage plunder and taking of slaves or of rape.
Vikings have the stigma association, yet by recorded history were less involved in the practice of brutality than other cultures.

I asked for comparisons, instead I was offered the opposite of my intent...aside from the vanity statement as it relates to art and craftmanship, pride in effort.

They seemed more refined to me than other cultures.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

I addressed only those who expressed
Viking heritage pride.

Well, you want a really weird one for overdoing ones ancestry.
Well, it is not that I am Danish. It is that Denmark is the historic center of the homeland of the Ur-Germanic people.
If you trace where they went over time with all they concerqued and claim it is all still Ur-Germanic, all of the world belong to the true ancestors to the Ur-Germanoc and that is the Danes.

 

[Eddi]

I've always quite liked the Vikings

 

[The Hammer]

Can we make some comparisons of common understandings between cultures as they relate to the "brutality" of ??????

I'll be the first to admit I don't fully follow your op.

But I will say that all cultures are violent and brutal to some degree. The flavor of that brutality just changes.

 

[Balthazzar]

First, viking was more of a job title and udescription among the Norse. It meant pirate. They were mostly young, rambunctious men out of for loot, land, slaves and women, but they were still Norse, and the Norse yiu wouldn't say at first glance were sophisticated or civilized but they were. To some they were so clean they were viewed as vain. They had art and literature, excellent blacksmiths, top class ships and master sailors, traders and bards, chroniclers and laborers, they (even the men) wore eye liner, arm bands of silver and gold were known ti be distributed as merits as honor by lords to their subjects, they even had a form of what we'd call battle rap known as flyting, may have invented death metal growls and did it all while surviving a harsh, inhospitable environment.

The Norse were typically farmers and tradespeople? Boatbuilders, artists, blacksmiths, fishermen I'm sure, and I suppose some were soldiers or "Pirate Vikings" earning a living wage through travel, exploration, and wars fought as a result of these expeditions. It seems a common trade during the era of greater navigational ability and no more flat earth mindset. Why weren't the Spainards or English dubbed something similar? Like Spanish "Pirate Vikings" or English "Pirate Vikings"?

Anyway, the history is intriguing.

 

[Balthazzar]

I've long found it odd that people scorn US Confederates
for their supporting slavery. Yet people take pride in
Viking heritage of slavery, robbery, murder, & terrorism.
Is it the stereotype of horned helmets that makes it OK?

Scorned Egyptians, scorned confederates, scorned Vikings or Norse people, among the many others who forced submission to unjust treatment and power, but why stop there ... Kids, get your chores done, then mow the yard. Tomorrow you'll be breaking beans and digging potatos. The difference is in the treatment and quality of living. Most are ok being slaves to the grind at $45,000 annually compensation, but most wouldn't be without the incentive to be.

Yup, the horns that never were, are the end all be all selling point of Viking/Norse culture. The truth is, I know very little about the culture, but they appeal to me due to my ancestry. What were they really like?

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

Vikings were basically just raiding parties. They made people miserable and very dead. It's alright to enjoy fictional stuff. As long as you remember the actual historical vikings were as scummy and cruel as the rest of ye olde humanity.

 

[Revoltingest]

Well, you want a really weird one for overdoing ones ancestry.
Well, it is not that I am Danish. It is that Denmark is the historic center of the homeland of the Ur-Germanic people.
If you trace where they went over time with all they concerqued and claim it is all still Ur-Germanic, all of the world belong to the true ancestors to the Ur-Germanoc and that is the Danes.

I don't criticize anyone for having any particular
ancestry. I only urge thoughtful consideration
of celebrating ones with evil traits.

 

[Revoltingest]

Most are ok being slaves to the grind at $45,000 annually compensation,

To equate slavery with working for a living
diminishes the evil of embodied by "slavery".

 

[The Hammer]

I don't criticize anyone for having any particular
ancestry. I only urge thoughtful consideration
of celebrating ones with evil traits.

That would be every single ancient and modern society.

 

[Revoltingest]

That would be every single ancient and modern society.

You have info about them all?
Such confidence.

 

[Banach-Tarski Paradox]

Seems a common notion, but then was any culture in our history any less brutal than they?

Sometimes I can identify them as more refined than other cultures, but not without severity in thier ways.

Can we make some comparisons of common understandings between cultures as they relate to the "brutality" of ??????

Ha!

Is this a competition?

If so, I’ll play.

Too bad this isn’t Women’s History Month.

 

[Balthazzar]

To equate slavery with working for a living
diminishes the evil of embodied by "slavery".

The evil comes from treatment and cruelty. Bondage is rarely preferred over freedom. In America, if you're able to work and don't, how do you survive? Social welfare? Then you become bound to that program. Choices are always nice, but we are all prisoners here. Abusive treatment and no choices as bound people, creates an evil shunned...as it should be.