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Originally Posted by RWebb
Jeff - care to get some good food? Include Normandy on your visit - Viking invaded, settled (French girls), then got bored and invaded England.
But wait! There's more! England had previously been fairly well populated with Viking invaders...
So one Viking prong invaded another.
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Yeah, apparently they spent at least as much time fighting and invading one another as they spent invading other lands. They just liked to fight.
So, apparently, "Viking" isn't really any one (or any particular group of) nationality or nationalities, race, location, or other such defining trait. It's more a frame of mind, an attitude, bordering on - but just barely - a "culture". It's even used as a verb - to "go Viking" meant to go raiding.
Their strongholds were, of course, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, but there were plenty of folks populating those areas, and even ruling those areas, who were not "Viking" even at the height of the Viking Period. There were plenty of "Vikings" across the Baltic as well, in what are today Slavic lands. Or at least by relation. There were plenty of peaceful settlers spreading out from "Viking" lands, merely looking for land of their own.
One of the defining traits of "going Viking" that I've picked up on is that in the end, darn near everywhere, they always wound up getting pretty thoroughly trounced. Great victory after great victory, amazingly daring exploits, usually ended in disaster for them. They never knew when to quit. After victories through unparalleled audacity and courage, they would always succeed in going too far and doing something really, really stupid. I guess it's "audacity" if you win, "stupidity" if you lose... I think, in the end, the battle - win or lose - was all they cared about. Even if the battle was amongst themselves.
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Originally Posted by gtc
The cafe at the museum is pretty good also. They have some tasty bites and drinks.
There is also now a viking bar, Skal, in Ballard where People's Pub used to be.
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Cool. I'll have to check it out.
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Originally Posted by Reiver
Great vids and great history.....you'd think they'd get the helmets/gear correct tho… Hollywood not Historical.
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Yeah... I guess Wagner popularized the horned helmet look in his operas. Hardly historic.