Nuance! Take a shot!

Whether you needed the bath or not…..

I would also like to have a Viking as a professor.

Hi elwy, good to see you here! Love your work!

​@@EchoCharlie1361"upvote for this"

Another way to look at it is: people have always been people. All the room for both evil and good and complicated motives that people have today were just as present in every other period and place in history.

A fantastic example of this is the Irish Saint Brigid, who is just the Christianized version of the Irish goddess of home & hearth, craft, & fertility Brigid. She's also the daughter of An Mór Ríoghan (the Morrigan), so she doesn't feck around when push comes to shove lol

it's not associated with a specific god anymore but the Scandinavian midsummer ritual is still overtly pagan despite the church trying to claim it for John the baptist and i have a little giggle about it every year stick a green dick in the ground and ask for fertility for the year to come! June 24th, save the date

Something similar happend in East Asia. The female version of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, 觀音 Guānyīn in Chinese Mandarin and 観音 Kannon in Japanese, is very popular there. Her being the bodhisattva of compassion and often depicted holding a child, 16th century Jesuite missionaries used her to explain Saint Mary, mother of Jesus, so you got this mix of Buddhisme and Christianity living side by side. It survied until quite resently in Japan because the people there lost contact with the missionaries when Christianity got banned in 1612. During the ban they would use modified statues of Kannon in their houses as a cover when the authorities where looking for Japanese that where influnced by outsiders.

The "Norse god as Christian saint" hypothesis makes more than sense! It's definitely not something rare in areas like Italy, as well ^^

@@conanmcdonagh2619 absolutely, Brigid is prime example

That’s so sweet, and I’m very pleased it helps provide some context :)

I have the same problem. The way they taught it in school gives the impression that historical events happened in a vacuum, like each area was having their own thing and completely unaware of everything/everyone else. This way, even when Jimmy goes back & forth, it really gives context and helps you seeing them as things that happened at the same time, rather than things happening in alternate universes or something.

​@ I had a similar experience, and it took someone pointing out that Muslim raids on Europe were occurring around the same period as the Viking raids to wake me up to the interconnected nature of history.

And I imagine, just like we love to hear the latest gossip about celebrities, that people at that time would love to hear tales about something happening far away or interesting styles or useful agricultural or trade tips.

So much of what is now Christianity is layered "cultural appropriation" or mingling over the centuries from various groups in Europe and surrounds. Not all of it is necessarily cynical adoption to aid conversion either. it's more likely a merger with pre-existing traditions that slowly acquired a Christian flavour. Or an excuse for the local Christians to still go to the local big party. The big obvious ones being Christmas and Easter, but also a big chunk of saints' days are pretty clearly thin veils over pagan festivals.

@@dogmaticpyrrhonist543 I guess what surprised me was that I had been thinking of the pagan culture as a "dead" culture, even though I was well aware of rune stones with both Christian and Pagan elements. Which was significant for me because I come from an area in which we actively try to dismantle the idea that Native culture isn't anything but alive, real, and developing. It's also fun to imagine people having the same conversations people have here except about Loki and Jesus. It's humanizing to think of historical people managing in very similar ways to us now.

This is a really neat example of religious syncretism, thanks for sharing!

I learned something cool and new today! That we have a punny name for an ancient king fossilized into the modern day makes me so so happy. Just giddy! (Linguist nerd, I come by it honestly.) Just like how quirks of older versions of English are preserved in children’s nursery rhymes! (That’s a particular interest of mine.) It’s like excavating a historical site, but instead of dirt, you’re sifting through language! Love it!! :D

Mate that’s so kind of you. Appreciate it 🖤

You Are really informative n nuansed. It hrlps my research orocess so much to hear soneone elaborating :)

Even as a historian you can get influenced by false media. Especially if you don't specialize in something. Certain things become so prevelent, often because in some way they just "fit", they make sense or explain something we don't really understand. It's easy to get lazy & forget there's no or counter evidence. Fictional narratives have become a part of our current cultural belief system through repetition. We have to remember that it's part of today's thought, not the time period in question. I minored in Scandinavian studies, focusing on Viking burial practices but I majored in medieval European history focusing on the plantagenet-Tudor dynasties. It's stunning how much is out there about the Tudors that people are dead set on that is absolutely false. A handful of successful historical fiction writers have shaped what people think, including historians who may not specialize in the field. The more popular an era or culture is, "Vikings", "Tudors" ect..., the more widespread fiction is produced & the more confused the general public. I really enjoyed the television series "Vikings" & "Tudors" but a drinking game based on false info would lead to hospitalization. When ideas get embedded, they can creep into the beliefs of people who have reason to know better, and you get more unfounded resistance from people who have not done any research but hold onto these ideas like they are religious doctrine. I wish after every episode of "Vikings" aired, they'd had a little half hour show with Jimmy correcting what was wrong & pointing out what was purely fictional. Fiction is great, but when it gets confused with fact it erodes our actual understanding of the period. I'm so happy we have people like Jimmy. I just wish every wannabe Viking or fan watched him.

Oh wow, that hasn’t popped into my head for a long time!

I’m proud of it, it’s doing so well! Loving my ck3 at the minute as well. Battering the granny out of the HRE as Brittany!

GNU Terry Pratchett

Sounds like the people in customs know to look out for it……

Diolch yn fawr, Diane :) I’m getting there as best as anyone can I think :)

@@TheWelshViking good! I enjoy your videos , but not to the extent that I want you to make yourself I’ll if you miss a few. Take care of yourself and be nice to yourself too. ❤️

Oh wow, that’s one helluva project!

And it's also important to remember that we only know so much about Norse culture because of Christian historians. I don't think most would prefer that the Christians didn't record anything about Norse and Viking history, mythology, language, art and culture. I highly recommend Anders Winroth's The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe, if you haven't read it.

@@mathiasgreyjoy1611 Sad that we don't get any written first hand accounts from within the culture itself, aside from the Sagas which were written later, but we have to take what we can get and try and interpret it in a way that would make sense to them.

​@@mathiasgreyjoy1611 Sure thing, but let's be careful and not sanctity Christians either. Let's not forget what they have preserved is nothing but a fragment of something that was very bigger and lively, something that would've survived and evolved freely if it weren't for their forceful conversion. I get that the majority of Christians might have tolerated heathendom, but the process of cultural domination is a long one and it starts with assimilation. Syncretism might be a very sincere religious experience, it can also be very cynical. And the church used it as a tool to lure people into this new monolithic religion. What I want to say is that we shouldn't have to owe them thanks for doing the bare minimum, and then proceed to commit various cultural ethnocides.

​@@urubutingaz5898yes we only have to look at the north American indigenous peoples experience to see how well that worked for them.

@@lenabreijer1311 My grandmother survived the "Indian School", set up by "Christians" to "kill the Indian to save the man". Her brother didn't and the last "Indian School" in the US wasn't closed until 1994

I plan on some Isles vids sometime soon! Happily the Isles feature in my personal research :) You’re very kind, thank you 🖤

I'm interested in Wales too as they seem to have kept so separate for so long. Also interested in hearing about Cornwall as that's where I live now and it seems to have kept been semi-isolated and independent, while still being very connected to the world via the sea.

Happy Birthday! 🎂🎁🎈🎉

@@Aswaguespack thanks!!