Video Most SURPRISING Facts About Vikings!

Check out the most surprising facts about vikings! This top 10 list of interesting viking facts will surprise you!

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10. Vikings discovered America 500 years before Columbus
Despite what most of us were taught at school, Christopher Columbus did not actually lead the first expedition

to discover the Americas. In fact, he was over 500 years late, as there is increasing evidence to support the

idea that Vikings were present in areas of what their leader Leif Erikson called Vinland, in what we now know as

Canada. Well, there is also evidence that the Chinese and the Basques, also arrived before Columbus so it is

still not looking good for him anyway...
It has long been thought that the Vikings had made the trip to the edges of the continent around the year 1000,

but it’s now becoming more apparent that their expeditions took them far further inland than previously

suggested.
An initial settlement was found in Newfoundland in the 1960’s but in 2016 a team of archaeologists, using

satellite imagery, found another site, 400 miles further inland, that bore all the landmarks of Viking

civilization.
By taking a route past Iceland, Greenland, and then down through Canada, it’s quite possible that they also made

it much further South, with some researchers now looking for concrete evidence that they also visited the modern

day USA.
9. Viking legends were a major inspiration for the Lord of the Rings
As one of the most famous stories of modern times, it seems fitting that the Lord of The Rings takes a lot of

creative direction from some of the greatest myths and legends from the Vikings. J.R.R Tolkien was greatly

inspired by the Vikings and studied them intensively.
The story of the curse of Andvari’s ring provided the core ideas to Tolkien, revolving around a supernatural

ring that brings tragic consequences to anyone who wears it. With characters such as gods, a dwarf, a Valkyrie,

a dragon, and a witch-queen, it’s clear where the tales set in middle earth cam from, but that’s just the start

of it.
Midgard, for example is, according to Norse mythology, one of three worlds that make up the Universe. This is

where men, dwarves, elves and giants live and forms the battleground between good and evil. It’s perhaps not a

surprise then that the English translation of Midgard is “Middle-Earth” and formed the foundation for the entire

world that the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are set in.
8. Vikings were very active in the slave trade
The slave trade has been a blight on human history since before the times of the Vikings, but during their

heyday they were some of the most prolific advocates of human incarceration that have ever existed.
The first recorded attack by Viking warriors was from a Christian monastery in England where the monks were

killed and all the treasure was stolen, but it’s thought that the real reason the Vikings first took to the seas

was to find women and capture slaves, or “Thralls” as they called them.
Thralls were on the bottom rung of Scandinavian society, often finding themselves in such a position as a result

of losing wars, accruing large amounts of debt, or being born to other Thralls. They had no rights at all, slept

in awful conditions, and formed a major part of the Viking economy with the best, and most beautiful ones being

worth a small fortune.
Slaves were also used to facilitate trade with the East, with records showing numerous North European “Thralls”

to have been channeled through Russia, Byzantium and Baghdad.
7. Vikings did not wear horned helmets
It’s the pre-requisite of many a Viking tv show, theme party or stag weekend, but Vikings never actually had

horns on their helmets. This doesn’t mean they didn’t have intimidating headwear, of course, but they were

typically far less ornate.
Paintings from the time show Viking warriors to be either bare headed, or wearing simple helmets made from iron

or leather. A helmet that was found on a Norwegian farm in 1943 which had a rounded iron cap and a guard around

the eyes and nose.
Some cultures have been known to have horns on their helmets, however. Examples of ones that date back to the

bronze age have been found around northern Europe, as well as more recent ones that have been uncovered from

Cyprus and Sardinia. Another famous one, the waterloo helmet, was found in the river Thames in London, and

features straight horns.
So why do we associate horned helmets with Vikings? As with many things, it comes down to storytelling and

entertainment. In the 1800s a Swedish artist named Gustav Malmström made a series of paintings.