Norse Culture

>>3251295
I don't think they were much different than pagan germanics rome had to handle.

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>>3251295
Of course they had merchants, do you think they sustained themselves by raiding? Trading would have been preferred by most people instead of raiding, why kill trading partners when you can just return the next year and have a steady source of income? They traded with everyone from the Natives of Canada to the Buddhists of the Silk Road.

From reading the few sagas I have, the general impression I'm left with is that generosity and hospitality were pretty big deals.

Norse culture encouraged the art of poetry, and it's because of all of these poems that were remembered across the centuries that we know a lot about Norse mythology (at least in comparison to other European pagan religions).

Hygiene was also something they were really autistic about and it reminds me of what this English scribe wrote: It is reported in the chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford that the Danes, thanks to their habit of combing their hair every day, of bathing every Saturday and regularly changing their clothes, were able to undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses.

le dirty barbarians xddd ammirite?

>>3251416
no evidence of commerce exists

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>>3251416
>Of course, they had merchants,
Wrong. They took what they want whenever they wanted.

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>>3251459
>That armour on that boat
ggwp thx 4 playin

Literally just pagan Anglo-Saxons

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>>3251449
What?

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>>3251476
What would you wear instead?

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>>3251295
Norse doesn't make you a Viking, Viking is an occupation.

Viking means voyager.

Some were genuine roamers, making contacts with Eastern Rome, Kiev, Eastern states of the British isles and more.

They often stocked up on their native goods such as fur, tusks and such. Not that the trading countries had none, but one might argue Norse goods were much more "exotic"

Considering they lived in their shit stinker pigsty of a home, with no windows, ventilation living with animals, it is no wonder why some might turn to a "dishonourable" path of banditry. Although it doesn't excuse them from rape, pillage and needless killing.

>>3251416
Trading with the natives? Why would they do that? Voyage costs money, tremendous amounts infact. Perhaps they made contact with the natives, but no sane person would travel a thousands of miles to the west when they can settle in Russia, France or any other European country.

I also really doubt that they traded with "Buddhists". You don't need to actually go to the Silk Road to get exotic goods, just travel enough to reach a country that has excess to the road.

Not to mention that Buddhism wasn't even popular in the Orients.

>>3251506
There are instances where they did trade with the Natives, such as in the Saga of Erik the Red. Of course this wouldn't mean people from mainland Norway would travel there, but the Greenlanders would have. I also recall reading somewhere that the Greenlanders, after the Vinland colonies had failed, at times travelled back to harvest timber.
There's also been found a buddhist statue in a grave in Sweden, which must have come from somewhere. Saying Silk Road sounded way more possible than saying the Norsemen actually travelled all the way to Kashimir to buy it and Swedes back then did manage to travel pretty far east

>>3251497
Probably just straight chainmail or boiled leather. Wearing solid metal is a bad idea, even gi's and tommies took off their helmets in favour of berets till the last moment on D-day because if they went over they would sink like a rock.

>>3251579
You can swim in something like plate armor, only its significantly harder and you'll tire out quick.

As far as I can tell people opted to wear armor in High and Late medieval and Early Modern naval battles rather than getting shot to pieces by arrows.

>>3251295
Barbarian

>>3251459
dude that's Game of Thrones fan art

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>>3253447
Aren't this viking ruins?

>>3251506
Vikings did not conquer Western Finland. It happened in 1150 according to legend, and according to historians it happened somewhere in the 13th century