Vikings

I believe one of the reasons the Swedes and Danes went to plunder was some kind of overpopulation, crop failure, economic trouble related thing. The Vikings as in 'beardy guys with axes jumping off dragonships to burn down your house and rape your sister' weren't the most sociable people, but those who stayed home were mostly just like you and me. The 'rape and pillage' Viking might have wanted to be the same too, but didn't have the opportunity.
It is a known fact that more than raiders, the Vikings were traders and explorers. They sailed to the Americas and deep into Europe, reaching as far as Constantinopel, where they were most renowned for, again, their skill in battle. Some sold their skills as mercenaries, the most well known of which were the Varyags in Constantinopel.
The reason people associated the Vikings with violence, was because that was the most longlasting memory they would keep of them, as it would be the most traumatizing. Their intricate mythology (since it lasted longer, it was even more complex then other Germanic beliefs, I gather), skillful wood- and stonecarving and artful metal objects, epic poetry and beautifully crafted longhouses,boats and later Stavkirks (yes, quite few Vikings would have been Christian) does not at all suggest a culture solely bent for violence.a

@ Raidohaglaz:

I think you know the subject well!
I do not know what you speak.

What I've heard is that Vikings went on their plundering travels because they had nothing else to do. Because the first born in every family got EVERYTHING. The other kids didn't even get the cat. So, what to do when you have nothing? You go plunder!

And because they where so good at it, they continued... like with england. They went back there several times, because the englishmen couldn't fight them off, but payed them in silver to get then to leave. Which they did, untill they ran out of silver...

I like vikings the most, and am proud to be part of them. I'm blonde and blue eyed and stronger then I realize, as well as everyone in my family has always been from Sweden (some from Finland, but that's almost the same shit).

Every people can find something that frightens us, or disgusted in any army there are rapists and cannibals whose fame would eclipse the nobility of these warriors.
Vikings - warriors of this, their culture is admirable. Art berserkers still plunges into a panic of any enemy.
While it may be, I say this because I belong to this people

Another fact is that vikings didn't use horns on their helms... tho I believe most know that.

And that vikings took great care of their hair and washed often and so on. In a tale about Oden, the greatest god, they say that when his son died, he showed his sorrow by not washing his hair for a month, more or less. And I know there is a writer who wrote that the vikings he meet washed in the same tub, but acording to much else know about them, they probably changed water between the baths. He didn't say any about that :silly:

Thank you for your very interresting responses.

and...
Sister Corpse queen i want to mary you... :blush: