Viking_Misconception

Part one: Common Misconceptions As we saw in the video, we could recognize that they are Vikings in a second. Most people think they know how the Vikings looks like at least, even though they don’t know the details about Vikings. However, the sad thing is our least knowledge about Vikings is mostly not correct! So, as the beginning of the speech I’m going to talk about what are the misconceptions about Vikings that we are missing and talk about what is the truth of them. I. Horned helmet  Did Vikings wear honed helmet' No!  Then, Why we are so familiar with Vikings with horned helmet'  According to many popular contents, the horned helmet is fixed as Vikings’ stuff such as Cartoon like Hagar the horrible or famous sport team’s mascot, Minnesota Vikings.  Where the image of horned helmet came from'  There are several guesses, one of them is the two bronze horned helmet was found in Denmark. However the helmet is from Bonze age, which is 2000 years before the Viking age.  And another guess is come from that one of the Norse God, Thor, wore a helmet with wing on it.  Real Vikings helmet  There is no evidence of horned helmet having ever existed.  Actually there is the only one true Viking helmet found. T> With Horned helmet, Skull cups is also one of the popular items of Vikings today. II. Skull Cups  The origin of legend: Ole Worm’s “Reuner seu Danica literature antiquissima” from 1636.  He wrote that Danish warriors drank from the “Curved branches of skulls” -i.e., horns, which was probably mistranslated in Latin to mean human “skulls”.  In Fact, no skull cups have ever been found. T> The image of Vikings that they were using raw material such as horned helmet and skull cups, dirtiness also became a big part of Vikings image. III. Dirty people  Vikings’ image had fixed as dirty people by many movies and cartoons.  Such as this one slice of cartoon, Hagar the horrible. He’s saying “Tell him I take a bath once a year whether I need one or Not!”  However, the frequent artifacts of Vikings shows that actually they were not dirty people  The artifacts are combs, tweezers, razors and “ear spoon”. Also they made soap.  Custom of bathing once a week on Saturday- this word originated from the Scandinavian languages (laugardag “washing day”Saturday). T> With the image of dirtiness, Vikings were also usually drawn as a real barbaric people. IV. Bloodthirsty  Vikings were unusually bloodthirsty people'  No, it was violent age  What was different'  They destroyed items of religious value such as Christian monasteries and holy sites and killed churchmen  These made them looked more barbaric during the highly religious time.  Then Why did they attack Christian monasteries'  It was easy to attack and they also could get valuable treasures, food, Drink, cattle, cloth, and tools  Also they were pagan, not Christian.