And they didn't even stay any significant length of time in Newfoundland, like a few years at most as they had some falling out with the local natives and couldn't be bothered trying to settle permanently there.
They stayed much longer in Greenland, several hundred years, but some time in the 1400s climate change and lack of trade/interaction with Europe meant that staying there didn't make sense anymore, the last Norse Greenlanders died or returned to Iceland.
Which also means that there are no original Norse/Viking descendant population in the Americas anymore, they all left again. Any "viking ancestry" in the Americas today will be via later Scandinavian migration.
Yeah it always annoys me when people (usually americans) say things like Viking blood or ancestry. Like brother Viking was an occupation, you can't be the ancestor of a job.
Fun fact: the same mechanism that brought Europeans to the New World brought them out of Greenland.
One of the major exports of Greenland was ivory, from walruses and narwhales. When the Portugese sailed south, they found cheaper ivory from elephants, impoverishing Greenland even further.
AFAIK there was some DNA study that indicated at least some Native Americans must have had contact to Scandinavians BEFORE Columbus "discovered the New World". I'll check.
Edit: Hilariously I got it wrong...there is genetic evidence of a Native American woman having lived on ICELAND around 1000AD, a good number of Icelanders have genetic markers of Native Americans. xD
No, these people are talking about 'genetics'. Their "23 and stolen genetic data" said that they are 1.2% viking, therefor they are vikings. Due to the nature of genetics and population mixing, a third of the US, and half of Europe, has parts of DNA that originated from nordic populations. What does that mean in terms of being vikings or not? Jackshit, obviously, but these people are deeply racist and don't understand what genetics, ethnicities, nationalities, and occupations mean.
I don't think they have that knowledge.. I think they are just not familiar with history and ancestry and whatnot.. They have probably heard Americans speaking about their 'viking ancestry' and assuming the US predates civilization everywhere else
I disagree. Even if they had been major settlements (which of course they weren't), they aren't in the "America" he's talking about. I doubt he even knows about them based on their education system.
He's almost certainly referrring to all of the Scandinavians that settled the upper midwest in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin in the 1800s-1900s. Hence the Minnesota Vikings football team.
yeah little known fact, those superior american vikings were the ones that plundered paris in 845. Also the scandinavian vikings would have never been able to do the raids in the mediterranean, there’s the whole of europe in between while the superior american vikings just had to cross the atlanic, have you stupid europeans never looked at a map?🤦♂️
Erik doesn't go to America. Despite the title, the Saga of Erik the Red is about his family, particularly after they convert to Christianity. Erik refuses and does very little in the saga after his wife stops sharing a bed with him. Leif the Lucky and his siblings settle in Vinland for a short time.
The Greenlanders Saga tells the same story with a less Christian focus and tells how the settlers were massacred by Leif's sister before she and her crew sailed home to Greenland.
He likely "thinks" there are more people with "Viking ancestry" in the States than in Scandinavia due to population size.
There's only about 28 million people in Scandinavia. So if 10% of the USA claim "Viking ancestry" that's about 35 million. In his feeble desperate mind, that means there are more Vikings in the USA than in the actual countries they originally came from.
The viking age ended in 1066. On average, a currently living Scandinavian has 32 generations of ancestors to get back to the viking age. 2^32 is significantly more than the population of the entire world back then. Basically, it's quite likely for most ethnic Swedes to have at least one viking in their ancestry.
Pretty much every ethnic Swede is the offspring of quite a large proportion of the Swedish population in 1066.
However, a lot of Irish people and British people also have some viking ancestry in them (tho' not necessarily consensual such), and this also holds in parts of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Normandie, etc.
I'm speculating, of course, but just a few sailors or whatever spawning a few bastards there in the 1500s (so like 15 generations after GK and 20+ before now) could cover them.
It would actually be interesting to have a proper-sized genetic study of the extent to which Gengis and Charlemagne have diffused into subsaharan Africa.
According to some shit I just googled up you can't trace specific relatives further than about 7 generations. Shit gets too jumbled - you can get the same identifiable gene combinations many different ways at that point.
It is a bit of both. "The Viking Era" refers to the early medieval era in the Nordic countries. And in everyday speech, "The Vikings" just refer to Nordic people in the Viking era. So today a viking is synonymous with Old Norse person in many contexts.
They might have been including Finland, which is mostly wrong (it's not actually in Scandinavia) but wrong in an understandable way (it is Nordic, and it's usually lumped in with the Scandis for most purposes).
Fins probably don't have much more connection to the Vikings than anyone else in Europe, though.
Finland is mostly associated with the nordics, because it was incorporated into Sweden through crusades in the 12th and 13th century and was a Swedish province until it was ceded to Russia in 1809. But as you mention, Finnish culture isn't based on Norse mythology but is closer linked to the mythology of the Baltic states and north western Russia. On the other hand Iceland isn't Scandinavian either but has a culture that is closely related to the vikings, almost more than Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
My theory is that this is just an American unable to understand what the map is displaying. The question itself is perfectly rational if you consider their context.
Viking era towns of Scandinavia
This sentence can be read two ways:
Towns that existed in the viking era <- The way we're all reading it
Viking fair towns that exists today (reenactment) <- The way this person reads it
So the American is asking: Why are only Scandinavian viking fairs listed on these maps, we have a lot of Scandinavian decedents in American as well that have built reenactment towns, we want them added to the map.
Well there were Vikings in the same way as there were sailors, carpenters and brewers. It was something you did, indeed, not something you were as an ethnic group.
It’s a competitive field. The fake Scottish, Irish, and indeed Manx (very niche) Americans are bad. But, for my money, the fake Italians are the worst.
It is a problem though that a subset of Americans have decided "runes are racist". You can find pretty much every other rune in the list of hate symbols of the ADL... it's kinda crazy.
My profile pic used to contain the runes of my nickname (to be clear, that username was not what I use here, I'd totally get it if it were that) and a few Americans' first reaction was that I must be a supremacist since they believed that there was no acceptable context for these. As far as they were concerned it was like a partially hidden swastika or some dogwhistle.
Which boils my blood as someone with actual Old Norse heritage. Years ago now, me and my borther were out having a pizza, and he used to carry this Mjölnir necklace.
Some smug guy comes up to us and goes "You know that's a Nazi symbol right?". In hindsight this was all very r/confidentlyincorrect but I wasn't on reddit back then so hey-ho.
The best part is they will claim to be 100% that nationality and sometimes even moreso than the people from that country but have never actually set foot in that country
I am biased as a Scandinavian, but yesssss omg I can’t stand American viking cringe 😭 no one over here seriously goes around even thinking about vikings.. like we are literally the softest society in the world, any viking vibe is long gone, just let me drink my oat milk latte in peace please
Considering what the vikings were known for doing, I don't understand all the pride at Viking ancestry. Ever see this comic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/viking
I once got into an arguement with a Canadian (who was literally called something ridiculously English like Jane smith) who claimed the origin of the modern Canadian people were the vikings due to the existence of l'anse aux meadows. She claimed to my face without a hint of sarcasm 'unlike the British, french and Spanish who colonised for gold, the vikings just wanted farm land and to live in peace'. When I called her out she got defensive asking who am I question 'her' heritage
They're making this shit up as they go, grasping at any heritage they think isn't a redcoat in a powdered wig in an attempt to prove their ancestorial innocence now that the world has come to the conclusion that colonialism was wrong
Even if it's the ones who do the tough man Viking act, I feel like it's an attempt to separate themselves from a perceived upper class European(English) background that they think represents Europe/white people and adopt a 'tribal indigenous' persona instead
They had some sophisticated cultural elements, but did a lot of unprovoked attacks for the sake of looting and pillaging, killing many in the process. Sure, historically there are many groups of people who would do that to other groups when able, but it shouldn't be something to admire.
Yeah, I'd call bullshit on that unless you're only thinking of Europeans. China was doing well and this was pretty much the peak of the Islamic Golden Age.
Heynow, I do think about them on occasion. Mostly cause I love the history and mythology of the Old Norse. Which just makes people like the OP even more cringe, cause their understanding of our ancestors mostly comes from Vikings the TV-show. Which is a fantasy show.
There's a show called Allt för Sverige about Americans with Swedish ancestry and they compete and they're all laughable, albeit kinda adorable. But like they start crying because their great great great grandfather's grandmother had 5 children and 3 of them died and I'm like dude, it's sad but you don't gotta be doing allat...
Didn't you know you take your heritage from which ever ancestor sounds coolest to you don't like that grampa was Italian check mum's side they might be Scottish (scotch for the Americans) or you might get really lucky and be Irish because we all know the USA has the biggest Irish population in the world
If you venture far enough back that you hit the dreaded English, you just have to dig further to find your way back to a cool ancestor, like a Scandinavian or something. You just have to keep digging deeper, trust me, your 40-generation long distant claim to a patch of Norwegian farmland is just a web search away.
We're the bad guys, don't you know. Just being Scottish or Welsh is fine but Great Britain was the big bad all around the world. Obviously we did earn it in many places.
I often think this about heritage freaks. Once you get 10 generations back you have over 1000 great-great-... grandparents. It's meaningless to pick out 1 in particular, it's statistically insignificant at that point.
Aside from which, the people obsessed with heritage are fairly often anti-immigrant. Either you do think that people from other cultures (e.g. your family) can integrate or you don't (e.g. other people's) - make your mind up.
Scandinavians today don't even consider themselves vikings. The one's who do usually fall in either the autistic-like super into history type or into the kinda neo-nazi-category.
If you talk about shit like that here you are automatically considered hella weird if it is not explained as simply a hobby or interest you have. But then you kind of have to also be interested in other history to back that up. If your only interest is vikings then you're kind of "sus".
I find 'Viking' ancestry kind of funny since...Vikings weren't an ethnicity, it was a 'role'. It's more or less 'Raider'. The vast majority were Scandinavian, but some were Saxons. There is no 'Viking' ancestry anymore than there is 'Rooftiler' ancestry, or 'Baker' ancestry.
Counterpoint, if your local pseudoscientific DNA advertised ancestry checker indicates that you're a possible descendant of Harald Hårfagre for example, you could claim viking ancestry with some level of basis. At least if you take his portrayal in the sagas as fact.
It wouldn't mean much, but it wouldn't be completely incorrect either.
Has anybody ever had the idea to set up a totally official viking store website that sells the totally authentic horned helmets with the totally traditional and totally authentic runes, colours and symbols specific to each totally authentic and official tribe of vikings?
Not to mention double bladed battle axes. Seriously, any historic two bladed axe was either a symbolic/ceremonial item not for practical use, or a lumberjack tool, with something significantly different between the blades so they were used for different purposes. It was never normal anywhere to fight with such axes, them being significantly less practical than an axe with a single blade. Sometimes a hook or point was on the back end, but not two identical blades facing opposite directions.
Oh yeah, they're all over Facebook. I wanted to learn more about the religion and ever since I searched, I've been shown ads for poorly constructed viking stereotype stuff.
I've also heard those airheads say that the majority of Irish ancestry lives in the US. They'll probably say the same about Italians soon, and if we wait long enough most of all European countries ancestry live there, according to them.
I think they’re just a total dumb fuckhead. If they don’t want to read there are literally TV shows about the vikings staring Canadians and they choose not to watch them
I mean, even discovered by white western Europeans. A lot of dudes showed up to the new world, saw a bunch of people there, and said "wow, can't believe we discovered this place" while the indigenous people who were already here for thousands of years just said "wtf dude, we built that house over there if you want to come over for dinner"
Then we labeled them savages, gave them disease, shot them, and forced the survivors to leave their homes while we raped them and stole their land for a few seashells and said "you made this? I made this."
I would really like to see the alternative timeline where the American colonies did not become independent (at least not yet in the 18th century) and the British treaty promising that the colonies would not extend beyond the Appalachians was upheld (at least beyond the 18th century). Most probably the Native Americans would have eventually come to grief some way or other (cough oil and gold cough), but still it's an interesting thought.
Meanwhile, Cahokia. That may (important to note since we only have estimates for it's population) have been as large or larger than contemporary London.
Though in fairness that was also abandoned - due to a variety of factors - before Europeans landed in the Americas.
If I'm being really nice to the mental gymnastics, maybe it's something like:
Europeans came to America when Christopher Columbus discovered it. But wait, "vikings" (Norse people) were there a long time before Columbus! Aha. That means Vikings are American and not European.
First of all, 'Viking' is not a race, ethnicity, or bloodline. It's a Scandinavian lifestyle / occupation in a certain period in time. Just like you can't be of 'Pirate' ancestry.
And second of all, if you (and your ancestors) live in the US for generations , you're just an American.
Edit: My source is a nice presentation I attended in the Vikingship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. And if you Google a bit, you find enough documents to confirm it.
People definitely can be descended from occupations. The most common English surnames are all based on occupation; Smith, Brown, Green, Taylor, Green, Black, etc.
They likely mean the Viking NFL team. They also have a very original "Skol-chant' there. As you can imagine it is a absolutely butchered version of the Icelandic clap.
And - Viking is a occupation, nothing else. Saying you have viking heritage is same as saying you have potatofarmer heritage.
There were quite a lot people in Scandinavia and the ones sailing longboats were vikings. It was their job, not a genetic determinator.
When I went to Iceland a tour guide was talking about Americans claiming "Viking heritage" and joking that it's like bragging that you have "sailor heritage". Viking was a job, not a people - one would go viking to kidnap and pillage and explore a little, and the rest of the time were probably farmers.
"Viking ancestry" isn't a thing, your ancestors were peasant farmers in what was at the time the most miserable place in Europe.
I'm sure it would be a waste of time to point out, again, that "Viking" was an occupation, not a nationality or an ethnicity. Many (IIRC most) early Medieval Scandinavians were not Vikings.
To borrow a turn of phrase from the wonderful history spoof 1066 and All That, the historically accurate view that the Vikings were a small minority of ruthlessly cruel rape-and-pillage barbarians is "Right but Repulsive", while the notion that all of Scandinavia was populated by bold explorer types who sustained their entire society with loot brought from overseas is "Wrong but Wromantic".
The map is wrong, Copenhagen wasn't a settlement before after the vikings. The major towns from the viking age in Denmark is Ribe, Viborg and Roskilde.
Let's start with reminder that a viking is an occupation, not an ethnicity. You can claim having a viking ancestry as much as you can claim having a janitor ancestry.
Outside the obvious Scandinavia, I can imagine half of Europe would have at least one Viking ancestor who came from these parts dating back to around the 800-1100 A.D. Especially the Central and Eastern Europe. Americans don't have any reason to flex really.
I hope Peyton Parrish is forever mildly inconvenienced when hungry. I hope every time he gets stuck in traffic, he has to liqui-shit. I hope he always steps in a small puddle of water every time he puts new socks on. I hope he stubs his toe every fifth time he gets up to pee in the middle of the night. I hope he has a horrible day.
What...
There were some settlements on greenland and labrador, he asumes that thoose were the main settlements of the vikings 🙈💩
That poor deluded idiot.
I like how he put "IS" in capitals even though it's the wrong essential verb.
Thank you. I thought it was me going nuts.
Excuse me, that should be "I thought it are me going nuts."
/s.
But capitalism better, you commie
That's basically a synonym for American these days 🤣
And they didn't even stay any significant length of time in Newfoundland, like a few years at most as they had some falling out with the local natives and couldn't be bothered trying to settle permanently there.
They stayed much longer in Greenland, several hundred years, but some time in the 1400s climate change and lack of trade/interaction with Europe meant that staying there didn't make sense anymore, the last Norse Greenlanders died or returned to Iceland.
Which also means that there are no original Norse/Viking descendant population in the Americas anymore, they all left again. Any "viking ancestry" in the Americas today will be via later Scandinavian migration.
It's no use coming at these guys with facts. They think "Vikings" are a race and the show of the same name is a documentary.
Yeah it always annoys me when people (usually americans) say things like Viking blood or ancestry. Like brother Viking was an occupation, you can't be the ancestor of a job.
When you say "ancestor", from context I think you mean "descendent". Your ancestors are in the past. You are their descendent.
Tell that to anyone with the surname Smith, Baker, Taylor, etc.
Well, the Vikings did a bunch of fucking around in other places, like Ireland, so someone of Irish descent could have Viking "ancestry"
Fun fact: the same mechanism that brought Europeans to the New World brought them out of Greenland.
One of the major exports of Greenland was ivory, from walruses and narwhales. When the Portugese sailed south, they found cheaper ivory from elephants, impoverishing Greenland even further.
AFAIK there was some DNA study that indicated at least some Native Americans must have had contact to Scandinavians BEFORE Columbus "discovered the New World". I'll check.
Edit: Hilariously I got it wrong...there is genetic evidence of a Native American woman having lived on ICELAND around 1000AD, a good number of Icelanders have genetic markers of Native Americans. xD
Unless you count all the viking ancestry that came by way of Irish immigrants
Also assumes that Greenland and Labrador are part op the US
Trump has told him so!
No, these people are talking about 'genetics'. Their "23 and stolen genetic data" said that they are 1.2% viking, therefor they are vikings. Due to the nature of genetics and population mixing, a third of the US, and half of Europe, has parts of DNA that originated from nordic populations. What does that mean in terms of being vikings or not? Jackshit, obviously, but these people are deeply racist and don't understand what genetics, ethnicities, nationalities, and occupations mean.
1,2% Pirate… Viking means pirate… so 1,2% what exactly more danish than the danes? I’m confused!
I don't think they have that knowledge.. I think they are just not familiar with history and ancestry and whatnot.. They have probably heard Americans speaking about their 'viking ancestry' and assuming the US predates civilization everywhere else
Well... It does predate everywhere else. Jesus was American, so civilization in the US is at least 2,000 years old.
If Jesus was American, you can infer Moses was too.
And if they're both American, Adam and Eve were probably American too, those are both very American names.
Which leads me to say: America is the birthplace of civilization. The birthplace of Humanity as a whole even
It says something that i was looking for an /s
If that one needed /s we are in trouble…..
I hear that the Big Bang actually happened in America. Can you confirm?
Of which neither is part of 'the states'.
I disagree. Even if they had been major settlements (which of course they weren't), they aren't in the "America" he's talking about. I doubt he even knows about them based on their education system.
He's almost certainly referrring to all of the Scandinavians that settled the upper midwest in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin in the 1800s-1900s. Hence the Minnesota Vikings football team.
Those places aren't america though
They found a settlement in Newfoundland, not Labrador (just fyi)
yeah little known fact, those superior american vikings were the ones that plundered paris in 845. Also the scandinavian vikings would have never been able to do the raids in the mediterranean, there’s the whole of europe in between while the superior american vikings just had to cross the atlanic, have you stupid europeans never looked at a map?🤦♂️
It might be a reference to people of Scandinavian heritage in the US but who the hell knows. They certainly didn’t come over in Viking ships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_and_Scandinavian_Americans
They’re JUST americans, lol
Neither of which are in the US in any case
Not to mention Labrador is in Canada
Still not America though? That’s firmly Canada
Despite Trump's bullshit, neither Greenland nor Labrador is actually part of the USA
He just wants a map of European settlements in the United States, during the Dark Ages.
Surely that's not too much to ask?
Send him Saga of Erik the Red. Explaining his exploits and attempts to settle part of north america.
They'll probably think he was an early Communist, if he was called Eric the Red, and disavow anything to do with him
Yeah but red is also the colour of the republicans so maybe they think it’s good now?
Fair enough
Erik doesn't go to America. Despite the title, the Saga of Erik the Red is about his family, particularly after they convert to Christianity. Erik refuses and does very little in the saga after his wife stops sharing a bed with him. Leif the Lucky and his siblings settle in Vinland for a short time. The Greenlanders Saga tells the same story with a less Christian focus and tells how the settlers were massacred by Leif's sister before she and her crew sailed home to Greenland.
Wait until he reads about his daughter who flashed her breasts and scared of native Americans with her wardrobe.
That's a little to explicit by modern American sensory..
"wardrobe malfunction"
Or the saga of Erik the Viking, who went to Hy-Brasil. He even had an American accent.
Well dark ages were during 476–1000 and vikings did go to America somewhere around year 1000
He likely "thinks" there are more people with "Viking ancestry" in the States than in Scandinavia due to population size.
There's only about 28 million people in Scandinavia. So if 10% of the USA claim "Viking ancestry" that's about 35 million. In his feeble desperate mind, that means there are more Vikings in the USA than in the actual countries they originally came from.
Having Scandinavian ancestry does not imply your ancestors were vikings - seafarers and raiders. They most likely were poor peasants.
The viking age ended in 1066. On average, a currently living Scandinavian has 32 generations of ancestors to get back to the viking age. 2^32 is significantly more than the population of the entire world back then. Basically, it's quite likely for most ethnic Swedes to have at least one viking in their ancestry.
Pretty much every ethnic Swede is the offspring of quite a large proportion of the Swedish population in 1066.
However, a lot of Irish people and British people also have some viking ancestry in them (tho' not necessarily consensual such), and this also holds in parts of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Normandie, etc.
Every white European and American alive today is likely to be descended from Charlemagne. Also from Gengis Khan.
I would posit that some marginal Europeans - e.g. Icelanders - might at least be exceptional w.r.t. Gengis Khan.
I'm speculating, of course, but just a few sailors or whatever spawning a few bastards there in the 1500s (so like 15 generations after GK and 20+ before now) could cover them.
It would actually be interesting to have a proper-sized genetic study of the extent to which Gengis and Charlemagne have diffused into subsaharan Africa.
According to some shit I just googled up you can't trace specific relatives further than about 7 generations. Shit gets too jumbled - you can get the same identifiable gene combinations many different ways at that point.
Trying to explain to people (and ignoramuses like this American in particular) that Viking is not a nationality, but seasonal work, is fruitless labor
It is a bit of both. "The Viking Era" refers to the early medieval era in the Nordic countries. And in everyday speech, "The Vikings" just refer to Nordic people in the Viking era. So today a viking is synonymous with Old Norse person in many contexts.
There are actually fewer.
Sweden: 10,5 million
Denmark: 6 million
Norway: 5,5 million
Total: 22 million.
They might have been including Finland, which is mostly wrong (it's not actually in Scandinavia) but wrong in an understandable way (it is Nordic, and it's usually lumped in with the Scandis for most purposes).
Fins probably don't have much more connection to the Vikings than anyone else in Europe, though.
Finland is mostly associated with the nordics, because it was incorporated into Sweden through crusades in the 12th and 13th century and was a Swedish province until it was ceded to Russia in 1809. But as you mention, Finnish culture isn't based on Norse mythology but is closer linked to the mythology of the Baltic states and north western Russia. On the other hand Iceland isn't Scandinavian either but has a culture that is closely related to the vikings, almost more than Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Iceland was settled by the Norse. It may not be on the peninsular, but it has nordic roots.
My theory is that this is just an American unable to understand what the map is displaying. The question itself is perfectly rational if you consider their context.
Viking era towns of Scandinavia
This sentence can be read two ways:
Like this:
https://www.visitbergen.com/ting-a-gjore/opplev-vikingbyen-njardarheimr-i-gudvangen-p5628363
So the American is asking: Why are only Scandinavian viking fairs listed on these maps, we have a lot of Scandinavian decedents in American as well that have built reenactment towns, we want them added to the map.
So aggressively wrong they could only be American.
There is no such thing as vikings. They went viking, they are different peoples northmen etc.
Well there were Vikings in the same way as there were sailors, carpenters and brewers. It was something you did, indeed, not something you were as an ethnic group.
Americans do not understand this
They probably mean Minnesota Vikings.
Okay ash
https://preview.redd.it/e5ft0esnup6g1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c7a537a078bf750b3a240b034684002b0214002
Scandinavian-larping Americans are the worst.
It’s a competitive field. The fake Scottish, Irish, and indeed Manx (very niche) Americans are bad. But, for my money, the fake Italians are the worst.
New Jersey Eyetalians are incredibly obnoxious, but viking larpers are often straight up white supremacists.
I wish you could get old nordic runes tattood without looking like a neonazi
I've never had any problems with any of mine.
Don't let the nazis decide what you can do, man.
It is a problem though that a subset of Americans have decided "runes are racist". You can find pretty much every other rune in the list of hate symbols of the ADL... it's kinda crazy.
My profile pic used to contain the runes of my nickname (to be clear, that username was not what I use here, I'd totally get it if it were that) and a few Americans' first reaction was that I must be a supremacist since they believed that there was no acceptable context for these. As far as they were concerned it was like a partially hidden swastika or some dogwhistle.
Simply ignore the Americans.
Which boils my blood as someone with actual Old Norse heritage. Years ago now, me and my borther were out having a pizza, and he used to carry this Mjölnir necklace.
Some smug guy comes up to us and goes "You know that's a Nazi symbol right?". In hindsight this was all very r/confidentlyincorrect but I wasn't on reddit back then so hey-ho.
yeah it's been hacked by the far right. Like that jan 6 shaman guy that had a huge Mjølnor tatoo
i agree, unless we’re talking about the maxed out viking larpers, those are straight up nazis. also happy cake day!!
I vote for fake Native Americans, 1/64 Apache, despises immigrants who stole his ancestors' land.
I thought the hindu-wannabe ones out west are bad. They even formed a few sex cults around random indian guys saying they're yogis
The best part is they will claim to be 100% that nationality and sometimes even moreso than the people from that country but have never actually set foot in that country
Not many fake english americans, I want a term like plastic paddy.
Bogus brit
Artificial anglophile
Ersatz english
'Manx American' - seriously?
Very serious. And very egregious!
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2017-03-13/iom-king-of-mann-announces-abdication-online
I'm surprised that they have enough knowledge to pick Manx as an option.
I am biased as a Scandinavian, but yesssss omg I can’t stand American viking cringe 😭 no one over here seriously goes around even thinking about vikings.. like we are literally the softest society in the world, any viking vibe is long gone, just let me drink my oat milk latte in peace please
Considering what the vikings were known for doing, I don't understand all the pride at Viking ancestry. Ever see this comic: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/viking
I once got into an arguement with a Canadian (who was literally called something ridiculously English like Jane smith) who claimed the origin of the modern Canadian people were the vikings due to the existence of l'anse aux meadows. She claimed to my face without a hint of sarcasm 'unlike the British, french and Spanish who colonised for gold, the vikings just wanted farm land and to live in peace'. When I called her out she got defensive asking who am I question 'her' heritage
They're making this shit up as they go, grasping at any heritage they think isn't a redcoat in a powdered wig in an attempt to prove their ancestorial innocence now that the world has come to the conclusion that colonialism was wrong
Even if it's the ones who do the tough man Viking act, I feel like it's an attempt to separate themselves from a perceived upper class European(English) background that they think represents Europe/white people and adopt a 'tribal indigenous' persona instead
Tbf for their time vikings weren't that bad, they have a bad rep mainly from just being more successful at killing people.
Their society was more civilized than basically anywhere else
More 'civilised' than contemporary Roman society with its capital Constantinople?
They had some sophisticated cultural elements, but did a lot of unprovoked attacks for the sake of looting and pillaging, killing many in the process. Sure, historically there are many groups of people who would do that to other groups when able, but it shouldn't be something to admire.
Yeah, I'd call bullshit on that unless you're only thinking of Europeans. China was doing well and this was pretty much the peak of the Islamic Golden Age.
Heynow, I do think about them on occasion. Mostly cause I love the history and mythology of the Old Norse. Which just makes people like the OP even more cringe, cause their understanding of our ancestors mostly comes from Vikings the TV-show. Which is a fantasy show.
If they didn't have oat milk, though, what would you do?
I bet you'd hop in the longboat and go burn down their homes while wearing pelts. Lie to me if you must, but don't lie to yourself.
thank god for people like @isoldeosbeck on instagram for continuosly trolling "viking-americans". https://imgur.com/a/nnKB7Tv
I saw the original post. It's even more cringey when you see that the OOP named himself after a legendary viking figure.
There's a show called Allt för Sverige about Americans with Swedish ancestry and they compete and they're all laughable, albeit kinda adorable. But like they start crying because their great great great grandfather's grandmother had 5 children and 3 of them died and I'm like dude, it's sad but you don't gotta be doing allat...
I copy my own message from the other thread:
MF has seen a series and had a great great great grandpa from Scandinavia so he’s automatically a viking
A great great great grandpa that magically cancels out the other great great great grandparents.
Didn't you know you take your heritage from which ever ancestor sounds coolest to you don't like that grampa was Italian check mum's side they might be Scottish (scotch for the Americans) or you might get really lucky and be Irish because we all know the USA has the biggest Irish population in the world
But be careful where you look because if you go far enough back you might find... The English.
I find it hilarious how few amercians will openly admit english heritage, we arent sexy enough. A generational curse if anything.
If you venture far enough back that you hit the dreaded English, you just have to dig further to find your way back to a cool ancestor, like a Scandinavian or something. You just have to keep digging deeper, trust me, your 40-generation long distant claim to a patch of Norwegian farmland is just a web search away.
It’s funny scrolling through the ancestry subreddit. There are genuinely people upset because their DNA isn’t cool enough for them 🤣
Basically anything except english. For some reason nobody is english.
We're the bad guys, don't you know. Just being Scottish or Welsh is fine but Great Britain was the big bad all around the world. Obviously we did earn it in many places.
White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or WASPs is the preferred name for English-Americans
I often think this about heritage freaks. Once you get 10 generations back you have over 1000 great-great-... grandparents. It's meaningless to pick out 1 in particular, it's statistically insignificant at that point.
Aside from which, the people obsessed with heritage are fairly often anti-immigrant. Either you do think that people from other cultures (e.g. your family) can integrate or you don't (e.g. other people's) - make your mind up.
My great great great xxxxxxxxx greats grandpa was an ape. So I guess I'm a Ape.
Scandinavians today don't even consider themselves vikings. The one's who do usually fall in either the autistic-like super into history type or into the kinda neo-nazi-category.
If you talk about shit like that here you are automatically considered hella weird if it is not explained as simply a hobby or interest you have. But then you kind of have to also be interested in other history to back that up. If your only interest is vikings then you're kind of "sus".
At least in my experience.
Well, tell him to get a boat and start raiding coastal settlements, and he too can be a viking. It was never a question of ethnicity.
As a Scandinavian myself, I feel utterly insulted now.
As a Finnish person, I for once feel happy about not being all that scandinavian
As Finnish person with a fair bit of Swedish heritage I don’t know what to feel
Self-loathing? /s
From which side of the family? Or do they combine like into a MegaZord of Loathing?
About this or in general ;)?
Well mostly this but then again I also have a degree in philosophy so also in general
Fika with sisu, obviously. Defined as having a grim determination to have coffee and a bun no matter what gets in your way.
The majority of Finnish people is from America. Did you ever consider that??????
Same here. Americans sure are something
Not a Scandinavian, but the city I was born in (Brugge) probably derives the name from the Old Norse "bryggja" so even I feel insulted.
Im from iceland and i dont know how to feel
Like everybody of Anglo Saxon heritage, I have Viking ancestry too. Just don't ask how it got there.
As being a neighbor just to your south I’ll send some troops to help
At this point I prefer to believe this is rage bait
... and we all know that it isn't.
May as well believe in magic.
It can't be all rage bait, the ancestry test reactions give away that it isn't.
I find 'Viking' ancestry kind of funny since...Vikings weren't an ethnicity, it was a 'role'. It's more or less 'Raider'. The vast majority were Scandinavian, but some were Saxons. There is no 'Viking' ancestry anymore than there is 'Rooftiler' ancestry, or 'Baker' ancestry.
Everyone named Baker, Smith, Brown, Black, Green, Silver, or Taylor may take exception to what you've said.
Tell that to Barry Viking!
Since Viking is a first name (even if not super common) here in Sweden, there are people here with the last name Vikingsson.
Good point. Guess I should've said it isn't an ethnicity.
Counterpoint, if your local pseudoscientific DNA advertised ancestry checker indicates that you're a possible descendant of Harald Hårfagre for example, you could claim viking ancestry with some level of basis. At least if you take his portrayal in the sagas as fact.
It wouldn't mean much, but it wouldn't be completely incorrect either.
Has anybody ever had the idea to set up a totally official viking store website that sells the totally authentic horned helmets with the totally traditional and totally authentic runes, colours and symbols specific to each totally authentic and official tribe of vikings?
I bet you could make money with that.
They're already everywhere on the tourist streets of Stockholm so it must be genuine.
Huh, do Americans have their own section/permitted visiting hours?
Because I spent ~a week in Stockholm and never saw this.
Also the Vasa museum, GOAT ship museum. The anti Polish propaganda was hilarious.
Not to mention double bladed battle axes. Seriously, any historic two bladed axe was either a symbolic/ceremonial item not for practical use, or a lumberjack tool, with something significantly different between the blades so they were used for different purposes. It was never normal anywhere to fight with such axes, them being significantly less practical than an axe with a single blade. Sometimes a hook or point was on the back end, but not two identical blades facing opposite directions.
You know you've given me an idea.
My bew house in Sweden came with a little stream AKA I have an endless supply of 'water that was blessed by the Vikings and has touched their ships'.
Oh yeah, they're all over Facebook. I wanted to learn more about the religion and ever since I searched, I've been shown ads for poorly constructed viking stereotype stuff.
I've also heard those airheads say that the majority of Irish ancestry lives in the US. They'll probably say the same about Italians soon, and if we wait long enough most of all European countries ancestry live there, according to them.
I'm just glad they haven't discovered the Welsh yet
Shh
"Viking ancestry" is a contradiction in terms anyway. It was a occupation, not an ethnicity. Like saying you have pirate ancestry.
"my grandpas were a sheep shearer and a glassmaker so yeah- I guess you could say I have some pretty diverse anscestors"
Wait what ? He thinks that Vikings came from.. America ??
I live in Copenhagen. It was founded before your country was even discovered!.
EDIT: Yes yes. Im aware of the natives living there. I did of course mean by Europeans.
I think they’re just a total dumb fuckhead. If they don’t want to read there are literally TV shows about the vikings staring Canadians and they choose not to watch them
I mean, even discovered by white western Europeans. A lot of dudes showed up to the new world, saw a bunch of people there, and said "wow, can't believe we discovered this place" while the indigenous people who were already here for thousands of years just said "wtf dude, we built that house over there if you want to come over for dinner"
Then we labeled them savages, gave them disease, shot them, and forced the survivors to leave their homes while we raped them and stole their land for a few seashells and said "you made this? I made this."
I would really like to see the alternative timeline where the American colonies did not become independent (at least not yet in the 18th century) and the British treaty promising that the colonies would not extend beyond the Appalachians was upheld (at least beyond the 18th century). Most probably the Native Americans would have eventually come to grief some way or other (cough oil and gold cough), but still it's an interesting thought.
Meanwhile, Cahokia. That may (important to note since we only have estimates for it's population) have been as large or larger than contemporary London.
Though in fairness that was also abandoned - due to a variety of factors - before Europeans landed in the Americas.
Many indigenous people would tend to disagree with that statement.
If I'm being really nice to the mental gymnastics, maybe it's something like:
Europeans came to America when Christopher Columbus discovered it. But wait, "vikings" (Norse people) were there a long time before Columbus! Aha. That means Vikings are American and not European.
First of all, 'Viking' is not a race, ethnicity, or bloodline. It's a Scandinavian lifestyle / occupation in a certain period in time. Just like you can't be of 'Pirate' ancestry.
And second of all, if you (and your ancestors) live in the US for generations , you're just an American.
Edit: My source is a nice presentation I attended in the Vikingship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. And if you Google a bit, you find enough documents to confirm it.
People definitely can be descended from occupations. The most common English surnames are all based on occupation; Smith, Brown, Green, Taylor, Green, Black, etc.
1) Duplication
2) What jobs are those?
Blacksmiths and caretakers of the village green. Hair colour is also an origin.
*are
*aren't
It’s like asking why they only find pharaoh‘s tombs in Northern Africa…
And once again… People mistaking Viking for a title. You went viking, it was a task!
Ankh Morpock is the biggest dwarf town in
These people..
They likely mean the Viking NFL team. They also have a very original "Skol-chant' there. As you can imagine it is a absolutely butchered version of the Icelandic clap.
There likely where Viking settlements in modern day Canada. But not much is known and they seems to have disappeared along the way.
And - Viking is a occupation, nothing else. Saying you have viking heritage is same as saying you have potatofarmer heritage. There were quite a lot people in Scandinavia and the ones sailing longboats were vikings. It was their job, not a genetic determinator.
Viking is a job description not an ethnicity or nationality.
When I went to Iceland a tour guide was talking about Americans claiming "Viking heritage" and joking that it's like bragging that you have "sailor heritage". Viking was a job, not a people - one would go viking to kidnap and pillage and explore a little, and the rest of the time were probably farmers.
"Viking ancestry" isn't a thing, your ancestors were peasant farmers in what was at the time the most miserable place in Europe.
I'm sure it would be a waste of time to point out, again, that "Viking" was an occupation, not a nationality or an ethnicity. Many (IIRC most) early Medieval Scandinavians were not Vikings.
To borrow a turn of phrase from the wonderful history spoof 1066 and All That, the historically accurate view that the Vikings were a small minority of ruthlessly cruel rape-and-pillage barbarians is "Right but Repulsive", while the notion that all of Scandinavia was populated by bold explorer types who sustained their entire society with loot brought from overseas is "Wrong but Wromantic".
Viking is a job title not an ethnicity.
My mate’s 5 year old son has better critical thinking skills than this.
Vikings, spend most time gardening.
The delusion is insane.
I mean they had half of England, a place many american ancestors came from, but sure.
I'm from Norway and this person thinks Vikings comes from America? What a crapbag.
It’s scary how confident some people can be while being utterly wrong.
I’m speechless…
"the majority of people with viking ancestry IS from the states"
Maybe because they are the only ones dumb enough to claim such a thing?
The map is wrong, Copenhagen wasn't a settlement before after the vikings. The major towns from the viking age in Denmark is Ribe, Viborg and Roskilde.
My left pinky toe is more viking that any American claiming "viking ancestor".. these people need better education, above 6th grade would be great.
I had a stroke reading this😭
An entire nation of deluded, semi literate ragebaiters, desperate to be anything but 'murican.
Does he think that map is of the USA?
Not sure, but I think that OOP thought that the map shown is the great lakes region, instead of Skandinavia.
Hence his americaneque display or total ignorance.
Otherwise mone of this makes sense.
Florida man is a viking!!! I knew it
Let's start with reminder that a viking is an occupation, not an ethnicity. You can claim having a viking ancestry as much as you can claim having a janitor ancestry.
Outside the obvious Scandinavia, I can imagine half of Europe would have at least one Viking ancestor who came from these parts dating back to around the 800-1100 A.D. Especially the Central and Eastern Europe. Americans don't have any reason to flex really.
I am confused
Jesus fucking Christ.
They need to bring back mental institutions. This is getting out of hand.
Bro is most likely a cardboard viking...
I don't understand what he's trying to say?!?
In 2 generations they will all claim to be direct descendants of ABBA.
Correction, the majority of people claiming viking ancestry is from the states.
And at the same time, they are also Bavarian, Italian and Scottish nobility (descendants of Robert the Bruce), as well as part Cherokee.
Yes, the majority of people with carpenter ancestry too.
It was a job not a nationality 🙄 "My DNA test said 58% plumber"
I mean... i am pretty sure Peyton Parrish and his asshat "pagan cosplay vikings" truely believe such shit. xD
I hope Peyton Parrish is forever mildly inconvenienced when hungry. I hope every time he gets stuck in traffic, he has to liqui-shit. I hope he always steps in a small puddle of water every time he puts new socks on. I hope he stubs his toe every fifth time he gets up to pee in the middle of the night. I hope he has a horrible day.
Muscle bros with top knots are not vikings.
Basically every single European has Norse ancestry. Probably most Americans as well.
An ethnic Swede obviously has far more Norse ancestry than a turk, but both will have it.
It can't be all bait. One, at least, has to be truly stupid.
Hellllooo.. They're called the MINNESOTA Vikings