New study: Norwegian Vikings were more barbaric than Danes

– Violence was much more widespread in Norwegian society in the Viking Age than in Denmark, says Professor Jan Bill at the University of Oslo (UiO) to NRK.

Bill is one of the researchers behind the new study, which is a collaboration between UiO, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the American University of South Florida.

Studies has, among other things, investigated Norwegian and Danish Viking skeletons and studied Viking graves in the two countries.

– There is a lot of stab damage on the Norwegian skeletons. Many more Norwegian skeletons showed traces of cuts and blows compared to the Danish ones, says Bill.

The differences are quite large. More than a third of the Norwegian skeletons bear the mark of fatal violence, while the same applied to the Danes for only 6 percent.

The amount of weapons was significantly greater in the Norwegian Viking graves – as much as fifty times as much.

The researchers point out that this big difference comes from the fact that Norwegian and Danish Vikings had quite different societies.

The Danes had organized their society to a greater extent and had, for example, several major construction projects, and people had their own social roles.

– In Denmark, more emphasis was placed on society’s interests, says Bill.

The Danes also had more executions, so it may seem that the violence was also more organized.