I thought would be a good idea to write a article based on strange Viking traditions and rituals and some strange facts haven’t spoken about several famous Vikings on my own channel so without further ado let’s start with the first point on the list home gang home gang was practiced by medieval Scandinavians and was essentially a duel that was a legitimate way to settle a dispute in theory anyone who had taken offense by another could issue the challenge regardless of their difference in social status so a mere farmer could have essentially waltzed up to a chief and demanded a fight the reasons for the challenge didn’t even need to be warranted they could be about anything from disputes about ownership of properties matters of Honor unpaid debts avenging a friend or even a single insult about one’s appearance whole gangs were fought in three to seven days of the challenge being issued but if the person being challenged did not show up the other man was considered the victor and also Justin haven’t made the challenge in the first place if the person making the challenge backed out however they were deemed as honorable and could have been outlawed sometimes a champion could be instated by each party if they were unable or unwilling to fight the exact rules varied from region to region and would change over time but usually before each battle begun the rules were agreed upon by the fighters where they decided what sorts they could use or whether they could use a shield or not or how many knives they could carry and so on and so forth what the women could claims also agreed upon as well as what constituted as defeat more than they’re not though whole gangs would end with one of the parties dying in the Cormac saga a saga written by Atlantic poet Cormac Goodman Dawson he states that home gang was fought on the ox-hide or cloak that was free metres long it would be staked into the ground serving us suffering like a wrestling mat where borders were drawn around the square heíd fighters would be required to stay within these borders where failure to do so would result in forfeit however the home gang ritual would end up being abused by professional fighters who would use the rules to form a sort of legalized robbery they would make claims to land women or riches and then simply murder the accused in the fight and be awarded with their prize many sagas even speak of berserkers who would enter the home gang under false pretenses and then kill their opponent with relative ease and in relish in his newfound house or land or even family due to these exploits Iceland banned home gangs in the year 1006 blood eagle some may know it as the blood owl but given how graphic cruel and sickening this slow torturous death was.
I think we can all agree that the name isn’t really that important according to 12 and 13th century authors the blood eagle had been around in Scandinavia for the longest of times and would be used against the most diabolical men there isn’t an exact day of when it was first used nor is there any official usage of the torture method but has since been kept alive in pop culture historians do indeed debate as to whether this practice actually occurred or not but maybe it’s best to decide for yourselves the more conventional interpretation of the blood eagle was the gruesome carving into the enemy’s back where his entire back would be pried open by detaching his ribs from his backbone from there his lungs would be poured out through the opening his lungs would then be spread over the mangled mess of his stretched out ribs given the impression of wings hence the term blood eagle this practice could also have been completed from the front of the enemy by know what you’re thinking new today in someone’s back in and spreading his ribs out like wings was bad enough but no the Vikings would even add salt the wounded flesh only to make the victim suffer just that little bit more bad sex meant divorce it was no secret that Viking men were not obliged to stay faithful to their wives many were known to have affairs and some even concubines the top of a Viking man was to spread his seed and to populate the community we were strong heirs but what did this leave the wives of these serial cheaters well Viking women may have had to put up with their husbands affairs but I didn’t have to put up with bad sex if a man did not satisfy his wife sexually she could actually have the determined in which to divorce him this was because if a couple were not having sex they could not produce children and so evidently they were better suited to other partners.
Facts and Rituals Of Viking – Fully Explained
An unhappy marriage could also breed bitterness and resentment that could spill over into family feud’s causing rifts between clans therefore it was better to allow women to leave a marriage if she wasn’t satisfied then it was to allow her frustrations to grow to the point that she could get her family involved and cause a feud it was quite easy for women to acquire divorce anyway all they needed was a couple of witnesses to hear her reasons which would need to be declared in her bedroom in the front of the house and once again before public assembly then she was free no paperwork no fees nothing this is understandable because if a woman was expected to stay tied to this Viking man who was out boning all these other women while she sat back took care of the kids ran his home and tended to his land but the least she could expect was a decent sex life homosexuality was okay kind of most views on homosexuality wasn’t exactly a simple thing to comprehend generally nor society accepted gay relationships on the condition that they did not interfere with the future or current marriages to women as long as a man was pleasing his wife and giving her children then he could have all gay sex that he wanted however if the writing in question was the passive partner in the homosexual relationship as in if he was more docile in comparison to his mate then he would be considered a lesser male in the community furthermore if this Viking was the one being penetrated during sex then he would suffer shame from his peers as it stood to persuade another man and gain pleasure was pretty much okay as the Vikings were said to do this to both men and women during raids to humiliate and degrade them but to be penetrated this was a big no-no and would actually be one of the worst insults a man could be hit with according to most society such facility could not be tolerated in men even though there are some tales of the gods like Loki and Odin take a submissive roles during sex society would Brandi sorts of men weak and were deemed of no use there aren’t any mentions of lesbians in the tales however though naturally we can assume there were lesbian relationships taking place though whoever secretly or openly is yet to be established prevent in the drug year.
According to Norse mythology giorgia undead creatures animated corpses that unlike ghosts were able to physically manipulate the world in the same way they could do when they were living supposedly the idea of a drought gear is similar to that of a ghost whereby the original spirit of the body has unfinished business in the mortal world and therefore transcends into this reanimated form to continue what they were doing jockeys were said to possess superhuman strength and could increase their size they were generally hideous to comprehend all black and gray and come in a horrid stench while they maintain some semblance of intelligence they seemed only intent on wreaking havoc on the living and all tormenting those who had wronged them in their life they have also been noted to rise from their graves as a whisper saw smoke and could traverse through solid mass in folklore the druggies slay their victims through a range of methods including crushing them devouring their flesh or simply driving their mad to the point of suicide miking is believed that this creature could be prevented from ever being spawned however ideally a pair of open scissors would be placed on the chest of the deceased and straws or twigs were to be hidden in their clothes their big toes were tied together or needles were driven in through the soles of their feet so as to prevent the dead from ever walking it was also a common practice to lift and lower the coffin in three different directions so as to disoriented the drug year the most effective means of preventing the return of the dead however would be the corpse tour a special door would be built for which the course was carried through feet first the door was then bricked up to prevent it from escaping the idea stems from an old Danish belief that the dead can only leave through the way they had entered by blocking up the door however it ensures that the dead cannot return berserker rage the berserkers in the viking era was said to be uncontrollable bloodthirsty warriors whose only emotions were rage and a lust for blood they were said to have fought in battle of a trance-like fury tearing enemy’s limb from limb and never yielding even when struck in what would normally have been a fatal blow legends have you that in order to reach this level of invulnerability and sheer madness berserkers would need to undergo something of a symbolic death which would lead to a symbolic resurrection in order to unlock these sacred powers bearing in mind berserkers were just normal men once upon a time but in order to reach that higher power they would enter the wilderness and lived life as their totem animal would some choosing a bear or wolf or something formidable and fierce whilst under.
This strange training they would aim to strip themselves of their own humanity to the point that they were indeed more animal than human once the training was complete they would enter the battlefield and go absolutely nuts hacking down enemies with the same ferocity as a wild animal as they had stripped themselves of human emotion this meant that they had no fear no reserve and barely any moral standing at all which meant they would stop at nothing until the enemy was entirely rank wished some accounts however that these berserkers would even enter the battlefield with no armor no shields and sometimes just their bare fists swinging left and right however there is another theory presented by a 1784 priest named Goodman who believed that the state of going berserk was the result of men in the wilderness eating at Garak mushrooms white agaricus since been suggested to cause berserk fury and sometimes hallucinations such hallucinations may have given the berserkers the illusion of invincibility or divine strength so in essence their powers on the battlefield may simply have been a false sense of confidence mushrooms can also lead the user to fill a pathetic which could explain how berserkers were able to inflict so much pain on others without feeling remorse or grossed out by their own bloody hands mushrooms however have never been mentioned in the sagas so there could always be some truth to the writing ritual of becoming an animal another explanation for going berserk can be explained in a psychiatric sort of fashion the theory has it that groups of warriors would enter a ritual process that would induce them into a hypnotic state it was in this state that they lost conscious control of their actions and were then directed by perhaps their chief or someone in charge to go and fight in its dissociative State the berserkers were operating on a subconscious level so much so that they would have a reduced awareness to pain however given that we still do not understand such hypnosis and haven’t been able to replicate something of the sort even with all the modern science that we have it’s hard to believe that this theory has much merit orgies and sacrifices legends have it that after one of the Chiefs would die one of his slave girls would volunteer to follow him into Valhalla but of course it wouldn’t be as simple as just killing herself no in order for her to do it properly she would need to take part in a disturbing ritual where she would be locked up and intoxicated with booze or magic mushrooms or whatever happened to be about supposedly this was done to stop her from backing out when faced with her task and what a task it would be the slave girl would take point sexual intercourse with just about every man and achieve service whereupon the final man would strangle her the other blokes who had had their fill would join in and stab her body up until she was finally dead with her chief she was placed on the wooden ship which would be cremated at sea and fussed guaranteeing her a place at her chief sight in the afterlife of course at a time this was considered to be a great honor distressing as it sounds and that brings us to the end of our little journey through writing legends and myths if you’re interested in learning more about Vikings and some of the meanest toughest and baddest writings to ever walk this earth.
