I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah, everybody knew that.”
Well, we did and we didn’t. There’s this assumption that the typical Viking was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian. And according to this article, entitled, “VIKINGS MAY NOT BE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE, DNA STUDY FINDS”, my ancestry is a little more far flung than I anticipated.
DNA tests were done on 442 humans buried in Viking fashion across Europe and Greenland, and it seems that there is a lot more Southern European and Asian DNA in the bloodline than was previously thought. In fact, you didn’t have to even have any Scandinavian blood to be considered a Viking. Some of the people buried in grand Viking style turned out to be pure Pictish, from Ireland and Scotland. So you could be welcomed into the fold regardless of your ancestry. It was more about belief and lifestyle.
I love learning this. I’ve always preferred the mutts of the world. They’re healthier and hardier and a lot more open-minded.
Incidentally, if you have Amazon Prime, I highly recommend the series Vikings. It was done by the History Channel, and many of the characters are actual Viking historical figures. The show can be violent, as one might expect, but it teaches you a lot about the Viking world. It constantly makes me Google more. For instance, I didn’t realize that the Vikings kept slaves. That makes me sad. But I’m learning a great deal about my people that I didn’t previously know.
But you know, my brown-haired, blue-eyed, Danish-descended self could have told those Scientists that not all Vikings were blondes. All they had to do was ask. Skol!
Check this out, y’all. I wrote a book! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5
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