Posted on 02/05/2016 12:57:25 PM PST by beaversmom
Because the Vikings kicked Muzzie butt - or someone who had kicked Muzzie butt - and kept the ring as booty.
That was the Viking profession back then, no?
Occam’s razor - Viking sacked someplace where Muslims existed, took the ring as loot and gave it to his woman back home. Trying to spin this into something more, such as some sort of cultural exchange program or something, is insanity unless you have a lot more evidence.
“”They do not purify themselves after excreting or urinating...”
How times change. Now we say this about Muslims.
In addition, the Arabs had plenty of gold and silver loot, and, at the time, had the best coinage. Arab coins have been found from China to Africa to Northern Europe.
Vikings kicked some Muslim butt and kept the spoils. They did not speak Arabic. Wife liked the ring so he gave it to her. They had no idea what it said.
That’s the most likely answer.
Maybe Richard Widmark brought it home to the wife after the Mother of Voices crushed Sidney Poitier....
Volga Trade Route, raid on Muslims in Spain or North Africa, Who knows? I hope it got some poor Norse guy out of the doghouse, wherever it came from.
While doing some genealogy with my sister, we were trying to understand a DNA connection through Turkey very early AD, and found that some Scandinavian countries (where gr-gr-grandparents came from) had imported royalty from around Turkey.
Of course, I lost the resource, and haven’t been able to refind it with casual searching.
It is actually no surprise at all.
The author of this article seems ignorant of he fact that Vikings (known in the Middle East as "Varanger") were hired by the Byzantine Emperors as bodyguards and mercenaries.
I can only copy a portion of the following text by Colin Low, as it is copyrighted material. (It's actually part of his research paper on the Necronomicon.) But for a taste of what he has written, here's a "Fair Use" excerpt:
"The popular image of Vikings in furry jerkins and horned helmets is inaccurate. They were among the best equipped and most experienced heavy infantry available at that time. Their trade routes spanned thousands of miles, from North America, to Greenland, Britain and Ireland, the entire Atlantic coast of Europe, and through Russia to Byzantium. They were employed in significant numbers as bodyguards (Varanger) to the Byzantine emperors. Most Varanger spoke fluent Greek. The exact year in which Harald went to Byzantium is unclear due to a minor mismatch between Norse and Byzantine sources, but the account in the Heimskringla claims he served the Empress Zoe the Great sometime around 1030-40. The description of their arrival in longships is spell-binding:
"Iron shielded vessels
Flaunted colourful rigging.
The great prince saw ahead
The copper roofs of Byzantium;
His swan-breasted ships swept
Towards the tall-towered city."
It was the custom in those days that when the Emperor died, the Varanger were permitted to plunder the palace and anything they laid hands on, they could keep. These were turbulent and violent times (with the Empress Zoe strangling husbands in the bath) and Harald took part in three such plunders. According to the chronicle he amassed great wealth."
Indeed the real surprise is not that Arabic trinkets are found, but rather that they are not found in far greater numbers.
Shoot the current translator, and get a certified one that will translate, GOD is GREAT!
My thoughts exactly. Sounds like these archaeologists would like to think it was acquired through more peaceful means. Dopes.
+1
Cut from the hand of a Moslim is my guess. Would that modern Vikings could be a bold.
There was a dead Muslim with a missing finger.
Get outta my head.
:D
Furry jerkins.
LOL
That was my thought exactly. Of Course, watch for libs to use this as proof that Islam is the original religion of Sweden!
Vikings cleared large areas around the Baltic, the north and the Irish seas of all human habitation by enslaving men women and children and selling them to moslems. They were the biggest slavers out there. This woman was someones slave.
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