"Viking Love, Rape and Incest": Ezine article by Else Cederborg

All of us know that the old Vikings of Scandinavia were cruel and brutal warriors because that's what we have been told. Their image is somewhat troll like according to the way they have been depicted in modern times. However, in the Sagas, i.e. the medieval prose narratives of Scandinavian gods and heroes, they are first and foremost heroic and very brave figures.  

The troll like viking also is a popular troll like doll

To these men it’s no crime to set out on a predatory expedition as it’s part of their social obligations to restore order according to their beliefs. They conquer land which they feel belong to them and they kill enemies because that is necessary to obtain this goal. Some of their expeditions have a religious background as they want to serve their own gods by destroying those who are not part of their pantheon.

One of the most renowned warrior-heroes is the Danish viking Helge, the brother of king Roar. In some of the sagas he seems to have died a very young man, but in others, like in the "Skjoldungesaga-fragment" he lives and he sure is a very active viking. However, his fate is to be known and remembered as the viking who raped the proud noblewoman Olof who was married to a Saxon earl and who had derided him. However, this revenge, as it is, leads to the birth of a daughter who is kept a secret by her mother and is so hated by her that she names her after her dog, i.e. Yrsa. 

Several years after the birth of Yrsa her father, Helge, who still doesn't know anything about her, returns to the scenery for the rape and this time he abducts the beautiful, young girl and brings her with him to Denmark where they get married.

Strangely enough this marriage becomes a success. Both of them are unaware of the incest they are committing and are happy when their son, Rolf Krake, is born. But now the vengeful Olof strikes out to destroy their illicit happiness by informing them of their close relationship. The unhappy Yrsa leaves the Danish court and she marries the Swedish King Adils who later tries to murder Helge and also Rolf. 

However, Helge lives to have another daughter, Skuld, by a woman who is set out to be some kind of a fairy or maybe a witch. This daughter proves to be quite different from Yrsa as she is cruel by nature and quite demonic. She plays one of the main parts in the killing of her brother, Rolf Krake.

At that point Rolf Krake had grown to become one of the most renown heroes of the sagas. He is even supposed to have been one of the very early kings of Denmark, but as what was the case with his father, that's more than unlikely as both of them may just be fictive characters in the viking sagas of Scandinavia. Besides that, like with other Vikings Helge is mixed up with other brave and famous heroes of that name.

 
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people

 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Denmark/The-Viking-era 

 

https://www.visitdenmark.com/denmark/things-do/history-and-culture/top-viking-sites 

 

Wikipedia