On 4 Nov 2017 at 7:52am The people wrote:
Many who are descended from the Viking tradition are deeply offended by the Viking dressing up and parading in Lewes. This must stop now as a more formal line might be taken.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 7:59am Astrid wrote:
Shut up there is nothino to take offense from
On 4 Nov 2017 at 8:23am Mr sensitive wrote:
Can I be offended please? I don't know what for but i'd like to be offended.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 8:35am The people wrote:
You would not understand. We are being depicted as near savages when we were in fact the people’s who brought Britain out of the dark age and brought culture and prosperity.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 9:08am Yeah wrote:
Many of us are descended from Vikings, (and in fact all of us are descended from Africans). Embrace you connections with your ancestors and dress like them!
On 4 Nov 2017 at 9:15am Mr sensitive wrote:
Well that's it, i'm definately offended then.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 12:39pm Englishman wrote:
@The people. You forgot to mention the pillaging and raping. At least the Romans, and the Normans, were a bit more civilised.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 12:54pm offham rascal wrote:
@The people, you're trolling right?
Your broad-brush cod history tells me you don't know what you're talking about. The Vikings brought Britain out of the Dark Ages? No they didn't. Historians coined the phrase the 'Dark Ages' because there are so few narrative sources for the period and the few that are come from Anglo-Saxon writers like Bede, Gildas, Nennius and later with the reign of Alfred the Great.
The Vikings are characterized by having an artistic and oral poetic tradition - they didn't write things down they made songs and poetry instead to remember ancestry and record history. For the Christian Anglo-Saxons the 'pagan' Viking settlers were viewed as heathen invaders and whilst they set down an impressive structure of settlements under the Danelaw I don't think in hindsight you could say they added much to either what you are calling 'culture' or 'prosperity'.
Don't use history as your argument and have no grasp of what you are talking about.
On 4 Nov 2017 at 1:40pm the people wrote:
Great to get onto another topic. You were all played.............
On 4 Nov 2017 at 3:21pm Hugh Jarse wrote:
Speaking of cultural appropriation, please can we start by banning the samba bands?
Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the Cliffe bagpipe players might not be Scottish.
On 5 Nov 2017 at 5:24pm offham rascal wrote:
@the people, you clearly have too much time on your hands nd should get out more rather than triumphantly stating 'you were are all played' - well done mate. idiot. x
On 6 Nov 2017 at 10:27am Observer wrote:
"I don't think in hindsight you could say they added much to either what you are calling 'culture' or 'prosperity'."
I think you're the one who doesn't know what you are talking about. The vikings were great traders and opened up trade routes through the Baltic to Russia and Byzantium. This certainly added to "prosperity".
The viking point is a stupid one though. The vikings are part of OUR history - we are their descendants, just as much as today's Scandinavians (in fact more so; they are descended from the less adventurous ones that stayed at home). They settled here, produced loads of place names, and left us loads of words including "law", "them", "their" and changed english grammar. It's a British historic costume, so more like people who dress in military outfits or medieval stuff, rather than Zulus or Indians. So we can do what we want with it.
I suppose if people in Scandinavia still wore viking costumes, and they were treated as backward and poor by other Europeans; if other European countries had colonised Sweden and Norway and ravaged its natural resources; if having stereotypical scandinavian appearance meant you were more likely to be poor or less likely to get a job in the rest of Europe, including here, then you might have a point.
On 6 Nov 2017 at 1:17pm offham rascal wrote:
@Observer, the incorrect point the trolling OP was making was that the Vikings 'brought Britain out of the Dark Ages' and whilst I take your point about trading and mobility I'm sorry I don't agree with you. The lack of written historical sources is what defines the Dark Ages. The pivotal act which did bring Britain out of the Dark Ages was Hastings (the end of Viking civilization in Britain) and the start of the Norman regime.
On 6 Nov 2017 at 4:38pm Observer wrote:
"The pivotal act which did bring Britain out of the Dark Ages was Hastings (the end of Viking civilization in Britain) and the start of the Norman regime."
I think you're underestimating the sophistication of anglo-saxon England, which was highly literate and organised compared to much of the continent; certainly the first civilisation to use the vernacular rather than latin as its formal means of communciation and literature. The civilisation that produced the LIndisfarne Gospels was hardly 'dark' compared to the likes of William Rufus, Stephen and Matilda etc. (or someone who could order 'the harrying of the north'). Equally Iceland would, a few years after the norman conquest, produce the first great vernacular works of Europe, demonstrating that the norse were not a bunch of knuckle draggers. But this is no place for extended historical debates!
On 6 Nov 2017 at 4:39pm Observer wrote:
Certain women's rights went backwards after the Normans arrived...
On 7 Nov 2017 at 12:14am Gordon brown people wrote:
I’m going to be blacking up for a white Christmas.