Further Reading

This marks the end of our blog. Thank you everyone for reading, we hope you learned as much as we have. If you are interested in more information about the vikings, check out these websites. 


BBC News and History


Irish Archaeology


Another Blog


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Viking Descendants

Viking Descendants exist today and relish in their heritage

Through their extensive sea travel and territory conquest, the Vikings had an incredibly pervasive influence in lands stretching from the Baltic Sea to the upper reaches of North America. They left a lasting influence in the form of living, breathing ancestors, who make up the populations of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Newfoundland, even England and parts of France (Downham 2012: 2).  So where are these descendants now, and how can we find them?


Tracing Vikings with Disease


The word Viking conjures the classic image of burly men with bronzed skin, glistening blonde hair, and bulging muscles. However, a recent study of the inflammatory, degenerative nerve disease multiple sclerosis, which results in loss of brain and motor function over a period of years, found it to be more common amongst Viking descendants in Western Europe and across the Atlantic (Poser 1995: 11). Researchers hypothesize that the Vikings were instrumental in disseminating the genetic weaknesses and abnormalities that lead to this disease. This path can be traced from Scandinavia, where the majority of the modern-day population is descended from Vikings; the first Viking voyages were funded by Scandinavian elite, and the spread of multiple sclerosis can probably be attributed to this cultural group. (Downham 2012: 5) Even though this puts a damper on the view of the Vikings as a strong, infallible culture, discovering this link provides a unique method of tracing Viking influence through existing descendant populations.




Iceland and Greenland
Evidence of Descendant Viking population not only found in human remains
       
The term Viking is the commonly used term to categorize the 9th-10th century Scandinavians Northern Europe.  However, in the Nordic countries it is much more common for people to differentiate between the small group which went abroad to rape and plunder, where as the much larger group stayed behind and or colonized uninhabited lands (Vésteinsson 2005:1).  This theory therefore makes the assumption that the settlers of Iceland were not Vikings, but possibly ex-Vikings, according to the Icelandic sense of the word Viking.
Ancient discoveries and evidence shows that Iceland was settled in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, primarily by people of the Norse, i.e. Viking origin (Nofi and Dunnigan 1997:1).  The notorious Vikings, traveled/explored, traded and fought for land all over Europe, and during this time period they managed to settle in land of the North Atlantic, particularly Iceland and Greenland (Vésteinsson 2005:1). They began colonizing Iceland in the late 800’s and descendants are still believed to be there. 

Rat DNA was used to verify Viking descendents

With all of the archaeological finds of ancient Viking goods and human remains, a recent discovery shows there are other ways to prove descendant population in a certain area.  A recent study has shown and given evidence that there are in fact descendants of Viking population still in Iceland and Greenland. The evidence here is mice, and as astonishing and surprising as it may seem, scientist have compared modern mouse DNA with ancient samples from mouse bones found at archaeological sites (Waugh 2012:1).  Scientists have found that these common rodents of Iceland are descendants from the 10th century Vikings. 


 Dr Eleanor Jones, from the University of York, said: ‘Human settlement history over the last 1,000 years is reflected in the genetic sequence of mouse mitochondrial DNA. We can match the pattern of human populations to that of the house mice’ (Waugh 2012:1).  The most obvious explanation for this is the mice simply made their way onto the Viking ships and long boats during the Vikings exploration, and when the Vikings settled in Iceland and Greenland, so did the mice.  As out of the ordinary as this may seem, it gives people yet more understanding and answers about past cultures, in this case the mighty Vikings.  This goes to show that archaeologists do not always have to discover human remains, treasures, or other buried goods to learn about ancient cultures and their descendant populations.




Sources

Downham, Clare. "Viking Ethnicities: A Historiographic Overview." History Compass 10.1 (2012):   1-12. Print.
Nofi and Dunnigan.  1997.  “Vikings and Normans.”  Retrieved from: http://www.hyw.com/books/history/vikings_.htm  April 19, 2012. 
Orri Vésteinsson. Where have remains of the Vikings been found?“. The Icelandic Web of Science 5.3.2005. (Skoðað 19.4.2012).   Retrieved from: http://www.why.is/svar.php?id=4790.  April 19, 2012. 
Poser, C. M. "Viking Voyages: The Origin of Multiple Sclerosis?: An Essay in Medical History." Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 91.S161 (1995): 11-22. Web. 23 Apr. 2012.
Waugh, Rob.  March 19, 2012.  How the Vikings invaded with fire, the sword... and MICE: Rodents 'hitched lifts' on longboats in 10th Century.  Retrieved from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/  April 15, 2012. 

Viking Burials: The Aftermath

Caught up in all the gore and theatrics of Viking deaths, it is easy to forget that the story of Norse burials does not end with the funeral pyre. The funerary escapades of the still-living Vikings often go unnoticed, as they are hard to ascertain from archaeological record, and do not hold the same morbid fascination as ship burials and human sacrifice. However, in order to fully flesh out the story we have thus far told, it is important to examine what happened to those Vikings lucky enough to live past the funeral rites. How did they handle the death of a loved one? Who walked away with the fortune of the deceased?

Celebration and Mourning

As we have already established, Viking funerals were a somewhat participatory event, not unlike many Western funerals today; Ibn Fadlan's famous account tells of all the male relatives and servants of the deceased taking an active part in the ceremony by contributing grave goods, man power, eulogies, or perhaps in some cases, sexual prowess (Frye 2005: 70). Following the funeral, the nature of this participation changed. Vikings were famous for their "characteristic reserve" and stoic acceptance of death; ethnography tells us that the extent of pious mourning was the draping of black and gray fabrics over the deceased's place of residence (Williams 1920: 421). Even this small tradition did not develop until the Scandinavian Vikings encountered Christianity sometime around the eighth century (Williams 2011: 2). Open displays of grief went against Viking tradition.

Tune Stone, Norway

Drunkenness seems to have been the primary emotion experienced by the Vikings following death. The Viking funeral ale, or arvale, was a hugely important part of paying respect to death and celebrating life. The party could be held any time between the seventh and thirtieth days following the funeral (Williams 1920: 428). The Tune runestone, found in Ostfold, Norway, describes a feast  that was organized by the family and lasted for days, with countless toasts in honor of the dead. The stone, one of many stone monuments recovered from the Viking era, paints the feast as a large gathering of all the villagers, where the dead man was represented by an open seat at the head of the party (Spurkland 2005: 35). In some cases, as in the famous case of Shelty the Icelander, the parties grew to as many as 1400 attendees (Williams 1920: 428). In the account of Laxdaelia Saga, the death of Hoskuld draws leaders from nearby villages to pay their respects at a feast (Muriel Press 2008: 58).  

Inheritance

Monument Rune Stone

Immediately prior to and during the ale, inheritance and the heir to the property of the deceased were determined. All property besides land was divided into three moderately equal portions (Williams 1920: 426). One portion was given to the living relatives to divide up amongst the most pious and devoted, one portion was buried with the individual, and one portion was sold to help pay for the large feast in honor of the dead. The Hillersjo Rune Stone, recovered in Sweden from the early eleventh century, tells of the wife inheriting all of the property of her husband (Sawyer 1993: 183). In most cases, property, especially land, was held by the wife until the children were old enough to claim it. In some cases this only applied if the wife had more than two children. The inheritance would frequently be used to resurrect a monument to the deceased. These monuments, precursors to the modern day tombstone, have been found in the archaeological record throughout Scandinavia, and offer some of the best evidence we have of Viking funeral goings-on (Williams 1920:424). After Christian influences affected Viking cultures, these monuments often featured inscriptions and epitaphs (though the one pictured is merely decorative) that give insight into the individuals these monuments honor. (Photo Williams 1920: 424).

Monument Field

 In some cases, where multiple people were laid to rest these monuments were erected on a grand scale, and became something akin to tourist sites for travelling merchants. Some of these monuments, which mark grave mounds, still stand today (Duczko 2004: 90). (Photo Williams 1920: 422)

Sources

Duczko, Wladsylaw. Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 90. Print.

Ibn Fadlan, and Richard Nelson Frye. Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia: A Tenth-century Traveler from Baghad to the Volga River. Princeton: Markus Wiener, 2005. 70-71. Print.

Press, Muriel A. C. Laxdaela Saga. London: Dent and, 2008. 58. Print.

Sawyer, Birgit, and P. H. Sawyer. Medieval Scandinavia: From Conversion to Reformation, circa 800-1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1993. 183. 

Spurkland, Terje. Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Boydell, 2005. 35. Print.

Williams, Gareth. "Viking Religion." BBC News. BBC. Web. 01 Apr. 2012. .

Williams, Mary Wilhelmine. Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age,. New York: Macmillan, 1920. 424-28. Print.