Leif
12-20-2005, 11:11 AM
"The viking peoples who lived between the neck of Jutland and the Lofotens, Sogn, and Uppsala, were not all alike, and emphatically not of one 'pure' Nordic race. But two main types of Scandinavian have always been recognizable: the one tall of stature, fair or ruddy complexioned, light-haired, blue-eyed, long of face and skull; the other shorter, dark-complexioned, brown- or dark-haired, brown-eyed, broad faced and round of skull. The earliest evidence comes in uncertain and arguable form from the megalith graves, during Roman times Danish skeletons show a preponderance of long-skulled types; the earliest documentary evidence, apart from comment by classical authors on the tall stature of the Swedes, Danes, Gauts, and Burgundians, is Icelandic. The poem Rigsthula, probably of the first half of the tenth century, and showing signs of Celtic influence, describes in folktale fashion the origin of three main classes of Viking society, the serfs, free peasants, and warrior-chieftans, and in so doing offers telling if exaggerated pictures of the types. Rig's son by Edda (Great-Grandmother) was black-haired and ugly, the skin of his hands wrinkled and rouch, with lumpy knuckles and thick fingers, his back gnarled, his heels long- the image of that enduring toiler on the land who through most of history has carried the world on his back. Rig's son by Amma (Grandmother) was ruddy-faced, with sparkling eyes. But it is his son by Mothir (Mother) who fulfils the Nordic dream. Of Mothir we read:
Her brows were bright, her breast was shining,
Whiter her neck than new-fallen snow.
And of her son:
Blond was his hair, and bright his cheeks,
Grim as a snake's were his glowing eyes.
Fortunately, these picturesque notions never became the systemized and malignant myth that race has become in our own day. At the time when Rigsthula was being written there is no evidence of prejudice or dissension between the two types. Harald Fairhair was the first king of all Norway; his father was Halfdan the Black (svarti), and two of his sons were likewise called Halfdan, one nicknamed the White (hviti), the other, reminiscently, the Black. According to Egil's Saga, of the two famous sons of Kveldulf, Thorolf was tall and handsome like his mother's people, but Grim took after his father and was black and ugly. Grim's sons, Thorolf and Egill, born out in Iceland, repeated the pattern: Thorolf was the image of his uncle, tall and handsome, and sunny-natured; Egill was black, even uglier than his father, torturous and incalculable. He became the greatest poet of his age, and many a hard-hewn line of verse testifies to his pride in his craggy head, broad nose, heavy jaw and swart visage. In the next generation Egill's eldest son would be styled Thorstein the White. These colour nicknames were purely descriptive, like the Short, the Tall, the Fat, the Slender, the Bald, or the Hairy-breeked, and contain nothing of obloquy. Much has been written about the differences of temperament between these blond and dark types. The dolichocephalic, we are instructed, is an innovator and adventurer, not easily discouraged and steady under pressure. His view of life, rational and hopeful, sees things much as they are. He can command others and drive himself. He can also relax. The brachycephalic is conservative, distrustful not only of change but of himself, quick to enthusiasm, prompt to despair, emotional in politics, personal relationships, and religion. And on him, like moonlight on water, or phorphorescence on a rotten log (the image goes with one's own cephalic index), will be found the gleam of poetry and music. The classification is too glib, but if we allow generously for exceptions not unhelpful. The percentage of tall, long-skulled, blue-eyed people is today highest in Sweden and lowest in Denmark, which probably reflects their degree of intercourse with other European peoples over a long period of time. Certainly a community which combines the practical with the visionary, intellectual curiosity with emotional fervour, the power to innovate with the will to endure, and which can embrace the future without forsaking the past, need not complain of its inheritance."
Gwyn Jones, A History Of The Vikings, pg. 67-68
Her brows were bright, her breast was shining,
Whiter her neck than new-fallen snow.
And of her son:
Blond was his hair, and bright his cheeks,
Grim as a snake's were his glowing eyes.
Fortunately, these picturesque notions never became the systemized and malignant myth that race has become in our own day. At the time when Rigsthula was being written there is no evidence of prejudice or dissension between the two types. Harald Fairhair was the first king of all Norway; his father was Halfdan the Black (svarti), and two of his sons were likewise called Halfdan, one nicknamed the White (hviti), the other, reminiscently, the Black. According to Egil's Saga, of the two famous sons of Kveldulf, Thorolf was tall and handsome like his mother's people, but Grim took after his father and was black and ugly. Grim's sons, Thorolf and Egill, born out in Iceland, repeated the pattern: Thorolf was the image of his uncle, tall and handsome, and sunny-natured; Egill was black, even uglier than his father, torturous and incalculable. He became the greatest poet of his age, and many a hard-hewn line of verse testifies to his pride in his craggy head, broad nose, heavy jaw and swart visage. In the next generation Egill's eldest son would be styled Thorstein the White. These colour nicknames were purely descriptive, like the Short, the Tall, the Fat, the Slender, the Bald, or the Hairy-breeked, and contain nothing of obloquy. Much has been written about the differences of temperament between these blond and dark types. The dolichocephalic, we are instructed, is an innovator and adventurer, not easily discouraged and steady under pressure. His view of life, rational and hopeful, sees things much as they are. He can command others and drive himself. He can also relax. The brachycephalic is conservative, distrustful not only of change but of himself, quick to enthusiasm, prompt to despair, emotional in politics, personal relationships, and religion. And on him, like moonlight on water, or phorphorescence on a rotten log (the image goes with one's own cephalic index), will be found the gleam of poetry and music. The classification is too glib, but if we allow generously for exceptions not unhelpful. The percentage of tall, long-skulled, blue-eyed people is today highest in Sweden and lowest in Denmark, which probably reflects their degree of intercourse with other European peoples over a long period of time. Certainly a community which combines the practical with the visionary, intellectual curiosity with emotional fervour, the power to innovate with the will to endure, and which can embrace the future without forsaking the past, need not complain of its inheritance."
Gwyn Jones, A History Of The Vikings, pg. 67-68