• NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    They’d kidnap and enslave them just like everyone else; true egalitarians!

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 months ago

      tbf that’s like talking about the US miliary, who do horrible things without most of the population being aware of it

  • Valmond@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Close to 100% viking here, you’re welcome! I might enslave you though, but without prejudice.

  • x4740N@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I’m sure a whole lot of people where fine with it until the christofasciast colonisers and occupiers had their way

  • exanime@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Loki turned into a mare to get properly fucked by a stallion, get pregnant and deliver an 8 legged super horse (Sleipnir) that Odin proudly rode around… yeah, they are very fine with gender fluidity

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      7 months ago

      I mean, Loki was ultimately a villain, so it’s more like they perfected the queer-coded villain archetype, but there’s also evidence both that Shieldmaidens were a thing and some Shieldbrethen were assigned-as-Shieldmaidens-at-birth. How accepted that would have really been we simply do not know, or how much norms changed by region and time. Or even whether they would have thought you were stupid for asking if ladies could fight in “men’s clothing,” aka, armor.

      There is also quite a lot of difference between a Dane, a Kievan Rus, and a citizen of what was basically a republic in Iceland in 930 AD.

      Pretending the Vikings/Norse/Whatever were some pinnacle of ancient tolerance is just as wrong as pretending they followed practices that map 1-to-1 on modern bigotry. They were an immensely patriarchal culture, whose economy was quite literally based on chattel slavery on a scale that would only be matched by American plantatioms, with a whole slew of what can only be called toxic masculinity, who only could ever look good in comparison to Roman and Abrahamic norms, but that’s the comparison Westerners will inevitably make in their favor because that is the standard they know.

      • jamhandy@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        Doesn’t Loki being a villain vary from myth to myth? In some he’s just mischievous, in others outright malicious. The Ragnarok myth has him leading the armies of the dead, but I’ve always wondered how modified the story is due to the influence of Christian monks…

      • exanime@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Pretending the Vikings/Norse/Whatever were some pinnacle of ancient tolerance is just as wrong as pretending they followed practices that map 1-to-1 on modern bigotry…

        I’m not pretending any of that… nor I am implying they are an example of morality about anything… All I am saying is that, what we now call “gender fluidity” or simply anything in the “LGBTQ+” spectrum does not seem to be, in and of itself, a “sin” or a morally reprehensible act in the Nordic mythology.

        Also, Loki wasn’t really a villain… he was more the “anti hero” type… From all the Nordic mythology I have read (I just like it, I’m not a scholar) the attitude towards him always seemed to be “Damn it Loki, we could get along if you stop being an asshole for a day”… not “I shall vanquish Loki and end his evil ways”

  • dumbass@leminal.space
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    7 months ago

    Viking: Can you fight?

    Trans Viking: yeah!

    Viking: cool, let’s go fuck some shit up!

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Read more norse mythology for smart people at

    https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/

    He’s a war-god, but also a poetry-god, and he has prominent “effeminate” qualities that would have brought unspeakable shame to any historical Viking warrior.

    cal tradition known as seidr, of which Odin and Freya are the foremost divine practitioners. In traditional Germanic society, for a man to engage in seidr was effectively to forsake the male gender role, which brought considerable scorn upon any male who chose to take up this path. As the sagas show, this didn’t stop some men from practicing seidr anyway. However, even Odin wasn’t exempt from such charges of “unmanliness,” and was taunted for adopting the feminine traits and tasks that form part of the backbone of seidr. Saxo, in the passage on Odin’s exile alluded to above, relates that “by his stage-tricks and his assumption of a woman’s work he had brought the foulest scandal on the name of the gods.”[16] Note also the reference to being “fertilized” in the verse quoted above – while this is certainly a metaphor, it’s a metaphor loaded with sexual implications that would have been immediately recognizable to any Viking Age or medieval reader or hearer of the poem. A fuller discussion of the relationship between Germanic shamanism and gender roles can be found here: https://norse-mythology.org/concepts/shamanism/

    • Hedlosa@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      A lot of alt right dickheads use viking insignia and culture to their advantage in dogwistling and such, which sucks and I’m assuming what is being referenced.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      Historical fact, most of the surviving written records about their society, etc.

  • Veticia@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    I’m pretty sure modern day viking descendants are ok with them.

  • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Vikings also fucked their friend’s wife when he died. Also were supporters of slavery and have abused their slaves. Am failing to see the point?

  • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The vikings only cares if you behave Viking. Ethnicity don’t matter. Sexuality don’t matter. And I can’t fathom that they’d care for how you dress. As long as you have Viking values you are top notch

    • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Or actually they might care for how you dress as they were very vain and loved to dress up. Quite fancy

    • stanleytweedle@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Frøya from Norsemen demonstrates this in pretty shocking way when she face rapes some dude for challenging her Vikingness.

      • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Viking virtues like staying true to your word, even if that means death. A deviation of this is the stoning of men that tried to flee from combat - by their wives.

        Viking society was very gender based with clear roles for man and woman, and while being a bottom would hurt your manly rep, being the active partner in a homosexual relation would bolster it.

        Children still had top prio, so without a wife being too didn’t make the cut.

      • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I’d have let her do it, not that I’d have a choice, but I’d rather be willing, conscious, and proven a fool than unconscious and left only with the smell of her victory.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Yeah this thread is full of idiots who care more about Marvel movies than about historical fact.

        Norse society was hyper masculine and being called womanlike was just about the worst insult you could give to someone. Nobody “worshipped” Loki, he was the antagonist/occasionally the antihero of their stories, but the takeaway of the stories was always meant to be “Loki is not a role model”

        Why do people care if a society of slavers and pillagers from 1200 years ago were progressive by modern standards? What an idiotic thing to be so confidently wrong about.

      • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Ooo - a true master on Viking history here!! Tell us all about how it really was and what values they had. What ethnicities they accepted and how they viewed homosexuality?

        • holyshitflapjacks@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Accusing a man of being “ergi,” which is basically unmanly, was enough of an insult to be answered with blood. A specific instance of something that qualifies a man of being ergi is taking the passive role (bottom) in homosexual intercourse.

          Author and Norse historian Neil Price describes “Viking” culture as being one of the most homophobic in history.

          • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Yet being top was accepted and revered. I’d say they were somewhat bi-friendly, and I’ve yet to hear about how they viewed lesbians.

            Both Loki and Odin takes the roles/duties of women several times, while not being cast out or referred to as ergi.

            Cross dressing I think was harder to execute as the manly outfits were lavish already.

            • uid0gid0@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              When the giant Thyrm stole Thor’s hammer and wanted to marry Freya, the other gods made Thor dress in drag and pretend to be the bride to get it back.

              • holyshitflapjacks@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                Thor literally doesn’t want to dress as a woman in this story EXPRESSLY because he fears being labeled ergi. He says this explicitly.

                This is story is a comedy, and this portion of it is told as a joke at Thor’s expense, where Loki and Freya tease him about it.

            • Pleb@feddit.de
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              7 months ago

              Both Loki and Odin takes the roles/duties of women several times, while not being cast out or referred to as ergi.

              I think in that case a neat Latin phrase applies:

              Quid licet Iovi, non licet bovi.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Accusing a man of being “ergi,” which is basically unmanly, was enough of an insult to be answered with blood.

            So is a gay man calling another gay man a faggot. The use as essentially equivalent with “bottom” is only attested since the medieval age.

            On the flipside we have things like shield maidens and the survival of the old gods alongside with the patriarchal Indo-European newcomers, very uncommon, those things don’t happen by accident. People don’t talk about peace treaties between gods out of the blue – And Odin isn’t even the sky father, that’d be Thor (to wit, lightning and thunder) while Odin is engaging in seidhr. Call him a bottom, then! Making a claim such as “most homophobic in history” out of a single word given what else there’s attested about the society is rather rich.

            The truth is that we don’t know much but this: That any contemporary political group leaning it one way or the other is full of shit.

            • holyshitflapjacks@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Please don’t accuse me of making claims I did not. I gave one example of Viking homophobia. It’s also a big example, as “not appearing as an ergi” is pretty much the driving motivation for many of the gods in the tales we have. This means being manly in general, and being penetrated by another is just one thing that immediately labels you as ergi.

              Neil Price did not make his claim that Vikings were severely homophobic from a single word either (no idea where you got this). You are free to read his work yourself for more information.

          • bort@sopuli.xyz
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            7 months ago

            Accusing a man of being “ergi,” which is basically unmanly, was enough of an insult to be answered with blood

            “using gay as an insult” is not proof of extreme homophobia. By that logic every teenager on the planet would be extreme homophobic.

            In fact, pretty much every descriptive word can be used as an insult. If anything your example proofs, that vikings take insults very serious.

            • holyshitflapjacks@lemm.ee
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              7 months ago

              Please don’t accuse me of making claims I did not. I gave one example of homophobia and the opinion of a respected historian. Not every insult was taken as seriously as ergi. Very few insults were as dire. This is ONE example of Viking homophobia. I don’t give a shit if they were homophobic or not, they’re dead.

          • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Dude this is the internet, the burden of proof is on the person anyone says “Source?” to first.

            In seriousness though, we’re shooting the shit here. The burden of proof is shared equally. Someone said something, they gave reasoning (a form of evidence) why they think that thing, and you just came and said “No you’re wrong.” The ball is firmly in your court to explain why.

    • CptEnder@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Pretty sure they all got drunk and high and fucked each other in the forest irregardless of gender, to praise their gods.