It’s genuinely worrying to me how often white supremacist misogynist dudes have a weird Viking obsession. The Vikings did not agree with you. Stop dragging the Vikings into this.
Right-wingers: We should treat the Muslims like the Vikings did! Me: You mean travel thousands of miles to strike up profitable trade deals with them in their own countries and establish mutually beneficial business arrangements? Right-wingers: Wot?
Shhh, do you hear that? It’s every white supremacist screaming all at once.
And a glorious sound it is.
if you weren’t aware, vikings came across more civilizations than anyone in history. They regularly had contact with Muslim empires. They stole from other European cities to sell to them. There are even documents from Muslim merchants who wrote about the vikings. They wrote about how the vikings were huge and strange, and talked about viking funerals. A lot of what we know about Vikings is actually from Muslim writings.
black and asian vikings 100% definitely existed (also, saami vikings)
you know how far you can get into eurasia and africa by sailing up rivers from the baltic and mediterranean seas? pretty fucking far, and that’s what vikings liked to do to trade
then, you know, people are people, so love happens, business happens, and so ppl get married and take spouses back home to the frozen hellscape that is scandinavia (upon which i’m guessing the horrorstruck new spouses went “WHAT THE FUCK??? FUCKING GIVE ME YOUR JACKET???????”)
and sometimes vikings bought thralls and brought them home as well, and i mean, when your indentured service is up after however many years and you’re a free person again, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe it’s a bit hard to get all the way home across the continent, so you make the best out of the situation and you probably get married and raise a gaggle kids
so yeah
viking kingdoms/communities were not uniformly pure white aryan fantasy paradises, so pls stop using my cultural history and ethnic background to excuse your racist discomfort with black ppl playing heimdall and valkyrie
Also we KNOW they got to Asia and Africa.
Why?
Because Asians, Africans, and Vikings TOLD US SO.
Also, we know there was significant mercantile trade between Scandinavia and parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India, Kashmir, North and Eastern Africa because there is evidence in burial sites.
Check that out: the goods Vikings and Scandinavians were getting from their trade with the rest of the world was so important they buried themselves with it, as part of their treasure hordes.
We KNOW this.
There’s a reason you can still see many of the trade routes from the ancient world etched into the very earth.
Plus, we know that some Scandinavian cultures that participated in Viking raids had established minority communities of ethnically Mongolian folks living among them during the periods when such raids were common, and it’s difficult to credit that none of them would have signed on.
Yet another on the pile of reasons why it monumentally honks me off when pusillanimous, pseudointellectual white supremacist scum try to use Scandinavian culture as a crutch for their arguments and act like Norse mythology agrees with their biases. No it fucking doesn’t, bitch. Odin would personally kick you in the dick for being a witless coward and then send your ass to the Realm of the Dishonored Dead.
I don’t usually reblog stuff, but this thread makes me so happy.
See, I love the Viking aesthetic – I love the fusion of organic and
geometric in its designs, I love the natural colors, the complexity of
textures you get from juxtaposing metal/leather/cloth/fur–
–and I hate how
the entire subculture has been so thoroughly co-opted by white
supremacists. To the point where I, a person who likes viking stuff, am
deeply and immediately suspect of anyone else who likes viking stuff, guilty until proven innocent, cuz that’s what the odds are these days.
Anyway.
As far as I’m concerned, anyone can be a viking, and thus I am so, so pleased to find that the historical record backs me up.
True story – There are historical accounts (well, there’s at least one historical account) in which English people whine about how the Norse men bathe so often they’re able to seduce the local women away from their husbands.
^^^ Yep. Turns out the women were way more into the hot well groomed muscular dudes who liked to smell nice.
*Hot, well groomed men who liked to smell nice and knew their way around sharp objects.
“I just don’t know why you couldn’t marry a local boy sweetie.”
“What can I say dad, Hjalmar bathes regularly, smells nice, has shoulders, can wield a sword and can wield his sword ifyaknowwhatImean, and when he comes back from raids likes to shower me in rare gifts from overseas. Look at this necklace! The amber beads came from the lands of the Rus! Also, he’s teaching me how to shoot a bow and use a spear because he thinks it might be nice if I could go on raids too someday.”
I mean, frankly, if I wasn’t already married, I would marry Hjalmar, too.
every time I see someone talking about Vikings having dreadlocks I know that they don’t know shit
Now where is that other post that historians completely missed the fact that approximately one-half of Viking warriors were female as they assumed they were all male until someone checked the skeletons. Fallen female warriors were given the same exact honorable burial with their sword and shield as the male warriors.
Let’s be real
Some of those English women left their husbands for a Helga instead of a Hjalmar
“Look around you, Halvard. This man owns everything you see and beyond. May be, making him my bride would not be such a bad idea, after all. He is worth more to me alive than dead. No one shall harm him.”
Thorki Vikings AU ~ Nordic Invasion of British Isles
Loki is the Philosopher King 