Viking Rape And Fate

 

Yup, they did come around, so I would be all that surprised if they went there too ....

Those old Scandinavian Vikings do have a reputation of cruelty and what is considered "bad manners" in modern times, but they also had an allure, that can't be denied. Besides, they furnished us with some interesting love/hate-stories, that even sort of comment and highlight modern day life. One of these stories is the one about the Danish Viking Helge, who was the brother of King Roar. According to legend he may have died very young, but in the "Skjoldungesaga-fragment" he is depicted as a very active man, doing what Vikings do. He is considered a hero, although he is the one who raped and impregnated Olof, who was the wife of a Saxon earl. It seems that somehow Olof and Helge had fallen out, and this rape was supposed to be his revenge for her scorning him. - My verdict? Shame upon you, stupid Helge, your "deed" proves that rape isn't the way to go!!!

 

NB: This is not a picture of Olof, but of another famous woman from the sagas, the Valkyrie, Brunnhilde.

Anyway, Helge's vile rape of Olof led to the birth of a daughter, who was so hated by her mother that she named her after her dog, Yrsa. When she grew up, she became very beautiful, and "fate" had her father - who didn't know anything about her existence - meet her and fell in love with her. 

He brought her back to Denmark, married her, and they were happy together, until the vengeful Olof told Yrsa that Helge is her biological father, and that their son, Rolf Krake, thus not only is her child, but also her brother. Incest was not acceptable to a proud Viking-woman, and the unhappy Yrsa leaves her husband-father, but is later married to the Swedish king Adils. 

This king may have been jealous of both Helge and his son with Yrsa, Rolf Krake, because he sets out to kill both of them, but in vain. Actually, the seemingly ever-lecherous Helge has one more daughter, Skuld, by some not high-ranking or maybe even criminal woman. (Some see her as a fairy, an elf, a witch or something like that). This daughter is nothing like Yrsa, on the contrary, she is demonic and cruel, and later on she takes part in the killing of her brother, Rolf Krake, who by that time has become one of the super-heroes in the Viking-sagas. He is also supposed to have been one of the early kings of Denmark, but it's difficult to know for sure as all these old-time heroes seem to be mixed-up characters, so that one finds it impossible to discern between them: WHO did what, and why? The one who was considered a hero with the Vikings appears to be nothing but, when we take a closer look at him ....

However, some are interesting as archaeological objects, like e.g. this guy: