Subject: hersir sea raider
Culture: Scandinavian / Norse
Setting: Viking Age, northern Europe 8th-10thc
Event Photos
* Russo 2024 p47
"Warriors were a special class of karls. These were often men who were unattached, not married, and without children. This meant that they had nothing to tie them down and could fight freely. They typically had little to no wealth or weren't going to inherit significant wealth from their families. Inheritance customs within the viking [sic] culture had much to do with the age of the sons of the family; the older sons would inherit more. The younger sons would inherit significantly less than their older brothers, so those who were unhappy with the wealth they stood to inherit would become warriors in order to go forth and claim their own wealth. Some would leave to become warriors if they weren't happy with their position or lot in life, regardless of what their inheritance might be."
* Ellacott 1965 p64-65
"Among the Vikings there was an extraordinary degree of personal vanity. The young warrior was proud of his sword, his helmet and mail shirt, his scarlet cloak, and his long facial hair. No man was a man until he had ventured out to blood his sword on a piratical voyage. In fact, a young, fit man who stayed home was derided even by the girls, who were tall and strong like the Spartan girls of the classical age. It was not unknown for a girl to arm at all points, like a man, and take a man's place on a raiding longship."
* Invaders in Britain 2006 p44
"Though Saxons and Vikings had to work hard to feed themselves, fighting was seldom far from their thoughts. The two peoples had much in common. Each came from northern European origins. Their pagan gods were much the same (Viking Odin was Saxon Woden, for example). They were superstitious, fearful of evil spirits lurking in bog and fen. They loved songs and sagas in which heroes battled against hideous monsters; what better way to spend an evening in the lord's hall than to hear a poet recount the brave deeds of dead heroes? Such an evening might well end riotously, after hearty drinking with rowdy jests, impromptu trials of strength, wrestling and singing bawdy songs."
Primary Sources
*
"
Secondary Sources
*
"
Field Notes
