After New Zealand passed new gun laws this week, most automatic and semi-automatic weapons have become outlawed there as of Friday a swift response to the March 15 shootings in Christchurch that left 50 Muslim men, women and children dead at the hands of an alleged white supremacist terrorist. But guns werent the only weapon used by the shooter.
The shootings followed the release of materials some have called a manifesto but that has more accurately been called a media plan. In it are multiple medieval references, several involving medieval Vikings, which these days function as a signal to white supremacists. Along with much else from the European medieval world, the Viking past is part of the far rights standard visual and textual imaginary. That vision of a Viking world depends on contemporary digital and filmic popular culture such as the TV show Vikings and Viking-adjacent video games as well as on academic and historical sources.
But far-right Viking medievalism is not about historical accuracy. Rather, its used to create narratives. So, to resist the medieval narratives that activate violent hate, we must create counternarratives and to do that, we must understand the real Viking past and how it has been weaponized.
The term Viking possibly comes from the Old Norse word vkingr (sea warrior). As Stefan Brink and Neil Prices The Viking World describes, historically, it referred to seafaring groups who traversed the seas, oceans and rivers to raid, trade and colonize around the 10th and 11th centuries. They established settler colonies across the Mediterranean, Caspian, Black, Arctic and North Atlantic seas and waterways, maintaining a presence in regions ranging from present-day Russia and Europe to the Americas. Crucially, they were not homogeneous seafarers as is often imagined; they were multicultural and multiracial. But until recently, scholarly discussions of the Vikings in relation to race and a Global Middle Ages had been sidelined.
So where does the white supremacist vision of Viking genealogy come from?
Despite the fact that real Viking history was multicultural, academic medieval studies have historically been to blame for the upholding of that imaginary past.
In the 19th century, Romantic German nationalism metastasized into the Vlkish movement, which was interested in historical narratives that bolstered a white German nation state. The movement rewrote history, drawing on folklore such as that of Brothers Grimm, medieval epics and a dedication to racial white supremacy. Late 19th and early 20th-century scholars simultaneously drew from and reinforced this racialized imagination of the medieval past. Crucially, Vilhelm Grnbachs multi-volume work Vor Folket i Oldtiden (The Cultures of the Teutons) imagined an ancient Germanic genealogy that ran from Tacitus through the Middle Ages.
Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter
German scholarly work during the eve of the Third Reich then added to this idea, with authors like Gustav Neckel and Bernhard Kummer blaming socialism, Jews and class revolutions for the decline of a Germanic race they saw descending from this Viking past. Another German scholar, Otto Hfler, who based his work on Grnbach, wrote of the Mnnerbunde, which the scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein has described as all-male warrior associations in so-called primitive societies. His take on Mnnerbund would become used as an explanation of the past and current Germanic race, and fueled the idea behind Nazi groups such as the SS and SA.
After World War II, despite the defeat of the Axis powers, these ideas didnt go away. Rather, they saw a resurgence in specific circles, including various far-right neo-pagan groups, like the Scandinavian Nordic Resistance Movement, known for their neo-Nazi violence. Grnbachs multivolume work, translated and available online, and the works of his contemporaries have also influenced current far-right extremists in Europe and North America.
This neo-pagan resurgence intersects with many facets of extremism today, from eco-fascism another term the Christchurch terrorist invoked to groups like the Odinists, who practice a form of white toxic masculinity based on the belief that the barbaric warriors of medieval Northern Europe functioned as a violent warrior comitatus. Odinists follow a neo-pagan medieval Scandinavian religion that is unacknowledged by the official Icelandic pagan religion, satr. The man who is accused of attacking two teenage girls (one in a hijab) and murdering Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche in Portland, Ore., in 2017 has linked himself to the idea of Vinland, the concept of a Viking North America onto which an imaginary Odinist past has been superimposed.
Nor is this use of Old Norse and Viking history limited to specific alt-right subgroups. In fact, it is a generalized social fixture in these circles. For example, when researcher Patrik Hermansson went undercover among the denizens of this world, he attended gatherings where extremists drank mead from a traditional Viking horn and prayed to the Norse god Odin. The Viking past contributes to a medieval toolkit of language, allusion and symbolism used to transmit white supremacist messages.
Communities of color have in the past fought white supremacist medieval narratives at the grassroots by spreading their own counternarratives, from W.E.B. Du Bois creating an African-American vision of the medieval past in Dark Princess to the Asian Americans who pushed back against racist medievalism during the period of Chinese Exclusion. Scholars and historians not just medievalists must also interrogate their disciplines from the inside, setting the record straight about medieval race and the Global Middle Ages.
So far, however, the most widespread, concerted and effective way to fight back against this historical white supremacist Viking genealogy has come not from academics or journalists.
Rather, it has come from Taika Waititi, the indigenous Maori director and writer. His movie Thor: Ragnarok in which Thors hammer, a medieval item regularly brandished by extremists, is destroyed was a multiracial and postcolonial counternarrative to the white Viking narrative circulating through the alt-right digital ecosystem. After decades of building up the violent Viking vision, more such stories will be needed to disrupt this medieval machine.
Historians perspectives on how the past informs the present
Dorothy Kim is an Assistant Professor of Medieval Literature at Brandeis University. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Iceland.
More Must-Read Stories From TIME
Contact us at letters@time.com.
Visit link:
Real Viking History and the Imagined White Supremacist Past - Time
- Opinion: Why we don't need to meet in the middle but we can't allow political polarization to fester unchecked - Times Record News [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2021] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2021]
- Two Books on the Bizarreness of Texas - The New York Times [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2021] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2021]
- Rev. William Barber Calls For Restructuring U.S. Policies To Root Out Racism, Poverty - Here And Now [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2021] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2021]
- The Impact of an All NOVA Democratic Ticket This Fall - WVTF [Last Updated On: June 10th, 2021] [Originally Added On: June 10th, 2021]
- A Hindu foundation has filed a complaint against University of Pennsylvania, saying an online conference perpetuated stereotypes - The Philadelphia... [Last Updated On: October 20th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 20th, 2021]
- Why Hungary is infected by ultras who are almost impossible to control - The Guardian [Last Updated On: October 20th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 20th, 2021]
- Explainer: White Nationalism | Facing History and Ourselves [Last Updated On: October 20th, 2021] [Originally Added On: October 20th, 2021]
- No one seems to like the Lincoln Project anymore - Politico [Last Updated On: November 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2021]
- White Nationalism Has Taken Many Forms [Last Updated On: December 4th, 2021] [Originally Added On: December 4th, 2021]
- Pan-Africanism is the panacea to the Wests systemic racism - Al Jazeera English [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- Elites From Russia, Europe, and the United States Are Still Getting Nationalism Wrong - Foreign Policy [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- How the most Powerful Israel Lobby started Preferring anti ... [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2022]
- Ndabaningi Sithole: Zimbabwe's forgotten intellectual and leader - The Conversation Indonesia [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- Baseball, barbecue and losing freedom this Fourth of July - ESPN [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- In May, a Month of Mass Shootings, One After Another - The New York Times [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- The Soviet Union never really solved Russian nationalism - Aeon [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- Guerrero: Im officially reclaiming the U.S. flag from the fascists - Los Angeles Times [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- White supremacy poses increasing threats in the U.S.: We are dealing with a massive movement. - WBUR News [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- Buffalo gunman's racism appears linked to mainstreaming of white ... [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- In the Fight Against White Nationalism, White People Are Key - American ... [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- Jemar Tisby: White Christian nationalism fueled Jan. 6 attack [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- The Facts on White Nationalism - FactCheck.org [Last Updated On: July 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: July 8th, 2022]
- Fueled by virtually unrestricted social media access, white nationalism is on the rise and attracting violent young white men - The Conversation... [Last Updated On: August 5th, 2022] [Originally Added On: August 5th, 2022]
- Race Reductionism Threatens to Doom the Left - CounterPunch [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Transcript: Jared Holt and Karen Kornbluh on "Face the Nation," Sept. 4, 2022 - CBS News [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Guest Commentary: MAGA Abortion Banners and Election Deniers - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Socialism, Nationalism, and Tolkien - by Alec Dent - The Dispatch [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Celebrated Author And Anthropologist Rich Benjamin To Speak At Raue Center - Broadway World [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- We're not as divided as we think - Oneonta Daily Star [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Tucker Carlson's job ads claim he values diversity, but that's not what he tells his viewers - Daily Kos [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn at the center of new movement based on conspiracies and Christian nationalism - PBS NewsHour [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Finding Our Place in the Inland Northwest documentary and discussion begins Sept. 8 - spokanefavs.com [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- The Rings of Power is suffering a racist backlash for casting actors of colour but Tolkien's work has always attracted white supremacists - The... [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- Soldier Who Said He Wanted Combat Experience to Kill Black People Booted After FBI Probe - Yahoo News [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- An associate of white nationalist Nick Fuentes claims he interviewed to work on Tucker Carlson's team - Media Matters for America [Last Updated On: September 8th, 2022] [Originally Added On: September 8th, 2022]
- White Nationalism Is Mainstreaming Conspiracy Theories [Last Updated On: October 19th, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 19th, 2022]
- Christian Nationalism Is Biblical And America-First, But Not White [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2022]
- White Christian Nationalism and the Mid-Term Elections, Hosted by the ... [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2022]
- What Does White Christian Nationalism Even Mean, Anyway? [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2022]
- Jews, White Supremacism, and White Nationalism | National Vanguard [Last Updated On: October 27th, 2022] [Originally Added On: October 27th, 2022]
- AOC: Vast Majority of Domestic Terror Comes From White Nationalism ... [Last Updated On: November 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: November 28th, 2022]
- Black nationalism - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: November 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: November 28th, 2022]
- White Nationalist | Southern Poverty Law Center [Last Updated On: November 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: November 28th, 2022]
- Christian nationalism - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: November 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: November 28th, 2022]
- White Christian Nationalists: Who Are They? What Do They Want? Why ... [Last Updated On: November 28th, 2022] [Originally Added On: November 28th, 2022]
- White Christian Nationalism: The Deep Story Behind the Capitol Insurrection [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2022] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2022]
- What is white nationalism? Take a look at Trumps agenda. - Vox [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2022] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2022]
- Charlottesville: 'Unite the Right' Rally, State of Emergency - TIME.com [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2022] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2022]
- White nationalism a threat the Canadian Armed Forces arent equipped ... [Last Updated On: December 30th, 2022] [Originally Added On: December 30th, 2022]
- Tree of Life trial starts as Pittsburgh synagogue congregations find ... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Government-sponsored review finds religion a force for good in the UK - Church Times [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- The World According to Tucker Carlson - The New Yorker [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Fox finally boots Tucker Carlson - IrishCentral [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- President Biden Announces Key Appointments to Boards and ... - The White House [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Severe immigration policies intensify as Title 42 nears its end - Source New Mexico [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Soldier with white nationalist ties pleads guilty to gun charges - ArmyTimes.com [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Fox News Could Be Just as Racist Without Tucker Carlson - New York Magazine [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Tucker Carlson Should've Been Fired Years Ago - New York Magazine [Last Updated On: April 28th, 2023] [Originally Added On: April 28th, 2023]
- Idaho White Nationalism: Inside a New Class of Republican Power - The Daily Dot [Last Updated On: January 16th, 2024] [Originally Added On: January 16th, 2024]