Ben Hamilton
April 14th, 2017

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His opposition on the battlefield must have bridled with anger at his ostentatiousness

Now one thing we know at CPH POST is that our readers like stories about Vikings. And also stories about immigrants.

Viking immigrant heaven

So it’s hardly surprising one of our best read stories this month had the headline “Immigration to Denmark is nothing new … just ask the Vikings”.

It sounds intriguing, doesn’t it: like they’ve found evidence of some 8th century Moroccan women who qualified for family reunification with their rapists.

But no, the immigrants in question were all the way from … Norway, the other part of the Viking world.

Quite a sight

A Danish archaeologist has discovered a grave in Randers and deduces the dead woman was Norwegian because of her teeth. Now English we can understand, but Norwegian?

Apparently her jewellery is also a giveaway she’s from southern Norway, because it’s not like you’d want to stand out at sword practice by wearing some necklace that Bjorn bought back from plundering.

“No give me the stuff made out of Danish turd that we’ve been wearing for generations!” you would say. “Ooh, look at the Norwegian girl showing off with her fancy clobber.”

Apparently the woman had bronze buckles, silver jewellery and glass and metal pearls.

“She must have been quite a sight when she walked through the town,” said the archaeologist, who categorically concludes that a woman’s jewellery cupboard proves without doubt that Viking Denmark was “multi-ethnic”.

He must be a king

And that wasn’t the only story. Over in the hamlet of Hørning in Jutland, archaeologists claim they have found a horse bridle that could only have been owned by one of the most powerful people in the kingdom.

Unless it was nicked. Or fashioned by the village blacksmith for himself. Or picked up plundering the east coast of England. Or taken as a trophy from the field of battle. Or won in a game of dice with a drunk lord.

Still, this archaeologist was pretty sure the owner knew the king, Gorm the Old.

The find has been compared to two other sensational finds: the Tollund Man and the Egtved Girl, who recently it was confirmed was in fact German.

How exotic! See, they told you Viking Denmark was “multi-ethnic”.