Raiders Or Traders? (Vikings)

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | July 2008 | Andrew Curry

[blam]

Raiders or Traders?

A replica Viking vessel plying the North Sea this month is part of an effort to learn more about what the Norsemen were really up to

By Andrew Curry
Photographs by Carsten Snejbjerg
Smithsonian magazine, July 2008

Werner Karrasch / The Viking Ship Museum, Denmark

From his bench toward the stern of the Sea Stallion From Glendalough, Erik Nielsen could see his crewmates' stricken faces peeping out of bright-red survival suits. A few feet behind him, the leather straps holding the ship's rudder to its side had snapped. The 98-foot vessel, a nearly $2.5 million replica of a thousand-year-old Viking ship, was rolling helplessly atop waves 15 feet high.

With the wind gusting past 50 miles an hour and the Irish Sea just inches from the gunwales, "I thought we'd be in the drink for sure," says Nielsen, 61, a retired geologist from Toronto.

It was August 6, 2007, and the Sea Stallion's crew of 63 had been underway for five weeks, sailing from Denmark to Dublin on a voyage that would culminate 35 years' research—"the best living-archaeology experiment ever conducted anywhere," Pat Wallace, director of the National Museum of Ireland, calls it.

As Nielsen and some crewmates struggled to keep the Sea Stallion upright, four others went to work at the stern. Kneeling on the ship's heaving, rain-slicked deck, they hauled the 11-foot rudder out of the water, traded the broken leather straps for jury-rigged replacements made of nylon and reattached the new assembly.

Reducing the sail to a minimum, the crew sailed on at nine knots. As the ship plowed from wave to wave, a full third of the Sea Stallion's hull was often out of the water. Ahead lay the Isle of Man, 15 hours away.

[blam]

GGG Ping

(a repeat, I think)

[NordP]

MY ANCESTORS RULE!

[Viking2002]

'Raiders or Traders?'

Actually, we were just looking for an all-night pub and a lap dance. Kinda hard to find either back then.

[normy]

Both I think.

[normy]

Great grandfather was full blood Norwegian.

[driftdiver]

I think it depended on whether you were strong or a wussy feminized nation.

[NordP]

Grandfather on Dad’s side was 100% and from Lillehammer. Hard working, honest people!

[RJL]

Raiders Or Traders? (Vikings)

Traders, a few road trips got a little out of hand...

[PzLdr]

It’s called developing a market.

[Pontiac]

In 845, the Viking raider and extortionist extraordinary Ragnar Lothbrok slipped up the Seine with 120 ships—an estimated 5,000 men—to Paris, where King Charles the Bald paid him 7,000 pounds of gold and silver to leave in peace. (A contemporary wrote that "never had [Ragnar] seen, he said, lands so fertile and so rich, nor ever a people so cowardly.")

The French haven’t changed much in 1163 years.

[normy]

Well my great grandfather seemed to come from the “raiders” side according to my research.

[ThomasThomas]

Just imagine what the world would be like if we had the Oakland Traders Pro Pro football team. The Chargers would only use green electricity. Seattle Seadoves, Denver Ponies. Baltimore Colts colts are kinda like ponies if you don’t care about keeping facts correct. We have much more work to do with these team names. Arizona Cardinals is there some sinister aspect of a cardinal that’s makes them tough guy type of bird? Or has PC already consumed them.

[normy]

Are you an old AFC West guy?

[tet68]

Arizona Cardinals is there some sinister aspect of a cardinal that’s makes them tough guy type of bird?

Think Richelieu ?

[Humble Servant]

” Just imagine what the world would be like if we had the Oakland Traders Pro Pro football team “

Or the San Francisco Traitors.

[normy]

"Lo there do I see the line of my people, they do bid me come, take my place among them in the halls of Valhalla. Where the brave will live forever!"

[SunkenCiv]

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[RJL]

The French in 845 AD:

In 845, the Viking raider and extortionist extraordinary Ragnar Lothbrok slipped up the Seine with 120 ships—an estimated 5,000 men—to Paris, where King Charles the Bald paid him 7,000 pounds of gold and silver to leave in peace. (A contemporary wrote that "never had [Ragnar] seen, he said, lands so fertile and so rich, nor ever a people so cowardly.")

[ThomasThomas]

Is ‘old’ in reference to guy or AFC West?

Is there a new AFC? I sorta quit football when it left the LA area. I have live mostly in Texas and California so I did at one watch the local team.

Back to the thread. I suppose that would depend on if you sold to the Vikings at the price they wanted.

[normy]

The old AFC West was Denver, Oakland, Chargers, Seattle. The new AFC West doesn't have the Seahawks who switched to the NFC West along with the Cardinals (from the NFC East)

As for the thread, I guess they began as raiders but once you own everything and have more to lose, traders makes sense.

[Grut]

Great grandfather was full blood Norwegian.

No such thing as a 'full blood' Norwegian. Norwegian blood is at least 25% coffee.

[normy]

Is that because 90% of them live in Ballard Washington now?

[normy]

by the way, I wondered where my coffee fetish came from.

[Mad Dawg]

Damn, She is a beeYOOTful vessel!

[NordP]

Ah...perfect time for a football reference...

MY WHOLE FAMILY HAS BEEN VIKINGS FOR YEARS! ;-)

[Ragnar54]

The Teaching Company offers a course on the Vikings:

Vikings

Professor Harl has a different explanation (as opposed to "the best iron") for the success of the Vikings:

"But culture only takes us so far. The Viking Age would have been impossible had the Scandinavians not possessed superiority in shipbuilding and warfare, and Professor Harl devotes two in-depth lectures to this achievement.

You will explore in detail how the design features of Viking ships allowed them to ride the waters rather than fight the waves, to be dragged across land from river to river, and to be beached in any port and sail almost anywhere. Many Viking victories resulted from the fact that their ships could sail several times faster than opposing armies could move on foot.

Contrary to the stereotype of slashing homicidal maniacs in horned helmets, Professor Harl discusses a precise, organized, battle-hardened army of men trained in warfare since boyhood. Vikings were extraordinarily fit, skilled in boarding ships, in leaping and jumping, archery, swordsmanship, and the wielding of axes. Even more frightful, they were fearless, regarding battle as a state of ecstatic joy and expecting thrill in victory or glory in Valhalla as they rushed at their foes."

The Vikings in effect founded Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy and Russia. (The Swedish Vikings were known as "Russ" (Rooss)). They forced the consolidation of England and ruled England for a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed the audio download version of the course (36 lectures for $49.95).

[Tallguy]

Trade with the strong & wealthy; take from the weak. Why couldn’t they be both?

[RoadTest]

“MY ANCESTORS RULE! “

They did for a while.

[NordP]

Okay, so they pillaged a bit, were rude and disgusting (being diplomatic here and I don't know why) when it came to women, and certainly didn't wash up for anyone or anything, but....men were men and every other being was scared ;-)

OH, AND LEIF ERIKSON DISCOVERED AMERICA!

Actually, they are just a part of my "mutt-dom." I'm Norwegian, Swiss, German, English, Dutch, and a very beautiful eyelash, Italian.

[Grut]

by the way, I wondered where my coffee fetish came from.

Put it like this: in the Norwegian my father's family spoke, when a visitor departed the formally correct thing for the host to say was "tak fur sitten" ('thanks for visiting'), to which the formally correct reply was "tak fur caffien" ('thanks for the coffee').

[Alkhin]

Just inserting the requisite picture (hubba hubba) from "The Thirteenth Warrior" - Vladimir Kulich