My Grandma always said I was so dark because I was “a black Norwegian”. She claimed that the Vikings captured many dark, gypsy Princesses on their raids and brought them home to Norway for wives. My Dad said he thought that maybe those Vikings had captured some African Princesses. That would explain my coloring and my desire to hunt lions.
“She claimed that the Vikings captured many dark, gypsy Princesses on their raids and brought them home to Norway for wives.”
- An amusing story, but I really wonder if it has much to do with actual history.
My impression is that black hair is more common among Norwegians than among Swedes, Finns and Danes. But why?
Swedish Vikings did a lot of journeys eastwards and southwards (mainly to countries today known as Russia, the Ukraine and Turkey), in other words to places were we find a lot of people with black hair. The Norwegian Vikings mostly went westwards.