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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">The Vikings did know about poisons -
there are lots of references to venomous dragons, poisoned wells
and suchlike, but the poisons seemed to be mostly described as
snake venom ("etter"). The berserkers getting crazy on fly agaric
is likely a myth. But no agricultural society will be ignorant
about the toxicity of some of the apparently edible berries and
plants they find around them.<br>
<br>
From my understanding of their culture, poisons belonged to the
area of dark, creepy magic, "sejd". Proper runic magic was fine:
that was all about poetry and learning, even if it was used to
curse enemies. But sejd was underhanded, foreign, shamanic and
associated with witches from Finland or further east - not the
kind of thing a proper man or woman ought to deal with (Sure, the
gods Odin and Loki knew and used it, but they were always a bit
suspect... yup, the chief of the gods had a few skeletons in the
wardrobe)<br>
<br>
Generally, Spike is right about the Viking disdain about magic. It
might be dangerous and worth fearing, but since a proper Viking
warrior ignores fear, you should charge in anyway. As one of the
heroes said, a good sword beats most magic.<br>
<br>
(I guess we post-Vikings would say a good double-blind randomized
trial beats most magic.)<br>
<br>
<br>
On 29/11/2012 22:44, spike wrote:<br>
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<div class="WordSection1"><span style="color:#1F497D"> <o:p></o:p></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">Prechristian Viking civilizations
learned how to ply the seas almost before anyone, so they
were wandering around the globe early in history. Their
particular brand of Paganism had a number of superstitions
that greatly influenced the way they did things whenever
they encountered a strange new civilization. They are said
to have believed that other civilizations had magical
powers, but were not omnipotent. For instance they had
gnomes, elves, faeries and things, all examples of beings
with powers but not unlimited powers. A sturdy Viking lad
could defeat them through ordinary might and a strong sword
arm, and often did exactly that: come into a village of
small people (everyone was small compared to the Vikings),
freak out, kill everyone. Or if they decided the locals did
not have magical powers, then two or three would offer to
stay behind. The locals would likely welcome or at least
tolerate the sturdy blonde guy, and I can imagine he was
popular with the ladies. This would explain why Viking
genes are found everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">Theory: in the north country, the home
of the Vikings, there were no poisonous plants or frogs for
instance, so the Vikings never did learn the basic chemistry
required to do such things as making poison darts. The
people from the tropics, on the other hand, had plenty of
poisons they could distill from their local biota, so they
did. The use of poison darts would appear as magic to a
Viking, all of whose biota was perfectly non-toxic. The
whole notion of making a poison from the glands of a tree
frog would be witchcraft and magic. So the Vikings
encountered a population who knew how to mysteriously kill
proles. The survivors returned to Sweden with the stories,
and this influenced their belief system. So the later
generations of Vikings, not wanting to take a chance there
may be dark magic at work, would slay the lot of them
whenever possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">An ancient Viking, or one with a
similar mindset, in the elevator with the zombie girl might
attack and seriously injure her, rather than cowering in the
corner as these people did.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="color:#1F497D">Commentary welcome by anyone with
knowledge of actual Vikings, or any direct descendants of
actual Vikings, Anders<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University </pre>
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