I've been trying to write stuff lately, and I keep finding the setting keeps inching towards how Vikings are depicted in the fiction and vague memories of history classes at school.
Mainly, the main character of the story I'm writing is basically a warrior lady type: not a badass, more of a 'well this needs to be done so I better do it but I'm basically terrified throughout' sort.
So, while trying to get into her head, it just occured to me...
would she even be literate?
How far did the Vikings get to in influence? On checking Wikipedia, there's some evidence that some of their people got as far as the Middle East?
Why did they not seem to do much in Wales? (As I live in Wales, this is kind of a personal curiosity. We've got a few Roman camps scattered about, but it seems we didn't get much of the whole 'rarr we are viking invader sorts' thing the rest of Britain got. I'm guessing we have a bit of the Afganistan guierilla defence fortification thing going on with our mountains making us hard to conquer?)
How did their worship of their gods work? This is something I've never been sure on with ancient peoples and old religions: From what I've understood, it usually ends up being the same basic ideas as modern religions: you pray, you do good, you get favoured by the gods. But... I'm assuming there isn't a temple/mosque type dealie for the whole pantheon in one go? Or would each have been worshipped individually, and it's via the specific tales they're tied together... So basically it's like superhero comics and they have team-up episodes? Or like some of the Greek team-up story episodes like the Illiad and all that?
How did they compare, technologically, to other societies of that time? While I see online that their shipbuilding was unparalleled for their time, does that mean that they were the best or that in the conflicts they faced, they were generally winners till the end? Just thinking as since I'm writing a fantasy story, I could easily have them face, say, Chinese ships, or whatever. So trying to get a sense of what would be comparable.
What do they do for fun? I guess around that time there was a whole bunch more storytelling and music than one would expect, but any more details?
Alternatively, any online/book resources you can link me to/suggest I find, would be great.
always been curious about them, since it's a chunk of history, and relatively local history at that that was skipped in compulsory education. Well, beyond Harald Hadrada's invasion from the North during the 1066 Normandy dealie, weakening the forces of Godwinson's lot. But that was in the tail end of it all, I believe?
Okay, lots of questions to unpack, so let's go!
would she even be literate?
Define 'literate.' If she's wealthy, Christian, and reasonably pious, chances are she might have picked up some Latin, or (depending on where she was) some Old Norse. Runes weren't used for day-to-day writing (you wouldn't, for example, write a letter to someone in runes) but if she's marginally competent in all the required Saga Hero Skills, she would be able to carve and read magical runes (see, for example, Egils constant magicking of stuff in Egils saga)
How far did the Vikings get to in influence?
Medieval Scandinavians show up basically all over the European continent; we have reports of unsuccessful viking raids in northern Spain, the Varangians of the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantium were recruited exclusively from Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, and then there are the Rus' themselves, who are basically Swedes that decided to get themselves Ruthenzied (I am grossly oversimplifying the creation of Kievan Rus', but you get the point)
Why did they not seem to do much in Wales?
As much as I love Wales (and the Welsh - I have two exes from there, and they are lovely people) there just wasn't much reason to go there and raid in the 8th-11th centuries. The Irish and English were wealthier, they had better, more easily settled lands, and they were more politically relevant. There are accounts of Scandinavians in Wales, though - Kári's vengeance-based murder-spree in Njáls saga takes him there, and there is a manuscript containing a list of buried Norwegians at the University of Bangor, so they were there, but usually just as a stopoff on the way to somewhere, well, important.
How did their worship of their gods work?
Honestly? Your guess is as good as any. We know there was significance placed in a hörgr or höf, as well as a significance to the blót, but just what those entailed, we don't know. All of our sources (barring stuff like the Merseberg charms, which are just incantations) are post-conversion and are very much Christianized.
How did they compare, technologically, to other societies of that time?
Depends on where they were; in Iceland? A bit behind the rest of Europe. On the Continent? Just as advanced as anyone else - if they couldn't make it in Scandinavia, they'd trade for it or steal it, just like everyone else at the time.
What do they do for fun? I guess around that time there was a whole bunch more storytelling and music than one would expect, but any more details?
We have records of lots of games and sports they played, actually! Horse-fighting, knáttleikr (literally 'ball-game'), wrestling, Feats of Strength, a form of quasi-chess called táfl (as well as actual chess in the 12th century), and possibly tables/backgammon (based on the same find as the Lewis chessmen) were common. Remigiusz Gogosz is actually doing a lot of his work on games in Medieval Scandinavia, so you might want to check out his work - last I heard, he was at Uniwersytet Rzeszowski in Poland, but has also done stuff with the Arnastofnun in Iceland and Aarhus in Denmark.