1 Viking Helmets Had No Horns
There is no historical evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets. Only one of the five discovered Viking helmets remains fully preserved, and none exhibit any signs of horns. Karl Doppler created this Nordic stereotype in the 1870s to depict Vikings for a German opera.
2. Viking women had more masculine facial features than today’s women, while Viking men had more feminine faces, with less prominent jaws and brow ridges. Their ambiguous facial features make it challenging to determine the sex of a Viking skeleton based on the skull alone.
3. In 2021, scientists used a dating method to show that a Viking axe cut trees on the North American continent 1,000 years ago, in 1021 C.E. This method relies on a spike in solar radiation that left a mark in tree rings worldwide, proving that the Vikings arrived before Christopher Columbus.
4. Viking military tactics succeeded primarily because they disregarded the conventional battlefield tactics, methods, and customs of the time. Instead of following unspoken rules, such as avoiding attacks on holy sites, Vikings deliberately targeted religious locations for their vulnerability and wealth.
5. Viking girls married as young as 12 and managed the household while their husbands embarked on adventures. Despite this, they enjoyed more freedom than other women of their era. Viking women could inherit property, request a divorce, and reclaim their dowries if their marriages ended.
6 Most Vikings Were Skilled Traders
While many Vikings were fearsome warriors, most were farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders. Viking trading centers and trade routes generated tremendous wealth, and their economy and trade network significantly helped rebuild the European economy after the fall of the Roman Empire.
7. King Harald Bluetooth, who ruled in the 10th century, inspired the bind rune that serves as the Bluetooth symbol.
8. The Vikings believed that a giant goat named Heiðrún (Heidrun), whose udders provided an endless supply of beer, awaited them in Valhalla upon their death.
9. Vikings brought Native American wives to Iceland, and their DNA is still present on the island. A genetic study of Icelanders found that some carry a mutation predominantly found among Native Americans, suggesting that American women bred with Viking men during Norse exploration of America in the 11th century A.D.
10. In Viking culture, everyone gathered at an annual event known as the “Thing” to make laws and settle disputes. These yearly assemblies were open to all citizens, where they discussed disputes and made political decisions. A lawspeaker who memorized the entire legal code presided over the assembly, holding the power to demote and elect kings.
11 Viking Warrior’s Last Stand
During the Battle of Stamford Bridge, a lone Viking warrior attempted to hold off a Saxon army of nearly 15,000 men. The unnamed Viking managed to take down 40 men with his axe, until one Saxon soldier floated in a barrel underneath and killed him with a spear.
12. In 1954, archaeologists excavating an 8th-century Viking settlement in Sweden discovered a Buddha statue from India.
13. In 2015, microbiologist Freya Harrison and Anglo-Saxon scholar Christina Lee recreated a 1,000-year-old Viking/Saxon recipe that effectively killed 90% of MRSA bacteria in lab tests. The remedy, from Bald’s Leechbook, combined cropleek, garlic, wine, and bullock’s gall.
14. The Vikings had their own version of rap battling called “flyting,” which was a ritual, poetic exchange of insults practiced mainly between the 5th and 16th centuries.
15. Brunette Vikings, typically men, bleached their hair with strong soap with a high lye content. In some regions, they even lightened their beards.
16 Vikings Known for Cleanliness
Vikings were extremely well-kept for their time. An English cleric even claimed that they bathed regularly, combed their hair, and changed clothes frequently to seduce highborn English women into their heathen ways. Numerous bone combs, tweezers, and earspoons have been found as evidence.
17. Vikings served as the personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperor, known as the Varangians—Men of Oath. They were highly trusted and renowned for their loyalty.
18. Viking warriors who had suffered wounds were given a strong onion soup. Someone would smell the wounds after a few minutes, and if they detected onions, it indicated serious abdominal injuries, signaling that death was inevitable.
19. Some Viking runes are simply graffiti, translated as “Ingigerth is the most beautiful of all women” or “Tholfir Kolbeinsson carved these runes high up.”
20. Iceland was once covered in trees until the Vikings cut them down to make room for sheep.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Largest Viking Ship Discovered
In 1997, archaeologists discovered the largest known Viking ship, the ‘Roskilde 6,’ buried beneath the Roskilde Viking Museum during the construction of an extension.
22. Valhalla is one of two halls where dead Viking warriors go after death—Odin selects half for Valhalla, while Freyja chooses the other half for Folkvangr.
23. The Viking “Berserkers” used to consume hallucinogenic mushrooms to incite their battle rage.
24. When Paris was under siege from a Viking raid in 886, King Charles III, known as “The Fat,” chose not to fight them. Instead, he paid them 700 livres (257 kg of silver) to redirect their raid to the rebelling Burgundy.
25. In 985 A.D., Native Americans successfully repelled a Viking raiding party of 50 warriors after they landed in Newfoundland.
RE: Fact #26 (Vikings Created Portable Fire Kits) – Sven, you know what would make that fungus burn? Just boil it in my pee.
RE: Fact #23 (Berserkers Used Hallucinogenic Mushrooms) – There’s nothing like feeling like you’re battling dragons and warlocks to make you fight even harder.
RE: Fact #22 (Valhalla: Viking Warrior’s Afterlife) – It definitely seems better. You get the same perks as Valhalla, but this time it’s ruled by the lovely goddess of love, not some old blind guy.
RE: Fact #37 (Vikings Gifted Cats to Brides) – She’s not actually the goddess of love, more like the goddess of having babies. Her chariot is pulled by these two cats, Högni and Þófnir.
RE: Fact #24 (Paris Paid Off Viking Raiders) – Yeah, that didn’t exactly make him a fan favorite with the Parisians, who had to deal with his army laying siege for almost a whole year. You can find out more about him on his Wikipedia page.
That explains why they call him that.
The Carolingians loved giving each other funny nicknames. You’ve got Pepin the Short, Charles II the Bald, Louis II the Stammerer, Charles the Fat, Charles III the Simple, and Louis V the Sluggard.
RE: Fact #28 (Elfdalian: Ancient Norse Dialect) – Nope, they’re not still speaking Old Norse. They’re speaking a North Germanic language that evolved from Old Norse, like all the other North Germanic languages.
The language keeps some things from Old Norse that other North Germanic languages don’t, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t changed.
RE: Fact #16 (Vikings Known for Cleanliness) – Think about those fancy English dudes trying to figure out why the Vikings have all the ladies. Turns out, it’s because they don’t smell like a barnyard.
You know that joke about why Vikings got lucky with the ladies? It’s something like this: “Why are Scandinavian women so attractive? Because they didn’t kidnap the ugly ones.”
That makes sense for the English women too.
RE: Fact #30 (Vikings Navigated Using Sun Stones) – Just finished watching Vikings.
RE: Fact #48 (King Cnut Commanded the Tide) – So, this old historian, Henry of Huntingdon, tells this story about Cnut. He says Cnut sat on his throne by the beach and told the tide to stop, not to get his clothes wet. But the tide just kept coming, right? It splashed all over his feet and legs, like he was nobody special. Cnut jumped back and said, “Look, everyone! It’s clear that kings don’t have much power. The only real power belongs to God, who rules heaven, earth, and sea.” He hung his fancy gold crown on a cross and never wore it again, to show how powerful God is. It’s funny because a lot of people get this story wrong, they think it shows Cnut was arrogant, but it’s really the opposite.
RE: Fact #9 (Vikings Brought Native Wives Home) – Women who are married.
That book about the Mongols really threw me for a loop. Apparently, there was this whole fight in the palace, and Genghis Khan just took all these women and made them his wives right then and there. It was super confusing!
Genghis Khan was all about bringing his family together to stop fighting and make peace after battles.
RE: Fact #31 (Vikings Carved Runes in Hagia Sophia) – So, you might be thinking, why are Vikings hanging out in a church on the Mediterranean? Well, back then, they were basically hired muscle. In the ninth century, all those powerful religious leaders giving sermons at the Hagia Sophia needed protection, and who better than the Vikings? Imagine one of them standing there watching a sermon he couldn’t understand, getting bored, and just carving his initials into the marble railing on the second floor. That’s actually what happened! I was just in Istanbul last month and saw it myself.
That’s wild! So, the Vikings were like the emperor’s personal protection detail. And, when the emperor kicked the bucket, the Varangian Guard got to raid his treasure room and take all the gold and jewels they could carry. That’s pretty sweet, right? No wonder so many Scandinavians joined up in Constantinople.
RE: Fact #31 (Vikings Carved Runes in Hagia Sophia) – Here’s a close-up of the graffiti for anyone who wants to see it.
Are those drawings or letters?
Runes.
I should’ve learned that shout a while back.
You learned to summon Olaf and Eric. If they’re nearby, they’ll show up.
RE: Fact #10 (Vikings Gathered at Annual Assembly) – It’s a bit like saying New York is a “sewage treatment” culture. It’s a job, a really important one, but not what defines the whole culture. Same thing with “Viking.” They were Norse people who went raiding, not everyone was a Viking. Most of them were farmers and traders.
It’s way more complicated than that. Most Vikings also farmed when they weren’t raiding. Raiding and trading were just ways to make extra money, and they weren’t always separate. If you were rich and had your own boat, you might raid for a while to get stuff to trade. This story from the Orkneyinga Saga about Sweyn Asleifsson sums up their life pretty well:
Sweyn spent his winters at home on Gairsay, feeding eighty guys from his own pocket. His feasting hall was huge, the biggest in all of Orkney. In the spring he had a ton of work to do, planting all that seed himself. When that was done, he’d go raiding in the Hebrides and Ireland for a “spring-trip”, then head back home right after mid-summer. He’d stay there until the harvest was in and then go on another raid. He called that his “autumn-trip”. He’d stay out raiding until the first month of winter, then come back home.
RE: Fact #6 (Most Vikings Were Skilled Traders) – It wasn’t like you had to choose one or the other.
People weren’t banned from being both farmers and Vikings. You could be a fisherman, a craftsman, a trader, and still go on raids.
The whole farmer thing is what gets messed up in modern stories about Vikings. It’s always about being either a humble farmer or a super tough warrior who dies gloriously in battle. They forget that Vikings really loved their farms. You see it in all the old stories, how a lot of guys were Vikings when they were young and then settled down to farm and have kids.
RE: Fact #18 (Onion Soup Diagnosed Fatal Wounds) – That’s where the saying “I can smell onions from your stomach wounds” comes from.
I’ve been saying that forever and had no clue where it came from!
“To cure nausea eat some ginger” is just a funny old saying, like “bind your broken toe to the one next to it so it heals”.
These comments aren’t helping me figure out if this is a joke.
I’m going to try out that phrase in Scandinavia next time. If people look at me like I’m nuts, I guess I’ll just play it off as a joke.
RE: Fact #9 (Vikings Brought Native Wives Home) – It’s crazy how much stuff people on the internet believe about Icelanders, even if it’s totally made up. This one thing though is probably true – our ancestors were big on traveling to get laid.
Iceland? Seriously, it’s like a whole world of Vikings chilling on a volcano in the middle of nowhere, speaking their own language and ignoring everyone else for a thousand years.
RE: Fact #49 (Runic Graffiti in Maeshowe Cairn) – Those Vikings were the ultimate pranksters! I vaguely remember reading about someone carving “this is very high” on a ceiling in Byzantium. So funny!
RE: Fact #17 (Vikings Guarded Byzantine Emperors) – They went with Vikings because they weren’t as likely to try to take over their boss, unlike some of the old emperor’s guards who had done that a bunch of times.
RE: Fact #23 (Berserkers Used Hallucinogenic Mushrooms) – Most historians think berserkers went crazy before they fought, but some guys think they might have eaten stuff that made them trip.
RE: Fact #13 (Viking Recipe Kills MRSA Bacteria) – Anyone else a RadioLab fan?
RE: Fact #27 (Ulfberht Swords Made from Crucible Steel) – I’m learning more and more about Viking culture, and it’s blowing my mind! Turns out, everything I thought I knew about them was off.
RE: Fact #25 (Native Americans Repelled Viking Raiders) – So, let’s get this straight. It wasn’t some kind of attack, it was people trying to settle down. There wasn’t a big fight, more like the Natives kept the Vikings on their toes for years. The Vikings were better equipped, but they just didn’t have enough people to really take on the Natives.
“Vinland” was what they called North America. It probably included Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
Erik the Red’s son-in-law, Thorfinn Karlsefni, led the Vikings to Vinland around 1010 AD. They built a strong base, but the Natives were too many, too tough, and too smart. They made life miserable for the Vikings for years until they finally said ‘enough’ and went home.
If you want to look up more information, you’ll easily find it. I’ve got my books at home, but I’m not back until Tuesday or Wednesday.
RE: Fact #10 (Vikings Gathered at Annual Assembly) – “Thing” is a weird translation, right? “Ting” can mean “thing” or “council”, so I’m thinking “council” makes more sense here.
RE: Fact #14 (Viking Rap Battles: Flyting) – More like a thing of the past, right?
In Iceland, we still have this cool tradition called “kveðast á” where poets go back and forth with these really structured rhymes. No swords involved, though.
Yeah, that’s pretty wild – eleven centuries is a long time!
Music and stories, yeah?
Makes you wonder what did it in, right?
RE: Fact #18 (Onion Soup Diagnosed Fatal Wounds) – Vikings used onions to figure out how deep someone’s stomach wound was. They’d give their injured soldiers onions and then sniff their bellies. If the onion smell came through the cut, it meant the stomach was damaged and the guy was going to die. So they wouldn’t waste their herbs on someone who was already doomed.
RE: Fact #3 (Vikings in Americas) – Yeah, and there’s also an actual Viking settlement in North America, called L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.
Wow!
There’s also some written stuff about it. The Vinland sagas tell the story from the Viking point of view. Here are some cool parts:
* A guy named Bjarni Herjolfsson was the first European to see America.
* They met and traded with the native people, but they freaked out when they saw a big, grown-up bull for the first time.
* They sailed south enough to find wild grapes.
* They fought with the native people, but a Viking woman scared them off by showing her boob, hitting it with a sword, and screaming.
* A Viking got shot with an arrow, but he picked out a nice spot on the coast to be buried.
* The first European baby born in North America was named Snorri.
* Snorri’s mom went back to Europe and then went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
RE: Fact #44 (Greenland Viking Settlements Forgotten) – It’s pretty wild, though, right? They just assumed these people were still there, living in the same way for hundreds of years, and then found nothing but abandoned towns. The last word from them was around 1410, so they probably vanished sometime between then and the 1500s. The whole thing lasted for around 400 or 500 years. And the funniest thing is, that missionary thought they were Catholic and wanted to turn them Protestant. Like, how would they even know what the Pope was up to, stuck out there on Greenland?
RE: Fact #27 (Ulfberht Swords Made from Crucible Steel) – Wait, hold up, what do you mean by “pure steel”? Isn’t steel a mix of stuff, like an alloy?
RE: Fact #17 (Vikings Guarded Byzantine Emperors) – The Mongolian Khans also had foreign bodyguards. It was actually a good thing that they didn’t speak the language because it made it harder for anyone to try and get them involved in schemes against the Khans. They were loyal because they were foreigners in a different country, and their lives depended on keeping the Khans happy. They also didn’t get involved in the power struggles between Mongolian families because they weren’t related to any of them.
RE: Fact #22 (Valhalla: Viking Warrior’s Afterlife) – I wonder what goes on in Folkvangr these days.
RE: Fact #30 (Vikings Navigated Using Sun Stones) – Praise Odin! We got the Tesseract back! Asgard is safe.
RE: Fact #3 (Vikings in Americas) – Columbus wasn’t the first European in America, but he was huge because he went back and forth a bunch, got everyone else excited to explore, and started this whole thing called the Columbian exchange.
Right, I mean, the Vikings’ discoveries were huge, but they didn’t grasp the full picture. Columbus was in the same boat – he thought he’d stumbled upon a part of Asia until he died. But, Columbus’s voyage kicked off a whole wave of exploration, while the Vikings’ trips faded into old stories.
It was basically true, even though it was written down. Vikings weren’t strong enough to take over, it just wasn’t worth the effort. It would have been pretty cool to see what would have happened if they had stayed, but they did get along well in Europe.
RE: Fact #33 (Harald Hardrada’s Incredible Journey) – Crusader Kings 2 has a really cool story about the fight for England between William the Conqueror, Harold Godwinson, and, you know, the other guy.
RE: Fact #27 (Ulfberht Swords Made from Crucible Steel) – We usually picture Vikings as wild raiders from the north, but they were actually pretty smart when it came to trade, with routes all over the place. They even had some amazing stories written down, like the Sagas of Icelanders, and they were the ones who found Iceland and even set up shop in North America before Columbus!
RE: Fact #4 (Vikings Targeted Religious Sites) – These guys were sitting ducks, right? All that loot just waiting for us. It’s like Odin wants us to take it!
Yeah, Arvid, if raiding was bad, Odin wouldn’t keep giving us so much loot.
Norsemen on Netflix is a great show. It’s hilarious!
It’s kind of ironic that a lot of monasteries were on islands for protection from peasant uprisings, because that made them super easy targets for Viking raids.
I live on the island where they filmed that show, you know, the one with the vikings? I’ve been to the recreated village tons of times. Got married at a church with a view of the whole thing! It’s probably the most accurate viking show ever, even though it doesn’t always get the history right.
RE: Fact #11 (Viking Warrior’s Last Stand) – On September 25, 1066, near the River Derwent in Yorkshire, a bunch of Anglo-Saxon soldiers led by King Harold Godwinson surprised a group of Norsemen led by their king, Harald Hardrada. The Vikings were caught off guard and scrambled to get organized on the east side of the river. Their king needed more time to set up defenses. One brave guy, no one knows his name, stood on the narrow wooden bridge with his axe, holding off 15,000 English soldiers. He bought his king and people some precious time.
RE: Fact #2 (Viking Facial Features Ambiguous) – Back in the day, everyone was tough.
RE: Fact #15 (Vikings Bleached Their Hair) – I spent a good chunk of time in Denmark and I think a lot of people there dye their hair blonde.
RE: Fact #26 (Vikings Created Portable Fire Kits) – The whole bad hygiene thing? It’s based on one source that talked about how gross one Viking group was. But that source was from a culture that bathed five times a day! Most other info says Vikings were pretty clean, like everyone else in medieval times.
I always thought the Romans were way cleaner than the Brits during the conquest. Did they actually have pretty similar hygiene habits?
English record keepers back then actually noted that Vikings bathed a lot and were really into grooming, which apparently made them super attractive to English women. I mean, if you’re being raided by these guys, and the people you’re raiding are saying how much cleaner and better looking they are, there must be something to it, right?
Apparently they even washed every morning. Ibn Fadlan said the group he was with washed their faces every day, but he thought it was gross they all used the same bowl.
RE: Fact #36 (Vikings Started Tooth Money Tradition) – Imagine seeing a guy running at you with a necklace of baby teeth – that’s how terrifying Vikings must have seemed to their enemies.
RE: Fact #35 (Vikings Gave Hilarious Nicknames) – Olvir, the Friend of Children? Seriously, in medieval Iceland all it took was not spearing kids. Talk about a low bar!
RE: Fact #15 (Vikings Bleached Their Hair) – So, it turns out lye soap was a go-to for getting rid of those pesky bugs like mites, ticks, and lice. And people with all kinds of hair, from dark brown to blonde to red, used it. They figured this out by studying bodies buried in Yorvik.
RE: Fact #6 (Most Vikings Were Skilled Traders) – It kinda depends on what you mean by “Viking.” It comes from the word “Vikingr,” which is like saying “pirate” or “raider.” Back then, only the guys who went out to raid were called vikings. A lot of people still think that way – that the Vikings were just the raiders. But others think all the people in that society were Vikings.
So, were all the people in that society raiders? Well, it’s a bit of both.
It’s kinda weird how people think every Viking was a crazy warrior. It’s like saying all Brits were pirates back in the day.
RE: Fact #41 (Rus Vikings Founded Russia) – The Varangians were the merchants, and the Rus were the elite.
RE: Fact #42 (Rollo: Viking Who Walked Everywhere) – I’m into old books, and I’ve got this really cool 1692 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that talks about Rollo. It’s got some stuff about Vikings and “The Last Kingdom” but I marked those parts so you don’t get spoiled. This Chronicle is one of only two sources for early English history, from way back in the 1st century AD to the mid-1200s.
Here’s some more about Rollo and his Vikings:
The word “Viking” comes from “wicing” in Old English, which meant pirate. Back then, people called them Danes.
They went around raiding and conquering England, and later tried to take over France, especially Paris. They lost and some went back to England, but Rollo and his crew got bribed. They got land up north on the condition that they’d protect Paris from other Danes.
The place they settled was named after them – “men of the North,” or Norsemen, which became Normans. That place was called Normandy. Yep, the same Normandy from World War II and D-Day.
Those same Normans, descendants of those Danes who tried to take over England… well, they actually succeeded.
You know some of Rollo’s descendants, like William the Conqueror and Richard the Lionheart.
The House of Normandy had a red shield with two yellow lions.
Later, the House of Plantagenet took over with a red shield with three yellow lions, which ended with Richard III.
So we’re talking about a long history, almost 600 years, starting in Scandinavia and going through failed conquests of England and Paris. Then they settled in northern France, eventually rose to power, took over France and England, and held onto those lands for ages. All because Rollo decided to stay in that fertile land in northern France after his military campaign went wrong.
RE: Fact #24 (Paris Paid Off Viking Raiders) – Paying people off wasn’t exactly unusual back then. The Huns made a pretty penny for years by not attacking the Eastern Roman Empire.
RE: Fact #12 (Buddha Statue Found in Sweden) – They were doing business with the Arab world, and Byzantium was a major trading center.
RE: Fact #3 (Vikings in Americas) – Turns out scientists are pretty good at dating, who knew?
RE: Fact #7 (Bluetooth Named After Viking King) – The people who invented Bluetooth wanted to do the same thing for computers that Harald Bluetooth did for Denmark and Norway – bring them together and make them all work the same way.
RE: Fact #18 (Onion Soup Diagnosed Fatal Wounds) – Relax! It’s just a little spill, I’m not going anywhere!
RE: Fact #40 (Nuns Mutilated to Repel Vikings) – Oops, that didn’t go as planned.
RE: Fact #28 (Elfdalian: Ancient Norse Dialect) – I’m from that town and know it like the back of my hand. It’s pretty much the same as it was back in the 1800s, and I can even read old books from that time period without any trouble. Let me know if you have any questions!
RE: Fact #8 (Vikings Believed in Beer Goat) – You’re saying “believed”? For me that’s a real thing. Can’t wait to die in a glorious battle and get some.
RE: Fact #7 (Bluetooth Named After Viking King) – His name was Harald Bluetooth!
RE: Fact #4 (Vikings Targeted Religious Sites) – Taking what you want from someone is easier than being in charge of everything. But these raids were just a quick fix, not a long-term plan. Eventually, the Vikings became like everyone else.
RE: Fact #43 (Vikings Transported Ships Overland) – They’re called portages around here. Didn’t realize it wasn’t a common thing.
It’s totally classic American. And Canadian too, for sure.
RE: Fact #21 (Largest Viking Ship Discovered) – The museum’s right near where they found the ships it shows off. It’s at the opening of a little bay off the fjord, where they used to sink ships to keep people out, so finding them there isn’t as surprising as it might seem.
RE: Fact #30 (Vikings Navigated Using Sun Stones) – That’s a really cool article! I had no idea about Viking sunstones, they sound pretty neat. Apparently, calcite crystals have this weird thing where they bend light in a way that makes things look double. So, if you look at someone’s face through a piece of calcite, you’d see two faces. But if you hold it just right, the two images combine into one, and that means the crystal is pointing east-west. Even when it’s cloudy or foggy, or even when the sun’s gone down, this bending of light still works. Scientists were able to use this to figure out where the sun was, even after it went below the horizon, within a few degrees.
You gotta check out Vikings Show. It all starts with Ragnor getting a sun stone. It’s got some flaws, but it’s a really cool historical drama.
RE: Fact #14 (Viking Rap Battles: Flyting) – The Flyting of Dumbar and Kennedie tells about a fight between William Dunbar and Walter Kennedy in front of James IV. It’s cool because it’s the first time someone called someone else “sh*t” as an insult!
Scots are awesome.
RE: Fact #38 (Dublin: Viking Slave Trading Hub) – When I was in Iceland, this museum we went to had this exhibit about how Icelanders got their genes. It said the guys’ DNA mostly came from Scandinavia, but the women’s came from the British Isles. They even hinted that the women might not have been too happy about it.
RE: Fact #1 (Viking Helmets Had No Horns) – Shame they didn’t go with horned helmets, those things are awesome.
RE: Fact #33 (Harald Hardrada’s Incredible Journey) – Harold got whacked in the neck by an arrow and died early in the battle, going crazy like a berserker. He didn’t even wear armor and was swinging his sword with both hands.
He teamed up with Harold Godwinson’s brother, Tostig, who had been kicked out of his job as the Earl of Northumbria by Harold’s pal. Before the fight, Harold offered Tostig his job back, and Harald promised him “a piece of England, maybe even more since he’s taller than most guys.” Tostig also bought the farm in that fight.
A few weeks later, Harold himself got beat in the Battle of Hastings by William the Conqueror and also died on the battlefield.
RE: Fact #15 (Vikings Bleached Their Hair) – Really? It’s dyed?
Viking: Nah, it’s just lye.
Maybe it’s Maybelline
RE: Fact #2 (Viking Facial Features Ambiguous) – It kind of makes the story about Frigg and Odin’s bet more fun and makes sense.
Thor’s disguise as a woman was pretty effortless, huh?