Why do people idolise the Vikings so much? On a similiar note, who do you think are the most underrated or overlooked people in history?
>>37057
The original Newfoundlander
Aye b'ys
>>37057
>Why do people idolise the Vikings so much?
They're pretty much edgy european knights that aren't Christian so they are more relatable to the multiculti politically correct hordes.
>>37057
People in western civilization, whether they realise it or not, idolise them because they represent a much society where strength, courage and merit counted for a lot more. They were a small group of "savages" living in a frozen shithole who managed to build a trading Empire, challenged the mightiest civilizations in Europe at the time and accomplished unprecedented feats of navigation for their era. Also they're Metal as fuck
Most Underrated: Probably the pre-Colonial era South American civilizations.
>>37122
>Newfoundlander
>underrated
They were a bunch of irshmen who were giving independence but managed their economy so poorly that they had to give themselves back to the UK who in turn gave them to Canada.
Couldn't even manage their economy during peak cod
>>37123
>implying the people who most idolise the Vikings aren't edgy neo-pagans who hate multiculti ideas.
Ninjas are pretty overrated i guess
I think druids were underrated and forgotten. That may be due to lack of historic records or actual evidences of their work, but nobody can deny they were based a f
>>37057
The Normans.
You can argue they were technically Vikings but I find them a different people.
Seriously the Crusades, the conquest of Sicily the establishment of Normandy.
Most people who aren't in academia or like blob simulators don't seem to know more about the Normans.
Aztec are pretty underrated.
They had a huge, powerful, and rich empire and had the most populous city outside of china for hundreds of years in the middle ages.
A giant floating lake city was the most populous city in the world outside of china.
That's pretty cool.
Their soldiers would dress up in fur and feathers and pretend to be eagle warriors / jaguar warriors who channeled the mystical abilities of animal spirits like in some anime
that's pretty cool
They had an empire that was in a constant state of total war enslaving and sacrificing other cultures because they believed if they didn't keep feeding the sun god blood he would lose to the evil god and the world would immediately end.
that's pretty cool.
Like look at this eagle warrior.
This is an actual soldier the aztec put on the battlefield. There is so much potential for cool literature/film/vidya here but instead it's just "ayylmao 300 spaniards and smallpox get rekt"
>>37057
They had massive trade empires and were great colonizers with ships that were advanced for their time.
>>37401
Normans were literally Danish vikings when they arrived in Normandy in 911
When they invaded England in 1066, they were Frenchmen with Danish ancestry
I think the Khmer are pretty underrated.
Angkor was a ridiculously large city during the European Dark Ages. Of course, climate changes ended up boning them.
>>37215
I'd risk to say that pagans are split into a radical right-wing side and an edgy tumblr teenager side.
>>37057
Because of the late,19th century romanticism.
And the most overlooked people are the Slavs.
>>37513
If you can call secluded blocks in East Slavic cities and towns as settlements,then yeah.they were"great colonizers"
>>37513
Ok looking at this map lets not forget
the vikings. were defeated. by the beothuk.
BY THE FUCKING BEOTHUK
some great warriors those vikings yeah sure
>>37649
I see you're a fellow Slav, so what do you think about the Norman theory?
>>37774
I bet you're the kind of kid who uses the Vietnam war to show how you think the American military is the worst ever.
>>37774
They had a couple of shipfulls of people, including women, against entire tribes.
>>37791
It's predominately based on the Primary Chronicle,a collection of old,East Slavic stories,anecdotes,poems and fairy tales which were written in a time of civil war in which the side that was backed by the Danes and the Swedes emerged victorious.It's complete and utter bullshit,to say the least.
>>37188
>Incas
>underrated
you mean the other tribes right?
>>37057
Normans are better anyways.
>>37057
>Why do people idolise the Vikings so much?
Romantic era propaganda for nationalistic purposes coupled with godawful historians in the 19th century (and by godawful I mean 4chan tier, the whole 20th century was spent proving wrong the lies they perpetrated).
While Scandinavians of that age are shrouded in bullshit myths and exaggeration, you can't deny they were interesting culture.
>>37057
KHAZARS
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>>37057
I think there is something really appealing about noble deaths and warriors or cultures that readily face or welcome that end. There seems to be a natural fear of death especially a painful one, seeing someone or an entire culture embraces and desires it is odd and appealing. I think you get the same interest in Samurai and Spartans for similar reasons.
Sticking with warrior cultures, the Mongolians, the Maori, and the Zande all have really interesting history and weaponry but not a great deal of...note or fame.If you're looking at popular productions dealing with history these guys go almost entirely unmentioned except Genghis Khan and even those focus more on the individual than the culture he was raised in.
>>37550
>climate changes
¿Qué?
>>37214
>implying
They contributed beyond what they could afford to The Empire in The Great War, and afterwards, they didn't have the manpower to keep themselves afloat. It was like a smaller, more dire version of what happened to France after the war.
>>37057
It's not the Viking themselves, but the mindset and culture they had.
I don't know about 'most underrated in history,' but I'm kind of disappointed by the lack for books on Bronze-Age Hittites compared to like a gazillion books on Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, etc. Especially since they were such a big empire.
>>37452
>Aztecs
>Underrated
No. If we're looking at the Americas, the Inca are much more underrated.
>>37452
>eagle warriors / jaguar warrior
AOE II niggers WW@
>>37774
weren't vikings extinct by the 11th century or so?
>>37057
>Why do people idolise the Vikings so much?
Because they are my ancestors. Their blood still flows in my veins.
>>37057
People often admire warrior cultures, even though they're a bunch of shit stink savage assholes. You have to admit, they're pretty cool despite being awful.
See also:
>Germans
>Huns
>Mongols
>Spartans
>Zulu
>>37122
Good old eastern b'ys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbjEmEifZp4
>>40868
IMP AGE EAGLE SWARM!
GET THAT GARLAND WARS!
>>40955
>Comparing the Spartans to the Germans, Huns, Mongols, and the Zulu
>>37057
Because the general perception of vikings is so bland and basic. All most people think about them are that they're sailors and like to kill people, and because of that people today can add all sorts of bullshit on top of that based on their agenda to make it seem "cool". SJWs can say that female vikings were badass and more powerful than men, or respect them because they're not Christians and anything that's not Christian is good, so they can use that to push their own ideas and try to prove things even with no historical basis. On the other hand, you have edgy nazifags who can simply use the fact that vikings were Nordic to somehow prove that aryan people are the master race and badass for being able to do what the vikings did.
Really no one idolizes the vikings, they just idolize their own interpretations of them. Which is quite sad considering how interesting the actual vikings were.
Qing Dynasty is most underrated cultural empire lads.
>>37057
>>41340
Chinese history as a whole is underrated, what's a good starting point? I know piles about about tons of other cultures, next to zero about China prior to the century of humiliation, warlord era and modern stuff.
>>37057
because we know so little about their culture. A lot of the history and culture was destroyed by the catholic church when they converted to Christianity
we have litterally no idea what 9/10 runes mean and we have found piles of books too singed to put back together
>>37057
All a viking is is a name given to small groups of Scandinavian men who would go out raiding maybe once or twice in their lifetime while the rest of Scandinavia would life largely normal lives trading.
Modern pop culture has people thinking of vikings as some sort of race that subsisted on raiding the poor civilized Europeans and had legions of berserkers.
>>37057
Danish "viking" scum here. No one but foreign Yuro trash and burgers idolized the snow niggers that were the vikings.
They were a primitive people with a few decent achievements under the belt. Nothing more.
Most underrated:
>slav masterrace
>>37057
The Normans. Sure anybody who studies history knows a lot about them, but ask anybody on the street you'll get the response "Literally Who" despite them being THE Kings of England, bred into all European royalty, established a cultural Empire, largely responsible for the victory of the First Crusade, and Rollo is the primogenitor of all modern royal European families.
>>41840
People often uses Viking and Norse interchangeable
>>37057
Bactrians. If I didn't walk into an archeology class by mistake I wouldn't have even known about all the cool syncretic stuff that has been found.
Also the Novgorod Republic and all those kingdoms in India.
>>41840
They would go Viking, maybe more than once or twice, and some settled in other areas. They earned their reputation as warriors and raiders.
>>41990
How long was Bactria around? Still a very interesting place, a Hellenic kingdom in the middle of fucking Asia near India.
>Tfw the Britbongs try to forget the fact that they were absolutely BTFO by the glorious Dutch republic.
>>40875
you joking bruv?
>>38856
>>37774
To be completely fair the indian's tactics were a direct counter to the viking's I mean these are the founders of guerrilla warfare
they wore light leather clothing, they new the land, they knew psychological warfare
i mean what chance did the vikings have, really?
>>41886
Hversu Noregr byggðist claims Rollo was descended from the mythical Fornjotr, but these are post-viking age accounts of mythical people so you have to take the whole account with a grain of salt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hversu_Noregr_bygg%C3%B0ist
>>42046
As Greco-Bactria, not much. In general, for ever. They basically got ruled by everyone who passed by though, until Muslims got them good.
>>41716
Good starting point is the Qin dynasty. Ignore this typical Ming shitter.
>>42189
If only all mythology was real, and the Nortmen were truly led into glory by a demi-giant.
Wait.
>Rollo was famous for never using a horse for being too tall and massive.
Fuck it, Rollo was a legit decedent of a Frost Giant standing nearly seven feet tall and krumpin' people with a meteor sword. This is now canon.
>>37057
I idolize them because I'm 50% Scandinavian and Finnish in DNA and they are my people. They were cool, had honor, had a system of voting that birthed modern democracies, and built really cool ships for such "savage barbarians".
>>37057
They were also pagans worshipping their ancestral deities living a working society and conquering Christianity cu.cked Europe.
>>42830
Why are all americans like this
>>38499
Normans were vikings speaking French.
>>42954
I have great-grandparents that came over from Sweden in the 1890s because they converted to Mormonism from Lutheranism.
Which heritage do you want me to be proud of and interested in? Pretty soon, Scandinavian Americans will be the only true Scandinavians left. The tiny countries are becoming part of the caliphate.
>>41485
I think this sums it up very nicely, although someone earlier in the thread had a valid point in saying they performed these acts very successfully. They were able to accomplish a lot even though it was savage and brutal. I wouldn't admire or idolize them, but they really did move mountains for such a simple group of people.
>>42697
Are we suppoesd to be impressed by that?
>The historian and forensic anthropologist, Luis del Campo, who studied his mortal remains, affirms that he was 2.23 metres (7.3 feet) in height.
The historical inaccuracies in common depictions of ancient and dark age scandinavians ruffle me every time. If we are talking about vikings as in the people who sailed about raiding, they are overrated, and that in itself is making the more civil population at the time extremely underrated. It bothers me that accounts of the workings of their society are mostly filtered through christian or muslim values. The only sources I dare trust are from old greece or contemporary archeology. National romanticism sure fucked the ancient scandinavians too, especially the notion of Asatro as a homogenous religious dogma.
>>43113
We are keeping pure scandinavians alive in our little nord zoo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85land_Islands
They have zero immigrants, the immigration bureau doesnt even operate there.
>>43271
But bastard Moor spawn doesn't count. How else do you think Sancho got his giant genes?
>>37057
>kill a bunch of hapless peasants and monks from isolated hamlets
>be regarded as one of the most ferocious warriors ever by popular history
wew lad
>>43717
>literally made the Kindom of England a viable title
kek
The problem is they are idolized for the wrong things, and the rest is forgotten.
>>43717
You don't what you're talking about. Also, byzantines emperors hired them as bodyguards.
>>43686
From his Mighty and pure Navarrese blood.
>>43907
>byzantines emperors hired them as bodyguards.
Up until around 1066 yes, the Varangian gaurd was mostly Norsemen and Rus.
>>43907
They were raiders and competent seamen, nothing else.
>>42057
He was invited in son.
>>41881
Fuck you you piece of shit. You are the cancer killing our country.
>>37057
>the most underrated or overlooked people in history?
definitely the Cossacks
>>37544
They were Norwegians. See the connection?
I'd say the Mongols. Of course, everyone knows about Genghis Khan and the brutality of the Mongols. However, I doubt most people know that the Mongols reached destroyed Persia, reached the Holy Land, ruled India until the mid 1800's, and that the last ruler of true Mongol descent died in the 1920's (pic related, even though I originally thought it was some Uzbek dude).
>>37057
My Dad's side of the family, are all Norwegian immigrants that settled in the midwest. His mother's family is descended from the first king of norway, so its just a part of my family history.
>>44790
We didn't ask for your blog post, you must be such an obnoxious person in real life
Native Americans, we un the US tend to paint them as these helpless fringe tribes that were all just waiting to be bulldozed by the europeans, when in reality political forces like the Iroquois League were incredibly influential, and the trade relations that the natives and the yurops enjoyed were so important to the economy at that time.
>>41216
>Really no one idolizes the vikings, they just idolize their own interpretations of them. Which is quite sad considering how interesting the actual vikings were.
Meh, I admire the vikings for what they actually did. But I don't give them credit where they don't deserve it either.
>>41881
Move to Sweden :^)
You'd fit right in.
>>37123
yeah its basically the non-christian thing because by the time they turned up all the other barbarians had already converted.
>>37057
Carthage.
I dont know how Rome survived that assfucking but they did and now everyone thinks they were invincible. Hannibal was Alexander the Great-tier yet all anyone knows about him is that TV cannibal.
Vikings are popular for the same reason zombie apocalypse stories are popular.
Hear me out, when people talk about zombie apocalypses do they talk about killing zombies or what they would do often leaving zombies as a secondary factor? It's the idea of freedom that exists in forging your own destiny with your own hands. People want to regain that freedom that was exchanged for the comfort of modern living.
Vikings represent this, they're people who forge their own destiny, taking life by the reins and achieving what truly matters to them, while also being able to share the spoils of these achievements with their family, friends, and kin. Vikings are also portrayed as badass warriors who rely on strength, skill and courageousness in battle, things prized and rare in modern life.
Ghana-Mali-Songhai
A drama of empires and money for 1.1k years
>>37057
The IDEA of vikings are really fucking cool.
In practice not so much
>>37057
The aesthetic of that whole culture seems to really resonate with people in the west today. I think Tolkien's works had a huge influence on most of the fantasy fiction out there today. Sure he was inspired more by anglo-saxon and Germanic culture but most people can't tell the difference. A friend of mine who enjoys game of thrones said to me that, "the starks are basically Vikings". I don't watch the show but have a feeling this isn't completely accurate
>>40856
Incas got a disney movie at least
>>37057
>Why do people idolise the Vikings so much?
noble savage trope
>>44093
They were also amazing merchants.
>>38824
For a second I honestly read the city as Shekel
>>42060
>founders of guerrilla warfare
You mean the Iberians?
I dont know why other people love them so much, but I know my appeal when I first started getting into them was their religion which to my teen mind seemed like sometihng straight out of comic books. These days I like them because theyre a good example of what happens when tech overcomes might. Those ships of theirs were their single most identifying aspect.
also, great shock troops, and the culture of strength and honor was more believable than typical knights and the like
>>50610
this. its surprising how many people dont realize that. Everything about vikings these days seem to address how far they expanded their trade route.
>>50833
>implying
>>51020
So you're saying they founded guerilla warfare roughly 1000 years after Iberian tribes applied it to the Romans?
>>51324
>implying guerrilla tactics were unique to only one tribe
buddy pretty much every indian tride utilized some form of it
just saying
The Japanese and I think that because I've been playing a lot of Shogun 2 recently.
>>51417
The japanese are overlooked and unappreciated in history? Is that a joke?
>>37057
Moche. Crazy fuckers. No written language but amazing pottery.
>>37057
Viking worship started in the 19th century. Before then they were considered barbarians. It was mostly Scandinavian nationalists trying to make them acceptable.
The Vikings were a living link to an older and deeper European past. There were forces at work in them that civilization hadn't dimmed. And that's what's so exciting about them.
>>37057 (OP)
>Why do people idolise the Vikings so much?
probably the same reason pirates have a huge following, the idea of some outlaws that raid and take what they want is entertaining
>On a similiar note, who do you think are the most underrated or overlooked people in history?
some native american tribes were pretty awesome
yes they were all but wiped from the face of the earth but that's because the US Govt/Military had a huge firepower and numbers advantage + the US Govt's tactics of divide and conquer, if more tribes could have gotten over their squabbles and worked together they could have been a pretty tough enemy
>>51402
Just saying, you're retarded.
People love the vikings because they were the first to do it all. Conquering, raping, pillaging, the vikings settled in almost every continent BEFORE, every group since is copying their tactics from a historical standpoint.
>>51830
>first to do it all
>what is mongols
the only thing the vikings did first was ship based piracy, and even that could be argued. They did a lot of things well, but nothing first
>>40868
>that one guy who always played turks and spammed elite janissars and cannons
fuck outta here with that shit F@m
>the only thing they did first was this thing they did first
well, can't argue with the resident 4chan historian.
>>52058
I said they MAY have done it first. There are a lot of acts that could be considered ship based piracy way before the vikings. Ships and stealing existed for a very long time, anon. To think that the vikings were the first to do it is silly. Like i said, they did a lot of things well. but not first.
>>51915
they landed in NA first
>>51915
Mongols were after Vikings there chief
>>52322
whoops!
>>40837
Not much is known about them compared to the ones listed.
I want to know how they collapsed from Pirate attacks though
>>42060
They just outnumbered them, simple as that.
>>52360
Yep pretty big one, Mongols are a whole different deal. Now you know. Viking age is often considered over with the death of Harold hardradda(sic) in 1066.
Vikings are mostly thought to have lived in a warrior culture, and warrior cultures are idolized as being meritocratic, after a fashion. The strong rule, the weak live by their sufferance. It's brutal, but fair. This is of course a gross oversimplification of Vikings and Norse culture in general, but it's how most people see them. Savage, yet living "honestly".
As for marginalized people, I really feel bad for the Ainu. Their story of eradication and marginalization isn't uncommon among native peoples of the world, but the way the Japanese have tried to even erase their existence as an independent culture is heartbreaking.
>>49032
Your friend is retarded. The Greyjoys are Vikings.
>>37057
They're idolized because people think they're cool. There's a mythical appeal to savage northmen and their depiction in media in shows like Game of Thrones and so on stereotypes them as honourable hot-blooded noble warriors who are harsh but fair, care about the old ways and whatnot.
The actual Norsemen were of course not like that, of course, but I've found that there's often not a middle ground for them: people either idolize them or completely hate them.
Personally, I think they did rather well, considering the circumstances.
>>52630
The Ainu are one group I'd really like to learn more about.
>>41886
Guess what...descended from VIKINGS!
>>41886
Descendant of William the Conqueror, reporting in. Normans don't get NEARLY enough attention in the history books, but they are the seeds from which civilized Europe sprouted.
