Language of the Vikings

Usage examples of norse.

Christianity to Greenland, and the Norse discovery of America, were both effected in 1000, by one and the same man: Leif Ericsson, the son of Eric the Red.

To my mind, there is no reason whatsoever to doubt that the Norse colonists of Greenland did find America at the close of the Viking period or in the later Middle Ages, and did endeavour to establish a permanent foothold there.

Silk, of course, came from abroad, but it is probable that a great deal of the elaborate material mentioned above was made by Norse experts.

Before long its foliage decoration, so unusual in Norse design, was replaced by indigenous animalornament.

Jumne or Jumneta is the Norse name for it, Julin or Wolin the Slav name -- a conclusion all the more acceptable since the town probably had a mixed SlavScandinavian population.

Greek and the Scandinavian worlds lay the important Norse town of Kiev.

This concept is reflected in the Norse myth of Odin, wisest of the gods: even he is not credited with inventing the runes but rather with finding them and releasing from them their magical powers.

Some scholars declare that such action would be completely alien to the Norse mind.

The Bayeux Tapestry is an expression of a foreign feudal system very different from the Norse way of life.

It is odd that most of our knowledge about Norse houses in late Viking times and the Middle Ages should be derived from distant Greenland.

In the two superior social classes, earls and peasants, women enjoyed high esteem and full freedom, as Norse literature abundantly testifies.

The Swedish material is too insignificant to permit any general conclusions, but it appears that the Swedish Vikings were taller than the west Norse ones -- a difference which can still be seen in Scandinavians today, and which confirms Arabic statements about the exceptional height of the Rus.

The figure of Baldr is unique in Norse mythology and an enigma which scholars have not yet solved.

Apart from that, Heimdal is not very well defined in the circle of Norse gods.

A better impression of the Viking ideal is to be found in the heroic figures, both of the Norse tales and of Viking history.