Yngling

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2020
1,453
3,090
this article talks about Vikings sacking a town in Mauretania ( Morroco of today ) which was a black skin population.
No it wasn't. Sub-sahara Africa has a mostly black skinned population. North Africans aren't black.

So, no, stopping to talk about racism when others are clearly racists and ask to not include black people is not the way to stop racism.
Thanks for the insult... :FacePalm:

How is it wrong to wish for a historically accurate representation of a period which I happen to like?
You seem intent on making a woke / Disney version of it. Good luck but it's not for me.
 

Thomas Ward

Newbie
Game Developer
Oct 13, 2019
65
119
Not quite sure from the description, what is the game like in terms of gameplay? Is it a visual novel or something else?
 

Deleted member 2755092

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2020
1,484
2,613
Not quite sure from the description, what is the game like in terms of gameplay? Is it a visual novel or something else?
It's a top down 3D isometric map for now.
You move the camera with the keyboard, then click on your target to move.

Story wise, there's little for now, but it seems to be more of a sandbox than a VN. It is maybe a bit too early to tell though.
There is however, the presence of a resources counter as well, as such, I believe it'll be a top down view of a sandbox. No idea about combats yet, since it's done in unreal, it could be quite literally anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Thomas Ward

DreamBig Games

Active Member
Donor
Game Developer
May 27, 2017
927
907
No it wasn't. Sub-sahara Africa has a mostly black skinned population. North Africans aren't black.

Aha.... sure...

.
How is it wrong to wish for a historically accurate representation of a period which I happen to like?
Because what you consider accurate, is not so.

So far we have seen evidence ( in this thread ) that Vikings were not all Blonde, that Dark-haired vikings were common. We have seen articles written about vikings traveling to Moroco and raiding ( and most likely taking slaves from ), we have seen articles that discuss the possibility of having dark-skinned/ black Vikings.

So, sure, if the game is not for you, it's fine. But, what you present as facts (without any links ) isn't so.
 

Seewolf

Active Member
Feb 27, 2019
551
1,281
Actually, you might want to do some actual research instead of calling it a "no-brainer":

View attachment 2793120







The takeaway from those articles:
Probably Scandinavians had red hair more often than blonde.
Dark hair was common.
Not all were blonde, and, against common "no brainer" beliefs, in Viking era, blonde was less common than today.
Vikings are not a "race", or ethnicity, there were people like the Samni who look a lot less than Danes, and still were Vikings.

On the other hand, we are aware that starting with a cast where 2 of the main LI are dark haired, is not optimal, so we are thinking of redoing some character's hair.

Also, we plan to add more characters from diverse backgrounds or cultures, so with time, you will have plenty of blonde haired characters to choose from.
I knew you would quote these recent bogus articles of more or less leftist "journalist"-activists, who deliberately wanted to misinterpret the conclusions of the very large DNA study in order to make Vikings more "inclusive".
Have you bothered to read the actual study or did you simply rely on ideologically motivated articles of third parties?
Here is the link to the original study:

blonde was less common than today
That's not true and I assume you've taken this info from the articles about the study and not from the study itself. Genetically it also makes no sense because of the recessiveness of blondism. Gradually the percentage of blondism is reduced when interbreeding with more dark haired people.

But back to the main topic, the above mentioned study was disputed by some serious historians and archeologists for several reasons. First of all, the definition of a Viking grave was kept very much open: Everyone, who adopted the lifestyle of raiding coastal areas according to their burrial objects, no matter their ethnicity, was labeled a "Viking" grave.

Raiding neighboring coasts per boat wasn't something just the Nordic Vikings did. In fact many people in Europe living close to the sea did it. You can find coastal raiders everywhere in Europe during the early Middle Age. The problem is, when you label coastal raiders of different European origin "Viking". The term Viking is old Nordic, therefore real Vikings were Scandinavians. But raiding foreign coasts wasn't exclusive to Vikings during this time. This is why they say: "Viking was a profession rather than an ethnicity". But you've got to differentiate between actual Vikings and local coastal raiders!

They even had and used pretty similar equipment for their profession. Also the so called "viking sword" actually isn't a sword type exclusive to Vikings, it's also a Carolingian sword, because this sword type was widely used and produced across Europe and a valuable trade good.
Why do I mention it? Because in this study every grave where f.e. the "Viking sword" type amongst other "typical Viking" things were found as burial objects was labeled a "Viking" grave. Albeit finding an early medieval type sword in a grave says nothing about the ethnicity of the burried corpse.

So they took DNA samples from a rather large amount of graves, but it is very much debatable, if Nordic Vikings were actually burried there or simply local coastal raiders of a specific area. Hence if the premise is already that much botched, you will get quite diverse DNA findings, like suddenly most "Vikings" weren't blonde (I never said all Scandinavians were blonde, but the percentage is very high and used to be even higher due to recessiveness of blondism). Dark hairs being common in the samples, thats because many of those taken DNA samples actually weren't from Nordic Vikings to begin with, but some local coastal raiders, who used similar equipment! They shouldn't have applied the label "Viking" to those.

Example: they took dna from Viking era graves on the Orkey Islands and found out that the DNA was 85 % of local origin, not Scandinavian. Only a minority actually came from Norway, which most likely was the ruling class, inhabitating the island after having conquered it (of course there was also some intermixing with locals, just like there was influx of foreign DNA into Scandinavia due to female slaves they took from the Baltics, British Isles and mainland Europe). Anyway the inhabitants of Orkney can be considered culturally Norwegian during this time, because they were colonized by Norwegian Vikings. So it is possible to have a lot of non-Norse DNA in a sample from someone being drafted as a local into a Viking raiding party.
Out of this lots of leftist agenda newspapers made headlines like: "most Vikings had dark hairs" in order to make Vikings more inclusive and diverse.

To be clear, Denmark was the cultural center of the Viking world (of course there were also Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic Vikings), but Norway, Sweden and Iceland were peripheries compared to the importance of Denmark in the Viking world from which Danish DNA radiates into as the above mentioned study shows. So most other people being victim of Vikings rather got genetically "Danified" over time due to Danish Vikings taking their women and having offspring with them, rather than any other gene flow. The later medieval Normans settling in northern France also were of Danish origin genetically f.e.

Vikings did interbreed with different European people, but there were different models:
In England (mainly Danes) they settled in large numbers and also took Anglo-Saxon women, thus becoming English over time culturally, but due to the large Danish population influx, they remained a large amount of Nordic DNA in certain parts of England known as the "Danelaw" back then.
Orkney is a different example ("colonized" by Norwegians), where the ruling and most likely the warrior class was Norwegian, but most of the population remained their local (maybe ancient Pictish) ancestry, due to rather low numbers of Norwegian Vikings actually having settled there, despite ruling the island for centuries. So the inhabitants of Orkney became culturally Norwegian over time, but not genetically.
Greenland is another model (settled mostly by Icelanders), where Viking settlements show no evidence at all of interbreeding with native Innuit for so far unknown reasons. Maybe there were even racial reasons for this, because according to the sources about Vinland (refering to modern day Newfoundland most likely), the local native Americans were refered to as "Skrælingar" (=weaklings) by the Vikings and looked down upon. Of course this isn't politically correct for modern day standards, but nevertheless those are historic facts.

Unlike most of the blockheads on this board, who give facepalms, because they envy someone with actual knowledge and suffer from their inferiority complex, I know a lot about history, archeology and even genetics. Comes with the job, but I won't go into details here, because it's not neccessary.

You know, science nowadays produces a lot of ideologically motivitaed bullshit:

photo_2023-07-23_09-19-03.jpg

It's up to you, to use your own brain and see through the ideologically motivated bullshit often published nowadays.
 
Last edited:

Deleted member 2755092

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2020
1,484
2,613
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
This is a very interesting take: they've actually mislabeled many viking tombs.
This would certainly explain the lack of spreading of languages, religions and the like, which has always baffled me in my studies.

The sword's argument holds itself strongly as well, and his historically backed as well, and it certainly would explain the dark hair presence as well, despite the texts and images of the time clearly only mentioning blondes and redheads. So this was certainly an excellent find, thank you very much for that.

They seem to have assumed for some reason, that it was an occupation like pirates, while it was not. This actually makes perfect sense.
 

DreamBig Games

Active Member
Donor
Game Developer
May 27, 2017
927
907
Have you bothered to read the actual study or did you simply rely on ideologically motivated articles of thrid parties?
Here is the link to the original study:

The article is behind a paywall. So, unless you have paid for it ( or have a University pass for that site ) how did you access it? If you did access it, it might be interesting to link the parts that infirm the "leftist" sites that I linked. Hell, the whole front page of google is leftist in this case.

Also, there is this book:

In regards to the other statements, do you have anything to back them up?
Not the parts about Orkney or Danelaw, I am familiar with them and I agree with most of what you said regarding them.
You say the study was highly contested, can you provide links to that?

Otherwise, very well-spoken and it sure sounds convincing, but excuse me if I don't trust just 1 person ( with no academia that I am aware of ) as opposed to multiple sites ( with no obvious connection between them ).
 
  • Like
Reactions: OGRob

Look-see

Engaged Member
Aug 19, 2018
2,935
5,340
the Viking fandom is really popping off on this one.:coffee:

honestly i wish Hella was hotter in this game.

i'm just not really getting "a goddess of death" vibe from her.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OGRob

smokyquark

New Member
Mar 23, 2017
6
3
Has the dev PashiGames even bothered to research how ancient Scandinavians looked like? A Viking game, where the cast is full of dark haired people?! Out of 6 persons in the cover art 4 have got dark hair. Very scandinavian indeed... kills all the immersion, before the journey even started.
That is just not correct. If you wanna go historic here, most northmen were dark haired and had dark eyes. They were a pretty diverse bunch, what we call "Viking" today, is a mix of tons of different tribes who never had one clear appearance. DNA tests show this today, but you can also just look at their pantheon. Not many gods are every described, but Thor is supposed to have completely red hair +beard and Loki has blonde hair, but is also describes as feminine and changes his looks often. Tyr is sometimes described as having brown hair, Odins hair ranges from black, grey to white. Heimdall is never clearly described to my knowledge, but is sometimes called "the whitest of the gods", whatever that means.
If women are described they usually have blonde (Sif) or red (Freya)hair, probably to signify beautiy and fertility.

In many stories, blonde hair is depicted as beautiful and desireable, seductresses and trophy wifes often have fair hair in the sagas. This also tells you, that it was not the norm back then.
 

smokyquark

New Member
Mar 23, 2017
6
3
I knew you would quote these recent bogus articles of more or less leftist "journalist"-activists, who deliberately wanted to misinterpret the conclusions of the very large DNA study in order to make Vikings more "inclusive".
Have you bothered to read the actual study or did you simply rely on ideologically motivated articles of third parties?
Here is the link to the original study:



That's not true and I assume you've taken this info from the articles about the study and not from the study itself. Genetically it also makes no sense because of the recessiveness of blondism. Gradually the percentage of blondism is reduced when interbreeding with more dark haired people.

But back to the main topic, the above mentioned study was disputet by some serious historians and archeologists for several reasons. First of all, the definition of a Viking grave was kept very much open: Everyone, who adopted the lifestyle of raiding coastal areas according to their burrial objects, no matter their ethnicity, was labeled a "Viking" grave.

Raiding neighboring coasts per boat wasn't something just the Nordic Vikings did. In fact many people in Europe living close to the sea did it. You can find coastal raiders everywhere in Europe during the early Middle Age. The problem is, when you label coastal raiders of different European origin "Viking". The term Viking is old Nordic, therefore real Vikings were Scandinavians. But raiding foreign coasts wasn't exclusive to Vikings during this time. This is why they say: "Viking was a profession rather than an ethnicity". But you've got to differentiate between actual Vikings and local coastal raiders!

They even had and used pretty similiar equipment for their profession. Also the so called "viking sword" actually isn't a sword type exclusive to Vikings, it's also a Carolingian sword, because this sword type was widely used and produced across Europe and a valuable trade good.
Why do I mention it? Because in this study every grave where f.e. the "Viking sword" type amongst other "typical Viking" things were found as burial objects was labeled a "Viking" grave. Albeit finding an early medieval type sword in a grave says nothing about the ethnicity of the burried corpse.

So they took DNA samples from a rather large amount of graves, but it is very much debatable, if Nordic Vikings were actually burried there or simply local coastal raiders of a specific area. Hence if the premise is already that much botched, you will get quite diverse DNA findings, like suddenly most "Vikings" weren't blonde (I never said all Scandinavians were blonde, but the percentage is very high and used to be even higher due to recessiveness of blondism). Dark hairs being common in the samples, thats because many of those taken DNA samples actually weren't from Nordic Vikings to begin with, but some local coastal raiders, who used similiar equipment! They shouldn't have applied the label "Viking" to those.

Example: they took dna from Viking era graves on the Orkey Islands and found out that the DNA was 85 % of local origin, not Scandinavian. Only a minority actually came from Norway, which most likely was the ruling class, inhabitating the island after having conquered it (of course there was also some intermixing with locals, just like there was influx of foreign DNA into Scandinavia due to female slaves they took from the Baltics, British Isles and mainland Europe). Anyway the inhabitants of Orkney can be considered culturally Norwegian during this time, because they were colonized by Norwegian Vikings. So it is possible to have a lot of non-Norse DNA in a sample from someone being drafted as a local into a Viking raiding party.
Out of this lots of leftist agenda newspapers made headlines like: "most Vikings had dark hairs" in order to make Vikings more inclusive and diverse.

To be clear, Denmark was the cultural center of the Viking world (of course there were also Norwegian, Swedish and Icelandic Vikings), but Norway, Sweden and Iceland were peripheries compared to the importance of Denmark in the Viking world from which Danish DNA radiates into as the above mentioned study shows. So most other people being victim of Vikings rather got genetically "Danified" over time due to Danish Vikings taking their women and having offspring with them, rather than any other gene flow. The later medieval Normans settling in northern France also were of Danish origin genetically f.e.

Vikings did interbreed with different European people, but there were different models:
In England (mainly Danes) they settled in large numbers and also took Anglo-Saxon women, thus becoming English over time culturally, but due to the large Danish population influx, they remained a large amount of Nordic DNA in certain parts of England known as the "Danelaw" back then.
Orkney is a different example ("colonized" by Norwegians), where the ruling and most likely the warrior class was Norwegian, but most of the population remained their local (maybe ancient Pictish) ancestry, due to rather low numbers of Norwegian Vikings actually having settled there, despite ruling the island for centuries. So the inhabitants of Orkney became culturally Norwegian over time, but not genetically.
Greenland is another model (settled mostly by Icelanders), where Viking settlements show no evidence at all of interbreeding with native Innuit for so far unknown reasons. Maybe there were even racial reasons for this, because according to the sources about Vinland (refering to modern day Newfoundland most likely), the local native Americans were refered to as "Skrælingar" (=weaklings) by the Vikings and looked down upon. Of course this isn't politically correct for modern day standards, but nevertheless those are historic facts.

Unlike most of the blockheads on this board, who give facepalms, because they envy someone with actual knowledge and suffer from their inferiority complex, I know a lot about history, archeology and even genetics. Comes with the job, but I won't go into details here, because it's not neccessary.

You know, science nowadays produces a lot of ideologically motivitaed bullshit:

View attachment 2794305

It's up to you, to use your own brain and see through the ideologically motivated bullshit often published nowadays.
thats not how recessive genes work. They are always less common, but they dont get "bred out" either, unless their carriers reproduce less. Bloodgroup 0 for example will always remain stable, unless the dominant genes are multiplied by external reasons.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OGRob

Seewolf

Active Member
Feb 27, 2019
551
1,281
The article is behind a paywall. So, unless you have paid for it ( or have a University pass for that site ) how did you access it? If you did access it, it might be interesting to link the parts that infirm the "leftist" sites that I linked. Hell, the whole front page of google is leftist in this case.

Also, there is this book: fact, in,round of skull.”

In regards to the other statements, do you have anything to back them up?

Not the parts about Orkney or Danelaw, I am familiar with them and I agree with most of what you said regarding them.

You say the study was highly contested, can you provide links to that?

Otherwise, very well-spoken and it sure sounds convincing, but excuse me if I don't trust just 1 person ( with no academia that I am aware of ) as opposed to multiple sites ( with no obvious connection between them ).
I do have university access to the original study “Population genomics of the Viking world” and also got a pdf copy on my hdd. I can hand it out via pm for those, who really are interested, no problem, but I can’t share it here publically for copyright reasons. (Some people might love to sue me, if I did.)

The book you mention is not to be taken seriously. I don’t really know what the author is talking about, when he mentions two distinctive phenotypes for Scandinavia "being common". I can only assume, that he means two distinctive ethnicities, who used to inhabit Scandinavia: Nordic people (typically blonde, tall and blue eyed, not all, but a very significant majority) and indigenous Sami people. The latter were indeed of short stature, had black hair, broad faces and dark eyes (due to interbreeding with Nordic people you will see different phenotypes today in Sami people, but originally they were as described: short, dark haired, dark eyed, broad faced). But those aren’t Vikings; the indigenous Sami had a different lifestyle (reindeer herders) and they were colonized by the Nordic people. Only the Nordic people were Vikings!

You ask me to make a rather high effort post with quotes and citation of sources in order to back up my claims and argumentation from my previous post, while you made a rather low effort post (no offence) by simply linking a non-academic site, where the possibility of black Vikings are “discussed”. (It’s not a real discussion btw, the goal of this article is to justify and defend the “Californication” of European history by adding as much diversity as possible in popular TV shows no matter the historic facts, because the show runners want to please liberal & woke American visual habits).

I could do so, writing a small academic essay here, but I won’t for several reasons.

Foremost I lack the time right now. In a week from now on I’ll be on summer vacation abroad with my loved ones and still have got a lot of things to get off my desk before that. My time is precious and do I really want to waste it debating on a pirate adult games & vn board?

Secondly I doubt, if it’s worth it. Because it won’t simply stop, after I will have convinced you, that you were wrong. After all this is the internet and proving random strangers on the internet claiming silly things to be wrong is a very much futile task. No offence, but as Einstein once said: "two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity…"

A few pages (maybe even just a few posts) from here in this very thread the next one will pop up, who will feel entitled to raise a very strong opinion on the topic, despite knowing very little actually combined with zero self-reflection, who will claim silly things he might have snapped up somewhere.

So just a few posts after mine, people will not have read, what was discussed already, they won't even bother, because most are totally ignorant. More will pop up, claiming that everything I wrote was wrong, because they’ve read the leftist activist wannabe journalist articles, who deliberately misinterpreted the conclusions of the study in order to push their modern day “inclusive” and “multicultural” agenda.
No matter how much I'd prove them to be wrong, the next one will pop up claiming the very same things as his predecessor a few pages earlier. It would be an endless circle. Do I really want to fight this upcoming tide of low effort posts without any real deep going knowledge on the topic? As a matter of fact, I’ve got better things to do.

The problem is, that critical thinking isn’t taught today. People are spoon-fed with lots of ideology nowadays, but very few actual knowledge. People should not ask the “wrong questions” and begin to think freely, no government in the West is interested in this (Of course way more openly autocratic ruled ruled China or Russia aren't, too). Most governments in the world want to have obedient consumer citizen, easy to manipulate. That’s why many people aren’t capable to detect manipulation via easily accessible mass media and popular culture…

But I won’t leave you completely empty handed. I also think that a video is way more suitable for the audience in here. One of the authors of the original study: “Population genomics of the Viking world” is Ellingvåg Sturla. He was shocked, when he saw, how the media deliberately misinterpreted the finding of the study and did a youtube video to correct that. Of course the damage was done already and many people will just read the third party misinterpretations, which have gone viral, instead of the original study, just like PashiGames did!

Here is, what one of the co-authors of the original study has got to say about the flawed media coverage and that the data set of the study included a lot of non-Nordic (hence non-Viking) people, which surprise surprise led to the conclusion, that many in these samples had dark hairs and dark eyes (because they weren't real Vikings).

Next to the examples I gave in my previous post, 2nd, 3rd, etc. generation descendants of Vikings having intermixed with local women, whose phenotype was more like the one of their local mothers (remember blondism is recessive genetically, so if a tall blonde man interbreeds with a dark haired local woman, the children have got a high chance to inherit the dark hair of the mother and also the dark eyes, even more so in the 3rd or 4th generation, if the interbreeding with local people of darker phenotype goes on), were part of the samples of the study. The database also included DNA taken from burials of Sami people, who adapted coastal raiding lifestyle from their Viking neighbors, but weren’t Viking!



For even more insight I very much recommend the 1h 30 min interview of Sturla, co-author of the study, by English youtuber and historian Tom Rowsell



Least but not last in general you should beware, that utter bullshit like this is also considered to be "science" nowadays... tells you a lot about the decline of quality of universities and the outright degeneration of the West.

bs science.jpg
 
Last edited:

PashiGames

New Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2023
11
65
To begin with, I want to thank all of you guys for dedicating your time to play Vikings: Sex and Blood V01 (by the way, I believe it's unanimous that this is an Alpha-Test release).

In the game's early stages, your feedback will play a crucial role in the development process. While VSB currently exists as a sandbox, the undisclosed narrative holds the potential for situational shifts, introducing fresh conquests, battles, raids, and many more hot female characters (regarding Hella, she is a divine being with the remarkable power to alter her appearance and form at will)

We greatly value your suggestions, and I noticed there's been a meaningful discussion regarding authenticity and historical accuracy. Learning new things is always fascinating, as they say, no one knows everything.

Rest assured, we are actively addressing the issues and plan to re-release the improved free version soon. In the meantime, stay updated with sneak peeks of new characters by following us on , , , and, last but not least, I extend a warm invitation to join our community.
 

Deleted member 2755092

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2020
1,484
2,613
To begin with, I want to thank all of you guys for dedicating your time to play Vikings: Sex and Blood V01 (by the way, I believe it's unanimous that this is an Alpha-Test release).

In the game's early stages, your feedback will play a crucial role in the development process. While VSB currently exists as a sandbox, the undisclosed narrative holds the potential for situational shifts, introducing fresh conquests, battles, raids, and many more hot female characters (regarding Hella, she is a divine being with the remarkable power to alter her appearance and form at will)

We greatly value your suggestions, and I noticed there's been a meaningful discussion regarding authenticity and historical accuracy. Learning new things is always fascinating, as they say, no one knows everything.

Rest assured, we are actively addressing the issues and plan to re-release the improved free version soon. In the meantime, stay updated with sneak peeks of new characters by following us on , , , and, last but not least, I extend a warm invitation to join our community.
Quick question while you're here, someone earlier was asking about combat, if there'll be any.

Could you tell us what your plans are for combats? Will it be a FPS/RPG style, a mini game type of thing, a card game etc?
 

PashiGames

New Member
Game Developer
Jul 21, 2023
11
65
Quick question while you're here, someone earlier was asking about combat, if there'll be any.
As of now, we have not reached a final decision. Initially, our plan was to present the combats in the same manner as the sex scenes, complete with animations. However, we are open to exploring alternatives, the decision regarding this will be made at a later point in time.
 

DreamBig Games

Active Member
Donor
Game Developer
May 27, 2017
927
907
I can hand it out via pm for those
I would really like to get a copy of that.



while you made a rather low effort post
I quoted what I found. Is it low effort to stop digging further when the whole first page of Google gives you the same result??? Maybe, but considering I do not have access to academia sites, this is all I can do.


So just a few posts after mine
The discussion was between you and me, not others who might read or not...



Now, regarding the YouTube clip:

he states:
"Vikings might have brought home wives, and that might have influenced genetics"




"trading hubs in Southern Denmark have a large variety and it is normal..."



ALso, I don't place much weight on someone who criticizes a study where he is named as Co-author. I mean, if you are not happy or agree with the study and the samples used in the study, why would you place your name on it???

Oh, and another big point: The guy is openly saying that "it was good and interesting " that "we kept to ourselves for thousands of years".



Another interesting thing: He claims not enough samples were taken from in-land areas, but we know most Vikings were coastal tribes/ groups, not the inland ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OGRob

blackmetal

Member
Nov 15, 2018
470
333
THE GATHERING SYSTEM IS PURE GARBAGE ,NOT ONLY IS IT DIFFICULT ITS ALSO VERY BUGGY AND NOT VERY ENJOYABLE TO USE , JUST HARVEST SO MUCH PER TIME SPENT
 

Yngling

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2020
1,453
3,090
I do have university access to the original study “Population genomics of the Viking world” and also got a pdf copy on my hdd. I can hand it out via pm for those
Yes, please!

The book you mention is not to be taken seriously. I don’t really know what the author is talking about, when he mentions two distinctive phenotypes for Scandinavia "being common". I can only assume, that he means two distinctive ethnicities, who used to inhabit Scandinavia: Nordic people (typically blonde, tall and blue eyed, not all, but a very significant majority) and indigenous Sami people. The latter were indeed of short stature, had black hair, broad faces and dark eyes (due to interbreeding with Nordic people you will see different phenotypes today in Sami people, but originally they were as described: short, dark haired, dark eyed, broad faced). But those aren’t Vikings; the indigenous Sami had a different lifestyle (reindeer herders) and they were colonized by the Nordic people. Only the Nordic people were Vikings!
Perhaps he means this?


But also:



are Nordid varieties but with some notable differences from Nordid / Hallstatt. All of those I would personally consider completely appropriate as "real" Vikings.

Humanphenotypes.net does list a couple of different phenotypes in Germanic regions where Vikings originated, some of them with typically brown hair. But that website represents the status pre-colonisation (e.g. around 1500) so well after the Viking age, and it is possible that some varieties in Norway were influenced by Celtic elements introduced by the Vikings.

On the other hand it is also possible that Strandid influences are responsible for references to "black" people in the saga's.

Least but not last in general you should beware, that utter bullshit like this is also considered to be "science" nowadays... tells you a lot about the decline of quality of universities and the outright degeneration of the West.
A very sad truth... :cry:

ALso, I don't place much weight on someone who criticizes a study where he is named as Co-author. I mean, if you are not happy or agree with the study and the samples used in the study, why would you place your name on it???
This is the problem with this kind of studies being widely available.
Really anybody can read it, but it can be hard to understand and easy to draw the wrong conclusions.

Why he would still put his name on a study which he criticises is easy enough: sometimes a study is what it is. Sometimes you know your dataset has problems, but at the same time it may still be worthwhile to analyse it and publish. Only you need to be very, very careful with drawing conclusions.

That people don't understand that, is exactly the issue with the quality of academia which Seewolf is talking about.
 
2.00 star(s) 2 Votes