Adopting a Viking Mentality – is it for you? Part II

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We are fascinated by the Viking mentality. Their fighting spirit and their tenacity seem to have captivated the attention of an entire generation. And while I believe most people don’t really get who the Vikings were, I also believe that those of us who work with this historical era every day, need to be inclusive and stop judging people for their lack of knowledge. Even archeologists I know hesitate to call themselves experts on this subject. It’s so clouded by centuries of monotheistic dogma that it’s only now that we are really beginning to understand the Viking world.

OUR ANCESTORS’ BLOOD AND BONES

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Have you ever asked yourself who you really are? I think you have. We all have, I guess. It’s an existential question that tend to present itself from time to time. And even after having done some serious soul searching, most of us can’t really come up with a good answer. I think I know why. The question in itself is wrong. Rather than asking ourselves who we are, we should ask where we come from. We are the result of our ancestors’ struggles and victories, their marriages and their love affairs. It is their genes we carry in our blood, and when we are born, that is all we are.

VIKING IN A MODERN WORLD

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Everybody wants to be a Viking these days. But the world around us is still the same and nobody cares if you’d rather go full Norse. Since you can’t time-travel back to the Viking Age, how do you live your Viking life in the year 2016? How do you cope with the demands of modern society, when all you want to do, is to set sail and go exploring the oceans and distant continents? It seems like Viking life has no place in modern society and that your Viking lifestyle must remain something you do in your spare time with like-minded people.
Well, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be like that.

Bushcraft overnighter in the woods

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Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved spending time in the woods. Now that I’m a father, I can enjoy the company of my kids and also teach them the art of bushcrafting. We’re very lucky to have the woods right behind our house – the forest has always been a natural part of our lives and a place where we feel at home. Here’s a video from our latest adventure – enjoy!

WHO WERE THE VIKINGS?

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I have news for you. The Vikings were nothing like those sword wielding warriors you see on tv. They did not dress in blood stained leather and ragged tunics if they could avoid it – they preferred silk and colored linnen. They didn’t sport those fancy hairstyles…

Becoming a Viking

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These days, everybody wants to be a Viking. And while I think it’s great that my ancestors’ culture is becoming increasingly popular, I feel that sometimes people are getting it all wrong. Being a Viking gets mixed up with being a Norseman or -woman. Being a Viking was a lifestyle that some Norsemen and even -women lived, while the Norse were a group of clans who shared the same culture and variants of the same language.