The Didact reviews Fistfights With Muslims in Europe. Along the way he makes a number of observations. Go read it, but something jumped out and made me laugh despite the seriousness of the subject:
It was a response that made absolutely no goddamn sense when you realise that this is the same Scandinavia from which the Danes and the Vikings hailed. The reavers that set sail on their dragon ships from the shores of Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Sweden were among the most feared warriors of antiquity. Their fighting skills were so highly prized that they were offered enormous sums of money to become part of the royal guard of the Byzantine Emperors. The proud history and legacy of the Varangian Guard is deep within the blood of their descendants.
If the Viking ancestors of modern Scandis could see how badly their offspring have debased themselves, I doubt that even the Allfather himself could stop his einherjar from charging forth across the Rainbow Bridge to give the invaders of their ancestral lands a good taste of Viking steel- and their descendants a proper lesson in good old-fashioned Viking berserker tactics.
There is a stark contrast, by the way, between the meek and submissive natures of the Europeans that Mr. Langness encountered, and the Muslims that he fought with. As he states at length in his writing, he actually found himself greatly admiring those he fought against, because they have a warrior spirit and a strength that has gone very much amiss in the rest of Europe.
I understand entirely where that comes from. Once you know what it means to stand up and hit another man, and desperately try to avoid letting him hit you back, you will know what I mean when I say that fighting is the fastest way I know of to establish bonds of brotherhood between men who might otherwise be mortal enemies.
Even so, one might be pardoned for asking… WHAT THE NIFLHEIM HAPPENED?!?
OK. Nothing funny here per se. That said, anyone who’s been to DragonCon has seen the fake ads and trailers they put up on the hotel – wide TV system on the “DragonCon TV” channel. One of my favorites was the Dalek pest extermination services, but relevant to the above post, one I still cannot find (I’ll update it if I find it) was one where a Klingon and a Federation officer are sitting on a couch finishing watching the movie 300. The movie finishes, and bewildered, the Klingon looks at the officer and asks, “Humans used to be like this? WHAT HAPPENED?”
