The Vikings

fernando · 1st January 2016, 03:46 PM

Very good material, Gavin.
Thanks for sharing.

Jens Nordlunde · 3rd January 2016, 09:19 PM

They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well.
In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south.
Due to DNA analysis they have also found out that some, even before the time of theVikings, came from places very far - travelling thousands of kilometers - and at that time - without planed and trains.
Somewhere I have some pictures of excavated Viking swords, and I will try to find them.
The most impressive Viking sword I have seen was at a friend. It had a rather short blade but quite broad with only one fuller, the quillons were long and downwards bend, but the hilt was like on one a two hand sword, to this came that the pommel was round and quite heavy. IT was a very impressive weapon, but as I have lost contact to him I cant show any pictures.

Timo Nieminen · 4th January 2016, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well.
In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south.

As far west as North America, with a long-term colony in Greenland. Don't know far east they travelled, but they raided in the Caspian Sea. IIRC, more silver dirhams (a Middle Eastern coin) have been found in Viking hoards than elsewhere. These give information about trade routes to the east:
https://www.academia.edu/1722281/Isl...ched_the_North

kronckew · 4th January 2016, 10:23 AM

people were a lot more mobile way back than we give them credit for. some say jesus (yeshua) travelled in his youth with his uncle to cornwall on a tin trading mission. the cool movie 'the thirteenth warrior' premise of a middle eastern scholar/warrior meeting up with vikings and travelling to their homelands is not far fetched. the vikings made lots of cash & loot working for a while as varangian imperial guards in contantinople before retiring home, plenty of scope to liberate middle eastern and persian coinage from people laying around on battle fields who didn't need them anymore.

1st January 2016, 03:46 PM	#1
fernando (deceased) Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Portugal Posts: 9,694	Very good material, Gavin. Thanks for sharing.

3rd January 2016, 09:19 PM	#2
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	They did travel very far, not only to Ireland and England, they also travelled down the Russian rivers. They came to Constantinoble, to Rome and many other places. Mostly they did this to trade, but in some places they were violent as well. In graves in Denmark they have found strange things, like drinking glasses, glass pearls and other things from the south. Due to DNA analysis they have also found out that some, even before the time of theVikings, came from places very far - travelling thousands of kilometers - and at that time - without planed and trains. Somewhere I have some pictures of excavated Viking swords, and I will try to find them. The most impressive Viking sword I have seen was at a friend. It had a rather short blade but quite broad with only one fuller, the quillons were long and downwards bend, but the hilt was like on one a two hand sword, to this came that the pommel was round and quite heavy. IT was a very impressive weapon, but as I have lost contact to him I cant show any pictures.

4th January 2016, 10:23 AM	#4
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,238	people were a lot more mobile way back than we give them credit for. some say jesus (yeshua) travelled in his youth with his uncle to cornwall on a tin trading mission. the cool movie 'the thirteenth warrior' premise of a middle eastern scholar/warrior meeting up with vikings and travelling to their homelands is not far fetched. the vikings made lots of cash & loot working for a while as varangian imperial guards in contantinople before retiring home, plenty of scope to liberate middle eastern and persian coinage from people laying around on battle fields who didn't need them anymore.