The Anglo-Saxons depicted Vikings as a violent mob, but was there a meeker side to these medieval pirates?
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For many of us, the Vikings were a bunch of horned invaders, who raped and pillaged their way across our green and pleasant lands, taking all they could in lightning raids, before returning to their homes in Scandinavia. But the reality is less straightforward (they didn’t wear horned helmets for starters!). Ryan Lavelle’s tour of Viking Britain (p24 demonstrates a wholly different people, whose influence can still be felt all around us.
And it is this idea of the past creating our present that remains one of the strongest reasons for our fascination with history. Take, for example, events of 500 years ago, when Martin Luther may (or may not!) have nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a German church (p71 , which has seen Catholic and Protestant pitted against one another ever since.