Re: New Viking Research

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

At 23:27 14/06/00 -0400, you wrote:
> Lena; I was not aware that you were on the
> Museum side of your career. No
> wonder you know so much. Indeed history looks different from
> different
> positions in the globe. Now perhaps you might enlighten others as to
> the
> popular image of the Vikings being distorted by again popular images.
> What I
> really would like to know is the cultural purpoose as taught in Sweden
> for
> the Viking explorations. Was the purpose to simply find new lands,
> the
> thrill of the seach, to claim new lands or what?
> Thanks
> Neil Wallgren Sinclair
> PS were is Lund University and is it reputable?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lena A Löfström" <lal@algonet.se>
> To: <sinclair@matrix.net>
> Sent: 11 June, 2000 3:36 PM
> Subject: Re: New Viking Research
>
>
> > I feel really proud and I'm happy that the rest of the world now
> seams
> > to realize the importance and influence of the Vikings. To me as a
> Swede
> > this is nothing new, the only new about it is the fact that it is
> now
> > spread to a wider public as not only the scientific journals write
> about
> > it but also more common magazines and news papers do.
> >
> > But then I live with it every day as head of our local museum where
> we
> > have not only our very own original viking stone but also our very
> own
> > viking (or rather the remains of a woman age aprox. 1 000
> years).
> >
> > Lena


VIKINGS

The Vikings were the most intrepid sailors the World has ever
known.  They
sailed their long ships (and their knarrs) from the Rivers of Russia in
the East
to the Eastern Seaboard of America (both North and South) in the
West.

True, they plundered but they were also looking for new lands to settle
as can
be seen from their occupancy of Orkney, Shetland, the Faeroes, Iceland,
Greenland, Vinland, Helluland, Markland, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the
Eastern
side of England and, of course, the Province of Neustria in France
which
became known as Northman'sland or Normandy and that, in part, is
where
the story of the Sinclairs begins.  It is also where the 'rude
crude' Vikings became
the aristocratic Normans who stretched their tentacles and their culture
into 
every corner of Europe.

Prince Henry with Queen Margretta wished to build up a Norse Northern
Commonwealth
of nations which would have included Scotland, Scandinavia, Henry's 200
islands in
the North Atlantic, Iceland, Greenland and the New World.  If they
had succeeded it
would have changed the face of history.  They were defeated in their
purpose by the
unholy alliance of (a) the Germans who wish to dominate the North
Atlantic, (b) the English 
who wished to establish new trade routes and (c) the Church which wished
to ensure that their
right to collect taxes (ostensibly to save people's souls) was
universally applied. 

We owe more to the Norse than we do to the Saxon although, at times, we
disguise
our Norse descent under the glossier Norman label.  The package
doesn't change the
content.  We still have that Viking wanderlust which
the Sinclair diaspora around the Globe
clearly demonstrates.

Are your feet itchy?

Niven Sinclair

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