Not sure about the rich part, but that could explain the one I know…
I always thought of the Danish as the drunks. Construction workers are actually allowed to have like 6 beers during work, its in their contract. And buying beer in Denmark is cheeper than buying water.
Danes and Finns are two completely different kinds of drunks; A Finn will match a Dane’s pint of beer with a pint of Vodka.
Oy… I know where you live.
100% seriously; there are 2 countries outside the far east that have significant oil resources; Norway and Venezuela.
& yes Norwegians are rich because of it, unless the govenment rips it all off, which I doubt since they still are a monarchy…
Norway is the richest country in the world per capita. Followed by Japan, Iceland, Canada and Denmark if I remember correctly.
I probably don’t qualify as true Scandinaivan since my ancestry is mostly Gadgedlar/Gal Gael (Norse Irish by way of the Vikings in the Dublin and Limerick areas) but the family oral histroy says we were praticing pagas until my great-greats woke up one day with a sore head and found they had been exported from Ireland to clear the land for cattle.
At that point they got absorbed into the broader Irish community.
However they also had a rep as very nasty fighters - unfortunately nothing stands to record as to any particular method, although the head butt and the stomp feature prominently in family tales, but most likely the rep just came from being part of an undesirable minority group and the attendent scrapping that went with it.
100% seriously; there are 2 countries outside the far east that have significant oil resources; Norway and Venezuela.
Nah thats wrong. Aside from Alaska and Antarctica, and the reserves that the Australians are finding, New Zealand has more than a few billion barrels - the biggest of the three fields in our waters has only had 4 test wells drilled. One was (commercially) dry, one was estimated at a few trillion cubic feet of gas, and the others were gas rich plus a few billion barrels of oil. Even the more explored field (Taranaki) is considered one of the most under investigated in the world, and its running in the billions for barrels. Problem is they are in blue water, we don’t have rigs, and one of our PMs sold the drilling rights to the seven big sisters for a kickback - and the Oilcos aren’t going to spend money developing new fields until the old ones run dry.
One weapon which certainly seems culturally specific to the Vikings is the two-handed Danish axe. This was the weapon that the Saxon huscarls adopted as their own, and it essentially survived as the “sparth axe”/“gallowglass axe” of the gallowglass mercs of Ireland, who were of mixed Scottish, Irish, & Scandinavian blood themselves.
well, It appears that the concept behind victory while using a scandinavian fighting art was only applicable if used on unprepared women and priests. the norse really seemed to prefer raiding and slaughtering villages to actually engaging in battle with warriors; can’t really say i blame them, who’d want to get pwned by a Celt when you could raze his village when he was away at sea?
also, wasn’t there a norwegian/glima wrestling hopeful for one of the 1960’s olympics? big blondeish guy with a lazy eye? i seem to remember an classic-espn show on at like 3am about it. ring any bells?
The vikings bested their contemporaries on the battlefield. What did away with the viking age was strategicly placed fortifications, and the creation of professional armies in europe that included heavy cavalry.
If we could JUST steer this back on topic…
Does ANYONE still possess LEGITIMATE Viking weapon/unarmed knowledge!
Oh yes…
[size=7]DANES FOREVER!
:hello2:
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“Legitmate weapon knowledge”, eh?
Sources?
As far as I know, your best bets are Glima wrestling and serious efforts at reconstructing Viking MAs, as discussed earlier in the thread.
Good luck!
I’ve never understood what’s the point of pretending to ‘re’“construct’” some ancient style…
It was forgotten because it was no longer needed.
& the stuff any ‘reconstructionists’ might come up with, even if they had access to the best resources that still exist today (which they usually won’t), is 99% pulled out of the founders’ comparative asses.
And the reason for its appearance from the aformentioned location is to fulfill the performers’ bank accounts.
Pwobably.
However, arguably many of the MA existing today are either corrupted (tai chi) or survived due to sheer popularity (judo, modern boxing), as part of an educational curriculum (American highschool wrestling) or commercialism (BJJ etc)
W T F?
Still, those styles exist and work; and even in the case of commericialism, they had a good style first and then decided to make money with it. With some other people it seems they decided to make money first & then came up with martial arts…
W T F W T F?