{"id":507,"date":"2010-02-26T13:30:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T13:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html"},"modified":"2010-02-26T13:30:38","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T13:30:38","slug":"vikings-in-better-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html","title":{"rendered":"Vikings in Better Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Sorn and Low Key have led me to
\nre-examine my comments about Vikings in my post on the loss of America’s soul.
\nThe Norsemen were not quite the villains they have been depicted as by
\nChristian historians.  <\/span>They suggested
\nPrudence Jones and Nigel Pennick’s excellent Pagan Europe<\/i><\/a> and a BBC interview
\nwith Robert Ferguson <\/a>on the Vikings as good sources.  The podcast is well worth listening to.  Ferguson is also the author of the recently released The <\/a><\/i>Hammer and the Cross: A New History of the Vikings<\/a><\/i>.   <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

 <\/span>Prior to the outbreak of Viking raids 4500 unarmed Saxons
\nwere forcibly baptized and then beheaded by the Christian king  <\/span>Charlemagne. Generally Charlemagne
\nenforced the death penalty against those who refused baptism. The ethnic
\ncleansing he initiated led to about 1\/3 of the inhabitants of eastern Saxon
\nlands being forced out.  
\n<\/span>Because of Christianity’s imperial pretensions, his efforts to forcibly
\nChristianize the Saxons whether they wanted to convert or nor constituted a
\nserious threat to the Danes, who were next in line and who could not challenge
\nCharlemagne on the ground militarily. That the Saxon queen was Danish and the
\nPagan Saxon ruler often fled to the Danes for safety could only increase Danish
\nworries they were next and Christianity a lethal threat to their lives, loved
\nones, homes, and Gods.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The Danes could not take the Frankish
\narmy on militarily, so the Viking attacks have been described as asymmetrical
\nwarfare.  <\/span>Hit the enemy where he
\nwas weakest and you were strongest, and do it over and over again.  <\/span>The Vikings targeted Christian
\nmonasteries, burning the churches down and killing as many as possible.  <\/span>This is not what normal robbers would
\ndo.  <\/span>They would leave survivors and
\nbuildings so rebuilding could be quick, opening the target for another
\nlucrative raid later.  <\/span>These
\nChristians were not Franks, and many were not there by virtue of brutal
\nconquest of Pagans, but all Christians had imperial pretensions.<\/p>\n

The Viking attacks went well beyond
\nsimple looting.  <\/span>There seemed to be
\ntoo much hatred directed against their targets for loot to have been the only motive.  <\/span>The reason seems
\npretty clear given previous Christian actions against the Dane’s neighbors,
\nit’s imperial pretensions, and what we have seen, even today in Europe, when
\nethnicity and religion combine to create sharp divisions.  <\/span>Look at Northern Ireland, or the former
\nYugoslavia where violence flared between Catholics in Croatia and Orthodox
\nSerbs.  <\/span>This killing preceded the
\nlater Serbian attacks on Muslims.  <\/span><\/p>\n

As I read more about the Viking
\nraids, the possible reasons behind them were numerous, but most of these
\nreasons were long standing and had not led to raids.  <\/span>When historians asked “Why now?  Why in this way?” what stands out is they
\nfollowed, and not by much, the Christian Frankish religious wars against the Danes’ immediate neighbors, the Pagan Saxons.<\/p>\n

So, as I wrote, there was a
\nreligious dimension to the Viking raids and I will stand firm in the contention
\nthat the energies involved in encouraging violence and hatred are demonic, no
\nmatter what religious banner they hide under.  <\/span>But what I did not realize was that these raids may very
\nwell have had a powerful element of self-defense behind them.  <\/span>The problem is that killing and battle releases energy that
\ncan become a high, and so become an end in itself.  <\/span>This happens over and over again in warfare, and even in verbal violence.  Done long enough it comes to feel good.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Many lay Christians are wonderful
\npeople, but more and more I believe that Christianity is incapable of being a
\ncivilized neighbor except insofar as it followers abandon the lie that their
\nway is essential for salvation.  <\/span>A
\ngreat many liberal lay Christians and even some liberal Christian clergy have
\ndone so.  <\/span>But many others have not,
\nand in civilized terms, are barbarians or would become such when offered the
\nopportunity.  <\/span>By barbarian, I mean
\nthose who are unwilling to subject their actions involving others to reasoned
\ndiscussion, but hold that the intensity of their belief or who they are
\njustifies whatever they want to do.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorn and Low Key have led me to re-examine my comments about Vikings in my post on the loss of America’s soul. The Norsemen were not quite the villains they have been depicted as by Christian historians.  They suggested Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick’s excellent Pagan Europe and a BBC interview with Robert Ferguson on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-news"],"yoast_head":"\nVikings in Better Perspective - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vikings in Better Perspective - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sorn and Low Key have led me to re-examine my comments about Vikings in my post on the loss of America’s soul. The Norsemen were not quite the villains they have been depicted as by Christian historians.  They suggested Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick’s excellent Pagan Europe and a BBC interview with Robert Ferguson on…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-26T13:30:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vikings in Better Perspective - A Pagan's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vikings in Better Perspective - A Pagan's Blog","og_description":"Sorn and Low Key have led me to re-examine my comments about Vikings in my post on the loss of America’s soul. The Norsemen were not quite the villains they have been depicted as by Christian historians.  They suggested Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick’s excellent Pagan Europe and a BBC interview with Robert Ferguson on…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan's Blog","article_published_time":"2010-02-26T13:30:38+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html","name":"Vikings in Better Perspective - A Pagan's Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-02-26T13:30:38+00:00","dateModified":"2010-02-26T13:30:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/vikings-in-better-perspective.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vikings in Better Perspective"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan's Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}