Ten years ago, one of the world's most famous travelers, Thor Heyerdahl, passed away.
The fame of this Norwegian anthropologist, the author of more than two dozen popular books and a good hundred scientific articles, for all its deafening “worldliness”, was kind, creative and humanistic. His fate is an example of amazing integrity, core strength and high nobility.
If someone had predicted to him, a teenager who was only interested in science, that he would sail on the ocean on fragile boats, and for many months at that, he would have considered that oracle crazy: he was terribly afraid of water, because he drowned twice in childhood. An extreme incident helped me break up with waterphobia. At the age of 22, Tur, having fallen into a stormy mountain river, found the strength to swim out on his own. And the fear disappeared as if by hand.
During these years, he studied zoology and geography at the Faculty of Natural Geography of the oldest University of Oslo. And no wonder - Thor Heyerdahl was born into the family of Thor and Alison Leung Heyerdahl. His father owned a brewery, but his mother worked in an anthropological museum, and the young man very early became acquainted with the then fashionable Darwinian theory of evolution. I became interested in zoology. He could easily pick up the Viper.
At the university, he met Björn Kraepelin, a famous Norwegian traveler who at the beginning of the century spent several years in Polynesia, Tahiti. Local leaders considered him almost a saint. That meeting had a strong influence on the student, largely determining his path as a researcher and traveler.
At the end of 1936, Heyerdahl married Liv Coucheron-Thorpe. An economist by training, the girl, however, enthusiastically shared her husband’s passion, and the two of them went to Tahiti. The young couple imagined a long experiment in survival away from civilization. To, like Adam and Eve, taste the gifts of untouched tropical nature on the lonely island of Fatu Hiva. But it was not there. A little over a year later, Liv and Tur began to develop bleeding ulcers on their legs. It was urgent to see a doctor. Thus, one of the ideas of a young scientist, who sincerely believed that modern man can (and should!) return back to Nature, to the pristine conditions of life. Alas, the process of progress of civilization turned out to be irreversible. Another would have reveled in his own disappointment. Not the Tour. Based on fresh impressions and living memories, he writes the book “In Search of Paradise” (1938). Unfortunately, it passed by not only the general public, even experts did not notice it. And the reason for this was compelling - the beginning of World War II. News of her found Heyerdahl in Canada. And the first thing he did was enlist in the army, going through complex and even humiliating bureaucratic procedures as a foreigner. Although he could, as they say, simply “refuse” himself from dangerous service. But Tur was not the kind of man to hide in the rear when the world was in flames. After graduating from a sabotage radio school in England, Heyerdahl and his comrades from the so-called “I Group” were thrown into Norway occupied by the German army. With the rank of lieutenant, he went on an American liner as part of a convoy to Murmansk. At the end of the campaign, the convoy was attacked by German submarines, which was repulsed with the help of Soviet ships. Arriving in Kirkenes, Heyerdahl's group began to maintain radio communication between the headquarters of the Norwegian detachment, which was part of the Karelian Front, and London.
Here I will allow myself some personal memories associated with the personality of the great Norwegian. I was introduced to Heyerdahl by his colleague and great friend Yu. Senkevich. And Yuri Alexandrovich was my friend.
In general terms, I knew, of course, that the famous traveler fought against the Nazi occupiers as part of our troops.
For me, at that time an employee of the main military newspaper of the Soviet Union, Krasnaya Zvezda, such information was of professional interest. Therefore, as they say, he didn’t give Senkevich a pass: arrange an interview with Tur for me. This was not as easy to do as it might seem, although the Norwegian visited our country from time to time. However, his visit was always planned so tightly that finding a “window” for a detailed conversation seemed to be a big problem. Well, what do you want, if even Sienkiewicz himself, over so many years of friendship with Heyerdahl, prepared only one (!) program for his “Travelers Club” with his participation. And even then in tandem with the famous zoologist Bernhard Grzimek. And then Yuri Aleksandrovich came up with a great journalistic move for me, for which I am immensely grateful to him: “Let,” he suggested, “let his closest friends tell about Heyerdahl, about his participation in the Norwegian resistance, in joint military operations with our soldiers. I know them, I have their phone numbers and addresses. You can start with me. Heyerdahl also often told me about his military past.”
Omitting details, I will note that I then met with Lev Lvovich Zhdanov, a writer-translator who was a senior sergeant of the guard during the war; with Genrikh Iosifovich Anokhin, Candidate of Historical Sciences, senior research fellow Institute of Ethnography named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay, guard sergeant major during the war; with Mikhail Yakovlevich Yankelevich, retired colonel, chairman of the council of veterans of the city of Kaluga; with Pavel Grigorievich Sutyagin, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor of the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after A.I. Herzen, retired captain 1st rank. These front-line soldiers fought alongside Thor Heyerdahl. So the main theme of the Norwegian traveler’s participation in World War II was comprehensively revealed by the front-line soldiers. I published an essay about Thor Heyerdahl in “Red Star”, in the magazine “North”. It was heard on All-Union Radio, on Norwegian Radio, and published in Norwegian newspapers and magazines. Politizdat included it in the collection “They Fought with Fascism,” which was published in mass circulation. On Heyerdahl’s next visit to our country, Sienkiewicz and I gathered all the heroes of my essay at the House of Peoples’ Friendship and solemnly presented each veteran with a book.
The usually reserved Norwegian, a descendant of the legendary Vikings, shed tears and made a heartfelt toast: “My Soviet friends! You are a great and heroic people who returned freedom to my Norway.”
And he continued: “We, grateful Norwegians, will never forget your feat. We will always remember that during the liberation of Norway, 3,436 Soviet soldiers died and were buried in its soil. Eternal memory to them, and to you, my military friends, eternal gratitude!
...Let me return to the glorious biography of the famous traveler. In the summer of 1947, after 101 days of sailing, Heyerdahl with five companions - Knut Haugland, Bengt Danielsson, Erik Hesselberg, Thorstein Robue and Hermann Watzinger on a balsa wood raft called the Kon-Tiki, having overcome the Pacific Ocean 4,300 nautical miles (8,000 km), arrived at Tuamotu Island. And thus they proved to the whole world that ancient people could overcome the Great Ocean. Heyerdahl's book of the same name, Kon-Tiki, has been translated into 66 languages. (Including, for the first time in Russian). A documentary film about the expedition, filmed by Tour during the voyage, won an Oscar.
Next was an expedition to Easter Island. Its result is three volumes of scientific reports. That expedition laid the foundation for many archaeological surveys that continue on the island to this day. And Heyerdahl’s popular book on this topic, “Aku-Aku,” became another world bestseller.
In 1969 and 1970, Heyerdahl built two papyrus boats and attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean, choosing the coast of Morocco as the starting point for his voyage. The first boat "Ra" sank. The second, Ra-II, reached Barbados, thereby demonstrating that ancient sailors could make transatlantic crossings under sail, using the Canary Current. Despite the fact that the purpose of the "Ra" voyage was simply to confirm the seaworthiness of ancient ships built from light reeds, the success of the "Ra-II" expedition also became indisputable evidence that even in prehistoric times, Egyptian navigators, intentionally or accidentally, could travel to the New World.
Senkevich sailed on both "Ra" as a doctor. Yuri Alexandrovich said: “In all expeditions, Tur was an ordinary sailor, like the rest of us.”
“This was required by harsh, if not cruel, circumstances. However, discipline in the team (and such expeditions, like army service, are unthinkable without the clarity and severity of unity of command) was still based on Heyerdahl’s authority, on our boundless respect and trust in him as a scientist, specialist, captain. He was our leader in the power of his spirit and the energy of his personality.”
In 1977, Heyerdahl built another reed boat, the Tigris (the largest of all his ships. Length - 15 meters, crew - 11 people, journey length - 7000 km). The tour wanted to demonstrate that trade and migration contacts could exist between Mesopotamia and the Indus civilization (present-day Pakistan). The Tigris with an international crew on board left Iraq and proceeded through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan, and from there to the Red Sea. After five months of sailing, the boat, which maintained excellent seaworthiness, was burned in Djibouti in the spring of 1978 as a protest against the wars that broke out in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa. In an open letter Secretary General UN Heyerdahl wrote: “Today we burn our proud little vessel in protest against the manifestations of inhumanity in the world to which we have returned from the high seas. We had to stop at the entrance to the Red Sea. Surrounded by military aircraft and ships of the most civilized and developed countries of the world, without receiving permission to enter from friendly governments guided by security considerations, we were forced to land in the small, still neutral Republic of Djibouti, because all around neighbors and brothers are destroying each other using means , provided by those leading humanity's journey into the third millennium. We appeal to ordinary people all industrial countries. It is necessary to recognize the crazy realities of our time. It would be irresponsible on our part not to demand from those who make responsible decisions that modern weapons are not provided to the peoples whom our grandfathers reproached for axes and swords. Our planet is larger than the reed riots that carried us across the seas, and yet small enough to be exposed to the same risk if the people living on it do not recognize the urgent need for intelligent cooperation so that we and our common civilization do not suffer the fate of a sinking ship.”
It was an expression of the pain of a great researcher and humanist, who perfectly understood what an unbridled arms race and escalation of violence could lead to.
Perhaps, since the Second World War, Heyerdahl for the second time in his life felt so acutely his involvement in the cause of peace on Earth. Although he himself never locked himself in a scientific ivory tower and was a very active public figure. He regularly met with famous politicians. (Once I even explained to the last head of the USSR, M. Gorbachev, how important it is to protect the environment). Every year, Tour participated in the awarding of the Alternative Nobel Prize as a member of the jury. In 1994, with actress Liv Ullman, he opened the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. In 1999, Heyerdahl was recognized by his compatriots as the most famous Norwegian of the 20th century.
After the Tigris expedition, Heyerdahl examined the mounds of the Maldives, the Guimar pyramids on the island of Tenerife, and dealt with many other, let’s say, exotic historical problems, to which no one except him paid attention. Moreover, in scientific academic circles his research was treated with outright rejection. True, Heyerdahl himself also did not favor scientific criticism. He mainly concentrated on publishing his theories in popular literature intended for the general public. Tour considered any scientific historical theory stupid if it could not be believed in practice.
His project “In Search of Odin” also looked special. In the footsteps of our past." Heyerdahl began excavations near Azov. He tried to find traces of the ancient civilization of Asgard, corresponding to the texts of the Ynglinga Saga, authored by Snorri Sturluson. This saga tells that a chief named Odin led the Asami tribe north through Saxony to the island of Funen in Denmark, and finally settled in Sweden. Heyerdahl suggested that the story told in the Ynglinga Saga was based on real facts. In other words: today's Norwegians come from near Azov. The project caused a hurricane of criticism in Norway from historians, archaeologists and linguists and was recognized as pseudoscientific. Tour was accused of selective use of sources and complete absence scientific methodology at work. Experts greeted Heyerdahl's assertion that the Udins, an ethnic minority in Azerbaijan, were the ancestors of the Scandinavians who migrated to Scandinavia in the 6th-7th centuries with even greater rejection. ad. In the last two decades of his life, he traveled to Azerbaijan several times and visited the Kish Church. And it is no coincidence that his theory regarding Odin was accepted as a fact by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway.
Thor Heyerdahl, with his heroic journeys on fragile boats, managed to capture people's imagination and captivate thousands of enthusiasts with his desire to “struggle and seek, find and not give up.”
Despite the fact that most of his works, to put it mildly, did not arouse enthusiasm in scientific circles, Heyerdahl undoubtedly raised global public interest in ancient history, to the achievements of various cultures and peoples around the world. He also proved beyond doubt that long-distance travel across the ocean was technically possible for Neolithic man. In fact, Heyerdahl was an unsurpassed practitioner of experimental archeology, and, perhaps, the founder of this direction. Heyerdahl's books have inspired and will continue to inspire people to new daring. This is because the tireless Norwegian adventurer often broke the boundaries of everyday consciousness.
“I don’t seek adventure for adventure’s sake. The fullness of life is not necessarily associated with overcoming the elements - the work of thought, the achievement of a humane goal adorns it more strongly. I am organically incapable of considering people who lived thousands of years before us to be beneath me, and I am disgusted when I come across such often even subconscious disdain for those who lived before us and did not master our technology. It gives me pleasure to click on the noses of learned crackers and arrogant proud people. But the motives for overcoming one’s own weakness, passivity, the motives for affirming the human personality through achieving the seemingly unattainable are close and understandable to me...”
The Norwegian had a special passion for our country. He often repeated that nowhere is he “understood as much as in the USSR, in Russia.”
In all of Heyerdahl's expeditions, more than fifty representatives of different countries and nationalities became his assistants. He did not care at all who was in front of him - Russian, American, Arab, Jew, Papuan, Negro or Chinese, as well as whether he was a communist, capitalist, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim or pagan. He knew how to win over anyone - from the king of Norway to the leader of a Polynesian tribe. And yet, the Norwegian had a special disposition towards Sienkiewicz. He spoke about this himself. When Tour died, Yuri Alexandrovich had a heart attack. He outlived his older friend by only a little over a year...
Heyerdahl died at the age of 87. He knew about his cancer and accurately determined the date of his departure to a place from which they never return. The day before, he gathered his entire large family at the hospital: five children, eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren (all men - Turs) and told them: “That’s it, goodbye, I’m leaving. Don’t worry, I’m fine and I’ll be fine.” The traveler lived with dignity and died with dignity, a courageous man, winner of a huge number of medals, prizes and honorary scientific titles in the world. In his homeland, a monument was erected to him during his lifetime, and his house is now a museum.
Special for the Centenary
Vikings
The Scandinavian peoples made their presence known on the European stage between 800 and 1050 of our century. Their unexpected military raids sowed fear in prosperous countries that, in general, were accustomed to wars. Contacts between the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe go back a long way, as archaeological excavations prove.
Trade and cultural exchange began many millennia BC. However, Scandinavia remained a remote corner of Europe with little political or economic importance.Arne Emil Christensen
Gradually, the raids were replaced by colonization. The names of the settlements prove the presence of a large proportion of Viking descendants in the population of Northern England, centered in York. In the south of England we will find an area called Danelagen, which can be translated as “the place where Danish laws apply.” The French king transferred Normandy to fief ownership of one of the Viking leaders in order to protect the country from attacks by others. A mixed Celtic-Scandinavian population developed on the islands north of Scotland.
A similar situation was observed in Iceland and Greenland.
The unsuccessful attempt to gain a foothold in North America was the last in a series of campaigns to the west.
Around 1000 AD, there is information that the Vikings of Iceland or Greenland discovered a new land far to the west. The sagas tell of numerous campaigns to settle in that land. The colonialists met resistance from either the Indians or the Eskimos and abandoned these attempts.
What caused this unprecedented expansion in just a few generations? Stable state formations in France and England clearly could not resist the raids. The picture of that era that we draw on the basis of written sources confirms what has been said, because
Vikings are described as terrible robbers and bandits. Clearly they were. But they probably also had other properties. Their leaders were most likely talented organizers. Effective military tactics ensured the Vikings' victory on the battlefield, but they were also able to create stable state structures in the conquered areas.
Some of these entities did not last long (such as the kingdoms of Dublin and York), others, such as Iceland, are still viable. The Viking Kingdom in Kyiv was the basis of Russian statehood, and traces of the organizational talent of the Viking leaders can still be seen to this day on the Isle of Man and Normandy. In Denmark, the ruins of a fortress from the end of the Viking Age, designed for a large number of troops, have been found. The fortress looks like a ring, divided into four sectors, each of which housed residential buildings. The layout of the fortress is so precise that this confirms the leaders' penchant for systematics and order, as well as the fact that among the Vikings there were experts in geometry and surveyors. In addition to Western European information sources, Vikings are mentioned in written documents from the Arab world and Byzantium. In the homeland of the Vikings we find short writings on stone and wood. The 12th century sagas tell a lot about Viking times, despite the fact that they were written several generations after the events they narrate. The homeland of the Vikings was the territories that now belong to Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The society from which they came was a peasant society, where agriculture and animal husbandry were supplemented by hunting, fishing and the manufacture of primitive utensils from metal and stone. Although the peasants could provide themselves with almost everything they needed, they were forced to buy some
Metal and stoneware were imported goods that led to the flourishing of trade during the Viking era. Even during the periods when Viking raids were most frequent, there was trade between the Scandinavians and Western Europe. One of the few descriptions of the situation in Norway at that time is found in a letter from the North Norwegian leader Ottar. He visited King Alfred of Wessex as a peace trader at a time when the king was at war with other Viking chieftains.
There is a theory that the lack of vital resources amid population growth was the reason for the expansion of the Vikings.
Archaeological materials indicate the organization of new settlements in previously deserted places, with a simultaneous increase in interest in foreign resources. This confirms the theory of population growth. Another explanation could be metal mining and processing. A lot of metal means a lot of weapons and a definite advantage for those who go on a military campaign.
Viking ships - their military advantage
Shipbuilding in the Nordic countries appears to be another factor that gave the Vikings an advantage in warfare. One famous Swedish archaeologist wrote that the Viking ships were the only sea-going craft of their kind ever used by an invading force. Despite the certain categorical nature of this statement, it largely explains the secret of the Vikings’ military successes. This thesis is confirmed by many historical documents describing Viking raids. The surprise factor played important role
Much suggests that there was a division of spheres of influence between the Norwegian, Danish and Swedish Vikings, despite joint participation in major campaigns led by influential leaders. The Swedes mainly moved east, where they established control over the river arteries deep into Russia and, thus, over the eastern trade routes.
The Danes moved south to what is now Germany, France and Southern England, while the Norwegians moved west and northwest to Northern England, Scotland, Ireland and the Atlantic islands.
Ships not only served for combat and trade, but were also vehicles for the colonization process. Whole families, having collected all their belongings, loaded onto ships and set off to settle in new lands. The Vikings' voyages across the North Atlantic to Iceland and Greenland prove that they knew how to build not only fast ships for combat in the North Sea, but also ships with very good seaworthiness. The process of colonization began after seafarers discovered new lands, and after receiving information about new places from traders and warriors returning from campaigns.
There are indications that the indigenous population was expelled in many cases. In some areas, such as northern England, the Vikings preferred pastoralism and used a different landscape than the local population, which had previously cultivated grains.
Historical documents telling about the Vikings were mainly written in Western Europe by people who had a negative attitude towards them.
Therefore, you can be sure that only the negative sides of the Scandinavians are presented there. The picture is significantly complemented by archaeological finds, both in the homeland of the Vikings and in the areas of their campaigns. On the sites of former settlements, traces of outbuildings and bazaars were found, where things that were lost or broken and abandoned at that time tell about the very simple life of the Vikings. Remains of tools for iron mining were discovered in mountainous areas, where the presence of swamp ore and forests created a good basis for the development of crafts. Quarries have also been found where people collected soapstone to make frying pans or a very good whetstone. If you are very lucky, you can find old arable land in areas that were not used at a later time. There you can see heaps of stones, carefully removed from the field, and during careful excavations, even furrows from the plow of a Viking farmer come to light.
Cities and states During the Viking era there were noticeable changes in society. Powerful families appropriated everything
It is noticeable that the sewage system and waste collection were not as well planned as the division of the territory. The sewage lies in such a thick layer that we can imagine how much dirt and stench there was in the cities.
Here you can find everything from artisan waste to fleas and get a picture of the life of the townspeople. Sometimes there are objects that came to these parts from afar, such as Arabic silver coins and remnants of silk fabric from Byzantium, as well as products of local craftsmen - blacksmiths, shoemakers, comb makers.
Viking religion
Christianity was recognized in the Nordic countries towards the end of Viking times. It replaced paganism, where many gods and goddesses patronized their own sphere of human existence. The God of Gods was old and wise - Odin. Tur was the god of war, and Frey was the god of agriculture and cattle breeding. God Loke was famous for his sorcery, but he was frivolous and did not enjoy the trust of other gods. The blood enemies of the gods were giants, personifying the forces of darkness and evil. The existing descriptions of pagan gods were created already during Christianity and in many ways bear the stamp of the new faith. Place names such as Turshov, Freyshov and Unsaker retained the names pagan gods Vikings. All the household items that followed the deceased to be used in the afterlife give us insight into the world of the Vikings, although often all we can find is the time-worn remains of what was placed in the grave. Grave finds complement the archaeological material from the settlement site. There you can find lost and broken things, ruins of houses, food remains and waste from artisans, and in the graves - the best things that a person had during his life. Based on the texts of the laws, it can be assumed that what we today call the means of production (land, livestock) remained with family members, and personal items went to the grave with the deceased.
Society of Violence
The violence that reigned in that society is evidenced by the fact that almost all men were buried with weapons.
A well-equipped warrior must have a sword, a wooden shield with a metal plate in the center to protect the hand, a spear, an ax and a bow with up to 24 arrows. The helmet and chain mail in which the Vikings are depicted by modern artists are, in fact, very rarely found during excavations. Helmets with horns, which are an indispensable attribute of Vikings in paintings, have never actually been found among real Viking things.
These are examples of how favorable soil conditions make it possible to preserve traces of antiquity. We don't know who those buried there were, but judging by the pomp of the burials, they most likely belonged to the top of society.
Perhaps they were related to the royal dynasty that, several generations later, united Norway into a single state.
Recently, by counting annual rings on wooden objects, it was possible to establish the age of the burials of Useberg, Tune and Gokstad. The ship from the Useberg burial was built in 815-820 AD, and the burial itself took place in 834. The ships from the burials of Tune and Gokstad date back to approximately 890, and were buried immediately after 900. In these three graves, ships were used as coffins. Only the bottom of the ship from the Tyune burial was preserved, but the grave itself was plundered. However, it is clear that this ship was of the same excellent quality as the other two.
The burials of Useberg and Gokstad were looted, and jewelry and the best weapons disappeared without a trace. Products made of wood, leather and textiles were not of interest to the robbers and therefore have been preserved to this day. Traces of similar burials are found in other places. Much confirms the correctness of the assumption about the existence of the custom of putting sacrificed dogs and horses, weapons, ship equipment (oars, ladders, scoops, food cauldrons, tents and often overseas bronze vats) into the grave. The vats probably originally contained food and drink for the deceased.
The Ouseberg burial has no traces of weapons, which is typical for the graves of women, but otherwise there was the usual set of things there. In addition to this, the deceased had near her objects confirming her status as the head of a large farm. It can be assumed that women were responsible for running the household while the men were away on campaign. The Ouseberg woman, like many of her fellow tribesmen, was certainly a mature and respected lady, regardless of her occupation - whether it was making yarn with other women, supervising field work, or milking cows, making cheese and butter. In addition to the ship, her grave contained a cart and a sleigh. The path to the kingdom of the dead could take place either by water or by land, and the deceased had to have all the necessary equipment. Horses were sacrificed in sufficient numbers to harness both the sleigh and the cart. In addition, a tent and pots, tailor's accessories, chests and caskets, a trough, milk vessels and ladles, a knife and frying pan, shovels and hoes, a saddle, a dog harness and much more were found in the grave.
The supply of provisions for the road to the kingdom of the dead consisted of a couple of slaughtered bulls, a whole trough of dough for baking bread, and for dessert there was a bucket of wild apples.
The man buried at Gokstad also had an excellent woodcarver, although his grave does not contain as many carvings as the one at Ouseberg. The ship from Useberg had low sides and was not as seaworthy as the ships from Gokstad and Tune. However, the ship would be quite capable of sailing across the North Sea. This design is typical of Viking ships from the 800s. The copy ship built in our time was fast, but it was difficult to control. Ships from Useberg, Gokstad and Tune were most likely used as private ships for sea travel
nobility, and not for transporting warriors.
The shipbuilding technique used by the Vikings is called clinker. The ships built were the result of more than 1,000 years of shipbuilding development in Scandinavia.
The goal of boatbuilders has always been to create lightweight and flexible structures that adapt to wind and waves, and work with them rather than fighting against them. The hull of Viking ships was built on a powerful keel, which, together with a gracefully curved stem, formed the basis of the structure.
Plank after plank was fitted to the keel and stem and overlapped with metal rivets. This design gave the body elegance and strength. After the hull took the desired shape, frames were installed in it.
Additional flexibility of the design was given by the fact that the frames and side plating were interconnected.
Cross beams at the waterline increased resistance to lateral loads, and thick timbers supported the mast. The ships sailed under a square sail raised on a mast in the middle of the hull. During calm or light winds, ships rowed.
By the end of the Viking Age, the construction of purely military ships, which were distinguished by speed and increased capacity, as well as purely commercial ones, where speed of movement was not as important as carrying capacity, began to develop. Merchant ships had a small crew and were mainly designed for sailing.
The coming of Christianity Around the year 1000, Christianity came to the land of the Vikings. The change of religion was undoubtedly one of the reasons for the cessation of robber raids. Denmark, Sweden and Norway became independent kingdoms. Life was not always peaceful even in the Christian kingdoms, but disputes were settled by rapidly changing alliances of kings. Often countries were on the brink of war, but the conflict between rulers ceased, and the need to cross arms disappeared. Trade ties established back in Viking times continued, but in a situation where the northern countries became part of Christian Europe.
“In two separate rulings, the Icelandic Supreme Court and the Reykjavik District Court last week convicted three senior managers of Landsbankinn, two managers of Kaup?ing and one prominent investor for crimes committed in the run-up to the 2008 financial crash. These sentences increased the number of convicted bankers and financiers to 26 people, and their total prison sentence to 74 years.”
The whole world lives under the law of the sea, except for two countries - the USSR and Iceland.
Today, only three countries are not subordinate to the US Federal Reserve: Iceland, Hungary, and Argentina.
The article notes that the actions of the Icelandic authorities are fundamentally different from the actions of the United States, in which the prosecution of high-ranking financiers is almost a matter of science fiction. For example, not a single high-ranking US banker was blamed for the 2008 financial crisis, although it was the US that became his main reason. In Iceland, the maximum sentence for financial crimes is currently six years, but there is already debate about increasing it.
President of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson summed it up very well:
“We have been smart enough not to follow the popular orthodoxy that has been propagated in the Western financial world for 30 years. We set up currency controls, we let the banks fail, we helped the people and we avoided the austerity measures that hit Europe."
Let us remember what crimes the Icelandic bankers are talking about.
In 2003, all Icelandic banks were privatized, after which their owners began a vigorous effort to attract foreign investors, assigning high rates of return to special Ice Save accounts, which en masse attracted small British and Dutch investors. It is not difficult to guess that the growth of such “investments” caused an increase in the external debt of banks. If in 2003 Iceland's external debt amounted to 200% of GNP, then in 2007 it was already 900%, and the global financial crisis of 2008 led to the collapse of the country's banking system, and at the end of the year Iceland was forced to declare bankruptcy. The three main Icelandic banks: Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir were nationalized, the krona lost 85% of its value against the euro, and so on...
Usually, in such conditions, the government urgently gets into debt bondage to the IMF, and then the illustration of the parable about the bird’s claw and the bird itself is inevitably repeated. Standard method: income goes to effective private owners, and losses are written off to the state, i.e. on ordinary citizens. At that time, Iceland would have to pay off a debt of 3.5 billion euros. For clarity: for this, every Icelandic resident, including newborns, must pay 100 euros monthly for fifteen years. Moreover, in essence, this is the duty of private individuals, bank owners, in relation to other private individuals, and shifting it to the state is logically strange (but is a typical modern practice).
However, the Icelanders took a different route. The head of state, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to make Icelandic citizens responsible for bankers' debts and decided to call a referendum. Discontent arose among “civilized countries”. Grimsson recalls:
“We were told that if we did not accept the conditions of the international community, we would become northern Cuba. But if we agreed, we would become northern Haiti.”
Icelanders remembered that they were descendants of Vikings and should not allow themselves to be robbed, and in March 2010, 93% voted against paying off debts in a referendum.
Since then, information about what is happening in Iceland has been covered by the world media very sparingly, and this, I am not afraid to say, this epoch-making decision is being completely hushed up. The reason is clear: globalists really do not want to spread the idea that “states do not have to pay for private debts.”
Moreover, the second, logical idea would be the question: “Why are banks needed that cause harm to the population?” - and here it’s not far from putting practically all bankers on trial wholesale, since their activities harm the entire society, except the bankers themselves.
In the article “Refusal of globalism: let’s start with the Central Bank,” I recalled that Henry Ford also wrote:
“The banker... is not capable of playing a leadership role in industry. Therefore, is it not the fact that the lords of credit have reached beyond Lately enormous power, a symptom that something is rotten in our financial system.”
Even in ancient times, Aristotle of Stagira (384-322 BC) spoke about the same thing:
“The moneylender is hated absolutely rightly, since his money is a source of income, and is not used for what it was invented for. For they arose for the exchange of goods, and interest only makes money out of money even more money... therefore, of all activities, usury is the most contrary to nature.”
However, the modern economy is based precisely on loan interest. Without delving into pseudo-scientific economic works, I recommend “An incredibly simple explanation of how the ENTIRE financial system in the WHOLE world works” - if you haven’t read it, be sure to check it out.
Bankers and their role in modern world- a topic for a separate study (however, done many times by various authors), but I applaud Iceland: it is necessary that those who harm the country are convicted by the court - I’m not even afraid to recall the term “enemies of the people”, which here has a literal meaning. And the consequences for those who bring harm to the entire population of the country at once should be much more severe than just a few years of formal imprisonment.
And, by the way, it would be good to call a spade a spade, using the Russian word “usurer” instead of the camouflage name “banker”.
from the comments:
Everything is well and correctly said, but one thing confuses me, how come Iceland wasn’t declared a terrorist state and they didn’t use “democratic bombing” for refusing to pay... The fact that everything isn’t said there means they’re not telling us something.. .
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It’s dangerous to bomb there, bombings can provoke the eruption of some kind of... damn... you say.
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If they started to apply “democratization”, they would have to shout about it to the whole world. And this is precisely what is written in the article: no one wanted publicity that this could be done. That’s why they released the brakes, so that no one would know and no one would want to repeat it. And secondly: what can we take from those Icelanders, besides herring and volcanic ash? Well, they bombed, well, they installed a “democratic” government. And how to compensate for all the costs? So it turned out to be cheaper to “wash.” And go democratize others... who has minerals useful for the “democratizers”.
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It's been a while since I've seen so many powerful materials on the polytrash.) Last time I covered the topic, but it was promptly deleted. very, very correct coverage of the issue. I give it a thumbs up. py.sy. I laughed separately about the door. does no one notice this? (Volgin)
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An alternative to the usury system is the CopiKassa system - money without interest!
CopyKassa is a system of cash savings,
which helps to accumulate a LIMIT to receive a “LOAN” for any purpose with repayment at any time without interest, without certificates, without collateral or guarantors.
Once upon a time, the Danes owned territory that extended far beyond the current borders of the kingdom. But today the distant descendants of the Vikings are unlikely to be aroused by imperial romance or calls for the “return of ancestral lands.” They fought to their hearts' content in the past, seizing foreign lands and losing their own, and, in the end, learned the main lesson: it is better to live peacefully, well-fed and calmly in their small homeland, than to multiply problems and shed blood, endlessly expanding borders.
It all started not at all peacefully. Archaeologists believe that the first people - nomadic hunters - appeared on the Jutland Peninsula during the last ice age, about fourteen and a half thousand years ago. Another eight thousand years passed, and with the advent of the Neolithic era, hunters on these lands were replaced by pastoralists. And in the 5th-6th centuries AD, the Germanic tribe of the Danes came to the peninsula - free farmers, who, however, did not miss the opportunity to rattle their weapons, bully their neighbors and turn into slaves those whom they managed to capture. The Danes built the first cities in Jutland and on the islands of the archipelago, which we today call Danish.
Who hasn't heard of the Vikings? Many people mistakenly consider them to be a single people, although in fact it is more accurate to talk about a whole group of ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia (in Rus' they were called Frisians, in Western Europe - Normans), united not so much general blood, how much common fishing. The Vikings were born conquerors, so the farmers who settled on the lands of Jutland did not long remain aloof from the general Nordic fad and also began to carry out sea raids on neighboring lands. Military campaigns required military discipline and unity of command, and it is no coincidence that it was during the “Viking Age” that the first Danish state arose on the peninsula.
The influential leaders of the Danish tribes chose a king - Gorm, nicknamed the Old. And the capital of the new kingdom was the fortified city of Jelling in the heart of Jutland. This was at the beginning of the 10th century.
Gorm the Old died, passing the throne to his son, Harold I Bluetooth, as evidenced by the runes on the famous Jelling Stone - the first written mention of the “Kingdom of Denmark”. Without realizing it, Harold's father began the oldest royal dynasty in Europe.
Danish trace in Russian history
Under Harold, Denmark also adopted Christianity, following its king, who was baptized in 965. As in other countries of medieval Europe, the union of two powers - secular and spiritual - made it possible to unite the country into a single feudal pyramid.
But a little more than a century passed, and after the death of another descendant of Gorm, Canute I the Great, who annexed England and Norway to Denmark, the “northern empire” fell apart. Until the end of the 14th century, a period of anarchy continued, aggravated by the terrible plague epidemic of 1350, which wiped out the population of Denmark by almost two-thirds. Once again, Queen Margrethe I made an attempt to unite under her rule not only her own country, but also her closest neighbors. According to the Kalmar Union of 1397, Sweden (with Finland) and Norway (with Iceland) came under the rule of the Danish kings. This “northern alliance” lasted for a surprisingly long time by the standards of the European Middle Ages - almost a century and a half. It collapsed only in 1523, when a popular uprising in Sweden overthrew the power of the “Danish invaders” and elevated its leader to the Swedish throne, who took the name Gustav I Vasa. And Norway “fell away” from Denmark (leaving it, however, with its island possessions - Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands) only in early XIX century - after the final defeat of Napoleon.
The history of relations between Denmark and Russia goes back many centuries. The Muscovites concluded the first treaty of alliance with the Frisians at the end of the 15th century. Among other things, this agreement guaranteed freedom of trade to merchants of both countries. Four centuries later, two reigning houses - the Oldenburgs and the Romanovs - were united by blood ties. In November 1866, a magnificent wedding was held in St. Petersburg Grand Duke Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander III) and the Danish princess Dagmar - the mother of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II.
Was there a boy?
And yet no Danish monarch can boast of the worldwide fame that fell to the lot of one Danish prince. And the Danes have a simple actor to thank for this, moreover, an Englishman! After all, according to the official version, which, however, is disputed by many, William Shakespeare is considered the author of Hamlet.
It is unknown whether the English playwright visited Hamlet’s homeland, but most likely he knew about his colleague and compatriot Thomas Kyd’s play about the Danish prince Hamlet, which was staged in London back in the 1580s. Kidd, in turn, could have learned the plot from the French writer François de Belleforest, and he from the famous 12th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus. As presented by the latter, the story of Prince Amleth - the son of King Gorwendil and Queen Geruta - testified: “something is wrong in the Danish kingdom.” This is actually what happened. The king's brother Fengon killed Amleth's father and entered into an incestuous marriage with his mother, after which the prince, offended in his best feelings, pretended to be crazy and gained Fengon's confidence, finally took revenge by killing "the usurper of the throne and the queen's bed." But then the plots of the historical chronicle and Shakespearean drama diverge: having served justice, the historical Prince Amleth flees to England, marries the Scottish Queen Germutrude, together with the Scots defeats the King of England and returns to his homeland in triumph. And there awaits him the rightful throne and family happiness with his wife and mother. For Shakespeare's Hamlet, as we know, everything turned out much sadder.
But he, before taking revenge and dying, uttered the immortal “to be or not to be,” glorifying not only English literature, but also Danish history. After all, it is thanks to Shakespeare that millions of people know that there is Elsinore Castle in Denmark.
Towers of Time
In fact, Elsinore (Helsingor) is the name of a city in the north of the island of Zealand, where one of the castles of the Danish kings, Kronborg, is located.
This is truly a storehouse of Time - the stone walls of the castle witnessed all the events that took place here due to its extremely important strategic position. It is located on the shore of the Öresund Strait, at its narrowest point. Only four kilometers of water separate Danish Helsingor from Swedish Helsingborg - therefore, whoever was able to fortify one of the banks of the strait controlled the passage to the Baltic Sea.
In the 1420s, the Danish king Eric realized this, and decided to take tribute for the passage of the Øresund from any ships that went from the North Sea to the Baltic or back. On the site of the current castle, the Krogen fortress was founded. The castle was rebuilt many times, withstood more than one siege and more than one fire, eventually turning into a country palace in the Renaissance style, in no way reminiscent of the gloomy “Denmark Prison”, where Shakespeare’s prince was suffocating from lack of air.
Although Krogen, which changed its name to Kronborg, at one time served as a prison, in the 17th century criminals were kept there. The pragmatic Danish kings chose the most effective type of labor for their prisoners - they had to constantly repair and restore the prison. Moreover, the scope of work for them was not reduced; Denmark waged endless wars with its neighbors, mainly with the Swedes. During the 16th-18th centuries there were six such wars, and each left a mark on appearance Kronborg. Having captured the fortress, the Swedes destroyed it almost to the ground each time, and after their expulsion, the Danish kings restored and strengthened their stronghold with the help of new prisoners.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark decided to remain neutral for the first time. In the eyes of a united Europe fighting against Napoleon, this was tantamount to an alliance with the “usurper.” And Kronborg again witnessed a historical event. Having performed a brilliant maneuver, the English squadron under the command of Admiral Parker (whose deputies included Lord Nelson), invulnerable to the weak fortress batteries of Kronborg, was able to pass through the strait into the Baltic Sea without losses.
Until the mid-20th century, the castle served as a barracks - first for Danish soldiers, and during the Second World War - for German soldiers who occupied Denmark. It was only after the expulsion of the invaders that Kronborg finally found its well-deserved peace, becoming a museum.
Welfare Kingdom
For one and a half thousand years, the descendants of the Vikings managed to fight, it seems, with all their neighbors on the continent, and only in the last century they came to neutrality. Denmark also experienced reformation, absolutism, agrarian reform, the industrial revolution, the proclamation of a democratic constitution in 1849, neutrality in the First World War, the occupation of the country and the Resistance movement in the second. But the most important thing is that Denmark has transformed from a “great power” into a small country, whose territory has shrunk by almost two-thirds in the last century alone. And the national revival here took place under the slogan “external losses must be compensated for by internal successes.” And the latter were not slow to appear.
Source: Aeroflot
Who doesn’t know them - stern northern warriors. However, as always happens in such cases, much of what we know is just myths and fiction that have nothing to do with reality.
Let's look at some of them...
One nation
The Vikings were not representatives of one people, they were a motley group of warriors, travelers and traders under the leadership of a leader. In Viking times, Scandinavia was not divided into large states (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), but consisted of many areas under the leadership of such groups. In general, the Old Norse word “Viking” is not tied to any particular area, and means a person participating in a campaign to the sea.
Wild and dirty
Many feature films and cartoons show the Vikings as dirty and wild men and women, but in reality they took care of their appearance. Combs, tweezers, and razors are the most common finds during excavations of Viking settlements. Remains of soap that the Vikings made themselves have also been found. In England, the Vikings, on the contrary, were considered clean because they washed once a week (on Saturday). In Scandinavian languages, the word Saturday still means “bath day,” although the descendants of the Vikings themselves do not think about it at all.
Big blondes
Vikings in films are also shown as massive, with long blond hair. Interestingly, analysis of historical records and excavation data showed that average height blondes were about 170 centimeters, which is quite a bit even by old standards. The situation with blond hair is more interesting - it was considered ideal by the Vikings, but not everyone had blond hair. To correct this misunderstanding, a special whitening soap was used. The Vikings were also hospitable people, and many foreigners joined the Viking tribes, so among them were Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French and even Russians. It is clear that they all had different weight and height characteristics and hair color.
Vikings drank from skulls
The source of this legend is the work of a certain Ole Vorm “Reuner seu Danica literatura antiquissima” of 1636, where he wrote that Danish warriors drink from “curved skulls”. Upon further translation into Latin, only the word “skulls” remained from the phrase. In addition, during excavations, not a single cup made from a skull has yet been found.
Crude weapons
Another feature of movie Vikings is the use of crude, inept weapons like clubs and axes, or the absence of them at all. In fact, the Vikings were good gunsmiths, and using compound forging technology (the same used in the manufacture of Damascus blades) they were able to make very strong and sharp weapons. According to Viking folklore, to test the sharpness of a sword, a sword would be dipped into a running stream and a hair would run through it. If the hair was cut, the sword was considered sharp enough.
Scandinavia is my homeland
The Vikings originated in Scandinavia, but eventually spread throughout the world, reaching North Africa, Russia and even North America. There are several theories explaining the reasons for the expansion, the most logical of which is related to the depletion of land resources and the increase in the population of Scandinavia, which made it necessary to look for new places to live. Another reason was the depletion of revenue from trade between Western Europe and Asia after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, after which the Vikings needed to look for new “fishing” places.
Hated by everyone
As a consequence of previous misconceptions, the opinion arose that the Vikings were unwanted guests everywhere, outcasts, and were supposedly hated by everyone. In reality, they were not only hated (like any other nation), but also respected. The French king Charles III, known as Charles the Simple, gave the Vikings land in what is now Normandy, and married his daughter to one of the Viking leaders, Rollo. These "domesticated" Vikings later repeatedly defended the territory of France from the encroachments of other Vikings. In Constantinople, the Vikings were respected for their strength and courage, so that a special Varangian guard consisting of Swedish Vikings was assigned to the Byzantine emperors.
Bloodthirsty and cruel
The Viking attacks were bloodthirsty and brutal, to say the least. At that time there were no other ways of waging war - everyone was bloodthirsty and cruel - the French, the British, and other peoples. For example, a contemporary of the Vikings, King Charles the Great practically exterminated the Avars (an ancient union of tribes living on the Volga and on the shores of the Caspian Sea), and at Verdun he ordered the beheading of almost 5 thousand inhabitants of Saxony. The Vikings cannot be called the most bloodthirsty; they had another “trick” - the complete destruction of everything associated with religions alien to them (monasteries, temples), including the ministers of these religions. This frightened others so much that the residents of the villages, barely seeing the masts of Viking ships on the horizon, fled without a fight.
Complete robbery
A very small part of the Vikings were warriors, the rest were engaged in agriculture, crafts and animal husbandry. For sea expeditions, robbery was one of the “bonuses” that no one refused, not just the Vikings. Most of the Vikings lived peacefully in the lands where Iceland and Greenland are now located and were considered sophisticated traders who dealt with representatives of different nationalities and countries of the world.
Horned Helmets
This is probably the biggest misconception. So far, no evidence has been found, archaeological or written, that the Vikings wore helmets with horns. All the helmets found do not have horns and their design does not provide for such excesses. Most likely, this misconception was supported by ancient Christians, who considered the Vikings to be accomplices of the devil, so they were supposed to wear horns on their helmets for intimidation. The Norse god Thor had wings on his helmet, which, with a certain amount of imagination, could be mistaken for horns.
And remember, I already told you who they are, but for example, do you know - The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -
