Forn Sed

Often known under the name Asatru.

This blog will focus on historical accuracy and reconstructionism but also on the contemporary religion and sometimes wander into other heathenry, like Anglo - Saxon faith, Odinism, Theodism and so on.
There will however never be any bigotry, homophobia, anti Semitism or stupid ideas of a "pure" Germanic race. hello! theme by cissysaurus
09
25

Gamigo´s Racism

A gaming company, having the odacity to using the term “cultures online” describes my culture and history thus:” 1)Build a city. 2)Destroy someone else´s.3)Steal their resources.4)Use them to get big and strong.5)Repeat.”

All under the banner of “Discover the world of the Vikings”.

Why not throw in some canibalistic negroes with bongo drums and savage Indians with bows and arrows too?

If this was done to any non European culture it would be seen as racism. Now it´s just a game.

Enjoy!

http://en.start.gamigo.com/cul
tures-online/003/?pl=af&affiliateID=697
Cultures Online | Simulation Strategy Browser Game | Free-To-Play Online Game @ gamigoen.start.gamigo.comCultures Online is a fun browser-based simulation strategy game. Build your own little Viking village in a cutesy design style. Play for free and join the epic hurry-scurry, right in your browser!

08
07

Kylfings

The Kylfings (Old Norse KylfingarFinnic KylfingidHungarian KölpényekOld East Slavic Колбяги, KolbiagiByzantine Greek Κουλπίγγοι,KoulpingoiArabic al-Kilabiyya) were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age, roughly from the late ninth century to the early twelfth century. They could be found in areas of LaplandRussia, and the Byzantine Empire that were frequented byScandinavian traders, raiders and mercenaries. Scholars differ on whether the Kylfings were ethnically Finnic or Norse. Also disputed is their geographic origin, with DenmarkSweden and the Eastern Baltic all put forward as candidates Whether the name Kylfing denotes a particular tribal, socio-political, or economic grouping is also a matter of much debate.

The Norslunda Runestone, bearing runic inscription U 419, which mentions the personal name Kylfingr

They are mentioned in Old Norse runestone inscriptions, sagas (most notably in Egil’s Saga), and poetry (such as Thorbjorn Hornklofi’s poemHaraldskvæði), as well as Byzantine records and Rus’ law-codes, in which they (along with another Scandinavian group, the Varangians) were afforded significant economic and social privileges. According to the sagas, the Kylfings opposed the consolidation of Norway under Harald Fairhair and participated in the pivotal Battle of Hafrsfjord. After Harald’s victory in that battle, they are described in the sagas as having raided in Finnmark and elsewhere in northern Norway and having fought against Harald’s lieutenants such as Thorolf Kveldulfsson.

Finnic peoples

Holm (1992) considers Egil’s saga to equate the Kylfings with the Finnic ethnicities, i.e. Kvens and Karelians. In the 14th century, when the Swedish kings began to direct their attention northwards and encourage Swedish colonization in Norrbotten, there were regulations that the Finnish Birkarls and the Saami peoples were not to be interrupted in their traditional activities. In addition, there are many medieval sources that present Lapland as being dominated by Finns. A large part of the Karelians were under Novgorod which was included in what Icelandic sources called Kylfingaland, and thus the Kylfings could have been Baltic Finnish tribes under Novgorod.

The eastern shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, proposed by proponents of a Finnic origin for the Kylfings as that group’s homeland
The Kylfings have also been identified with the Votic peopleCarl Christian RafnEdgar V. Saks, B. Briem and Sigurður Nordal have proposed Kylfings to have been the Norse name for the Votes. The reason is that the ethnonym Vadja(laiset) can be associated with the wordvadja (modern Estonian vai’) which means “stake”, “wedge” or “staff”, which corresponds to Old Norse kolfrVadjalaiset would consequently be translated into Old East Norse as kolfingar, which in Old West Norse (Old Icelandic) would be umlauted as kylfingar.

Estonians have also been identified as Kylfings.

Scandinavians

Runestone Sö 318, containing the personal name Kylfingr

Barði Guðmundsson identified the Kylfings as an East Scandinavian, possibly Swedish, tribe that infiltrated northern Norway during the late ninth century. Guðmundsson connects the Kylfings with the Germanic Heruli who were active throughout northern Europe and in Italy during the fifth and sixth centuries. According to Guðmundsson, many of these Kylfings may ultimately have emigrated to Iceland during the ninth and tenth centuries.Other scholars have assigned a Danish origin to this tribe.

Some scholars have considered the Kylfings of Egil’s Saga to be a “conquering Germanic people”, or the Swedish king’s tax collectors. Holm (1992) considers such suggestions to be anachronistic due to the fact that the Swedish kings lacked any interest in northern Fenno-Scandia during the ninth and tenth centuries, and not even the later law of Hälsingland mentions any Swedish settlement north of Bygdeå in southern Västerbotten.

Pritsak identified the Kylfings as a “professional trading and mercenary organization” that organized expeditions northward, into the Saami lands, as distinct from other Varangian and viking groups whose expeditions focussed on lands to the west and east of Scandinavia. This interpretation is supported by such historians as Stender-Petersen.

A number of runestones in Sweden contain the personal name Kylfingr, which may or may not be connected to the Kylfings as a group.

Other suggestions

A few historians have hypothesized that the Kylfings were a West Slavic people related to the Pomeranians. Under this interpretation, the Slavic termKolbiag may share common origins with such place-names as Kołobrzeg (formerly Kolberg), a town on the Pomeranian Baltic coast, and Kolpino, a settlement near modern St. Petersburg.

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It is true this map says “predominant”, but it still lumps large groups like Slavs together while it is almost detailed about Germanic groups.It is historical hogwash though.There are no Saxons or Franks today. And if you insist on using those migration period, terms i would not be “Scandinavian” but Gauti (or at least “Norse”).Anyone in Sweden (exept to a part the Saami) sees themselves as ethnical Swedes regardless of tribe.One time period or the other please.
 Oh, and btw: Icelanders are not Scandinavian. If you are thinking of the viking settlers the term is “Norse”, if you are thinking of modern Icelanders the term is “Nordic”.Besides, Icelanders probably has Q Celtic genes too (via Scotland and Ireland).
Many have complained about ending up in the wrong “group” (where i found this map) large parts of northern Italy is really Celto - Germanic as well as Romance for instance..France and Benelux are Celto - Germano _ romance as well.Sicily has Germanic genes (via the Normans and Vandals).The Saami of Scandinavia are far more spread (FAR MORE), Spain and Portugal are put down as Celtic and “near eastern” (what fucking ethnicity is that???) and the Germanic influence of the Visigoths, Suebi and the Vandals are skipped over (you find a lot of Germanic loan words in modern Portuguise), Scotland is put down as “Scots” (The Scoti are actually Gaels = Irish, so technically partly correct), In actuallity the Scottish people are a mix of Gaelic, Pictish, Anglo - Saxon and Norse (Scandinavian, mainly Norwiegian and Danish).The Irish are put down as Irish Celts (???).If you use the terms Scots for Scotland (Scoti = The Roman term for Gael) you should do so for the Irish too.Either Scots OR Gaels OR Q Celtic.In actuality the Irish people are a mix of Gaels, Scandinavian and Romance (via the very “French” Normans) genes.Whole Scottish Clans are of mainly Scandinavian origin MacDonald, MacIver (Ivarson) MacAuley (Olofsson), Gordon, MacLaeod to mention a few.Scots, Doric (Scotland), Ulster Scots and the extinct Norn (Shetland, Orkney) are actually Germanic languages.Gaelic and Manx (Isle of Man) are Q Celtic languages originating in Ireland.Balts (???) as Slavic? Ever heard of Estonians. Estonians are Finnic not Slavic.ALL of northern Africa is put down as Berber??? . There are other large groups, Semitic and Copts  for instance. Sarmatian being another.Russians are put down as distinct from Slavs witch is not incorrect in a sense. Russia probably got it´s name from Germanic peoples (mainly from Sweden according to theory) and as a country has many etnicities like Saami and other Finnic groups.True, the confusing and rather scetchy colour field indicate Uralo - Finnic in the north and and Slavo - Germanic in a little clique but it is so simplified that it´s almost comical to anyone with a bit of a historic interest.Then we have the problem with the term “ethnic”. Are we talking “blood?”If so you can take any area of Europe and probably find a mix of Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Romance genes AND culture.I can prove that there where Arabs in Scandinavia (at least Denmark), being a part of society and sharing the (“heathen”) religion during the iron age.I can prove (we are talking DNA, Strontium, anthropology, and archeology in general here.) that people travelled all the way from the Alps to eastern England in Neolithic times (stone age).A normal Englishman most probably have Brythonic (P Celtic), Romance (Romans and later Normans, even if they where mainly Germanic), Anglo - Saxon and Scandinavian genes.If we go by culture or linguistics the same mix applies.And then ALL of these groups are in turn mixed up the same way.Germanic and Celtic groups interacted so much that they where sometimes undistinguishable to the Romans (and some tribes still are).The terms Germani and Keltoi where of Roman and Greek origin anyway (speaking of lumping together).Groups like the Ostrogoths interacted the same way with Slavic tribes.And then we have other ways of ethnic identification, like religion.If “Christian” was the ethnic group with witch a viking identified himself, and “Asatru” (in lack of a better term) the way another viking in the same area identified (witch was in a sense sometimes the case at the start of the high middle ages in Scandinavia), they would have “Norse” as an ethnicity in common but still see themselves as religously (and thus to a part culturally)  different ethnicities.Serious anthropology and ethnology can never make a simple map or diagram describing something as complex as mans sense of “group” or belonging through history and pre history since the dawn of mankind.My father is African, still both he and i consider me Germanic, Scandinavian (and Gautish to be extreme. That is i am of the Gauti / Götar tribe).He counts himself as Creole. However, part of the mix that makes him Creole is Portuguise and Spanish (thus probably including Sephardic Jews, Moorish blood….oh, and he has some Chinese).Funny though, the Suebi where in nothern Portugal, the Vissigoths where all over Spain and Portugal and the Vandals passed too.So he would (possably, actually probably) have several strains of Germanic genes (as well as Romance, Carthagian, Celtic) witch might even bring us back to Sweden (some theories says that the Vandals and Goths came from Sweden and most accept that the “Germanic”  peoples as a distinguishable group originated in southern Sweden ,Scania, and Denmark anyway (proto Germanic, around 500 BC).Sorry! I´m simply far to interested in European history / ethnology / anthropology  / archeology to have it simplified into some romantic doodle.
12
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One thing…

…one must do to get an understanding of history, self evedent as it might seem, is to remember that the Norse, or whatever culture one studies where people like you and me, with smelly feet, freezing, sad, happy. getting diarrhea, having a beer, enjoying hobbies and falling in love.

There would be pious people and those with no interest of spiritual things, pragmatic, greedy, political and down to earth people.

Proffessionals, artisans, craftsmen and labourers.

Classes and qliques.

Popular people, bullies, withdrawn people, lazy people and industrious people.

Far too often i see descriptions of vikings (and sometimes other cultures) as if they where some glorious, past and noble “special” people.

A  viking would have farted after dinner and cursed if he hit his toe against a stone like the rest of us….and he was probably afraid of the dark.