before I start, this isn't talking about ALL Viking age enthusiasts. I used to be one and both of my friends are Viking age enthusiasts. I am gonna talk about the cringe ones here.
The Viking age is one of the most important AND the most popular Scandinavian history era. I mean, they're cool and a lot of pop culture uses Vikings (in inaccurate ways however) so there's no doubt there are a lot of Viking age enthusiasts
However, There is a bad side to this. I used to be a Viking age kid. I am currently a Scandinavian Emigration Era (thanks Vilhelm Moberg) and a Vasa age kid, so my POV is kinda varried.
1st of all, the overall personality. These guys will take a DNA test, wait for the result and if they see even like 0.0000000001 Scandinavian, they automatically think they have Viking ancestry. Not all people of Scandinavian or Scandinavian-American ancestry have direct Viking ancestry. Finnish people aren’t related to the Vikings, Sámi people also aren’t even thought their may be a possibility since Vikings and Sámi people did get married. My Danish-American friend has Viking ancestry herself, and she has actual proof.
2nd. Misinformation, especially surrounding Nordic history AFTER the Viking Age. I found a whole youtube account on the Viking age where it was misinformation, and people took it for granted. They seriously called a Swedish Folk song written in the 18th century a Viking song. They also say a lot of misinformation, probably because they learnt about Vikings from that one History Channel Show (I always get told to watch it, but I’m only 14 plus it’s inaccurate and I am not huge on the Viking age as I was before)
and last but not least, The fact that this is so normalized, that people end up assuming this is all Nordic history enthusiasts, especially Viking age enthusiasts. I have met Good Viking age enthusiasts and bad Viking age enthusiasts, But because of the latter there is more assumption of these guys. One time, I told someone I liked Nordic history and replied with “Oh no don’t raid my village.” Like Bro what.
Plus, Non-Viking age enthusiasts are non existent to these guys. I remembered when a kid at a Nordic (It was general European, but they focused on Nordic countries a lot) festival really asked me if the Scandinavian Emigration Era was even real.
Sorry for my rant. I want to hear your opinion on this
