51 young Vikings beheaded found

[Hondo]

51 Vikings found, very interesting find, Its rare you see evidence
of Anglo Saxons winning, what with the Romans, Normans, and other
invaders of England, I just thought to add this in light of Mel Gibsons
new film on Viking. Oden!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/03/12/viking.olympics/index.html?iref=allsearch

Could be the work of King Arther and his Knights;-)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100315-headless-vikings-england-execution-pit/

 

[The Good]

As I have a huge interest in ancient and medieval history, that certainly is fascinating. It makes you think of just how much more there is to discover about our world's past. I'm sure that there are still going to be some more significant and monumental discoveries to be made in the future, even though new findings pertaining to the distant past may be harder to reach, after a certain point.

 

[Chas]

Probably a group of troublesome young Danes who were on the losing side of an encounter with King Alfred and his Fyrd. The Vikings were indeed badass, but the Saxons were no slouches in the "hack and kill" game, either.

Oh, no...another Mel Gibson-sponsored rape of history? I'll pass.

Between bad scriptwriting hiding behind subtitles and the ridiculous characterizations of his film villains (like the British in The Patriot) this man has to be banned from making films altogether.

 

[anon`]

Fantastic find! It's just a pity that it's "only" a war grave. I suspect that there will be little else present to help add context to the find, but still! Looks like someone got careless and left their byrnies on the boat...

Probably a group of troublesome young Danes who were on the losing side of an encounter with King Alfred and his Fyrd. The Vikings were indeed badass, but the Saxons were no slouches in the "hack and kill" game, either.

This. By the end of the Migration Age, the Anglo-Saxons had fairly dominant control over England and were more than capable of waging even heavier warfare than were the Vikings.

I got a kick out of this line, though: "What we found was all of these guys came from a climate that had to be colder than Britain ... probably Sweden and Norway."

Really, Swedes? $5 says that they were out of Hálogaland... don't think you'd find many in Sweden north of the arctic circle other than the Sámi, even fewer who'd bother with merry old England.

 

[dhermann1]

The story suggests they were stripped naked before they were killed. We tend to forget that remains like this were once living breathing human beings, much more like ourselves than we realize. These young men might have been part of an ill fated raiding party that encountered a much larger defensive force, or been the stragglers from a larger battle. Anyway, they died an ignominious and terrifying death. 51 actual individuals, not just skeletons.

 

[Hondo]

Very interesting news, I am no authority on Vikings or middle ages.
Seems to me, these young Vikings, in late teens, were not Veteran Viking force,
got caught by surprise large force of Anglo Saxons,
striped of clothes, and beheaded naked,
Not a good way for a Viking to die.
I recall the movie The Vikings with Kirk Douglas!
Ernest Borgnine as captive Viking, asks for his sword before
jumping in pit, fight to the death,
Die a Viking, go to Viking heaven, Valhalla.
Odin!!!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Teens to early 30s according to BBC. I suspect not that many people lived to old age in the general populace, especially not if involved in raiding parties. Hell, some parts of Glasgow you don't get much over 50 on average, even today (!).

An interesting find, this one. Dontcha miss the "News" forum???? I certainly do …

bk

 

[nobodyspecial]

When I saw the posts's title my first thought was it is just rewards for having 12 men in the huddle during the NFC championship game. :eusa_doh: Then I realized you meant the other vikings. Interesting story nonetheless.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

This is interesting, but way off topic! Around 1,000 years or more. I'll leave it so people can read it, but we are ever so mindful of mission drift.