ultralaser

black and asian vikings 100% definitely existed (also, saami vikings)

you know how far you can get into eurasia and africa by sailing up rivers from the baltic and mediterranean seas? pretty fucking far, and that’s what vikings liked to do to trade

then, you know, people are people, so love happens, business happens, and so ppl get married and take spouses back home to the frozen hellscape that is scandinavia (upon which i’m guessing the horrorstruck new spouses went “WHAT THE FUCK??? FUCKING GIVE ME YOUR JACKET???????”)

and sometimes vikings bought thralls and brought them home as well, and i mean, when your indentured service is up after however many years and you’re a free person again, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe it’s a bit hard to get all the way home across the continent, so you make the best out of the situation and you probably get married and raise a gaggle kids

so yeah

viking kingdoms/communities were not uniformly pure white aryan fantasy paradises, so pls stop using my cultural history and ethnic background to excuse your racist discomfort with black ppl playing heimdall and valkyrie

Also we KNOW they got to Asia and Africa. 

Why?

Because Asians, Africans, and Vikings TOLD US SO. 

Also, we know there was significant mercantile trade between Scandinavia and parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India, Kashmir, North and Eastern Africa because there is evidence in burial sites.

Check that out: the goods Vikings and Scandinavians were getting from their trade with the rest of the world was so important they buried themselves with it, as part of their treasure hordes.

We KNOW this.

There’s a reason you can still see many of the trade routes from the ancient world etched into the very earth.

Plus, we know that some Scandinavian cultures that participated in Viking raids had established minority communities of ethnically Mongolian folks living among them during the periods when such raids were common, and it’s difficult to credit that none of them would have signed on.

Islamic Ring in Viking Grave

Vikings in Persia

Black Vikings

Vikings in North Africa

Buddha statue in Viking hoard

Vikings brought Native American woman to Europe

Unflattering texts in Arabic about Vikings

Original text by Ahmad ibn-Fadlan

More about the Islamic World and Vikings (some Vikings converted to Islam! sort of sketchy site tho)

Viking technology came from Afghanistan

More on trade route determination via metallurgy

… is that enough? :)

Yet another on the pile of reasons why it monumentally honks me off when pusillanimous, pseudointellectual white supremacist scum try to use Scandinavian culture as a crutch for their arguments and act like Norse mythology agrees with their biases. No it fucking doesn’t, bitch. Odin would personally kick you in the dick for being a witless coward and then send your ass to the Realm of the Dishonored Dead.

I don’t usually reblog stuff, but this thread makes me so happy. See, I love the Viking aesthetic – I love the fusion of organic and geometric in its designs, I love the natural colors, the complexity of textures you get from juxtaposing metal/leather/cloth/fur–

–and I hate how the entire subculture has been so thoroughly co-opted by white supremacists. To the point where I, a person who likes viking stuff, am deeply and immediately suspect of anyone else who likes viking stuff, guilty until proven innocent, cuz that’s what the odds are these days.

Anyway.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone can be a viking, and thus I am so, so pleased to find that the historical record backs me up.

(And amused that Arab intellectual Ahmad ibn Fadlan was so thirsty for vikings.)

@whisky-gerblin

The poll of nearly 2,000 registered voters found that 70 percent of them would prefer the Trump administration focus more on “negotiating trade agreements to open new markets to sell American-made products and goods.” Only 14 percent, in contrast, answered that they would prefer the administration focus on “imposing tariffs or taxes on foreign products to slow down their sales in the United States.”

“Seizes all followers by the shirts”

In pre-industrial societies, particularly those where agriculture and animal husbandry was practiced as the main occupation of the majority of the population with the excess being traded away only after the people had enough for their own needs, a barter system was involved 100% of the time and accepted as a part of life. 

Therefore, in your RPG settings and novels or short stories or whatever, while coinage would definitely be accepted happily, people would also be more than happy to barter you twenty bushels of wheat for three fat pigs or a few cuts of beef off of their slaughtered yearling bullock for a new axehead. 

Dickering and bargaining would absolutely be involved here. 

black and asian vikings 100% definitely existed (also, saami vikings)

you know how far you can get into eurasia and africa by sailing up rivers from the baltic and mediterranean seas? pretty fucking far, and that’s what vikings liked to do to trade

then, you know, people are people, so love happens, business happens, and so ppl get married and take spouses back home to the frozen hellscape that is scandinavia (upon which i’m guessing the horrorstruck new spouses went “WHAT THE FUCK??? FUCKING GIVE ME YOUR JACKET???????”)

and sometimes vikings bought thralls and brought them home as well, and i mean, when your indentured service is up after however many years and you’re a free person again, maaaaaaaaaaaaybe it’s a bit hard to get all the way home across the continent, so you make the best out of the situation and you probably get married and raise a gaggle kids

so yeah

viking kingdoms/communities were not uniformly pure white aryan fantasy paradises, so pls stop using my cultural history and ethnic background to excuse your racist discomfort with black ppl playing heimdall and valkyrie

Also we KNOW they got to Asia and Africa. 

Why?

Because Asians, Africans, and Vikings TOLD US SO. 

Also, we know there was significant mercantile trade between Scandinavia and parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India, Kashmir, North and Eastern Africa because there is evidence in burial sites.

Check that out: the goods Vikings and Scandinavians were getting from their trade with the rest of the world was so important they buried themselves with it, as part of their treasure hordes.

We KNOW this.

There’s a reason you can still see many of the trade routes from the ancient world etched into the very earth.

Plus, we know that some Scandinavian cultures that participated in Viking raids had established minority communities of ethnically Mongolian folks living among them during the periods when such raids were common, and it’s difficult to credit that none of them would have signed on.

Islamic Ring in Viking Grave

Vikings in Persia

Black Vikings

Vikings in North Africa

Buddha statue in Viking hoard

Vikings brought Native American woman to Europe

Unflattering texts in Arabic about Vikings

Original text by Ahmad ibn-Fadlan

More about the Islamic World and Vikings (some Vikings converted to Islam! sort of sketchy site tho)

Viking technology came from Afghanistan

More on trade route determination via metallurgy

… is that enough? :)

Yet another on the pile of reasons why it monumentally honks me off when pusillanimous, pseudointellectual white supremacist scum try to use Scandinavian culture as a crutch for their arguments and act like Norse mythology agrees with their biases. No it fucking doesn’t, bitch. Odin would personally kick you in the dick for being a witless coward and then send your ass to the Realm of the Dishonored Dead.

that last comment, lol

According to the Spiegel, Donald Trump and his associates didn’t know that EU countries solely conclude trade agreements together

If only someone had told him

ANYONE

I love that the one aspect of the presidency trump should technically be good at, business and trade, is still too complex for him to understand

This is what happens when you get all of your information about how the EU works from Nigel Farage.

According to the Spiegel, Donald Trump and his associates didn’t know that EU countries solely conclude trade agreements together

If only someone had told him

ANYONE

I love that the one aspect of the presidency trump should technically be good at, business and trade, is still too complex for him to understand

This is what happens when you get all of your information about how the EU works from Nigel Farage.

But of cooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuurse

SO WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK THE EUROPEAN UNION WAS FOR YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT?

I am amaze.

brexiters had no clue, no idea, no fucking plan, the whole thing was an extended racist tantrum and now they’re squinting in the harsh light of consequences and trying to weasel out of them like they do when someone criticises them on twitter

This reminds me of the last Quebec Sovereignty vote, where one of the leave side’s major promises was “tax-free zones” which would be funded by tariff-free trade with Canada. Also, I forget whether they were planning on just pegging their currency to the dollar or actually using it. Which Canada looked at and laughed, because seriously why would you expect huge trade concessions from the people you just fucked?

Still from Monty Python and the Holy Grail UK (1975) [Source]

Coconut cup England (c. 1470 - 1500 with later additions) Silver-gilt, coconut, chrysoprase [Source]

Kathleen Kennedy writes for the Mary Sue:

More thought-provoking and challenging displays from the Swedish Historical Museum. Submitted by xanthy-m.

Not only did this nigga end up in the wrong place he did it im a tiny swagless ship. I’m done.

This kind of makes it sound like Zheng He only had one ship, or maybe some tawdry three-boat dealio like Columbus. Nah, admiral Zheng He commanded an imperial armada of more than 300 ships and 28,000 crew men on his seven ambassadorial expeditions to destinations from Indonesia and Sri Lanka to Somalia and Tanzania.

The largest were massive treasure ships (pictured in the model above) with nine masts and four decks, over 400 feet long, accommodating 500 people and many tons of cargo. Zheng He’s fleet included over 60 treasure ships, in addition to numerous other vessels with varying purposes such as storing fresh water, food stores, livestock, and military supplies. 

Also, Zheng He wasn’t exactly an explorer, at least not in the Western sense of people like Columbus or Livingstone, sailing off into the unknown and “discovering" places where people were already living. Zheng He’s fleet followed well-known trades routes which had been used by Chinese, Arab, African, and Indian traders for centuries. 

If you haven’t seen the spectacular documentary “Zheng He: Emperor of the Seas", which includes dramatic recreations by the acclaimed director Chen Kaige, I highly recommend it. Here’s a preview.

What if China had been at the forefront of exploration instead of Europe?

How different would our world be, then?

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