Vikings Art and Culture

The Vikings Art and Culture At first thought of the Vikings, the mirthful strip Hagar the Horrible comes to mind. As this is probably non a satisfactory basis for reference, it still can give slight glimpse, if non a twisted single, of the Viking culture. As for Viking artistic production, a more in depth research must be done, for Hagar was unfortunately not actually made by the Vikings. The Viking culture was a primitive one of agriculture, hunting, and fishing. Families lived on utmostms unneurotic and were a tight knit labor force.During sowing time, the men would all work together from before dawn until afterwards dark to tend to the field, and the women would work on providing the daily necessities, such as food, clothes, and cleaning. The wife would also occasionally attend to in the fields, and the children would start helping out from a actually childly age doing their respective duties. There were less than five months of growing appease in their northern cl imate, so the Viking husband of the farm would plant the crops and hence look toward the sea.He would head out with his neighbors for a pleasant summer of pillaging in the south. Then, he would return in the fall in time for the harvest. His wife would control all affairs of the household until he returned. If he should not return due to an unfortunate accident, his wife would get the land, business, and any other wealth. The eldest son of the family would take over the family farm, and the junior sons would go out to find their suffer careers as they became of age, possibly Vikings.Family was very important to the Viking people it was a powerful unit of protection. Much identical today, families provided support and assistance, and it was to their family that a person owed their obligation. A close family bond is plain as husbands, wives, and children would erect runes in honor of each other husbands to their wives, wives to their husbands, and children to their parents. Run es were beautify monuments with inscriptions and verses for their deceased family, much as a tombstone would be now, and were much placed in public places so that they would be seen.They also commonly lived as a nucleic family, much like today, with the mother, father, and the children in the household. It was fairly special to arrive at extended family such as grandparents to live with them well-nigh likely, because it was grand to live past the age of forty and most people did not enter the role of grandparent. As much as the Vikings were known as looters and pillagers, they were also formidable merchants. galore(postnominal) of their journeys were commercial and put them in abut with the farthest reaches of the world. Trade became a very important helping of their culture. piece of music there are many stereotypes of the Viking people, such as dirty, smelly, illiterate, drunkard savages most are probably misc erstptions. While they probably were dirty and smelly after s ailing across the sea and maybe did not bathe that lots because of the cold weather, one can assume that it was for a purpose sooner than just being ignorant. The notion that they were illiterate is wrong they simply had their own writing system with an alphabet called runic. The letters were mostly made up of vertical and diagonal lines, which made them suitable for carving into wood.As far as the drunkard part, that is most likely the truest stereotype of them all. It is believed that the Vikings were very doughy drinkers. They would drink ale and mead, which is also called honey wine and made from fermented honey. Wine was something that was part of their trade voyages, as grapes did not grow in the cold Scandinavian climate. It is true that the Vikings pillaged many towns and killed many innocent people who came in their path, and while it was terrible, this description is coming from the people who were attacked and showing them in their whisk light.In reality, a Viking was only a Viking while at sea, once he returned home there was no more pillaging. It was back to the farm, the family, and modal(prenominal) everyday life. So, were they savages? Yes, to certain people they were, but to others, no. The art of the Vikings was not really art in the sense of the word. There was no art for art sake it was mostly applied art. Their skills were used to decorate items of daily use. Weapons and ships were intricately decorated, as were drinking vessels, runes, and jewelry.This proved their affinity for showing send off their wealth and rank with whatever their possessions were. Most of the art that has survived is made of metal even though most commonly leather, wood, and bone were used. Their art was not naturalistic, but instead abstract. A common theme art was deformed and disfigured animals. Animals were a dominant subject, as they seemed to take in an endless cultism to them as a source of inspiration. The gripping beast is one paper that started i n the Broa Style it is a strong, muscular animal that is shown full take care with its paws gripping either itself or another nimal. The gripping beast is shown on the Oseberg ship along with two other animal motifs, S-shaped animals with ribbon-like bodies, and semi-naturalistic animals and birds. Being confronted with these images, one could not but be in awe of the energy of the decoration. Many different dahs of Viking art have been identified, but no new style can be said to mark the beginning of the Viking age in Scandinavia, they grew out of the art styles of earlier centuries, the first being the Broa style, followed by the Borre, then the Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike, and finally the Urnes.The styles all vary slightly, but still keep with the distorted animal theme. The art of the Viking age influenced many different cultures because of their worldly travels, and they have influenced our culture in a way that we may never comprehend. They have intertwined themselves into the fabric of so many different cultures, that many of us could be part Viking.