{"id":7390,"date":"2015-08-04T05:54:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T11:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2015-08-03T18:57:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T00:57:39","slug":"vikings-monks-and-cultural-biases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7390","title":{"rendered":"Vikings, Monks, and Cultural Biases"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"vikings_lagertha_3-AB\"

Lagertha, a shieldmaiden, Ragnar’s wife.<\/p><\/div>\n

I bailed on Game of Thrones<\/em>. I watched the first episode, liked parts of it (Jon Snow<\/a>, obviously), but decided not to devote the necessary hours. Ditto the books. Generally, when I open a book and read something like . . .<\/p>\n

“My lord!” blurted the messenger. “The Zardakar have landed at Dragon’s Gate!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

. . . I put it back on the shelf.<\/p>\n

So why (two years after it started) did I rent the TV series Vikings<\/em> <\/a>(a\/k\/a The Adventures of Ragnar Lothbork), which started\u00a0 running in 2013?<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s a test of the relative strength of adopted Paganism versus one’s historic culture.<\/p>\n

First, some people rightly point out that the initial plot point \u2014 Ragnar wants to raid “west,” i.e., the British Isles, while the earl does not believe that such lands exist \u2014 is impossible. The Norse knew where those lands were. My contribution to the Anachronism Sweepstakes is the glimpse of an Irish wolfhound at the Thing<\/em> in Episode 1. The tall, leggy Irish wolfhound is a Victorian invention, like most “ancient” dog breeds. They never saw a wolf. The “origin stories” of dog breeds contain many tons more bullshit than the origin stories of Witchcraft traditions, all put together.<\/p>\n

Back to the story \u2014 As a little kid in the backseat at the drive-in theatre, I watched Kirk Douglas in The Vikings<\/em><\/a> \u2014 and they were the good guys. I would go on to cite that movie in a paper for my Old English class at Reed College \u2014 and got it past the professor, since it was a pop culture reference.<\/p>\n

But in that same Old English class, we read The Battle of Maldon<\/em><\/a>, where the English, who lose, are the good guys and the Norse the bad guys.<\/p>\n

Yet they were the same culture in some respects. Byrthwold’s last words to the outnumbered and surrounded Englis<\/a>h fighters would come naturally to a Viking in the same situation:<\/p>\n

Byrhtwold spoke, raised his shield \u2013
\nhe was an old retainer \u2013 shook his ash-spear;
\nfull boldly he taught warriors:
\n\u201cThought must be the harder, heart be the keener,
\nmind must be the greater, while our strength lessens.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Except by then the English were Christian.<\/p>\n

My education was largely Anglo-centric, so Alfred the Great<\/a> was the good guy, turning back the Norse, restoring London, uniting peoples, etc. And in my calligraphy class, the Lindisfarne Gospels<\/a> figured prominently. (I had a fondness for Dark Ages fonts.)<\/p>\n

I knew that the History Channel’s Vikings would be raiding Lindisfarne<\/a>, as happened in 793. As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle <\/em>puts it (translated): “the ravaging of wretched heathen people destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne.”<\/p>\n

I thought of an English professor whom I know, proudly Pagan since birth (he says). Once he and were walking through his city, and he pointed out a medieval church badly damaged by German air raids in World War II. I looked at him as he spoke, and his eyes were full of tears.<\/p>\n

Does cultural patrimony some times outweight religious allegiance?<\/p>\n

So when the Vikings waded ashore, I tried to stay neutral. They hacked down the monks, then, looking at the gold and silver crosses, chalices, etc., asked why such precious things were left unguarded.<\/p>\n

That was probably true to life. Contrary to some of today’s \u00c1satr\u00fa, I do not think that the Norse ever conceived of the Lindisfarne raid as a blow against institutional Christianity. They were there for the plunder.<\/p>\n

So maybe this is another series like Breaking Bad<\/a><\/em> or The Americans<\/em><\/a> where you don’t try to pick out “the good guys” but just let the story unfold.<\/p>\n

(CGI <\/a>ravens? Meh.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bailed on Game of Thrones. I watched the first episode, liked parts of it (Jon Snow, obviously), but decided not to devote the necessary hours. Ditto the books. Generally, when I open a book and read something like . . . “My lord!” blurted the messenger. “The Zardakar have landed at Dragon’s Gate!” . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1Vc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12487,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12487","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":0},"title":"Pop Vikings, Modern Animism, and the Raven Flag","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"From Danish writer and animist Rune Engelbreth Larsen The Viking Age seems to be undergoing a kind of global renaissance in various fields, spanning from popular culture to spirituality and even some misguided political trends. Often this \"viking revival\" manifests itself in ahistorical and superficial ways, but not always. Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"animism\"","block_context":{"text":"animism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=animism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":593,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=593","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":1},"title":"Now that everyone has tattoos...Hardcore\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that everyone has tattoos...Hardcore Asatruar will want to file grooves in their teeth, as some ancient Vikings did.Tags: \u00c1satr\u00fa, Vikings","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":611,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=611","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":2},"title":"Beer and VinlandI sat down\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Beer and VinlandI sat down last night with a plate of bread, King Oscar sardines and Rosenborg cheese, a couple of bottles of Carlsberg beer (Support Denmark!), and a copy of the Smithsonian's illustrated anthology Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.It's all for inspiration: I am working up to a series\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4766,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4766","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":3},"title":"The Norse on Baffin Island","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Swedish archaeologist Martin Rundkvist discusses evidence of a Norse presence on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic and whether the people who were there were seasonal trappers or trying to establish a year-round settlement.\u00a0 Remains of Old World rats are indicative. So what we have here is High Medieval Christian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12557,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12557","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":4},"title":"This Ain’t Your Film Set-CGI Viking Ship","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The best description I have ever read of sailing a long ship. I love it when people reconstitute old tech that still works \u2014 like the traditional Polynesian canoe that sailed from Tahiti to Hawaii and back in the 1970s, all without a compass, radio, or modern maps. This is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Norse\"","block_context":{"text":"Norse","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=norse"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sea_stallion.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1321,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1321","url_meta":{"origin":7390,"position":5},"title":"Picts, Scots, Vikings, King Arthur–the Past is Still Much With Us","author":"Chas S. 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