VIKING FACTS INFOGRAPHIC IN NORMAL TEXT FORM, READ BELOW.
THE HORNED HELMETS ARE A MYTH.
The first “surprise” is today not so suprising any longer to all. You have likely heard about the fierce Vikings with horn helmets.
Vikings did plunder and was in that sense fierce. But there is not historical or archaeological evidence for helmets with horns. There is example of a Bronze age helmet from South Scandinavia.
The myth was created during the National Romance in the late 1800-hundreds. For example we have horned helmets is some of the operas of Richard Wagner.
THE VIKINGS PLAYED “HOCKEY”
In the Icelandic Sagas there is a part of the Egil Skallagrimssons saga telling about the Vikings game “Knattleikr”. Scientists don’t know the rules of it. However it included some type of stick and some sort of ball.
THE VIKINGS CAME TO AMERICA BEFORE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
Leif Eriksson came to present-Canada. He and his men bulit a ship-reperation station at L’Anse aux Meadow in New Foundland.
The colony was short-lived likely because of problems with the native tribes. It seems like the colony only existed for a few years.
Recent discoveries by space archaeologist Sarah Parcak have discovered a colony further south in Canada. Remnants of iron production not know to the natives of that area was found. It resembled Viking crafts and traditions.
Women Had Some Rights in Viking Culture
The idea that Viking women were treated like sh*t is not correct. Most, if not all evidence points towards that they were active in society.
They could inherit land and money. If they had such an inheritance they could also participate at the local assembly meetings. But most inheritors where men.
The Viking woman also hade the right to divorce. In Icelandic law it is written that a woman could divorce her husband, if he had not slept with her for 3 years or more.
To the divorce in the Christian Catholic medieval North Europe was much harder than in the Viking Age Nordic region.
Women were more active in the religion under christianity. They could do sacrifices and have important religions positions like being a VÖVLVA. That was a woman who worked with magic and propechies. They fortold the future and affect people around them. Some of the völva were bad and viewed as “witches”.
Global Warming Helped the Vikings in their Raids
The Vikings where living in a warmer time period between 950-1250. That made it easier for them to travel, because you had less ice on the coastal lines. The season for seafaring became longer.
SOURCES
26 Things You Might Not Know About Vikings: http://www.ranker.com/list/viking-history-facts/
Hurstwic, about Knattleikr:
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/knattleikr.htm
On Richard Wagner and the Vikings: http://www.viking.ucla.edu/volsungs/wagner.html
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2013/02/economist-explains-did-vikings-wear-horned-helmets
Vikings in Canada:
http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=4
http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/article-9274197/Leif-Eriksson
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160331-viking-discovery-north-america-canada-archaeology/
THE ROLE OF VIKING WOMEN IN SOCIETY (HURSTWIC) http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/society/text/women.htm
BBC ON VIKING WOMEN: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/women_01.shtml
ABOUT VÖLVAS: Mercatante & Dow 2004, II:893.