Posted on 06/23/2013 5:12:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
All around the hull of the longest Viking warship ever found there are swords and battle axes, many bearing the scars of long and bloody use, in an exhibition opening in Copenhagen that will smash decades of good public relations for the Vikings as mild-mannered traders and farmers...
The exhibition, simply called Viking, which will be opened at the National Museum by Queen Margrethe of Denmark on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday, will sail on to to London next year to launch the British Museum's new exhibition space.
In contrast to recent exhibitions, which have concentrated on the Vikings as brilliant seafarers, highly gifted wood- and metal-workers, and builders of towns including York and Dublin, this returns to the more traditional image of ferocious raiders, spreading terror wherever the shallow keels of the best and fastest ships in Europe could reach, armed with magnificent swords, spears, battleaxes and lozenge-shaped arrows. "The arrow shape did more damage," Pedersen explained, "the wounds were bigger and more difficult to heal than a straight-edged slit."...
A skull from a grave in Gotland bears the marks of many healed sword cuts, but also decorative parallel lines filed into the warrior's teeth, like those recently found on teeth from a pit of decapitated bodies in Dorset, in what must have been an excruciating display of macho bravado.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I must've missed the "kinder, gentler" Viking stereotype. Cultures that feature "berzerkers" and guys with names like "Eric Bloodaxe" don't sound sqeezably soft.
I was hoping for some awesome battering ram type swords and a battle axe that would make Thor proud
Yes. I salute your tag line as well - from one most excellent movie to another!
(sorry - meant to say your handle)
...at ram speed.
It’s politically correct to portray Vikings as rapists and plunderers. This is what they brought to America < /sarc >.
Meanwhile every museum I’ve seen since 9-11-2001 has done countless exhibits on the art and technology of Islamist society.
The plunder and subjugation seems to get written out of those exhibits.
Today’s Scandinavians should take a leaf from their ancestors’ book, or a sword from their scabbard, and drive those damned Muslims out of their countries.
If it wasn’t for the Vikings taking Sicily in 1091 AD from Islam I doubt the first crusade would have started in 1095 AD.
Roger I was Norman, he was descended from Vikings who moved into Normandy around 920.
yes, and many of Roger I men signed up for the first crusade.
Great book about Vikings made into a movie: "The 13th Warrior"
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