The Most Awesome Viking Culture (Inspired by Odin)
We owe the Vikings many things including our false image of a Viking. It's not actually our fault, rather it mainly boils down to media that is misleading us. Anyway, the Vikings were not the dirty guys that would pay nobody respect. One thing we have to know is that literal and non-literal source of the Vikings were left mostly by their victims who had enough reasons to vilify their foes. For the last decades, prejudices and stereotypes of the Vikings have been gone. What we have found about the Vikings have directed to a cultured and intelligent tribe. A new approach to the Viking field has shown that the Viking Age once had a dominant culture of learning.
Odin God of Inspiration and Viking Culture
The Viking culture of learning began with Norse mythology. Indeed, Norse mythology occupied a central role in forming the mindset of the Vikings, social structure, and spiritual belief. The attention was mainly paid to the Viking Supreme God, Odin the Allfather who was the leader of the Aesir God Tribe. Odin the Allfather was deeply captivated by wisdom and knowledge.
Hail Odin the Allfather
His burning desire for knowledge made him go to great lengths to obtain more knowledge. One famous tale about this was when Odin visited the Well of Mimir. The water from the well was famous for giving the drinkers an infinite source of wisdom. This was the main reason why Odin paid the Well a visit. Arriving there, Odin was asked to give up one eye to be able to drink the water. Without any hesitation, Odin agreed. From that moment on, even though he lost one eye, he entertained himself in the omniscient life.
Golden Example to clarify?
As Odin became the Supreme Viking God who the Vikings worshipped, Odin's worshippers would strive to emulate his great character trait of learning. It has also been attested that the Vikings brought home more than a loot.
One example is the excavation of a sword known as the Ulfberht. The skills to build this type of Ulfberht was unavailable in the most parts of Europe until centuries later. The metal to construct the sword has shown that the purity of the steel has reached the level of the crucible steel. Explanation? The steel's purity must have required temperatures higher than the fire that the majority of the European blacksmith could produce at that time. This tells us that the Vikings must have learnt this skill from somewhere else during their raids and voyages.
Ulfberht sword in Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany
Evidence of technological trades across Scandinavia has also been excavated. Farming technology similar to the French and the British appeared in the Viking sites where archaeologist found. The Vikings may have brought such technology from the land they raided back to their homes. This also attests to the point that the Vikings didn't kill all of their victims. To master the tools and skills, they must have talked to the local and worked to get used to the tools.
