Viking Facts (Part 2 of 2)
In the last blog post of Viking Facts, we have discovered four interesting things about the Vikings: Viking hygiene; Viking majority as farmers; Practice of Sea Burial; and Viking women rights. There are, of course, some more awesome Viking facts.
5. No Horned Helmet
Many people claimed that the rugged warriors with a horned helmet must belong to the Viking age. In fact, that depiction was just the distortion of the modern art like movies, books, or comics. The artists might have fabricated the Viking helmet with a couple of horns. Forget all that stuff, the Viking helmet was horn free.
Viking warrior helmet horn free
According to the depictions of the Vikings dating back to the Viking age, there were no signs of horned helmets.
6. Unique Liquid to Start Fire
The Vikings might be one of few tribes in the world history that used this unique liquid to start a fire. Believe it or not, the Vikings once get used to using their own urine to start a fire. They would use the fungus they collected from the tree bark and boiled them in their own waste liquid for several days. After that, they poured the result into something like a cloth. The sodium nitrate in the Viking urine, rather than burn the cloth, would permit it to smolder. Thereby, the Vikings could carry this special fire along on their way.
7. Viking Traded Slave
Viking in the ancient time was regarded as one of the most civilized societies for the Viking women had their own rights. However, they could not escape the practice of trading and owning slaves.
Viking traded a slave girl
On their raiding and pillaging, they were about to capture and enslave both men and women. Those people then became the Viking slaves, also known as the Thralls. They were considered to be the products to be traded in the giant slave markets between the Vikings and the European or the Eastern
8. Vikings liked skiing
Though the Vikings did not invent the skiing sport, they favored this outdoor activity the most. There were no materials of how the Vikings learned skiing sports, but the truth was the Viking really took skiing as a great form of recreation. The Vikings even worshipped the god of skiing, Ullr.
9. Viking Gentles Liked Blond Hair
In the ancient Viking age, the standard of beauty was being blond. The Vikings, especially men, usually altered their appearance to match this beauty ideal. More than often, they used a strong soap with lye to bleach their hair. In some regions, the Vikings even enlightened their beard.
