Real Vikings Facts That’ll Make You Wish for Your Very Own Breiðöx

Vikings have been characterized as barbaric, violent people. We’ve immortalized them in our comic books, movies, and TV series. However, there is a lot about Vikings that has become fictionalized. So let’s separate the fact from fiction.

A Unified Group?

The Vikings were not just one unified group of people. In fact, they were spread throughout parts of Europe making settlements in Denmark, England, Ireland, Greenland, and France.

They were mostly farmers, artisans, merchants, and explorers who were lead by Kings, or Chieftains.

Violent People?

Over the years Vikings have been generalized as people who cause destruction wherever they traveled. In reality, they were typically very peaceful people. Most would travel the seas to engage in trade, not warfare.

When Vikings would settle in areas with an established culture, they would adapt their lifestyle to fit with the new society.

Innovative Housewives

Women would do all the household duties from cooking and cleaning to making clothes and tending to the animals. Viking women even came up with a fascinating way to iron which involved the use of whalebone plaques.

They would lay the clothes on the plaque and run a heavy stone over the clothing to smooth out the creases.

Wedding Gifts

As a sign of good luck and a happy marriage new brides were given a cat. The reasoning was that cats were a symbol of the Goddess of love, Freyja. She was said to ride in a cart pulled by several felines.

It’s speculated that the Norwegian Forest Cat, or skogkatt, was the cat most commonly presented to the brides.