Vendel Vikings
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- Did the Viking Age start in 793 AD, or did it actually begin anything up to 100 years previously, in the Vendel Age? In this video I look at the case for an earlier start to the age of the Vikings. Please note that there is extra content at the end of the video, after the credits, for which I must thank Bjorn Maxe.
This is very interesting. I live just about 40 km south of Vendel, and the whole area is absolutely full of mounds. The fact that Old Uppsala is a stones throw away is absolutely amazing.
A very historic area, and an amazing place to live, given it's historic associations.
As always my friend, very interesting topic... thanks for the upload.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
Very interesting,,
Thanks, glad you found it of interest.
very interesting talk. cheers
Thanks, glad you found it interesting.
You rule! Great presence. I imagine you being my older viking uncle telling tales by the table.
Hey, Denton! Thank You very much for putting out another great, informative video. Today I watched three videos of Yours during the day, I must say You really know how to present information, did You ever study some performance arts? Anyhow, I would like to bother You with a request.. There is one topic that has fascinated me in the Old Norse culture. The so called "Berserkir". From what can be read around, they appear to have been warriors who battled in a trance like state.. Was this state anything similar to the trance in which the Volur got in? Only used in a more.. "masculine" way? In the works of fiction and fantasy, the berserkers are almost unkillable while in this state. From what I have heard (maily of neopagans and other enthusiasts hyping the old norse culture), some have said that Berserkir ate some sort of mushrooms, either psychadelic ones or something like fly agaric, to get into this state, while others have said, they bit their tongues so the taste of blood would provoke some kind of rage and lust for battle. Supposedly, it was even dangerous to be around such a guy, while he was in this state, as they wouldn't distinguish friend from foe and would slaughter everyone in sight (also fiction, and some theories by history teacher(who liked fantasy :D ) that i knew). From what the good people have compiled on wikipedia, however, it seems they have been pretty organised warriors. And there were also other Berserkir-like factions, namely Úlfhéðnar and Jöfurr... Perhaps You, as both - a well researched scholar and enthusiast, as well as a good story teller, could find the time and will to touch upon this topic someday? Would be truly awesome.. and I'd be grateful indeed!
Thank you for your comments, Ojegs. I was in the theater years ago, I was an actor, so yes, I have indeed been involved with the performing arts, and I've done a couple of videos of Irish folktales. Now, the Berserkirs. It's hard to know exactly what they did, some suggest a trance brought on by hallucinogenic substances, such as the Volur might have used, though it must be said that one's fighting ability would actually be impaired by being in such a trance, a fighter might be in a killing frenzy right enough, but would be inclined to charge wildly and not really be in control of all faculties. Like being drunk makes some people aggressive, but they don't fight very well when they see an enemy in triplicate! It may have been some substance of course, though not very strong I should think, a 'trance' seems unlikely, perhaps more like an Adrenalin rush. It has been suggested that they simply shouted and chanted and worked themselves up, like sports players sometimes do. The idea that being near them was dangerous is rubbish, a warrior who may simply charge into his own men and start killing them because he goes for anything that moves would be more of a liability than a help in battle. All in all my opinion would be that they just worked themselves up, an "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it" sort of thing, or something like the Maori Hakka. I may indeed touch on that aspect in a video to come, and thanks for suggesting it.
@@dentonstalesofthevikingage8945 Thank You, I tuly appreciate the reply and the given opionion! =) And an elaborate video would be most welcome, whenever it comes! Thanks again! Cheers! Or should i say... Skål!
EDIT: btw, my name is Olegs with soft L. It is a Latvian-ized Slavic version of the Scandinavian name Helgi (like Helgi Hundingsbane).
@@RedGuy6969 Any time, Olegs, always nice to hear from people who enjoy what I do. There will be more! Interesting about your name, I didn't know that.
Thank you for this interesting video!
People just need to keep in mind that setting dates for certain periods of history is just a reference. One usually marked by some notable event or the other.
After all, it's not like a group of Scandinavians woke up one morning in 793 and said "y'know, we really need to try doing something we've NEVER done before...like raiding one'a those churches they build over on the other side of the sea."
Also...those ships you mention could have actually been on a peaceful trading mission, but arrived in the area after some other group had raided it previously... and met the kind of reception you'd expect from those who had already been raided before.
That being the case, the people who killed those on the 2 ships that were found might have told those on a 3rd ship to deal with their dead, leave, and never come back.
* shrug * Who knows? Stranger things have certainly been known to happen.
Oh, and as to the healed injuries... "Raiding? No thanks. I still haven't healed up from the LAST time I went. No, I think I'll try a little trading for a while. You know, just 'til my sword arm is back to what it was?"
Very good points, and yes, there are even more explanations for what they were doing, though of course we shall never know. Dates can be very arbitrary, but I suppose we have to use them to keep things nicely in order. Thanks for the intelligent comments, always nice to get.
@@dentonstalesofthevikingage8945 - Nope, not without a time machine we won't.
People these days can't keep the facts of a recent event straight, even with videos and good documentation in many cases. So trying to work it out from archaeological evidence is pretty much impossible.
Bones and weapons can only tell you there was a conflict of some sort. They can't convey conversations, intent, mistakes in judgement, misidentification concerning who one side or the other thought they were dealing with, etc.
...especially not from a 1000 or more years after the fact.
Here in the U.S. there are many events or periods of our history that people either just don't understand, or have the entirely wrong idea about, for instance. And much of those only happened a few hundred years in the past, not thousands.
We all like to think we can look at what was left behind and have some sense of what life was like back then... but the truth is, we just really can't.
And that's even in times and places where people wrote extensively about what was going on around them.
Add to all of that our penchant for seeing what we WANT to see, all too often, and, well... *shrug *
Very interesting topic my friend.
Yes, one not often talked about.
Great topic ,very interesting like this one a lot
Thanks William, I'm glad you enjoyed it. A pity we'll never know what they were actually doing in those ships.
Good piece. As I just read, a key thing to the viking age is the crazy amount of tar one needs to maintain viking ships. It goes into the boards, the ropes, and the sails, and it doesn't stick, you need more, continuously more. You discover tar when you make charcoal and you discover charcoal when you do a lot of iron works, and as it happens so did scandinavians. To make this on an industrial scale you need to be able to transport loads of goods from otherwise poor woodslands to accessible ports. That's possible everywhere without roads if the ground is frozen and snowglad using sleighs. What has always struck me as incredibly unlikely, expansionist barbariabs pouring out from the wastes of the north, suddenly seems to me perfectly reasonable and expected. The fact it requires organized industry to produce these vessels also to me suggest the travels too must have been organized. They can't just have been pirates running away from increased centralization. The discovery of substantial presence of females on raids also speaks against the idea a lack of females due to polygamic chieftains pushing men out. The need for labor maintaining the wood, iron, wool and tar for the ships however explain well the explosion in slave trade and how the raids quickly became its own exponential cercuit economy.
I like this fellow
Very interesting. The implications aren't too far beyond what we already knew about Norse culture, customs, and the reason why they were going on these expeditions. But it is certainly interesting that they were seeking out the honor of being called sons of Odin around the fall of the Rome. From what I see, it shows the portrayal of the traditions in the Prose Eddas were fairly consistent given these acts. I also find it interesting that this parallels the Muslim expansion into Northern Africa and Spain as well as just following the Hunnic raids from the East. Poor Europe...
I agree that the reason for the ship's expedition wasn't diplomatic or peaceful due to the fact that it was full of warriors and we have no records of any efforts from the Vandals to interact with the Europeans in this way. More information is always better than more assumptions. We both know what our ancestors did best on boat trips.
Yes indeed. A pity we don't know more about what they were actually doing, it might have been none of the suggested things!
I believe you naming of the Danes as dark foreigner and Norwegian as light foreigner is the other way about.the Norwegians are the dark
Naaaw, poor dogs. Anyway, it could also have been a successful raid, but with high casualties. Regarding the word viking, it is a contradiction in MODERN terminology, not in their terminology. I would argue that it is likely that Vendel era scandinavians that engaged in viking activities may very well have called them selves vikingr, or something similar(the grammatical ending may have differed. Perhaps they called themselves vikingaz?). I agree with you that the start of the viking age could be put a 100 years earlier. The question that arises then however is to what degree should the the viking age be seen as a continuation of the migration era? I would really love to have heard the viking age scandinavians own views on this. It is clear that they thought themselves as descendants of the Goths and also closely related to the anglo saxons. This we can tell from the rökstone, from utvandringssagan from gotland and also from the Icelandic sagas.
Vik er is småll hidingplases on the cost- where them lay and wait on rich traiders comming home fom europe - thats is the orgin of the world and activity- I think them first in noeway was outlaws unite- build them self a bout an go for it- it was the big farms on the norwegian farms who was their enemies maybe driven by jeousi?
What about jomsvikings - in vendel land- and viking is no nationalitet!!!!!!!!!