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Punkinsmom notes that something seems weird about this report of a fantastic archaeological find — the funeral pyre of a Viking farmer, buried with a fancy set of weapons, some horse teeth, and a bell:
Okay. Stop. Viking farmer? Doesn’t this go against everything we’ve ever learned about raping, pillaging Vikings?
And if he was a farmer why isn’t he buried with a plow and reaper? Nope this guy was determined to take his sword, spear and shield to Valhalla. Yeah, a real agricultural-type, I’m sure.
One of Punkinsmom’s readers notes that Vikings get a bad rap and did in fact spend a lot of time farming — “Because the land in Norway was so rocky and difficult to till, why do you think they attacked other countries and took small bits of land at a time?” He’s right, actually. The BBC did a wonderfully extensive job of cataloguing what these Northern farm folk might have eaten (that humble meal pictured above is a Viking lunch). But we’d also like to defer to the expert on this one. Adrienne?
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Jared Diamond (of GUNS,GERMS AND STEEL fame) devotes three chapters to Viking farmers in his new book COLLAPSE – HOW SOCIETIES CHOOSE TO FAIL OR SUCCEED. Not all the Viking societies were failures….although when they were, it was quite spectacular.
The book is excellent, by the way.
posted by Worrals on 11-1-2006 at 6:14 pm
Yes, the Vikings did farm, although the growing season would have been short. While some of the men were at sea, the women would raise the ctops and tend to the animals. There were fish and small game to round out the meal.
posted by Adrienne on 11-2-2006 at 3:59 pm