More than blood and jewels: much of what we imagine about Vikings

Steven Ashby / Conversation Does the popularity of the Vikings stem only from the romance of myth and adventure, or is it more fun and games? Vikings have an enduring appeal in the popular and academic consciousness .

The stories surrounding them have always been linked to a debate about whether Vikings were raiders or traders.

But this "raider-merchant" dichotomy has been largely shelved in scholarship, so I think it's more interesting to consider how and under what conditions this series of "pirate" characters emerged, to trace how our view of pirates has shifted. How our view of pirates has shifted.

Our interests have never been politically neutral.

Therefore, there is an inherent responsibility in the study of this period to write an account that is not only archaeologically and historically accurate, but also socially responsible, with scholarly interest in the "Vikings" going back at least as far as the 18th century, and the 19th century linking the art of the "Vikings of Northern Europe" to the "Vikings of Northern Europe". The 19th century incorporated the art and culture of the "Nordic Vikings" into the Romantic movement.

In Scandinavia, this was combined with patriotism in the form of a series of archaeological excavations.

In Britain, the Norse pirates were an important part of Northern Romanticism.

Their cause was taken up by thinkers such as Collingwood, Ruskin, Morris and Scott.

Later in Germany, the Viking phenomenon was incorporated into nationalist narratives, not only through Wagner, but later through integration into Hitler's Aryan package.

In the 1930s, a number of important monuments were rallied and some others were excavated, the largest Viking ship ever found. British Museum . (Source: The Conversation) A key component in all of this is the romance of exploration, the romance of conquest, the romance of landing.

So their obsession with the Vikings elicits an imperialistic ****tweet, but this reading of the Vikings doesn't stem from that, and we can get other interpretations.

Indeed, in Britain, in the 1970s and 1980s, the Vikings were reintroduced as Scandinavian settlers: no longer marauders and mercenaries.

Now farmers and fishermen, merchants and entrepreneurs.

Much of the evidence for Viking trade comes from urban excavations in the late 1970s and 1980s.

Thatcherite mercantilism may have contributed to this shift, especially given that much of the evidence was found through commercial excavations in urban settings.

In this way, towns and cities were considered central to many (non-Marxist) narratives of the Viking Age.

The recasting of Vikings as merchants in the first millennium is still prevalent in popular media, and the development of later Vikings has its origins in recent history.

In the 1990s, conflicts in Central Europe and Africa required archaeologists to re-examine notions of race.

One result was a more nuanced consideration of "Norwegian" identity.

Peter Sawyer had earlier suggested that the number of Scandinavian immigrants was overestimated.

This is consistent with the idea that 'Nordic Pirate' style objects need not be associated with individuals of Nordic heritage.

This period continues to be seen as the melting pot of 21st century Europe, the context in which the Scandinavian nation state emerged.

But more recently, a broader perspective has been proposed: that the Vikings were a contemporary group of maritime pioneers.

***The same network of architects that spanned the globe.

In this model, our Vikings were neither berserkers nor primitive capitalists.

They were real people, Lewis's pawns. British Museum . (Source: The Conversation) In fact, the Viking Age was a world that was both militarized and economized.

It was a world of conspicuous consumption, but also of intimidation, exploitation and opportunism.

One can imagine the 'failed state' scenarios of the Balkan conflicts, or the rule of warlords in Rwanda and the Congo in the 1990s.

These analogies are imprecise, but they help to balance our admiration for the glamor and destruction of the Nordic pirates.

Collecting, managing, displaying, and distributing portable wealth was central to the society and economy of the Norse pirate era.

These warlords wore elaborate clothing, eye-catching American personal jewelry and body grooming, and engaged in personal grooming.

As a result, they were perhaps more likely to be seen as wealthy *** than as ragged barbarians.

Another twist on the kaleidoscope, in this case the modern Vikings, mirrors our consumerist society, so it is unsurprising (and right) that today we focus on the material culture of wealth and status, but our understanding of these phenomena has to be grounded in the proper social context.

If we continue to return to these near-mythical giants, then we should know that we do so because we see a part of ourselves in them.

So we should see some of our failures in them: prosperity is always built on the suffering of others.

Every warship, every silver reserve must **** with the inequalities of past societies.

Such a narrative will no doubt be evident in the British Museum's exhibitions, and we should demand the same of the mass media.

It is incumbent upon us to focus our attention on wealth and power so that we can see the architecture that supports their exploitation and coercion, Steven Ashby's article 'More than blood and jewels: our many visions of the Vikings' was originally published in The Conversation and reprinted under the License to Knowledge***.

, this is the Ancient Origins team, and this is our mission: to "inspire open learning about our past by sharing research, education, and knowledge to improve our future" . Read Mor.