Vikings Australian Stereotypes

Vikings: Not the Perceived Brutes
Picture this: you’re flipping through the channels with your son as he jumps up and exclaims, “THOR!” In turn, you press on the Marvel multi-million dollar movie in need of some cheap entertainment. The tree-like, hay-blonde, moronic protagonist served as an ideal specimen to make a simple, somewhat comic movie about, his accent mirroring a posh, Australian tone. Like any other modern cinema or television show, Thor takes on all of the typical stereotypes of the prevailing definition of a Viking, the oafish, brutal nature of the Viking being the highlighted aspect of the whole culture. Akbar, a researcher of the Vikings, stated, “A stereotyped image as a noble savage emerged in 17th century British texts and …show more content…
The portion of Viking culture that draws the most attention from the audience is typically the piece that is spotlighted and magnified (i.e. the violence). The classical modern depictions of Vikings are simply over exaggerated accounts of the Christian victims, specifically monks, and of the raids of the Vikings. Christopher Shea, in National Geographic Magazine, wrote, “They suffered from bad public relations—in part because they attacked a society more literate than their own, and therefore most accounts of them come from their victims.” Also, their pagan religion would have created an even larger gap between the Christians, their difference in beliefs implying a sort of mystery between the two. With accounts of the victims being the primary source of literary education, one could be led to believe that the Northmen were as purely savage all the time as written to be, however, archaeologists have studied the lands of Sweden, Denmark, and all around Scandinavia to discover that the primary function of an average Viking man was farming. It was not uncommon to find 90% of the Northmen owned their own farm consisting of horses, cattle, goats, and sheep. Archaeologists have found implements such as ploughs, pitchforks, sickle handles, and so forth (167). Therefore, “Vikings were not professional full time soldiers but were initially full time anglers and farmers who spent much of …show more content…
The findings of archaeologists reveal that the average size of a male Viking was around 171.9cm, this height being relatively close to the heights of men in our society (Jorvik.uk). The idea of Viking men being very large may have been a product of the accounts of the Englishmen once again, their height only being an average of two centimeters shorter at 169.7 (ourworldindata.org). With the fearful accounts of the Englishmen making a huge impact on the Viking’s current reputation, one can only imagine that the heights of the Vikings were dramatized, thus the idea of the giants was formed. To address the hygiene of the Northmen, the so-called “dirty” looks was, once again, a false account of Englishmen, and also, “The Arab ambassador IBN Fadlan, who met a group of Vikings on the Volga, described them as the filthiest of Allah’s creatures” (Petersen). Ibn Fadlan “notes that he is disgusted by the Vikings all sharing the same bowl to wash their faces and blow their noses. However, Ibn Fadlan does say that they do this each morning. This confirms that they did wash each morning at a time when European Christians did not. Ibn Fadlan was likely disgusted because of the Muslim world’s concept of cleanliness, where people would use running water and each person would each have their own bowl” (danishnet.com). So, in reality, the Vikings were

Show More

Related Documents: Vikings Australian Stereotypes

Essay about British Culture