Why This Blog of Viking Wisdom?

Why this blog of Viking Wisdom?

A serendipitous turn of events led me to reading the Sagas and tales of the Icelanders and other literary relics of Viking culture. My wife and I submitted our DNA to 23andMe and a facet of my results that held my attention was that Haplogroup T1 May have arrived in England with the Vikings.

I’ll let those in the know at 23andMe tell the story:

“Although T1 is relatively rare in Europe today, it appears to have been much more common at some times in the past. Though it is present in only 2% of the modern English population, T1 was found at levels of 23% in DNA extracted from skeletons buried in Norwich, England during the 10th century AD.

But the complete absence of T1 even earlier, in DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of Anglo-Saxon Britons dating to the 5th and 6th centuries, suggests that the haplogroup did not arrive in England with the original agricultural expansion. It may have come with the Viking invaders who began menacing the coastal settlements of Britain and Ireland in AD 793.”

My wife followed up on this and found somewhere in the past the mighty literal and mundane name “Hatmaker” was an anglicized form of Hanoker or Harðgerður, which transltes roughly to hard-hearted, hardy, determined. [T‘is a long fall from being a hard-hearted and determined Viking to a maker of hats.]

Inspired by this bit of DNA fun I casually began reading the Sagas and was taken by their pragmatic, rugged individualist take on life. Yes, some can be rife with mysticism, this does not move me, look to other sources for Viking matters ephemeral.

Here I will offer passages and selections that reflect the pragmatic, world-wise, do-it-yourself, get-off-your-ass proto-libertarian ethic I find running throughout these intriguing tales.

If they inspire and give one pause to reflect and more importantly to act then excellent, I have done my job.

Til frábært ferðalag!

To an excellent journey!