The German-Scandinavian peoples belong to the Indo-European language family, which makes them related to such geographically distant cultures as the Scythians, Persians, Indians. However, relatively early, a western branch emerged from the common trunk of the Indo-Europeans, including Greeks, Italics, Celts, Slavs, Balts and Germans. These ethnic groups played a colossal role in the fate of Europe and the world. The significance of the Greeks and Romans as the creators of a unique ancient civilization is well known. But no less place in history is occupied by the so-called "Barbarian Europe", which was in difficult relations with the world of antiquity, and later came to replace it, absorbing the Greco-Roman heritage and learning the lessons of the past. One of the leading peoples of "Europe of the barbarian fields" were the Germans.
They played a key role in the Great Migration of Nations. Germanic tribes: Goths, Vandals, Heruli, Burgundians, Angles and Saxons, Lombards, Franks leave the land of their ancestors and create their kingdoms on the territory of the former Western Roman Empire. A number of these states later formed the basis of medieval Europe.
The participation of the ancient Germans in numerous wars and the frequent change of habitats affected the social structure. These tribes did not retain the ancient Indo-European caste of priests, and religious rites were carried out by leaders, or the most respected people. For these reasons, as well as early Christianization, Germanic mythology has not come down to us in its original form. But its Scandinavian version has been preserved.
Scandinavian tribes, with the exception of the Goths, Burgundians and Heruls, did not take part in the Great Migration. During these years they showed relative peacefulness. The ancestors of the Swedes formed a strong Svean state (described by Tacitus). From the 3rd century AD it enters a period of economic and cultural flourishing - the so-called Vendel period. Scandinavian ties extend from the British Isles to the Middle Volga; an international "Wendel style" has developed in art, in which both Roman and eastern (Sarmatian) influence can be traced. Of particular importance for its creation was the Irish-Scottish tradition. The Anglo-Saxons apparently acted as intermediaries between the Scandinavians and the Celts (which is confirmed both by excavations of burials in Setton Hoo (the east coast of England), and, on the other hand, by an analysis of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, which told about legendary events in Sweden and Denmark, but with a number of Celtic motifs (underwater giants, a severed brush, etc.) But the true center of the new art that swept the European continent to the Frankish power and Lombard Italy was Sweden and its settlements such as Uppsala, Helge, Valsjerde, Vendel.
However, the period of prosperity and relative peace was replaced by an event that recalled the era of the Migration of Peoples and was called the "Viking movement".
A.P. Gurevich describes this phenomenon as follows: “In the world of the Scandinavians at the end of the 8th, the first half of the 9th centuries, there was a sharp shift - a break in the gradual development. A new type appears among them - bold seafarers, seekers of prey, adventures and impressions, who have connections in different countries. In short. , the former and habitual way of life was broken, became impossible "(Gurevich A.I. // Viking Campaigns. M.).
These people (they were called Vikings - the word "Viking" - comes from "vik" - "bay", "bay", or "Vikingr" - "pirate", "raider") - gathered in combat squads and went on distant sea voyages . The victims of their raids were England, Ireland, France, Northern Germany, the Iberian Peninsula, Southern Italy. They penetrated (under the name of the Varangians) into Byzantium and Eastern Europe (their significant, albeit ambiguous, role in the creation of Kievan Rus is known).
For military campaigns, the Vikings built their famous "dragon ships" (with a nose decorated with an image of an animal or dragon). They were made of wood, had an elegant shape, sometimes reaching 30 m in length, shields were hung along the sides, behind which the rowers took refuge.
The changes affected various aspects of the life of the ancient Scandinavians. At this time, their new cities were born and quickly flourished.
Religious centers were also important. In Uppsala (Sweden) there was a famous pagan complex dedicated to Odin, Thor, and Freyr - the supreme triad of the Scandinavian pantheon (an exact illustration of the three-membered structure of Dumezil's Indo-European mythology - magical power, military strength, fertility).
The temple of Freyr (the legendary ancestor of the Swedish kings) was especially glorified. The ancient gods were revered in the form of wooden idols, and a description of a statue of Thor (life-size), sitting in a chariot drawn by goats, has been preserved. Pets, weapons and jewelry, and sometimes people, were sacrificed to the gods.
There were also sacred groves. The idea of pagan sanctuaries can be partly obtained from later Christian churches. In Borgund (Norway) a temple was built, reminiscent of the wooden cathedrals of the Russian North. At the same time, he, like his Slavic counterparts, was little like the Christian churches of the Western European or Byzantine canons. It is possible that the character of the wooden northern churches was influenced by architectural traditions dating back to the early medieval community of the peoples of the Baltic Sea.
Scandinavian houses were rectangular in shape. They were built from wooden boards or rods coated with clay. The roof was usually thatched. The frame of the house was supported by wooden poles covered with carved ornaments. Tapestries made of wool hung on the walls inside, wooden floorings were placed along the walls.
Every house had a loom, most people wore homespun clothes. For men, these were linen shirts and woolen trousers, over which a tunic with long rights was worn. The tunic was tied with a belt. In winter, people wore fur coats or raincoats, pinned at the shoulder with a special pin.
Women wore long tunics over the dress, consisting of two rectangular pieces of fabric, fastened at the shoulders with straps and two large brooches. They grew very long hair, tying it in a knot at the top of their head. Men, on the other hand, usually had shoulder-length hair, sometimes braiding pigtails on both sides of the face. The beard was also braided.
Women among the ancient Scandinavians enjoyed considerable independence, in particular, they had the right to divorce. In general, the Germans, just like the Celts, believed in their prophetic power. Some women who professed the cult of Freya were soothsayers and interpreters of dreams.
The changes that accompanied the emergence of the "Viking movement" also affected the sphere of arts and crafts. Wendelian animal style merges with ribbon ornament. An image of a large beast appears, filling the plane of the image of the so-called runic stones. This image was framed by intricately intertwined snakes or a single dragon biting its own tail. Runes were placed on these ribbon-like monsters - pagan written signs. (By the way, the runic alphabet itself, known since the 2nd century AD, also underwent a transformation during the Viking Age).
Compared to the previous period, art has acquired expression and some randomness. Already contemporaries were struck by Scandinavian products, with their inherent plots of the deadly struggle of people and animals, monsters convulsively clinging to each other, the cult of death and destruction. This art reflected the northern Viking Age, with its collapse of the old world...
The Vikings combine the features of warriors, merchants and travelers. They discovered and settled Iceland (although they met Irish hermit monks already living there). From there, brave sailors penetrated to Greenland and even to North America, where they founded their settlements.
The development of Iceland played a key role in the fate of the Old Norse civilization (quite comparable to the importance of Ireland among the Celts).
Here it must be borne in mind that the culture of the Vikings arose and developed already in the Christian era, representing a kind of "belated flowers of northern paganism." (Perhaps this circumstance explains its gloomy color, the feeling of an impending catastrophe. The carriers of the Viking culture, as it were, foresaw their historical doom). Drawing the Scandinavians into the life of continental Europe inevitably entailed their baptism, often accompanied by cultural excesses. In Iceland, this process took place relatively peacefully (as in Ireland), dual faith flourished here for a long time, and then the ancient gods passed into the category of poetic metaphors.
Partly due to the latter circumstance, Old Norse mythology has survived. The Icelanders were a people of poets. Poetry on the island was divided into Eddic and Skaldic. The first (basically, it includes songs included in the so-called "Elder Edda", recorded in Iceland in the 13th century) had a relatively simple form, but rich mythopoetic content. The second was extremely complex in style, although it usually told about simple things - battles, feasts, glorified military leaders. Skaldic poetry is younger than Eddic, because it appeared simultaneously with the Viking movement. Literary critics regard it as "a kind of mutation." In skaldic poetry, like the Scandinavian ornament, an elaborate, intricate form was cultivated. Its authors - skalds (poets-singers) developed a whole system of metaphors, called "kennings". They said "snow of bowls", "bones of the earth", "way of eels", "bear of sea streams", "dark shield dragon", and they meant: silver, mountains, sea, ship, horse. Over time, kennings became more complicated, consisting not of two, but of three or more words. So, "birch of the ringing fire of the hand" meant "woman" ("ringing fire of the hand" - gold; "birch of gold" - woman. Kenning in kenning).
At the same time, the Skaldic tradition interacted with the Eddic one, drawing plots for their metaphors from myths and epic.
The Vikings also created a prose genre of literature - sagas, which could tell about historical events, biographies of individuals. There were sagas in which there were many fairy-tale motifs - they were called "false sagas".
Finally, there was a special group of stories dedicated to legendary heroes. The most famous of them is the Velsunga Saga, the plots of which are also present in the literature of the continental Germans (the Nibelungenlied, etc.).
But perhaps the most famous book of Iceland and all of ancient Scandinavia is the "Younger Edda". It was written in the 13th century. Icelandic Snorri Sturluson. In the "Younger Edda" stories about the ancient gods are presented with such completeness that Scandinavian mythology, along with Greek and Indian mythology, can be considered a real standard, with which it is convenient to correlate the folklore traditions of other Indo-European peoples. Moreover, many cosmogonic and eschatological plots have been preserved here (which is so lacking in Irish legends). Of course, the nature of Iceland, grandiose and primordial "as on the first day of creation," left its mark on the nature of their description.
Acquaintance with the nature, history, lifestyle of the ancient Scandinavians allows you to better understand how such a magnificent tree of legends could grow on poor northern soil. Its bizarre shape was certainly affected by a "break in gradual development".
The Scandinavian gods are well identified with the ancient Germanic ones, but their functions and place in the pantheon have undergone a certain shift. For example, the position of the Thunderer (TOR) and the God of the Clear Sky (Tyr) has changed. Both of these characters were pushed back, respectively, to the second and third places by the Cultural Hero - Odin, the god of military magic and mediator on the paths of the living and the dead, reminiscent of the Greek Hermes. (The growth of his cult could have been influenced by the shamanism of the Finno-Ugric peoples, with whom the Scandinavians actively contacted in the middle of the 1st millennium AD).
In Scandinavian mythology, two groups of gods are distinguished: a smaller one - "vans", personifying fertility and a large "aces", associated with a military function. It is sometimes believed that the Ases could have been Viking gods, while the Vanir were preferred by their sedentary relatives.
Despite Christianization, representatives of both groups are reflected in the names of the days of the week. Of course, the influence of astrology (since the names of the gods are associated with celestial bodies) and the Bible (the name “Saturday”, given to the sixth day of the week) affected here. Nevertheless, the presence of the names of the main Indo-European mythological characters, correlated with the main types of gods identified in this work, is indicative. The purest example is the Germanic languages. Tuesday is the day of Tiu/Tyur (God of the Clear Sky). Wednesday is the day of Wodan/Odin (Cultural Hero). Thursday is the day of Donar / Thor (God of Thunder. It is curious that in Russia, where the Thunderer Perun was contaminated with Ilya the Prophet, "Ilyin's day" also fell on Thursday). Friday is the day of Freya (the Great Goddess. In Russia, the functions of the Great Goddess partly switched to Paraskeva Friday). Perhaps the day of the God of Earth Forces was Saturday.
But, of course, Old Norse mythology left a mark not only on the calendar. On the outskirts of the northern world, it was not forgotten throughout the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, a phenomenon called the "Scandinavian scientific renaissance" arose. The collection of ancient manuscripts began. In the XVIII century. they were widely published in Europe and picked up by the romantics. Northern legends (Celtic and Scandinavian mythologies) served as an inspiration for the English artist, poet and thinker William Blake. Pagan images entered his poems and paintings, although they were creatively rethought. In Blake, the giant Ymir corresponds to the giant Albion (the graphic sheet "The Dance of Albion", etc.), which contains all of humanity. The gods Odin and Loki are comparable to the demiurge Yuraizen and the demon of rebellion Orc; the hammerer Thor is reminiscent of Blake's god of creativity, Los. Finally, the apocalyptic roar of the eternal wolf, passing through Blake's entire poem "America. Prophecy", various images of the monstrous sea serpent Leviathan - evoke in memory the characters of Edda - the Wolf Fenrir and the World Serpent Yermungandr, whose appearance on the surface of the earth marks the end of time.
Magnificent plots of Eddic mythology were repeatedly played up in literature. They were addressed by R. Hebbel (trilogy "Nibelungen"), poet and playwright J. Giraudoux (play "Siegfried"). Finally, the modern genre of "fantasy" is largely based on Scandinavian motifs. This is evidenced by the very title of the main novel of the founding father of "fantasy" D. Tolkien - "The Lord of the Rings" (the image of the cursed ring is borrowed from the heroic songs of the Edda).
Scandinavian mythological plots also penetrate into Russian literature, the popular tale "Yeruslan Lazarevich" is known, in which Tsar Fiery Shit the Flaming Spear acts, riding an eight-legged horse across the sky, in this character it is easy to guess the Scandinavian Odin. It is curious that this tale by A.S. Pushkin laid the foundation for "Ruslan and Lyudmila". True, the Fiery Tsar did not pass into the poem, he was replaced by Chernomor, but on the other hand, the talking head of a giant was preserved in it, which had the prototype of the dead head of the giant Mimir, with whom Odin liked to consult.
Fine art, in the period after Blake, also often turned to the subjects of northern mythology, including, of course, in the Scandinavian countries themselves. Sculptor G.Z. Freud in the first half of the twentieth century. created an image of Odin (Copenhagen, National Museum). True, it is still too academic and similar to the famous statues of Zeus, except for two wolves lying on either side of the feet of the god sitting on the throne. Another sculpture of Freud - the winged Loki (Copenhagen, New Carlsberg Glyptothek) better shows the insidious and restless spirit of this character. Later, in the capital of Denmark, one of the parks was decorated with sculptural groups based on Eddic scenes. Among them is Gevion leading a team of four bulls (sculptor A. Bungor). According to legend, she plowed the island of Zeeland from Sweden, on which Copenhagen was founded. But the most successful, perhaps, is the equestrian statue of the Valkyrie by S. Sinding, which well expresses the fury of the warlike maiden.
A special role in the promotion of the Northern European heritage belongs to the neo-mythological trend in culture and its founder Richard Wagner. The German composer created the majestic opera tetralogy "Ring of the Nibelung", based on the Scandinavian version of the epic, densely saturated with mythological images, and influenced the Russian school of music. This can be seen, for example, from a comparison of his works with operas by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" and "Koschei the Immortal". The musical image of Kitezh, the Russian spiritual ideal, echoes the Wagnerian Grail, and in Kashcheevna we recognize the type of Valkyrie.
Finally, the influence of the German composer on the formation of the Art Nouveau style, which is clearly expressed in the architecture of Europe and Russia, is indisputable. In Mannheim (Germany) even the Hall of the Nibelungs was created. An important place in its decoration is occupied by a large stucco frieze depicting epic scenes in a manner stylized as a Scandinavian wicker ornament.
In St. Petersburg, Moscow and a number of other Russian cities, some buildings of this era include mascarons in the form of male and female heads in feathered helmets in their decor. Their type is sharply denounced from the type of Hermes (who also had a winged cap). It is possible with a high degree of certainty to recognize the image of Odin (Wotan, Woden) in the male faces, and the Valkyries in the female ones. It was Wagner who imagined the heroes of his operas dressed in winged helmets. This is how they entered our consciousness.
Introduction
Chapter 1 Traditions and Beliefs
1.1 Beliefs
1.2 Birth traditions
1.3 Training and "moral code"
1.4 Funeral rites
Chapter 2 Science and Art
2.1 Calendar
2.2 Navigation
2.3 Shipbuilding
2.4 Medicine
2.5 Literature. Poetry
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
The relevance of this work of this work is due to the fact that in order to understand the history of any people, it is important to know not only the material, but also the spiritual side of his life. For a long time, the role of mentality was underestimated by many scientists, but using only a materialistic approach, it is sometimes difficult to explain some historical phenomena. In addition, this leads to an unjustified belittling of the significance of the achievements of ancient people; to the fact that their culture is presented by many researchers as "primitive". This does not take into account the very difference between the worldview of ancient and modern people. In recent years, good works began to appear, which are based on the consideration of the mentality, but they are mainly devoted to the civilizations of the Ancient East. There are no special works devoted to the spiritual culture of pre-Christian Scandinavia, at least in Russian. All this determines the relevance of this work.
First of all, it should be said about what is meant by the concepts of "culture" and "pre-Christian Scandinavia".
“Culture (from Latin Cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration), a historically determined level of development of society, the creative forces and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organizing the life and activities of people, in their relationships, as well as in the material and spiritual values they create… In a narrower sense, the sphere of people's spiritual life. It includes the objective results of people's activities ... as well as human strengths and abilities implemented in activities (knowledge, skills, intelligence, moral and aesthetic development, worldview, ways and forms of people's communication),” the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary tells us .
In this paper, the concept of "culture" will be used in the narrow sense of the word, that is, to denote spiritual and intellectual values created by man.
Now let's determine the place of pre-Christian Scandinavia in time and space. Scandinavia includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, the island of Iceland, the Jutland Peninsula, as well as the small islands surrounding them, and the small islands of the chronological framework, then the lower border is the settlement of Scandinavia in the III-II millennium BC. e.. It should be noted here that basically the information provided refers to the 9th - 12th centuries, but it should be remembered that any culture is formed not for a year or two, but for centuries and millennia. The upper limit of the period under consideration is the end of the 12th century. By this time, the Christianization of Scandinavia was completed.
As for the historiography of this issue, there are not very many scientific works in Russian on the topic of pre-Christian Scandinavia, especially its culture separately (as mentioned above). Things are not much better with translated literature, most of it is just popular science publications depicting the Scandinavians of the pre-Christian era as people with a very primitive level of development in every sense.
“Until the time of Charlemagne, the northern countries constituted an almost completely closed world, about which only a few fragmentary news and legends reached the attention of the Romans ...”, writes A. Strinngolm, a major Swedish Scandinavian. What can we say about more ancient times... The sources of the medieval era include both the chronicles of continental Europe and the sagas of Scandinavia itself.
Among the excellent works on this topic, the monograph "Viking Campaigns" by the aforementioned Anders Stringholm should be noted. A. Khlevov, scientific editor of the Russian edition of this work, writes the following in the preface: “Until the appearance in the 1950s-1970s. books by M.I. Steblin-Kamensky, A.Ya. Gurevich, G.S. Lebedev, devoted to the history of the Vikings, "The Campaigns of the Vikings" edition of 1861 remained the only serious and comprehensive historical study in Russian. This truly classic work describes both the cultural and political life of Scandinavia during the Viking Age (8th-12th centuries).
I would like to mention the encyclopedia "Vikings: Raids from the North", published in the series "Disappeared Civilizations". It is beautifully illustrated, it presents a huge number of archaeological finds. Most of the book is devoted to battles, trade, colonial activity; however, when reading, one often gets the impression that the author (whose name, by the way, is not indicated anywhere ...) considers the culture of pre-Christian Scandinavia to be primitive. The adherence to the "Norman theory" is striking: "Starting with Rurik and up to the son of Ivan the Terrible Fyodor, these Scandinavians ruled the largest medieval power in Europe - Russia." In addition, as in most similar publications, there is almost no information about the spiritual life of the people.
A brochure by V.I. Shcherbakov "Where did the heroes of Eddic myths live?". The author examines the issue of the origin of the Scandinavian culture, based on legends and archaeological data. It should be noted that none of the other works available contradict Shcherbakov's point of view.
Among the excellent popular science works, it is worth noting the essay by M. Semenova “I will tell you about the Vikings”, published in the collection “Vikings”. In this work - a detailed description of the life and, most importantly, the mentality of the Scandinavians of that era. Moreover, it should be noted that M. Semenova's interesting approach to narration, she tries to show the worldview of the Scandinavians, as it were, "from the inside".
The purpose of this work is to consider the culture of pre-Christian Scandinavia, to show its features.
The objectives of the work are to tell about the spiritual values and intellectual achievements of the Scandinavians of the pre-Christian era: about their navigational and shipbuilding art, about poetry and about the famous Scandinavian runes, about knowledge in the field of medicine and astronomy; and, of course, about traditions and beliefs, about how they thought and how they perceived the world.
The work consists of two chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the spiritual life of the Scandinavians of the pre-Christian period, their worldview, beliefs, and some traditions, and the second chapter is devoted to scientific knowledge, practical skills and the poetic art of the Scandinavians.
Chapter 1 Traditions and Beliefs
1.1 Beliefs
The Scandinavians of the period under review were characterized by a religious-mythological type of thinking (in the historical, but not the philosophical understanding of this term). One can draw some parallel between such a worldview and pantheism, which represents the deity as if "dissolved" in nature, and not standing "above" nature. Stringholm writes the following about this: “Peoples, in their infancy without comprehending the laws of nature and the internal connection between objects, have always suspected the participation of living beings wherever they noticed the active forces, and personified nature. And the ancient Normans, like the Pythagoreans, filled the whole world with special spiritual beings.
According to the Scandinavians, there were nine worlds, each of which had its own inhabitants. Only one of them is accessible to human feelings - Midgard, the "middle city", the world of people. He was in the center, between the other eight worlds. Therefore, the "spiritual essences" of all worlds could manifest themselves in the life of the inhabitants of Midgard. Let's take a closer look at these worlds in order to understand what creatures and entities surrounded the Scandinavian pantheist.
Directly above Midgard is Lyusalfheim - the world of light alves-elves, beautiful creatures.
Above Ljusalfheim is Asgard, "the city of the Aesir", the supreme Scandinavian gods, which will be discussed below.
Immediately below Midgard is Svartalfheim, “the house of the black elves”: “the dark elves are blacker than pitch”.
Even lower is Helheim - the home of Hel, the goddess of death and rebirth (many researchers, unfortunately, often forget about her second "function").
To the east of Midgard is Jotunheim, a country of frost giants, frost spirits. In the north is Niflheim - the realm of cold. There are no living beings here. To the west of Midgard is Vanaheim - the "home of the Vanir" - deities patronizing fertility, weather, etc. In the south is the country of fire - Muspelheim. From here, according to legend, the fiery giant Surtr will come out, who will burn the worlds to the ground on the day of Ragnarok. It can be assumed that the prototype of this image was some kind of natural cataclysm (it could have happened even before the separation of the Indo-Europeans - here we can recall, for example, the Greek titanomachy).
Here is what V.I. writes about the connection between the images of Niflheim and Muspelheim and the cataclysm. Shcherbakov: “After this (the cataclysm - author's note), the glacier began to melt rapidly, presumably due to the sinking of some islands to the bottom of the ocean and a change in the direction of the Gulf Stream, which rushed to the shores of Scandinavia, melting thousand-year-old ice. And Edda remembers this! The myths directly speak of an ice shell and a hot, calm country in the south. It is interesting that then, before the cataclysm, the atmosphere was calmer, and the exchange of heat was minimal - severe cold in the north and unrelenting heat in the south. And this is told in Scandinavian myths!
Let us now note that the cataclysm, or flood, which the myths of many peoples speak of, was the root cause of the resettlement of tribes in territories freed from ice. This resettlement came in several waves - naturally, from the south and southeast. The process went on for thousands of years. And this, as is clear from the Edda, was remembered by ancient people, contemporaries of giants, dwarfs and gods!
From the end of the eighth to the end of the 11th century, the Vikings as a culture dominated Europe and spread throughout the world, from Russia (the land of the Rus) to the east coast of North America. Although their often religious raids were undeniably brutal, many Vikings peacefully traded, cultivated crops and settled conflicts peacefully, leaving their mark on virtually every region they touched.
Explore just a few of the things we owe to the ancient Scandinavians, from the English language to the combs we use for our hair.
Achievements of the Vikings in the field of shipbuilding and shipping
There is even a Viking Ship Museum in the world. Perhaps the most striking of the achievements of the ancient Scandinavians was the achievement of almost the modern level of shipbuilding technology, which allowed them to cover greater distances than anyone before. Their longboats, smooth wooden vessels with shallow hulls and rows of oars along the side, were faster, lighter, more flexible, and more manoeuvrable than other ships of the day. But while examining the prowess of the Vikings, it is also worth mentioning their skill as navigators. They relied on such simple tools as the solar compass, which used calcite crystals known as "sunstones" to determine the position of the sun even after it had set in the evening or on overcast days.
Such innovations gave the Vikings a clear advantage over other peoples in sailing long distances to foreign lands. In their heyday, the Vikings were active on four continents at the same time, making them the first truly global citizens of the world.
Old English
In the following centuries, after the first raid on English lands in 793 AD, the Vikings made a series of attacks, waged wars and established settlements in the British Isles, making a permanent impact on the land, culture and language. How did the Vikings interact with their English neighbors? First of all, through agriculture and trading activities, and then through marriages and linguistic assimilation, that is, mixing. This process appears in place names such as Grimsby, Thornby and Derby (the suffix comes from the Scandinavian word for "farm" or "village"), or Lothwaite, for example (-thwaite means "meadow" or "piece of land").
"Give", "window" and "sleep", other common English words, also derived their modern meanings from Viking culture. In another famous example, the word "Berserker" comes from the Old Norse berserker, which means "bear shirt" or "bear skin." Viking warriors, called berserkers, worshiped Odin, the god of war, and drove themselves into a frenzy during combat.
Dublin is descended from a Scandinavian fortress
We owe the capital of the Emerald Isle to the Vikings, who founded the first recorded settlement on the south bank of the River Liffey in 841. It was named Dabh Linn ("Black Pool") after the ancient Scandinavians moored their boats on the lake and began to build housing, harvest timber for their needs, poured an earthen fortress. Now it is the heart of modern Dublin.
Dubh Linn soon became the center of one of the largest slave markets in Europe. The Vikings held tight control over Dublin for nearly three centuries until the Irish High King Brian Boru defeated them at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Unlike England, the Vikings left few Scandinavian place names in Ireland and little influence on the Irish language, but they made their mark there nonetheless. In addition to Dublin, the Irish cities of Wexford, Waterford, Cork and a few others also began their count as Viking settlements.
Skis
Although the oldest known skis, dated between 8000 and 7000 BC, were discovered in Russia, and the first written record of skis comes from the Chinese Han Dynasty (206 BC approximately), there is reason to thank the ancient Scandinavians for the discovery of the Western tradition of skiing. Even the word "ski" in English comes from the Old Norse "skío." The ancient Scandinavians skied across the snowy native lands, both for recreation and transport purposes, and the Scandinavian goddess Skaoi and the god Ull were often depicted by them on skis or snowshoes.
Combs - the invention of the Varangians-chistyuli
Although they were considered untidy barbarians by their enemies, the Vikings actually bathed more often than other Europeans of that time (not counting the Russians, who always had baths in the factory), at least once a week, preferably in a hot spring. Bristle combs, often made from the antlers of the red deer or other animals they killed, are one of the objects most commonly found in Viking graves. In fact, although comb devices have existed in other cultures around the world, it is the Vikings who are often credited for inventing the comb as the Western world knows it today.
Tweezers, razors, and other cosmetic items are among the other objects that have turned up in Viking burial excavations, proving that even long-haired, bearded Viking warriors took personal grooming very seriously.
Sagas from Iceland: truth and fiction
Apart from archaeological evidence, one of the main sources of modern historians in obtaining information about the life of the ancient Scandinavians is a somewhat dubious, but endlessly fascinating source. These are Icelandic sagas written by unknown authors in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, a chronicle of life during the Viking Age around A.D. 1000, when the ancient Norwegians abandoned their pagan gods and converted to Christianity.
In the Victorian era, scholars accepted the sagas, with their accompanying graphic depictions of the deeds of powerful rulers and common people, as an indisputable historical fact and a historically reliable source. Most historians now agree that the sagas are unreliable but still valuable sources of information about the Vikings, laced with a hefty dose of mythology and fantasy. In any case, we can thank the Vikings and their exploits for providing food for one of the earliest forms of our favorite social entertainment: the soap opera.
In the $XVI$-first half of the $XVII$ century, two directions were observed:
- peasant, imbued with originality and ancient traditions of pre-feudal times (quickly disappeared in Denmark);
- noble-burgher, based on the influence of foreign states.
Remark 1
The values of the peasant tradition that have survived to this day are wooden architecture and woodcarving. Folk songs, fairy tales and sagas form the basis of oral folk art. The main guardian of the national language in Iceland and Finland was the peasantry, in Norway it was the only one of the estates that continued to speak the language of their nationality.
The culture of the nobility and the burghers was very different from the peasant culture. These social groups were clearly associated with the royal courts of European states and their cities. Immigrants from abroad constantly replenished the composition of the most important feudal estates. Thus, Dutch speech prevailed on the streets of Gothenburg, and German speech often sounded on the streets of Bergen. That is why Italian painters and French urban planners, Dutch scientists and German theologians left noticeable traces in the spiritual development of the peoples of the Scandinavian countries in the $XVI-XVII$ centuries.
Development of culture in Denmark and Sweden
The cultural development of Denmark in the $XVI-XVII$ centuries was ahead of other Scandinavian countries. Danish scientists, anatomist Caspar Bartholin the Elder and astronomer Tycho Brahe, gained European fame. Bartholin the Elder described the work of the olfactory nerve. Tycho Brahe deduced the laws of planetary motion. The architecture of Denmark reflected the heyday of the noble monarchy. The splendor of the palaces and castles erected under Christian IV went down in history as the Danish Renaissance.
Literary works in the national language have not received world recognition, but they form an important part of Scandinavian culture. The Bible was translated into national languages, which contributed to the formation of national languages. In Denmark and Sweden in the $17th century religious verses of Protestantism spread, poetry with humanistic ideas appeared. This stimulates the study of native history and language. The historian Anders Wedel compiled a collection of more than 100 Danish ballads, translated the history of Saxo the Grammar into Danish, which aroused interest in reading and studying native history.
The Swedish writer Olaus Petri wrote the Swedish Chronicle, in which he described the history of the country. The writers of that time are characterized by an exaggeration of the role of Sweden, which is a consequence of the former "great power" of the country.
Scandinavian poetry remained largely courtly. It was built according to classical forms. By the middle of the $17th century, Swedish secular lyrics and historical drama appeared. The "golden age" of the nobility was expressed in the construction of the baroque rear. The artists and composers of Sweden were at the royal court, and, accordingly, were either foreigners or were under strong foreign influence. The French rationalist Descartes lived for a long time at the court of Queen Christina and was her constant interlocutor (Christina was considered the most educated woman of that time).
norwegian culture
The decline of Norway affected the development of Norwegian culture. For example: in Denmark and Sweden, universities were opened in the $XV$ century, in Norway - only in the $XIX$ century. The painting of the Norwegian people remained ecclesiastical. Architects could use only wood for the construction of buildings. Norwegian humanists published historical and literary works. The first Norwegian scholars wrote in Latin, such as the historian Claussen and his Description of Norway. The first poets also composed in Latin. Therefore, we can say that a truly Norwegian national culture has not yet developed. The Finnish-Icelanders did not have a national culture.
Remark 2
The outgrowth of medieval peoples and the formation of bourgeois nations took place only in Denmark and Sweden. The rest of the Scandinavian peoples were not politically independent and lagged behind in their development.
