Partying, sky diving, racing, boxing, fighting, Kick boxing
Music:
Any rock,metal goth and glam,thrash, black metal.
Movies:
Horror, Violence,
Television:
Boxing, Wrestling, Xena, Hercules,
Books:
In European history the Viking period is normally dated around 700-1050, when the Nordic peoples explored or raided large part of the Europe and even reached the Middle East and the North America. In Finland this period is also called the Viking Age, because our Scandinavian neighbours left so many marks on Finnish late Iron Age culture.European history is filled with tales about the Scandinavian Vikings. It is often thought that the Finns were Vikings too, but this is not quite true. The Finns did not actually participate the Viking expeditions, although it is possible that some people from Ã…land Islands or Southern Finland may have joined the Swedish Vikings, when they travelled to Russia.The Vikings are often portrayed as blood thirsty pagans. Even today it..s quite typical to present the Vikings as dirty, violent warriors with barbaric manners, and this stereotypical picture is well known all over the world. Movies, comics and other products of the western popular culture have strengthened this image for a long time. Where are these violent images coming from? How did the Vikings really live?In addition to modern entertainment industry, old chronicles and texts have probably played an important role in the creation of the Viking myth. They were often written by Christian churchmen, who didn..t like the Vikings very much, because they robbed and destroyed European churches and monasteries on their journeys. It is true that some Vikings were very violent, but many Christian warriors were cruel too. Pagan people were often converted to Christianity by force.Everyday life
Many modern researchers are interested in ordinary daily life of the Viking age people. The Vikings themselves did not leave written material for the after world, only some short inscriptions on the run stones. Archaeological remains are the best source for them, who are interesting in Vikings.. every day life. Excavations in old viking villages, towns or trading places have revealed some information about their ordinary life.During the Viking period the majority of the Scandinavian population were peasants. Farming and cattle breeding were supplemented by hunting, fishing and trading. The Vikings were very skilled in shipbuilding technology and they were able to sail further and faster than their contemporaries. However, only a part of the Vikings left their homes and sailed to distant countries. These travellers were not only warriors but also settlers, skilled tradesmen and craftsmen. The Viking traders often bought spices, silk, jewellery, silver, potter and glass. They also bought and sold slaves.Customs and clothing
At home the Vikings were not particularly dirty at all. They kept themselves quite clean and archaeologists have found remains of bath houses, wash basins and combs. The Vikings had closely family ties and several generations often lived under the same roof. Slavery was common and in wealthy homes servants or slaves did much of the work. Special events like weddings or religious festivals were celebrated with a feast, and sport competitions like wrestling, running and horseback riding were all well known entertainments.The Viking women were often left in charge, when their husbands were far away on their journeys. The women also participated the journeys if the Vikings were planning to settle down in some foreign country. Viking women were very skilled in making clothes and almost every women were somehow engaged in textile production. They liked to wear jewellery, such as necklaces, rings and brooches. The Viking men also wore jewellery, but they did not wear hornet helmets in battles, it is a quite modern myth.The end of the Viking period
At the beginning of the Viking period majority of the Scandinavians were pagans, and in Northern Europe the Viking age was a period of religious changes. The Vikings had many old gods such as Thor, Odin or Freija. Thor was a god of warriors, Odin was the ruler of the gods and Freija was the goddess of beauty, fertility and love.On their journeys many Vikings settled in other European countries. As the years went by, they often accepted Christian god alongside their own ones or converted to Christianity. European missionaries also travelled to Scandinavia, and at the end of the Viking age, the ruling classes of these areas had accepted this new religion. Little by little Christianity became more generally accepted, although the ordinary people remembered their old gods and beliefs for a along time after that.
