Conquering Misconceptions

College is about breaking down stereotypes. Our students do it in a variety of ways: making new friends not like themselves on campus, taking classes that expand their worldviews and even doing research on topics that shatter long-held misconceptions.

by Michael Chapman

I would like to paint you a mental picture. Imagine a big burly man with a big blond beard and long blond hair flowing down past his shoulders. Picture him wearing fur clothing and on the top of his head is a horned helmet. In one of his hands is a crude ax and in the other is a circular shield. This is pop culture’s image of what the Vikings may have looked like, including the myth that surrounds them.

And who doesn’t love a great myth? I mean, isn’t it true that behind every great mythical saga there lies an even greater true story? Plus, what’s more mythical than the Vikings? As a little kid, whenever I thought about the Vikings, I would imagine big and barbaric men with blond hair wearing horned helmets and sailing all over the North Atlantic. However, with the Vikings, it is pretty difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction. Between movies, television shows and action figures, stereotypes become the truth, and the real truth becomes lost.

Take, for example, the horned helmets. They are the most recognizable feature of Vikings and are seen with everything having to do with the Vikings, from SpongeBob: Leif Erikson Day to actors at a Medieval Times restaurant to the logo of the Minnesota Vikings football team. Even the comic book rendition of Marvel Comics’ Thor, a character taken from Viking mythology, has two metal spikes extending from the top of his helmet. However, there is little evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets – and there is no supporting evidence that they were worn during battle. Rather, today’s popular association of the horned helmets with Viking warriors probably arose in the 19th- century Scandinavian revival.

Before I came to the College, I believed this and many other stereotypes surrounding the Vikings. When I got here, I wanted to make sure that before I graduated I had the opportunity to seek out the truth about the Vikings. I thought to myself, Surely not all Vikings were big blond Scandinavian brutes who cared about nothing except for which town to plunder next. In reality, these stereotypes reflect only a small percentage of the truth surrounding the Vikings’ appearance. The Vikings were actually clean and well-groomed fighters who were skilled with swords and only wore iron helmets in battle. Though they did maintain long hair and had larger muscle mass than most people today, there was a mix of different hair colors and styles. As a double major in anthropology and archaeology, I have learned that it’s important to understand cultures of the past and the present by relying on solid evidence. So what better way to find the great truth of the Vikings than by looking at ethnohistoric documents and reports of archaeological sites?

I am currently working with anthropology professor Brad Huber to explore the Vikings more in depth and to understand what makes them so special. Professor Huber specializes in the study of kinship, marriages and family. While he has allowed me to work independently, he has still been a powerful influence in the way that I look at the Vikings and the relations within Viking culture. My research involves looking specifically at Iceland because the Vikings were the first to settle that island, providing a wonderful example of Viking growth and development with little outside influence. My research is primarily done by examining Viking Icelandic sagas and other legal documents that have been discovered and preserved.

Something that I found particularly interesting within the Vikings’ culture was their view of honor. Though we may believe them to be ruthless raiders, the Vikings possessed a strong honor code. To them, honor to one’s family was everything. It controlled all aspects of life, from marriage to political influence to even military leadership. If a Viking farmer was convicted of killing a neighbor’s flock of sheep, then that particular Viking would repay his neighbor and then sentence himself to exile so that the disgrace and dishonor associated with that crime would not extend to his family’s household. Though this punishment may be an extreme, it shows how important honor and family were to the Vikings.

Perhaps a less extreme example of Vikings’ honor may be seen in the attempt by a son of a Viking to go out on an expedition to find new lands in order to restore honor back to his family. This was the reasoning behind the expedition of Leif Erikson, the Viking who discovered North America almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus. The honor that came from his discovery would be recognized not just in his time, but also today. In recognition of his discovery of North America, the U.S. Congress and every president since Lyndon Johnson have observed October 9 as Leif Erikson Day (Columbus Day is October 12 this year, so Leif is ahead of him once again).

Today there is nothing that compares to this type of honor. In our society, honor has become influenced by how many followers a person has on social media or how much money a person may have. It’s not uncommon to witness politicians (who hold offices built upon the foundations of honor and integrity) being able to finance their re-elections and act as the people’s representatives even though they may have a history of performing dishonorable activities. That was just not the case during the Viking era. And while they may be falsely remembered as horned helmet–wearing travelers, they should be praised for their understanding and practice of honor.

Since I have started on this path to find the truth, I have wondered if some of these Viking stereotypes have started to change. So, I thought, what better way to find out than to ask my friends and co-workers what they think of when I say, “Vikings.” I got an array of responses, from such things as the people in How to Train Your Dragon to big fearsome pirates to even a group of people from Scandinavia who drink from skull cups. Not surprisingly, almost everyone that I asked gave the response that they think of men who wear helmets with horns on them.

I guess I have my work cut out for me in painting a new mental picture of who the Vikings truly were.

– Michael Chapman is an anthropology and archaeology double major.
Illustration by John Phillips