The Vikings in the British Islands

Ring of Brodgar - The Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge is an enormous ceremonial site dating back to the 3rd millennium BC.

Scandinavia is a region of northern Europe, comprising Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. As DNA studies have now confirmed, the people who live in Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands share their origins.

Going farther back, Homo sapiens originated in Africa, and it is believed it migrated to Europe from the southeast no later than 42.000 years ago.

It is not very clear how it happened, but the region is one of the latest to be occupied by humans.

The origins are hard to prove because of some stone tools and instruments found in archaeological research. The artifacts connect those early inhabitants to the time close to their arrival in the region. They offer a link to Eastern Europe, and nobody can say for sure how they reached Scandinavia.

Interdisciplinary research that made the connections involved ice sheets, archaeological finds, and DNA sequencing of 7 individuals whose remains lay on the North Atlantic Coast.

Much later, around 1000 AD, the Norwegians were invading and conquering the Shetlands, a small group of islands north of England.

They reached the Orkneys, a region inhabited by the Picts, ancient British people that built their edifices with rough-cut rocks. They left behind stone circles and the evidence of their gods.

Older than the Vikings, the Orkadians give a treasure of knowledge to nowadays explorers, archaeologists, and discoverers.

A carved stone ball from ancient times that is part of a set has become the most recent and intriguing piece of history found in Scotland.

Dr. Hugo Anderson-Whymark, Curator of Prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland, heads the research in the hopes of unraveling and unlocking the intriguing Neolithic object's secrets.

Read the complete article in The Herald.

The Vikings established a colony, the Earldom of Orkney in the region. From Orkney, the Earl Sigurd the Stout attacked and dominated parts of Scotland and Ireland.

His banner was a raven, believed to be the remnant of the Norse belief in the two ravens that are part of Odin's entourage and his observers over humanity. The work of the god's birds granted him control of events as they were his spies.

How the Norsemen became seafaring Vikings who reached those lands is the unanswered question. Although, there are active theories based on trustworthy research.

What stays undisputable is the figurehead of the Viking ships frightened and caused admiration when they reached Ireland and Scotland. Once Christians believe the dragon is the enemy of Christianity, the connection between the Vikings that attacked and destroyed monasteries to Satan was natural.

Some people called the figurehead the Norse dragon. Yet, there are no dragons in Norse mythology. The closer creature is Jormungandr, son of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboða.

They depicted the sea serpent myth in the Prose Edda, the skaldic poem Húsdrápa, and the Eddic poems Hymiskviða and Völuspá.

It is not surprising the sea explorers decided to pay homage to the most terrifying creature that ever inhabited the oceans. Placing Jormungandr at the front of their ships had a special meaning.

According to the Norse tales, when the sea serpent opens its mouth from biting her tail, Ragnarok will start.

Even if the Christianization was happening in the north, the Vikings brought along their old gods and beliefs to the British islands.