I don´t about you, but in my case my high school did not teach me much about them... and if you are from my generation, then "Olafo, el Viking" left an enduring visual legacy, including the idea that Viking wives, such as Helga, always got their way. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hägar_the_Horrible (in English, Olafo was "Hagar the Horrible"...)
Stereotypes aside, the Vikings are a fascinating people. And where else could I learn more about them than in Scandinavia?
Yesterday, we took my mother to the Oslo´s Viking Ship Museum. http://www.khm.uio.no/besok-oss/vikingskipshuset/
The ship you see in the photo is nearly 1,200 years old.
Built around the year 820, it was used as burial ship for a powerful woman and her maid in 834. The dead would be put in the ship with burial gifts for use in the life hereafter...
The museum has other ships from the years 890 and 900 as well as precious artefacts, small and large, which give you a vivid image of their their way of life. I saw their jewerlry, shoes, buckets, knives, hair combs, their wagons, and some kitchen utensils.
In the photo you see the pot in which they boiled water.
They were active between the 9th and the 11th century as Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands.
Almost of all the popular sterotypes of Vikings - as barbarians - are misplaced, including the way they looked. I learned they did not even wear the horned helmets... As I said, I will take time - sooner or later - to learn the real story!
