The Vikings in Greenland and America, Part 2 (of 4)

...they explored the coast and several islands (most experts agree that these coastal finds were most likely Newfoundland, Nantucket, and/or the Labrador Coast of Canada).  Winter was coming, so the party built a longhouse from the abundant timber. 

The Vikings in Greenland and America, Part 1 (of 4)
Most assume that Erik was called "the Red" for his hair or for his ruddy complexion (the sagas do not explicitly say).  He may have been more aptly called "the Red" for his charisma, his fiery temper, or his bad habit of killing people.

Some graves in Norway and Sweden from the Vendel period and Viking Age contained the bones of falcons along with the high-status warriors interred there.  Archaeologists have found other graves and treasure hordes that contained small iron or copper bells that may be associated with falconry.  In addition to this material evidence, there are runestones that depict hunters with dogs and falcons, including those at Alstad, Toten (Norway), and Böksta, Uppland (Sweden).

Skalds were the poets of the Vikings, and poetry and storytelling were the most-prized art forms in Norse culture. Poetry was considered a gift of Odin, the Allfather chief god of the Vikings, and just being a skald made a person part of the jarl upper class in their society.

Many early Viking Christians seem to have just incorporated Christ into their cosmology rather than completely rejecting their old ways.  We find sayings in the sagas like, "On land I worship Christ, but at sea I worship Thor." 

It was late in the year 871 when the 23-year-old Alfred, newly-appointed king of the last free Saxon kingdom in Britain, sat down for peace talks with two sons of Ragnar Lothbrok and other leaders of the Great Heathen Army.  For young Alfred, it would be impossible not to feel intimidated by the situation.  Halfdan Ragnarson and his half-brother Ubba (or Hubba) were twice Alfred’s age and had ten times his experience.  Alfred had met these Viking champions three years before – but in 868 he had only been in the entourage of his older brother, King Aethelred, and they had been bargaining for the peace of neighboring Mercia and not Alfred’s own home of Wessex.  Now in 871, when...

Odin was the chief of the gods, but Thor may have been the most popular.  A few experts have postulated that this was because Odin demanded occasional human sacrifices while Thor did not, but the real reason for Thor's popularity is fairly obvious. While Odin was the Allfather, it was no real secret who his favorite children were. The men to which he was patron were kings, jarls, poets, and outlaws – individuals (rather than equal members of a community) who could see themselves in Odin's often-egocentric activities.  Thor, by contrast, was the great protector of all that was good, as the Vikings defined it.  Where Odin was wise, Thor was strong.  Where Odin was cunning, Thor was straightforward and stalwart. ...

Even today, Scotland has some of the highest amount of Viking Age Norse DNA of anywhere outside of Scandinavia. 

    It has been nearly one thousand years since the last Vikings ventured abroad raiding and pillaging peasant towns and Christian monasteries. Yet the enduring imagery of monks being slaughtered and churches being looted is ever present in our minds. Every time someone utters the word ‘’Viking’’ we tend only to think of violent, barbaric warriors in bloodstained tunics who went off raiding, killing, and plundering. Although Vikings did indeed raid, kill, and plunder many people fail to realize that most Vikings were primarily farmers, fishermen, merchants, carpenters, and craftsmen. Just like every other society during the Middle Ages, Vikings needed to provide food for their families which usually meant working the land and maintaining the family farmstead.  ...

For the Norse, though, mead was associated with Odin.  One of the most well-known stories of Odin was how he stole the Mead of Poetry whereupon drinking it he gained the gift of understanding and creating the most-treasured Norse art form.  This is another reason why the interlocking horns of the Triskele are one of Odin’s symbols.  It was said that great poets were blessed by Odin and shared in his mead, while less-talented poets only got the spittle that Odin dropped behind.