Had there been a significant physiological difference between the Vikings and the Europeans (around the 11th century)?
score:7
The Romans did notice a physiological difference between themselves and Germanic Tribes, as already mentioned by DevSolar. The Arab traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan aswell noted down in his journals when he encountered the Volga Vikings: "I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy". Scandinavians still today ranks quite high on the average human height index.
Based on this i think it safe to say that there was some physiological difference between Vikings and other groups of people in Europe. But answering your question is hard because you group all other people living in Europe together as Europeans but dismiss and place the Norse in a separate distinct group. You miss to take into consideration that for example Germans have more in common with Nors*m*n but genetically and culturally than they have with Spaniards, yet you label both these groups together as Europeans.
Whether or not physiological differences have helped the Vikings in wars and conquests is hard to answer. It is logical that a bigger man has an advantage over a smaller man when it comes to combat, but in war there are so many different factors to consider. My personal opinion is that the possible advantage coming from physiological differences that might of occurred when the Vikings encountered and fought some of the other groups, is negligible.
TL;DR
There probably were some physiological differences, at least in height, between the Vikings and some of the other groups of people in Europe. But this difference is probably negligible and have not played any significant role in wars.
Upvote:4
IMHO opinion there were no ethnic Vikings. Scandinavians were ethnic Danes, or Norse, or Swedes. The pagan Scandinavians who sailed to raid and pillage foreign lands were vikings by occupation.
Scandinavians who wanted to be vikings and were accepted into viking crews probably had distinctive personalities. Egil's Saga says he killed a boy when he was seven years old and his mother suggested with his violent personality he should be a viking when he got older. ("Son be a viking"?). And Egil did go on viking voyages.
And possibly viking crews recruited bigger than average Scandinavians in the belief that would make them better at fighting. In real life the average viking raider might have been significantly bigger than the average native of the lands they raided, but various factors probably made some vikings smaller than usual.
More post
- 📝 What was the range of people's social lives like, before the technology for long distance communications developed?
- 📝 Why didn't the US and USSR jam each other's early-warning radar?
- 📝 What was the process to join the army in WW2 England?
- 📝 Pre-Islamic cultural inheritance in contemporary Iran
- 📝 Who first called natural satellites "moons"?
- 📝 Underwater U-boat battles
- 📝 How likely was an enlisted man to have fought at both Falkirk and Bannockburn?
- 📝 Why didn't the Japanese develop air defenses after the bombing of Tokyo?
- 📝 How were the Venera Probe missions received/presented in the Western world during the space race?
- 📝 Are there any specific events which grants a soldier permission to execute a prisoner on sight? (Like in the movie: Fury)
- 📝 How was Hadrian's decree banning circumcision enforced? Were there mandatory body check or something similar?
- 📝 Are there any primary sources on the letter Hulagu wrote to Qutuz?
- 📝 How much of colonialism profit was continued post-colonialism by neo-imperialism/neo-colonialism?
- 📝 Were slings used for throwing hand grenades? If not, why?
- 📝 What's the best way to convert sailing-era burden to modern displacement?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the British Parliament was reluctant to deal with the Nassau Pirates because they made a convenient bogeyman?
- 📝 Why did Theodore Roosevelt send his daughter Alice with Taft on a diplomatic mission to Asia?
- 📝 What impact did the rocket inventions of the German rockeeters have on WW2?
- 📝 Why didn't the Romans use the army to repel the siege of Rome in 410?
- 📝 Counterfactual reasoning and analogical reasoning
- 📝 How did the Boston Tea Party protest affect the British?
- 📝 Is Josephus a legitimate historical text?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union get 3 seats in the UN?
- 📝 Have US troops ever been lawfully quartered in private homes during wartime under the Third Amendment?
- 📝 Was Ashoka motivated more by economics rather than religion in giving up war?
- 📝 Why did Saladin show kindness to Richard I?
- 📝 Why didn't Syria operate the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank?
- 📝 Why did the southern states secede from the U.S.?
- 📝 Did the ancients or other pre-industrial civilisations engage in unsustainable practices?
- 📝 Besides Mexico, who was considered as a potential ally of the Central Powers?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Had there been a significant physiological difference between the Vikings and the Europeans (around the 11th century)?
- 📝 Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- 📝 Could there have been wars between the Aztecs and the Persians?
- 📝 In the "Christmas truce" of 1914 were there any football (soccer) matches between British and German troops?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Ancient Greek religion and the Ancient Roman religion?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages?
- 📝 Had there been instances of national states banning harmful imports before the mid-19th C Opium Wars?
- 📝 Was there significant interbreeding between Romans and Native Britons?
- 📝 Is there a link between the Sea people and the Trojan War?
- 📝 Is there a correlation between the colonial power and the stability/success of the post colonial state?
- 📝 Is there a relationship between the Pelasgians and Sea Peoples?
- 📝 What is the origin of Khans? Is there any link between South Asian Khans and the Mongols?
- 📝 What is the difference between NKVD and OGPU (USSR)
- 📝 What is the difference between a professional historian and an amateur?
- 📝 Is there a difference between Douhet and Walther Wever's strategic bombing theories?
- 📝 Did the Romans see Africa as a black continent? Was there a perception of a divide between Africa and Europe?
- 📝 Was there any connection between the Ottonians and Benedictines?
- 📝 In the British empire, what was the difference between a Governor General and a Viceroy?
- 📝 Has there ever been litigation over a salvaged shipwreck between a European country and a former ex-colony?
- 📝 Was there a Spanish plan to retake Malta, had the siege of 1565 been succesful?
- 📝 Is there a relationship between Portugal and Spain being able to discover the New World and the Moor occupation?
- 📝 Between the 7 Years War and 1776, was there any effort to have the colonies represented in Parliament?
- 📝 Was there any conflict/interaction between the Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam?
- 📝 Throughout history, how many wars have there been between Russia and Japan?
- 📝 Has there ever been a direct clash between NATO and Russia?
- 📝 Was there anything in common between the War of 1812 between Britain and America and the War of 1812 between Napoleon and Russia?
- 📝 Who thought there might be a war between the British Empire and the United States of America in the 1920s?
- 📝 What is the difference between "diallektes" and "aesymnetes"?
- 📝 What's the difference between Country Born and Mulatto people in the 18th century New England?
- 📝 Was there contact between the Inca, Maya and Aztecs?