Did you ever see images of Vikings? Perhaps you saw movies about some of their exploits? How were they pictured? They probably looked like big hairy men wearing pieces of fur, carrying large axes or swords and wearing metal caps with horns sticking out from the sides. Actually we thought that the Vikings looked this way for a long time. They were made to look more like animals than men. This may have been due to the fact that they were considered monsters by the people, of the lands that they ravished and in their day they were the most feared of all the invaders. The question is, is this an accurate description of the the Vikings and if not, why?

Let me answer the first question first. The Vikings were a lot more colorful than they were depicted by their enemies. They wore very colorful clothing, that sometimes extended down to their ankles. An example of this might be a warrior with a fur hat, that was wearing a bright blue or red outer coat the ended in a sort of dress like affair, under which we would wear ankle length, tight pants and shoes. The garment might contain piping around it, usually white or black and the whole affair was tied with a fancy belt in the middle. There might be a fur color on the garment, much the same as the ones that appear on some of our winter clothing. This was anything but the clothing of a barbarian. It was more like what a very style conscious person in that century would wear. We have to remember that it was very cold where the Vikings lived and fur trim was not unusual. Perhaps this is where people got the idea for portraying Vikings wearing bear skins and such.

So why was everyone scared of these guys? Here they were, wearing the height of Viking fashion, this is not exactly something that would instill terror in the hearts of anyone is it? Maybe the terror had something to do with the fact that they would whip themselves up, in a sort of frenzy before going into battle. It is said that they were so good at doing this, that many times they would not even feel their wounds until much later. It was sort of the same thing that the Japanese would do in World War II, before a charge. This has also been practiced in the past by other people and as a matter of fact the U.S. Army 45 caliber automatic was developed to shoot out large pieces of lead to stop these frenzied charges, because with smaller caliber weapons, the person coming at you might still be able to stick his bayonet into you even when he was shot. The 45 caliber round would knock him down.

Viking fashions changed radically when Christianity came and trade with the Byzantine empire and western Europe came about. At this point all oriental references in the clothing disappeared. Before that, a well dressed Viking might be wearing silk with little ornaments attached, or some such thing. So far we have only discussed the well dressed Viking warrior, but what about their women, how did they dress? the movies would have you think that they wore bulky furs and other bulky clothing, but this may not be true. A recent find indicates that they dressed a lot more different than we thought. Some sources indicated that they wore a sort of long heavy dress with suspenders, that might have held a sort of train in place. Well it turns out that some remnants of female Viking clothing have been found and guess what. The dresses are open in front, but only exposed the under skirt. This was prior to Christianity of course.

Did you ever wonder where the Vikings got their name from. It came from the term go a viking which meant raiding. So the term Viking really meant raider. Not everyone agrees with this. The Viking ships had a flat bottom. This meant that they could pull their boats right up onto the beach and they were such good sailors that they could get in and out of almost everywhere. Some say that the Vikings were the first to ski and the first to ice skate. The Vikings were not always raiders. They had lived in Scandinavia for at least a thousand years, if not longer and they had been farmers. So why did all this change? The change occurred because their population increased and there was not enough land for everyone and they became raiders to survive. They began their raids in about the eight century and continued them into the eleventh century.

Viking women were greatly respected in their society. They were allowed to choose their husbands and if they were not happy with a husband, they could divorce him. The Viking children didn't go to any schools. Instead of school they helped on the farm. Some of the boys went with their fathers on raids. Their role was to set up settlements after the battle. The Vikings believed that if they died in battle, they would go to Valhalla, this was Viking heaven. There is a similarity with Viking and Egyptian burials. Both Egyptians and Vikings were buried with items they thought that they needed for the afterlife. Vikings were well armed. They usually had a shield, a spear, axe, sword and knife.

If we were to look at the historical records, we would find that the first Viking raid ever recorded took place in 793 A.D. They raided the monastery of Lindisfarne. It was on an island off the English coast. The monastery was founded by Saint Aidan. He had been sent from Iona in about 635 A.D. Ancient records state: (taken from WikIpedia) "this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of Northumbria. There were excessive whirlwinds, lightning storms, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and on January 8th the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God's church at Lindisfame".

Contrary to common belief, the Vikings DID NOT drink from cups made of skulls. The first reference to this was in a book written in 1636 and was incorrect. They were not dirty as stated in some of the biased works of the time. Ironically, the Vikings in England were accused of excessive cleanliness, since they bathed once a week. One has to remember that English society at that time thought that bathing was unnecessary and that you could get pneumonia from bathing. Most of the Viking writing that has survived is from Sweden. There are rune stones standing in Ingvar that tell of a expedition into what is Russia today, in the eleventh century. It turned out to be a disaster and twenty five stones were erected to commemorate the crew.