{"id":90818,"date":"2021-04-10T23:01:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T05:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=90818"},"modified":"2021-04-11T20:30:47","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T02:30:47","slug":"a-new-ancient-egyptian-city-and-new-doubts-about-my-perennial-viking-excuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2021\/04\/a-new-ancient-egyptian-city-and-new-doubts-about-my-perennial-viking-excuse.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Ancient Egyptian City and New Doubts about My Perennial Viking Excuse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Haakon<\/a>
Detail from William Hole\u2019s mural of the Battle of Largs, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, some news from the banks of the River Nile:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Lost golden city\u2019 found in Egypt reveals lives of ancient pharaohs:\u00a0The discovery of a 3,000-year-old city that was lost to the sands of Egypt has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds since Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this is rather interesting, as well:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMummy Murder Cold Case Shrouded in Mystery for 2,600 Years Has Finally Been Solved\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now, some old news from the banks of the River Ouse and its environs:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On my father\u2019s side, I\u2019m Norwegian and Danish.\u00a0 My maternal ancestry comes from England and Scotland.\u00a0 As it happens, though, the parts of England and Scotland from which my maternal ancestors come have exceptionally strong links to the Vikings and their successors.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Selby District of North Yorkshire, for example, which was formerly reckoned within the East Riding of Yorkshire, falls squarely within the historical boundaries of the so-called \u201cDanelaw.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 And, in fact,\u00a0Riccall, the town that figures most prominently in my Yorkshire heritage, was the site of the base camp of King Harald of Norway, also known as Harald Hardrada, just prior to his victory at the Battle of Fulford, some eight miles to the north, in 1066.\u00a0 After claiming Denmark in 1064, he had sailed up the Humber Estuary in order to establish his claim to England, and he encamped near Riccall on the banks of the River Ouse.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sadly for Harald Hardrada, though, his army was met and defeated \u2014 and he was killed \u2014 on 25 September 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, roughly fifteen miles to the north northeast of Riccall, by the English king Harold Godwinson, who was himself half-Danish.\u00a0 (His mother was\u00a0Gytha Thorkelsd\u00f3ttir.)\u00a0 Alarmed by the defeat of a hastily assembled Anglo-Saxon army at Fulford, Harold Godwinson had marched rapidly to meet the Norwegian threat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Harold Godwinson\u2019s victory at Stamford Bridge came at enormous indirect cost to Harold himself.\u00a0 Having been obliged to march to the north to face Harald Hardrada and the Norwegians, he had left the southeastern English coast undefended.\u00a0 And it was precisely at this time that William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, chose to invade England by crossing the English Channel.\u00a0 (The Normans, as their name indicates, were descendants of Viking invaders, Norsemen<\/em>, who had entered today\u2019s France back in the tenth century.)\u00a0 So King Harold had to force march his weary troops back down to the south where, less than three weeks later, on 14 October 1066, they were defeated and he was killed at the famous Battle of Hastings.\u00a0 And the Norman Conquest changed England and the English language forever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So much for the English<\/em> side of my maternal line.\u00a0 On the Scottish side, we come from Ayrshire, which, from the beginning of the 1100s, had been ruled by local authorities who were effectively vassals of the kings of Norway.\u00a0 In fact, the entire western coast of Scotland had been repeatedly raided and invaded and at various points more or less occupied by Vikings for a period of approximately five centuries, which only came to an end with the 2 October 1263 Battle of Largs, in North Ayrshire.\u00a0 That battle, between forces loyal to Haakon IV Haakonsson, King of Norway, and soldiers led by\u00a0Alexander of Dundonald, Steward of Scotland, would probably not have been so decisive were it not for another factor: Haakon wintered at Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, intending to resume his Scottish campaign when the weather improved in the following year.<\/sup>\u00a0 But he fell ill, and died on 16 December 1263.\u00a0 So Ayrshire, it turns out, was the last stand or the last holdout of the Vikings in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that I may well be of Scandinavian Viking descent on my mother\u2019s side as well<\/em> as on my father\u2019s.\u00a0 Thus, in a way, maybe I come by my legendarily cold-hearted cruelty and viciousness honestly<\/em>.\u00a0 It could be genetic<\/em>.\u00a0 In an earlier age, I would very possibly have been a Viking berserker<\/em>, pillaging and destroying Irish villages and the like.\u00a0 Except that, now, some modern Swedish killjoys \u2014 \u201cof course<\/em> it would be Swedes!\u201d my Danish and Norwegian forebears might point out \u2014 are suggesting that such rationalizations aren\u2019t really based on solid science:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cViking DNA and the Pitfalls of Genetic Ancestry Tests\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, a couple of items related to volcanology:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Extremely heavy ash fall\u2019 as authorities report third explosion at volcano in St. Vincent\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn pictures: Volcano erupts in Iceland\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The photographs in that second article are especially spectacular.\u00a0 But this next item, drawn from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u00a9 will just depress you, if it doesn\u2019t altogether leave you gasping in horror:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cResponse of the Church of Jesus Christ During Volcano Eruption in St Vincent: Updates about the status and work of members and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ amidst the La Soufri\u00e8re volcano eruption.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Park City, Utah<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 First, some news from the banks of the River Nile: \u00a0 \u201c\u2018Lost golden city\u2019 found in Egypt reveals lives of ancient pharaohs:\u00a0The discovery of a 3,000-year-old city that was lost to the sands of Egypt has been hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds since Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb.\u201d \u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22271,21238,3655,21235,16140,22295,7024,22289,22232,22292,12379,12376,22268,596,22241,951,3739,22220,5445,4051,22298,14377,2189,22250,22253,22256,22247,22244,22274,22277,3058,3049,22280,22138,22283,22238,5496,10474,22286,22223,22226,14857,22262,22265,22304,22307,22310,22259,22301,10492,6963,22229,22235],"class_list":["post-90818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ancestry","tag-archaeologist","tag-archaeology","tag-archeologist","tag-archeology","tag-ayrshire","tag-battle","tag-dane","tag-danelaw","tag-danes","tag-danish","tag-denmark","tag-descent","tag-dna","tag-east-riding","tag-egypt","tag-egyptian","tag-egyptians","tag-england","tag-english","tag-fulford","tag-gene","tag-genes","tag-haakon","tag-haakon-iv","tag-haakonsson","tag-harald-hardrada","tag-harold-godwinson","tag-hastings","tag-largs","tag-luxor","tag-nile","tag-norman","tag-normandy","tag-normans","tag-north-yorkshire","tag-norway","tag-norwegian","tag-norwegians","tag-ouse","tag-riccall","tag-river","tag-scandinavia","tag-scandinavian","tag-scotland","tag-scots","tag-scottish","tag-selby","tag-stamford-bridge","tag-vikings","tag-william","tag-york","tag-yorkshire"],"yoast_head":"\nA 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