Experts Studying Viking Genes Say We’ve Been Portraying Them Wrong This Whole Time

Vikings did exist, of course, and back in the day their terrifying raids were all too real. What a new study has shown, though, that the genetic make-up of these marauders is quite different from what we’d been led to believe. That could potentially alter the image we have of what these fierce men looked like.

Take it from Professor Eske Willerslev, who was the leader of that study. He’s the director of the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre in Copenhagen, so he knows his stuff. And Willerslev has explained just how important his findings are. In a press release from the University of Bristol, he was quoted as saying, “The results change the perception of who a Viking actually was. The history books will need to be updated.” Pretty strong words!

So, how did we get to this point? Well, a team of scientists from Denmark and England have been working on Viking DNA analysis. Specifically, they looked at genetic material extracted from the remains of 442 people found in Viking cemeteries. These burial sites are located across Europe, from the Scottish Orkney Islands to the eastern European country of Estonia.

And the results of the analysis have thrown up some groundbreaking conclusions about the Vikings. Yep, it seems that we’ll really have to think again about these fierce warriors, as much of what we know about them has turned out to be false. Pretty crazy, right? But there are some tidbits about the Vikings that are still true.

We know, for instance, that the word “Viking” derives from the ancient Scandinavian vikingr – which, appropriately enough, is translated into English as “pirate.” And, yes, they were marauders. In fact, the Vikings’ first major raid on Western Europe was a particularly violent assault. This took place on an island just off the coast of what is now England.

Long ago, the Vikings invaded Lindisfarne – also known as Holy Island. And the raid was particularly shocking because Lindisfarne was the site of one of the oldest Christian monasteries in England. A monk called Aidan founded this holiest of places in 635 A.D.

That didn’t seem to matter to the Vikings, as in 793 A.D. they disturbed the peace of the island with their brutal assault. Just how brutal was it? Well, we have a vivid account from the scholar Alcuin of York, and he didn’t pull any punches when it came to recounting the savagery on show.

Alcuin wrote, “Pagans have desecrated God’s sanctuary, shed the blood of saints around the altar, laid waste the house of our hope and trampled the bodies of saints like dung in the streets.” That had to be terrifying to witness. And even centuries later, the raid was remembered. A chronicle from the 12th century, Historia Regum – or History of the Kings – includes an entry about the attack.

According to this account, the Vikings “laid everything waste with grievous plundering, trampled the holy places with polluted steps, dug up the altars and seized all the treasures of the holy church.” And while there had been minor Viking assaults before, the raid on Lindisfarne had been on a larger and more shocking scale. It set the scene for the common perception of Vikings as barbarous buccaneers.

So, that stereotype about the Vikings is true – up to a point, anyway. It’s also correct that they came from Scandinavia – the northern European countries we know today as Sweden, Norway and Denmark. And the Viking people lived both inland and by the coast. They were farmers and fishers when not terrorizing half of Europe.

Vikings were actually pretty innovative, too. They mastered the art of propelling their boats with sails rather than oars alone and improved the hulls of their ships by using overlapping boards. The end result was fast-moving vessels that, crucially, could land on beaches.

Eventually, the Vikings had speedy boats ideally suited to both sea crossings and coastal raiding. But what made them go on these violent sprees across the water? Well, sadly, there are few written records, meaning historians can only speculate about the Vikings’ reign of terror.

One theory is that lack of resources drove the Vikings into pillaging. Fertile land was limited, and as the population increased, fields became increasingly cut up into sections until there weren’t enough agricultural acres to go around. Or perhaps traders came home after their journeys, telling of wealthy countries overseas. Remember the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side”? Maybe the Vikings thought that, too.

Those easy pickings may have proved too much to resist. Then there’s the idea that warring chieftains may have driven some Vikings to seek peaceful pastures elsewhere. In any case, after that raid on Lindisfarne, the Vikings hit Ireland, Scotland and France during the 790s.

That Viking wave of terror only became more established in the 850s, when raiders began to spend the winters in France. They also camped in Ireland and in the southern part of England. And while using their coastal settlements as bases, they pushed their influence inland. Eventually, the Vikings built fortified harbors in places such as Dublin in Ireland.

But these fearsome warriors didn’t stop there. Vikings went on to found settlements on the Scottish islands – the Orkneys, Shetland and the Hebrides off the west coast of the country. And from 865, two brothers – Halfdan and the intriguingly named Ivar the Boneless – occupied what had been Anglo Saxon kingdoms in England. It would be another 200 years or so before things calmed down.

The raids finally petered out in the 11th century, but not before the Vikings put one of their own on the English throne. That man? King Canute. You may remember him as the guy who managed to stop the tide from coming in. Well, sort of. That’s almost certainly a tall tale, but what is true is that the Vikings had now become an integral part of life in Europe.

Yes, the Vikings’ influence extended across the west of the continent. Canute was actually at the head of an empire encompassing present-day Denmark and Norway as well as England. Other Viking fiefdoms included an area of the French region of Normandy, big swathes of Scotland, much of the Ukraine and sections of modern Russia.

But while the Vikings themselves are now long gone, the mythology surrounding them remains. You’ve probably seen depictions of these fighters in movies and TV shows and read about them in novels. They’ve even infiltrated opera. Yep, Richard Wagner, we’re looking at you. The German composer’s operatic classic Der Ring des Nibelungen glorifies the Vikings and their warlike culture.

In fact, it was an 1876 performance of Wagner’s opera that introduced the world to the idea of horns on Viking helmets. Did they really wear such formidable headgear? Probably not. Another obviously fictional but highly influential figure is the Marvel Comics superhero Thor. And those Viking movies have shaped our popular understanding of the warriors, too.

There’s the predictably titled The Vikings, which was released all the way back in 1928. You may be more familiar, though, with the 1958 film of the same name starring Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, and Janet Leigh. And bringing us right up to date is the 2019 release Valhalla. Valhalla, as you may know, is the mythical paradise reserved for Vikings killed in battle.

Talking of myths, we still have a few about Vikings today. That makes sense, as we’ve had relatively little information about these people to fill in the gaps. But thanks to the study from Professor Willerslev’s team, we now know more. Yes, that analysis of centuries-old DNA from Viking skeletons has provided some shocking insights.

For starters, these Scandinavians were much more genetically diverse than researchers had previously believed. In a University of Copenhagen press release, Willerslev was quoted as saying, “With this new study, we’re able to establish that the Viking Age was indeed something special. The Vikings traveled much farther, had lots of southern European genes, and were very likely part of a much more extensive cultural exchange with the rest of the world than any contemporary peasant society.” Wow.

So, the Vikings were far from insular folk who only left Scandinavia to pillage and plunder their fellow Europeans. They were, in fact, a notably varied people, as Willerslev pointed out. He said, “The Vikings had a lot more genes from Southern and Eastern Europe than we anticipated.”

Willerslev added that the six-year study showed Vikings “frequently had children with people from other parts of the world.” That meant “they also tended to be dark-haired rather than blond, which is otherwise considered an established Viking trait.” Bang goes another commonly held belief!

How do we know all this? Well, as previously mentioned, a team of scientists analyzed 442 sets of bones from burial grounds across Europe. These remains – both bones and teeth – mainly came from the Viking era, so between 750 A.D. and 1050 A.D. Then the experts compared this genetic information with existing DNA data from 1,118 people who lived long ago and 3,855 folks around more recently.

There were even incredible discoveries made at the archaeological sites themselves. The researchers found, for example, that some Vikings may have liked to keep their pillaging in the family. The bones of 41 different Vikings from Sweden were found interred in two boats in what is now Estonia. And after a little analysis, it was determined that four of these warriors had actually been brothers. Maybe the clan that raids together stays together?

Another fascinating find came from the Scottish Orkney Islands. You see, one burial site there had all the trappings of a Viking interment – including concealed swords. But genetic analysis showed that the two men in the grave were not Vikings at all. Instead, they were more closely related to the modern populations of Ireland and Scotland. It looks, then, that people took up the Viking lifestyle even though they weren’t Scandinavian.

Even better, the study produced some fascinating revelations about the Vikings’ movements across Europe. It seems that the raiders who troubled the English were from modern-day Denmark. The Vikings that plied their murderous trade around the Baltic Sea? Well, they came from Sweden. And those that sailed their longboats to Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland actually hailed from Norway.

But these separate populations of Vikings appear to have been quite isolated from one another. How do we know this? It’s all down to their DNA. Different groups had distinctive variations in their collective genetic material, suggesting that there was little intermingling going on. By contrast, Vikings living by the sea had an altogether higher level of diversity. The researchers believe that this would have been because of the raiding and trading they were famous for.

Another scientist involved in the research, Ashot Margaryan, commented on why Vikings from Sweden, Norway and Denmark seemed to keep away from one another. He’s quoted as saying in the University of Copenhagen press release, “The Vikings from these three ‘nations’ only very rarely mixed genetically. Perhaps they were enemies, or perhaps there is some other valid explanation. We just don’t know.” That’s something else the experts have to work on.

But what the researchers did find came as a surprise. In a University of Cambridge statement, Willerslev explained, “No one could have predicted [that] these significant gene flows into Scandinavia from Southern Europe and Asia happened before and during the Viking Age.” That swapping of genes explains why many of the Vikings would not have been blond but dark-haired.

Willerslev added, “We have this image of well-connected Vikings mixing with each other, trading and going on raiding parties to fight kings across Europe because this is what we see on television and read in books. But, genetically, we have shown for the first time that it wasn’t that kind of world. This study changes the perception of who a Viking actually was.” As we’ve seen, the Vikings even produced a king of England in Canute.

But Canute was far from the only Viking to play an important role in history. There’s also Leif Eriksson, who is thought to have traveled to North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus. Another Viking, Olaf Tryggvason, is said to have introduced Christianity to Norway. It’s clear that these people were an influential lot who indulged in much more than piracy and looting.

And in a Bristol University press release, Danish archaeologist Professor Søren Sindbæk confirmed the significance of Viking culture. He said, “Scandinavian diasporas established trade and settlement stretching from the American continent to the Asian steppe.” That’s much further than we assumed, anyway.

Sindbæk continued, “[The Vikings] exported ideas, technologies, language, beliefs and practices and developed new socio-political structures. [And], importantly, our results show that ‘Viking’ identity was not limited to people with Scandinavian genetic ancestry.” The warriors’ grave on the Orkneys confirms Sindbæk’s last point.

The University of Bristol’s Dr. Daniel Lawson has explained, too, how the Vikings intermingled with other Europeans. Quoted in the press release, he said, “The Vikings have an image of being fierce raiders, and they certainly were. What was more surprising is how well they assimilated other peoples. Scottish and Irish people have integrated into Viking society well enough for individuals with no Scandinavian ancestry to receive a full Viking burial – in Norway and Britain.”

Another academic involved in the research, Professor Fernando Racimo, has similarly expanded on the importance of the study’s findings. He said, “The Viking genomes allow us to disentangle how selection unfolded before, during and after the Viking movements across Europe, affecting genes associated with important traits like immunity, pigmentation, and metabolism. We can also begin to infer the physical appearance of ancient Vikings and compare them to Scandinavians today.”

And while the Vikings may no longer take to their longboats to raid unfortunate European villages and towns, their genetic heritage lives on. Around 6 percent of British people may have Viking DNA in their genes. In modern Sweden? That estimate rises to 10 percent. So, it’s fair to say that the Vikings – blond or not – still live among us today. Maybe you even have a little warrior in you yourself...