So I have this idea for a film that deals with a viking and I have no knowledge of the subject matter whatsoever. I was hoping someone could give me references to books or articles or even movies/tv shows depicting honest viking history and viking mythology. I'm not sure if this is a thing and my apologies for coming off so ignorant but were there any viking poets? Thank you.

Did they have a tradition of singing music that was specific to seafaring work?

This is something I've wondered about for a long time. Dinosaur fossils have (obviously) existed for the entire history of humanity, and while some are deeply buried, many (especially the first ones discovered) are near or on the surface, and quite easy to find. This, combined with the fact that humans have been digging or mining for thousands of years -- albeit at a much smaller scale than the last century or two -- suggests that these fossils must have been discovered pretty frequently by ancient people.

Since the concept of evolution, and our current understanding of the age of the earth, are recent developments, what would a person discovering a dinosaur fossil 1,000 or 2,000 years ago have thought of them? They would obviously have to find some way to fit this bizarre creature into their understanding of the world, and it would be reasonable to conclude that it represented an animal that might be still alive, even if nobody has ever seen it.

And if somebody 2,000 years ago imagined that a mysterious, giant, possibly reptilian animal was lurking somewhere out in the wilderness, it stands to reason that that imagined creature would end up looking a bit like the dragons of folklore.

Is there any evidence to suggest that this is a possible origin of dragon myths, or is it just wild speculation on my part?

I am not sure if I am in the right sub for this. But I need to find sources about the way that prostitution seems to have become vilified by society as opposed to some ancient societies.

I know some of this information because Wiki told me but I cannot use Wikipedia as a source.

Thank you and sorry if this is the wrong sub.

It seems odd to me that the very difficult Chinese writing was so popular for so long and outside the peripheral cultural regions a phonetic alphabet never evolved.

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I have a certain fascination with historic battlefields and what remains on and in the Earth to tell the story. Combined with continuous discoveries on former battlefields from both wars and the amount of time it's taken to make some of these discoveries. I would imagine the remains of battles were far more prolific in the time after WWI? They would still be sometimes unreclaimed and uncleared of the evidence through lack of access or non-discovery?

I've searched quite a bit online for accounts of soldiers discovering WWI or other historical war bunkers, artifacts, weapons, and remains as they pushed through dense forests and across landscapes and mountains that last saw heavy use in WWI but haven't found anything in the purview of my question. All of my hits come up citing specific cases of discoveries after each respective war but not wartime discoveries of previous wars.

It's a curiosity that borders on archaeological. Also an appreciation for abandoned or decaying Militaria in the form of fortifications and battlements. I ask historians though because I'm looking for accounts contemporary to WWII which would make them historical versus archaeological(?).

How clear a picture did they have of what their empire looked like?

Are there any controversial cases of it?

So yesterday there was this interesting question on /r/Askreddit where this guy asked...

If you could photograph one event in history, what would it be?

This is one guy's answer

Guy : Napoleon Bonaparte taking a shit behind a rock in the Battle of Waterloo.

Me : Lol, did he really do that?

Guy: I believe he had stomach problems that would cause him to need to shit during a battle.

Or a form of it?

How did people explain timezones before the term was coined?

In a Chicago Tribune article from 1-5-1913 (I'll link to in comments) a news analyst reports that the "Color Line" in 'cosmopolitan London' was being crossed by African Americans. It was a supposed social problem , this racial tolerance in England, and was defended by what the anonymous reporter called 'the Man To Brother argument'. I have no idea what the writer is referring to.

I'm currently writing/directing an independent film based in vietnam. I was wondering if they ever used snare traps during the war or any traps similar. I've researched many of the booby traps although there isn't many sources on the web that discuss only the traps used. I just want to find out if it would be historically accurate or if it would give historians an annurism if in the film.

I would assume they did, since they helped shelter part of the Dutch royal family, and the UK was far more important to Canada than the Netherlands, but I can find nothing outlining whether plans were in place for George VI and his family if Germany had overrun the UK, or what the plans would have been.

Title is explanatory.

I'm sure many Greeks did not convert to Christianity and I'm sure many converted to Islam but as far as I know Greek identity was firmly Christian. I understand that a nation confined to a territory may well convert en mass (particularly if they have are under a unified political system) but why did the Greeks of Turkey, Egypt and elsewhere uniformly convert to Christianity and then resist conversion to Islam without political coordination? I assume the answer is that many did convert to Islam and ceased to be a part of the Greek diaspora, but if that is the case then why did those that did convert uniformly fail to maintain a Greek culture as Muslims?