I know there is absolutely tons of historic evidence of viking pillagers, but I do want to point out that, with that evidence aside for just a moment, most or all of what is written about them in historic texts was written by the people who wiped out almost their entire culture and replaced it with christian theocratic monarchy.
Oh lol, okay, tell me about the phonology of norn and younger futhark used in the age of vikings? How about any self-description of iron-age viking society before 1066, anything at all? Who were their leaders, how were rights allotted? Nothing remains but their versions of catholic prayers and before that their versions of oral germanic traditions like norse mythology, which was much more widespread.
Basically, we know nothing about them that they told us themselves, in fact their systems of writing have only been properly compiled in the last century but the language is still entirely extinct.
Because of Crusades. Because of Catholic Crusades on Vikings.
I know there is absolutely tons of historic evidence of viking pillagers, but I do want to point out that, with that evidence aside for just a moment, most or all of what is written about them in historic texts was written by the people who wiped out almost their entire culture and replaced it with christian theocratic monarchy.
They get a bad rap.
Nobody wiped their culture. Their culture evolved, and other cultures influenced this evolution, as they influenced the culture of their neighbors.
Oh lol, okay, tell me about the phonology of norn and younger futhark used in the age of vikings? How about any self-description of iron-age viking society before 1066, anything at all? Who were their leaders, how were rights allotted? Nothing remains but their versions of catholic prayers and before that their versions of oral germanic traditions like norse mythology, which was much more widespread.
Basically, we know nothing about them that they told us themselves, in fact their systems of writing have only been properly compiled in the last century but the language is still entirely extinct.
Because of Crusades. Because of Catholic Crusades on Vikings.
There never was any crusade in Scandinavia.