Is it wrong to admire the vikings even though they did horrible things?

[Skyros]

[Bluemax]

The Vikings weren't all that horrible.

Firstly, consider the source. Most accounts of how terrible the Vikings were come from Christian sources, whose churches were being raided and burned. Suffice it to say that Arab accounts of Vikings are very different. As for the murder and cruelty, these were medieval times. The entire world was cruel. Vikings no more so than their Christian counterparts. Besides, later on a lot of Vikings became Christian. Yes, they raided, murdered, and raped... AS DID THE REST OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD.

But they also contributed to civilization. The concept of adversarial trial by a jury of peers was forwarded by them. The concept of a democratically elected legislature independent of the king was forwarded by them. Indeed, Iceland's Althing is widely recognized as the world's oldest continuous elected legislative body in the world. The concept that the king (jarl) was not above the law, but more like a leader among equals was forwarded by them. The concept that the king could have you executed for crimes but not seize your property was forwarded by them (eliminating a financial incentive to prosecute). The concept of every man's home and property is *his* and no one else's and could not just be taken without due process was forwarded by them. Their laws were remarkably clearly written and easily understood. Their laws

Granted that often they played fast and loose with compassion, but their laws and government contributed to Western civilization.

[Skyros]

Very well put, I didn’t know any of that, with exception of the medieval world being terribly violent. I’m interested in reading the Arab accounts. Any suggestions?

[Bluemax]

The accounts of Ibn Fadlan are by far the most well known. They were fictionalized in Michael Crichton's book Eaters of the Dead (which I highly recommend) and that stupid movie The 13th Warrior, which I highly recommend you avoid. The accounts of Ibn Battuta and Ibn Yacub are less well known, but they are sources, too. Battuta's time was largely seeing the decline of Vikings.

The Byzantines tended to write more balanced accounts compared to their Western European counterparts as well. This is largely due to the fact that although the Vikings tried, the Byzantine navy for the most part could fend them off (combination of lateen sails and Greek fire). Hence there were less raids, hence less acrimony in their accounts.

[Wade12345]

I'm not aware of any civilization that didn't do horrible things, especially in the ancient world and especially before the signing of the Magna Carta and similar laws in leading nations. Back then, the Kings or the Pope could have you put to death just for looking at them cross-ways, and there's no telling how many people who were more innocent than not ended up dying that way.

Almost every civilization has been genocidal either towards other civilizations, or towards their own people: human sacrifice, abortion, etc.

[Little_Bumblebee]

Almost every culture in the past has done horrible things.

I don't condone the Vikings for robbing, killing, and taking slaves from other continents and countries, but they were badasses.

Well, I'm kind of biased as I'm Danish I guess.

There's pros and cons to everything.

[Anonymous]

I just called them the northmen or Norse/norsemen. Vikings was basically a raiding party. Raiding for gold and silver, land to farm, etc. Sure they had slaves, but what culture didn’t at the time? After they are no longer needed the slaves were often freed. After sailing west they were against the Christians who were trying to push their religion on them.


Other than that their culture was pretty amazing. Not a whole lot of women in that time period was allowed to fight in battle, divorce, vote for a ruler, or rule. The Norse women had those rights and were equals.


Their gods and goddesses were pretty unique and the stories of the Norse gods and heroes are legendary!


Cooking traditions, spiritual traditions, arts and craft, and smithing still live on strong today!


The historic culture was amazing and there’s nothing wrong about admiring it.

[OlderAndWiser]

You can admire people or their accomplishments without endorsing everything that they ever did. MLK, Jr. did a lot of good for the world but he was also repeatedly and flagrantly unfaithful to his wife. We can respect his accomplishmens without worshipping his lack of faithfulness.

[BCA6010]

Every culture ever has done horrible things at some point. The northmen weren't even standouts of their time; they were just more successful than most, and the fact many were hired as mercenaries by nations even as large as the Byzantine Empire kept their reputation intact centuries after the stereotypical Viking raiding parties were basically finished.

[BadgerW4]

That would depend on what you admire about them. If you admire the raping and killing, then yes. It would be wrong. If you admire their sense of adventure, rugged individualism, celebration of intellect, their industriousness, etc... then there's nothing wrong with that. There is no culture out there, probably ever in history, which didn't have flaws. The important thing is to recognize what is good about a culture and what isn't, and celebrate only the positive while understanding the negative.

[userxvi]

I think so, but most people through out history were pieces of evil shit. samurai, native americans, African tribes, europeans, romans etc etc. In fact suffering death and tyranny was the norm for most of human history until some brave sons of bitches took a stand in 1776 changing the course of history forever.

[ArtemisSilver]

It's a bit foolish to think of them as the whole culture. Viking just means raiding party.

There were far more Norse traders and farmers than raiders, particularly after they adopted Christianity.

[Skyros]

You are right on that. So it would make more sense to look at the culture back in Norway?

[ArtemisSilver]

That or you just like pirates

[Hellopeople12]

No. There are worse things. For example, my neighbor countries: Ukraines love Bandera who was killing Poles. And they still love him. And Czechs love Jan Zizka who was destroying central Europe. I still love neighbours Ukraines and Czechs thought. Slava Ukraine!!!

[exitseven]

No, they were brave explorers and total badasses.

[FilmGuy93]

No, that's not wrong. History is written by many inspiring, courageous, and terrible people.

[MangoBob]

Have you ever read about the Crusades? The Mongols? The Persians? The Luddites? The Muslims?

[Skyros]

Yes I studied the crusades for 2 years.

[MangoBob]

They make the Vikings look like Choir Boys.

[Wade12345]

Read the Books of Judges and 1 and 2 Kings in the Bible. The people in the Middle East pre-Jesus era were al lmass murderers and human sacrifice cults. They make the Vikings look like angels... and yet the THREE most popular world religions all come from the Middle East.

[KostasKouvalis]

Not at all. You should always look at the bigger picture

[Likes2drive]

I guess you can admire their accomplishments in exploration

[maximumpower]

Hope you haven't based your opinion on a TV series.
Life was quite different back then.

[BLP11520]

No, I have Viking blood. They were pagans and feared no one. Discovered many lands came to North America 500 years before Columbus did.

[driven159]

Back then everyone was barbaric so then it was a way of life

[DeadShot96]

Yes cause I’m second generation of Viking it’s my heritage

[Skyros]

The only way you could be 2nd generation is if you lived a thousand years ago. I’m 10th generation to my earliest known ancestor and that was just from the 1600s.

[1GoldTwins]

At least give us your arguments!

[Wise4myage]

No, they were bad asses.

[Chazmatazz269]

Nope