According to researchers, much of what we think we know about the Vikings and Norse mythology is based on late Christian texts and modern interpretations – from medieval Iceland to Wagner, the Nazis and 21st-century pop culture – far more than on contemporary sources.
For centuries, stories, historical research and popular culture have shaped our image of the Vikings and the “pagan North”: horned warriors, fearless seafarers, a community free from religion and almost equal to women. But according to Scandinavian researchers from the University of Münster, much of what we think we know about the Vikings is based more on myth and later interpretations than on contemporary sources.
According to Dr. Roland Schill, a Scandinavian researcher from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster, most of our knowledge of Norse paganism and the Viking Age – which is now generally dated from the 8th to the 11th centuries – is not directly supported by the evidence of contemporary inscriptions. “Apart from short runic inscriptions, no original texts have survived from the pagan societies themselves,” he explains. “Most of what we have was written by Christian scholars in the late Middle Ages, more than a century after the period, and therefore reflects mainly their perspective.” In other words, it is “perpetuated history” – a processed memory of the past – rather than a direct account of what actually happened.
Despite this, in today's popular culture the picture seems to be very sharp: films and series, computer games and museums portray the Vikings as adventurous heroes, tough warriors and skilled sailors. Pre-Christian Scandinavian society is sometimes presented as a society with a unique warrior culture, relatively good treatment of women compared to the Christian Middle Ages, and a large area of religious freedom. This image today serves as the basis for various modern identities, for example among neo-pagan groups that see themselves as the continuation of "Scandinavian paganism" and sometimes explicitly position it as a contrast to monotheistic religions.
Schill emphasizes that this positive image tends to obscure less favorable aspects: “In many representations, the violence, destruction, and slavery involved in Viking raids are hardly mentioned, whereas when we talk about the Crusades, for example, the emphasis is on violence and religious intolerance.” Ideas about “Viking heritage” are also used in cultural and political projects; one prominent case is the Council of Europe’s “Viking Cultural Route,” which presents the Viking past as a unifying element of European identity.
Schill and his colleague Dr. Simon Hauke are investigating how the image of the "pagan North" has been constructed throughout history, from the Middle Ages to the present day. According to them, perceptions of Scandinavian paganism have undergone layers upon layers of reworking, with different goals and identities. Among the key milestones: Snorri Sturluson's "Edda" from the 13th century, which retells the stories of the gods and heroes from the perspective of an Icelandic Christian scholar; the research of Jacob Grimm, who relied on Scandinavian texts to formulate a comprehensive picture of northern mythology; and the references to the "Edda" in Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's speeches to the Reichstag, as part of the construction of a German national identity with "northern" roots.
The image of the "pagan north" has also been exploited for extreme political purposes. The most egregious example is the use made of it by the people's (Völkisch) movements and the Nazis, who took medieval texts out of context and loaded them with racist ideology. Even today, there are connections between the use of Nordic symbols and the far right, but researchers emphasize that the field is much broader: neo-paganism, art, literature, music, and general popular culture.
One of the most iconic symbols is the Valkyrie. For most people today, the Valkyrie is a powerful helmeted warrior—an image many recognize from Richard Wagner’s opera “The Ring of the Nibelung,” and from its adoption on metal album covers, playing cards, and pop culture. Hauke notes that the original figure in Norse sources is much more complex: Valkyries select fallen warriors and lead them to the afterlife, but they also appear as lovers of human heroes and as drink-maids in the hall of the dead. They do indeed intervene in battles, but it is unclear whether they were originally conceived as actual warriors. “We have a multifaceted figure, only one part of which—the armored Amazon—has enjoyed a long life in modern culture,” he says.
Schill and Hauke's research project is called "Paganizations: Perpetuated Paganism as a Component of Scandinavian and European Identities." Within this framework, the conference "Imagining Nordic Paganism: Cultural Memories and Scholarly Thought Since the Middle Ages" was held, which deals with the modes of absorption of Nordic paganism and the role it plays in the construction of identity, gender, and space - from the earliest sources in the Middle Ages to today's research and literature. The conference is attended by researchers from Scandinavia, religious studies, and related fields, including Johanna Kathrin Fredriksdottir (Oslo), runic scholar Alesia Bauer (Paris), Scandinavian scholar Jonas Wallendorf (Berkeley), and Islamic scholar Philipp Buchholt from the same Cluster of Excellence.
“When we examine how each period reimagined the ‘pagan North’ and what it chose to tell others about it,” concludes Schill, “we discover less about the Vikings themselves and more about us. The study allows us to peek behind the scenes of our knowledge – or what we think we know – and see how much the familiar image of the Vikings relies on interpretation, ideology and popular culture, not just history.”
For a report on the website of the Institute for Religions and Politics at the University of Münster
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