Wednesday 23 December 2020

A Viking Death

A Viking death: a last battle - to keep killing your enemies until at last one of them kills you. How many can you kill first? Is this the best way to die? To some, it would be. Somewhere on this blog, it is recorded that, to men in the Viking period, the worst kind of death was from decrepitude and old age.

In Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Hathawulf and Solbern die killing so many of King Ermanaric's men that they fatally weaken him. In Anderson's The People Of The Wind, Draun of Highsky Choth dies killing Terrans whom he hates but his people keep their freedom. In the Ythrian New Faith, Draun's death would honor God the Hunter. However, Draun is of the Old Faith and casts the Terrans onto hell-wind.

We see various populations resisting Terrans, with different results.

7 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The strongest expression I've seen in Anderson's works of a Viking's warrior fear, hatred, and contempt for a "straw death" was in "The Tale of Hauk."

And, if my memory is correct, I don't think Draun succeeded in killing that many Terrans before they killed him!

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Draun was also standing over the body of his son, IIRC?

S.M. Stirling said...

The ferocity of Viking-era Scandinavians served a number of functional purposes. It was a deterrent -- everyone knew that if you pushed free men too far, they were likely to decide to burn everything down and try to take you with them. That actually made aggression less likely. Even if you were stronger than X, they might do you irreparable harm.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Mr Stirling,

About Draun, correct.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

I think the kind of Viking ferocity you discussed only worked up to a point. E.g. the Viking wars finally came to a stop around AD 1100 because nations like Scotland, England, France, etc., had finally pulled themselves together sufficiently that it was no longer cost effective for Scandinavians to go plundering and raiding.

Also, that ferocity could be used in self destructive ways. E.g.. the civil war era in Norway after the death of King Sigurd Jerusalemfarer and the Sturlung Age in Iceland. Both were marked by viciously violent feuds and civil wars. And in both cases ended when a strong monarchy imposed order in both Norway and Iceland.

Happy New Year! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Sean. Yup. It was a primitive solution to a continuing problem.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And primitive solutions like Berserker ferocity are not going to be truly satisfactory for long periods of time.

Happy New Year! Sean