A new study has revealed that Nordic vikings were a lot more bloodthirsty than their neighbors, the Danish vikings. The findings were based on examining the prevalence of violence-induced trauma from skeletal remains and to the quantity of weapons found in the two Viking communities, which were distinct during the Viking Age (around 800–1050 CE). Scientists working within the fields of archaeology, osteology, philology, and sociology converged to make the conclusions found in the study published by the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
The vikings were a notoriously violent people. Their creation myth and their apocalypse story are both extremely violent—three brothers create the world by murdering and butchering the giant Ymir, while the end of the world is heralded by the Ragnarök, the ultimate cataclysmic battle. The warrior gods Thor and Odin were primary in the viking pantheon, and a violent death in battle was considered that most honorable form of death, granting the slain fighter passage to the vaunted afterlife of Valhalla.
Experts discovered that the Nordic vikings just owned way more swords than the Danes did. The sheer abundance of weapons implies a society where violence, or the threat of violence, was commonplace and a regular part of daily life for Nordics. Swords were kept both as personal weapons and as status symbols. Danes, on the other hand, had fewer swords, and tended to more institutional forms of violence such as executions and corporal punishments.
The wild Hunt of Odin, 1872. Found in the Collection of Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design, Oslo. Artist Arbo, Peter Nicolai (1831-1892). (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images)
When examining the skeletal remains for weapons-related injuries, experts found that at least 60 percent of the Nordics’ endured some type of violent trauma while 37 percent suffered violent deaths. In contrast, only 6 percent of the studied Danes died violently, and of the rest, only one skeleton was found with a weapon-related injury. Five out of six of the studied Danish deaths were executions, whereas all the Nordic deaths were described as “slayings of a very different character.”
The study highlights significant differences in the social and political structures of Denmark and Norway. Denmark exhibited a more hierarchical society with complex power structures and a regulated system for managing violence, indicating a more advanced and stable social organization. In contrast, Norway’s social structure was more chaotic, as evidenced by the arsenal of swords and frequent interpersonal violence. This suggests a society where power was more dispersed, and personal disputes were often resolved through force.
To explain this, the experts point to Christiniaty. Denmark was more accessible to the rest of Europe, which may have influenced its practices and allowed for earlier conversion to Christiniaty. Norway, on the other hand, was tucked away in rugged mountains, which may explain while archaic and decentralized social structures lasted longer.