Bare knees, portraits of kings and other fun facts about the relationship between Vikings and the inhabitants of the British coast

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Scandinavians and the British have a long and difficult relationship. Nowadays it is difficult to find a Swede or a Norwegian who does not speak English. For some time, the Norwegians generally spoke English better than Norwegian languages, and this can be considered a revenge for England for the conquests of the Vikings, who introduced a lot of Scandinavian words into English, and carried out a lot of valuable things. These and other strange facts about the Vikings and the British are in this article.

Portraits of English kings

For several decades now, archaeologists have found gold coins with portraits of English kings in the Viking graves more often than any other coins. For a long time this did not seem strange to anyone, because the Vikings were very actively robbing their sea neighbors, but the number of "English" coins from some moment began to take on dubious sizes, and the dating of the graves was very extensive. In the end, I had to admit that the Vikings for some reason minted gold money with portraits of English kings.

There are different versions of why the Scandinavians did this. For example, to make it easier to pay with money in England (although the Vikings often took everything English for free) or so that it seemed that you participated in a large number of successful raids and now you have a lot of trophies. But it is very likely that the Scandinavians simply did not understand why the money they got acquainted with from the British looked the way they looked, and thoughtlessly reproduced all the details, believing the male portraits on the obverse to be just an ordinary decoration detail.

Who invented bare knees

It is known that among the Vikings there was a king called the Barefoot. According to legend, having robbed the British coast, he saw locals in kilts and was so delighted with comfortable and beautiful clothes that he himself began to wear kilts, despite the fact that the climate in his homeland was not very disposed to open even the hairy knees to all the winds.

On the other hand, there is a theory that the prototype of kilts - men's woolen skirts - was brought to the British Isles by the Scandinavians and the word “kilt” itself has Scandinavian roots. In general, it is completely incomprehensible who taught whom to flaunt their legs.

In any case, the first depiction of a man in a kilt in Scotland dates back to the seventh century AD, and the kilt itself initially represented more of a sari than a skirt - it was a large piece of fabric that was wrapped around the waist, belted, and the excess was thrown over the shoulder.

Effeminate norwegians

The British accused the Vikings of being effeminate, and for several reasons at once. Firstly, among the Scandinavians it was customary to circle their eyes - this protected the mucous membrane from inflammation during sea trips. Secondly, the Vikings grew long hair and braided it in braids, while the British braids were worn only by women, while men cut their hair. Thirdly, the Vikings dyed their hair to look even more blond - for this, the pigment from the hair was etched with alkali. Fourthly, they loved jewelry and washed every week, which the British interpreted as effeminate concern for their appearance. Fifth, they may have been wearing kilts.

At the same time, most likely, the average Viking was more massive, taller and generally hairier than the average Englishman, not to mention the fact that the Norwegians and Danes beat the British more than once on the battlefield. Such are the Amazons of the northern seas.

Marriage question

When Norwegians and Danes began to think about settling in England and Scotland on a permanent basis, marriage legislation was not very beneficial for British women. The Scandinavian wife had a lot of rights and in property terms even more than her husband - this is how the law protected her from the aggression of men who were accustomed to take everything by force overseas. The Viking's wife could divorce him for many reasons, including the fact that he barely bared his chest in public - in her opinion.

English wives were almost completely powerless, girls were also raised in meekness and obedience, since this is the Christian custom of raising future women. Of course, the Vikings found it profitable to marry an Englishwoman and settle on the English coast - after all, then all the property that the bride would bring with her or that they would make together was considered the property of her husband, no matter how he behaved.

In general, the Norwegian and Danish warriors were very tempted by the idea that you can behave disgustingly in a family and still get all the good and not get anything bad. However, many of the Vikings who moved to England and Scotland still preferred to take their beloved wife with them from their homeland to new shores. The blood of these women, no doubt, played afterwards in the veins of the famous Scottish warriors.

The British have more Viking blood than the Scandinavians

Modern Scandinavians are the descendants of both warriors and ordinary peasants and artisans, in addition, at some point, many warriors with their families left the Scandinavian shores to move to live in Britain. So among the Norwegians, Swedes and Danes there are much more offspring of farmers than warriors, and there are probably carriers of the blood of slaves and slaves brought from distant countries.

But the Scandinavians who moved to Britain were among the most belligerent, so that all the very, very military blood went to the veins of the Scots and the British. But the British then greatly diluted it with French and German.

This is not all that can be said surprising about the Scandinavians of the era of sea robbery. Here's another 10 Little Known Viking Facts From Archaeological Finds.