Ground-Breaking DNA Sequencing Study Shows Vikings Weren’t Who We Believed Them to Be

We have all grown up watching several interpretations of Vikings in various forms of media, but there is one common thread that binds them – their ferocity. People saw them as bloodthirsty warriors whose main occupation was to pillage and plunder. 

In History books, Vikings have always painted a terrifying picture. They were burly men from the Scandinavian Islands whose favorite pastime was to raid for survival. Their battle instincts rivaled none, and they were some of the most feared warriors on planet earth at one point. 

The academic world has always defined Vikings as people of Scandinavian descent who had plundered and raided their way through Europe between the eighth and the 11th century. Interestingly, the term “Viking” comes from the Old Norse word “Vikingr,” which means pirate. 

It was long believed that during the Middle Ages, the fearsome Norsemen were Scandinavian traders and seafaring pirates who had settled in North Western Europe for over three centuries. These ferocious sea raiders often undertook large-scale voyages, indulging in conquests, trading, and colonizing their way through Europe until they reached North America. 

The knowledge we have gained about Vikings comes from centuries-old giant runestones on which they themselves had carved out the innumerable stories of their lives. It’s written using the runic alphabet, the most commonly used writing system by the people from Northern Europe, Scandinavia, and Britain once upon a time. 

Let’s not mince words here; the new genetic study has been flipping the illusion of Vikings on its head, and we are less than prepared to accept the new spins on the mighty Norsemen. It’s a groundbreaking research study that has halted most previous theories about the Vikings.

The in-depth six-year research project was successfully led by Professor Eske Willerslev, the director of the University of Copenhagen’s Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre. Its results, published in the Nature journal, effectively debunk our modern take on the age-old Vikings and their traditions. 

From all the things the 2020 genetic study has laid bare about the Vikings, it is about time we update our History books. After all, most of the depictions of the tribe on television, in films, and in storybooks as brutal predators come from those historical records. 

International scientists from Denmark and England traveled from the Scottish Orkney Islands to Estonia, extracting 442 Viking skeletons from various cemeteries. They had to cover all the regions that had the Viking remains scattered across Europe. 

We have seen this on many television shows on Vikings that the body of the person who passes away is usually set afloat or ablaze on a boat. This kind of funeral rite was mainly reserved for sending off prominent figures. 

The team of international scientists led by Professor Willerslev used the latest cutting-edge analytical tools to research and study the DNA sequencing of the Viking skeletons. It’s the world’s largest-ever operation in this field, and the results have changed how Vikings have been viewed for centuries. 

The results of sequencing the genetic material gathered meticulously from across Europe have been astonishing. It makes us wonder if we got it all wrong in the first place. How much of what we have known forever about Vikings from various sources was true, and how much of it do we chalk off to mere fiction or erroneous findings? 

We have long known that the Vikings originated from Scandinavia, largely settled in-lands and also by the coast. They were primarily fishermen and farmers who later developed a ferocious image that has stuck with them for centuries. So, where did they get such a fierce reputation from? 

Historical records suggest that the Vikings were intelligent and incredibly innovative people. Their methods of maximizing the resources at hand show how creatively gifted they were. As seamen, they needed their boats to sail faster. So, instead of relying on manpower alone, the self-reliant Vikings harnessed the power of the winds to set sail. 

At one point, the Vikings had it all. They had a rich food source, exceptional skills, and tools that got them everything they needed. The Norsemen were also truly gifted sailers, which made them the masters of the sea. 

So, what went wrong for them? One of the most predominant theories is that they ran out of fertile land and, therefore, the requisite food to feed on and hence had to come up with extreme measures for survival. 

Another famous theory that holds water is that the traders influenced the Vikings to go overseas to search for treasures. They constantly fed the seafarers with tales of wealth they could go after, and eventually, the Vikings couldn’t resist the temptation to set sail for greener pastures. 

Unfortunately, all this confusion about Vikings’ identity arises because there need to be more written records to contribute to our knowledge on the subject. The only source we have are their short writings in runes on stone and wood. It was an expensive affair requiring skilled craftsmen. 

We may know the bare minimum about the Vikings, and some of them have been questioned mainly on their authenticity thanks to the DNA sequencing study, but one thing is sure. They had unshakeable faith in the Norse Gods and strongly believed in laying down their lives in the battles. 

The remains of 442 exhumed Viking bodies and their genetic testing has unearthed many facts we could not know until the detailed DNA study. It shed more light when the genetic material assimilated from these ancient samples was analyzed compared to the data collected from 1,118 ancient individuals and 3,855 current residents of various countries such as Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom.

That was not all; the bodies from the burial sites made way for more astonishing discoveries. The gravesite in the Scottish Orkney Islands had all the markings of a Viking burial, replete with ceremonial swords and such. This place had two bodies, and neither of them was Viking. 

Further analysis of the DNA collected from the burial sites found another fascinating finding. The Vikings society was divided into three distinct groups according to their genetics – Vikings from Denmark were the ones to raid the English, those from Sweden traveled across to the Baltic Sea, and the third section of Norsemen who settled in Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland were originally from Norway. 

During the DNA study of the Viking remains, Professor Willerslev was especially thrilled to note that the Vikings weren’t just Scandinavians. In fact, their genetic ancestry has been traced back to Asian and Southern European influences, which is quite a surprising find. 

Professor Willerslev was shocked to find so many previous theories thoroughly debunked with the new findings. The Vikings so far have been largely represented on television and in books as a brood of burly men who were more brawn than brains and did nothing better than to go on long pillaging expeditions. 

Did we mention Vikings were blue-eyed and blonde? Let’s erase that description from our hearts and minds forever. The new study put that visually stunning imagery to rest and instead revealed that they were, in fact, primarily brunettes. Since their genetics had Asian and Southern European roots, their hair was mostly dark. 

Their social strata were divided into three major classes – Jarls, the highest echelons of their society similar to Earls, who were quite wealthy; Karls consisted of the everyday farmers, sailors, craftsmen, and warriors, while the lowest echelon, the Thralls, were the slaves. More than their social divisions, they gained notoriety primarily as hardened warriors. 

There is enough and more evidence to support the theory that these men were an integral part of cultural exchanges between different groups across borders. They participated in trading activities, exporting values, beliefs, and traditional practices. The Vikings also strived to contribute to the political structures of that era, and as travelers, they spread their language and cultures far and wide.

While the study proves that there’s more genetic diversity to Viking identity, it also shows that the foreign gene flow into the Scandinavians from the Asian regions of the world started well before the Viking Age. For one, this new evidence has crumbled their entire identity as these terrifying warriors. 

The knowledge of Vikings and their activities and lives greatly enriched our knowledge of the Viking Age and their many interactions with other nations. It was a transformational period in history that we have now gained more information on, which changes many interrelated things. 

The DNA sequencing study of the Vikings’ skeletons has laid bare the truth about their ancestry in a way that completely changes how we have seen them until now. Most of us have seen them through the lenses of the creatives who have presented them on-screen through television serials and historical films. The study disperses those images in one big swoop.