Vikings were bad-asses, feared and respected. People admired the Vikings, women desired the Viking and the Viking were very confident and masculine. They did not care about so-called rules, customs or manners. They took risks and went after what they wanted. If there was a will to get something they found a way to get it, no matter who got in their way. The Vikings were ruthless and ambitious. After a 1000 years everybody in the world has heard of the Vikings and think very highly of them as hard men, warriors and explorers.
If you as a man want to take after anyone, then take after them. What they valued, what they thought, what they did and how they acted in life, is the stuff of legend.
By the end of this blog, you will learned the essence of what made the Norse Vikings into the real honorable men that people still admire and how you can become such a man too.
The Vikings weren’t just raiders and warriors, they were philosophers of masculinity. Their code of honor, courage, and resilience holds urgent meaning for modern young men drowning in lack of purpose and useless media consumption.
As historian Anders Winroth notes in The Age of the Vikings:
“A Norseman’s worth was measured by his deeds, not his words.”
Let’s resurrect these 5 Viking habits every young man needs today.
1. Courage
Vikings were about courage. Nothing is more attractive than courage. It is legendary that the pagan Vikings had no fear of dying in battle, because dying fighting in battle was the greatest honor and guaranteed their passage to Valhalla, to dine with the gods every night. The Vikings therefore respected the courage of men, of acting and fighting in spite of their fear.
They also believed that fate was inevitable, but how you faced it defined your legacy. This is mentioned in the Norse pagan “bible” called Hávamál, verse 77:
“Cattle die, kinsmen die, you yourself will die. I know one thing that never dies: a dead man’s reputation”
What this means for the modern man and for a modern application is basically, that you should act, as they would act, if they were alive today. They would be go getters, not let anything stop them and let no one talk them out of anything.
Never make excuses for yourself or your success. To hell with all people who want to talk to you about male quilt or white quilt. They are trying to influence you, so that you don’t try hard or give up completely, because they don’t want you to succeed. They want only woman to succeed in todays western society. Vikings would not give a shit about political correctness and feminism. Ignore all the background noise and social media, find what you want from life, and them go after it like a Viking.
What you need to do is to take calculated risks (start that business, ask out that girl) and embrace discomfort (cold showers, dawn workouts).
2. Hard work
Viking were about hard work. A Viking farm demanded backbreaking labor, just to survive winter. The same went into sailing the oceans, trading and of course also, when it came to fighting and raiding. You can add into this mix, the cold climate of the Nordic countries and the darkness of wintertime. You had to be tough, or you would be dead. No lamb for the lazy wolf. A sitting raven starves to death.
The feeling of working hard for something, and then seeing come to life, is a truly great feeling.
Working with your hands, doing physical labor is a necessary skill that all men should actively engage in. Moving earth with a shovel, cutting down a tree, laying bricks or cutting the grass, it does not matter. The first step of being a useful man, is knowing how to do physical work. The more difficult and harder the work is, the better.
Take pride in shoveling shit, moving heave things around and getting dirty while doing it. Learn to be around smelly things, so you don’t wimp out when those tasks need to get done.
Go and get it. That what the Vikings did to stay alive, and keep their families alive. It’s all about taking action.
3. Loyalty.
Vikings were about loyalty to their family and friends, not for governments. There is strength in loyalty if the loyalty is reciprocated by the other. Blind loyalty is stupid. Belonging to a group is important, as there is strength in numbers.
A brotherhood and comradery makes a man feel good always, being with other men is simple and they all have each others back.
You need to find your group. You start with your family members, your brothers, father, cousins and such. Next are your close friends. All of the above is useless, unless you talk to your people in person and form a bond with each of them. A bond that will carry through the rest of your life, that is the goal.
There is a time to think, and then there is a time to act. It’s a manly thing to act. Action. Just like the Romans, Greeks, Samurai and other men in history. None of them reached success and respect without taking action to get what they wanted. You have to fight for what you want. Without the fight, existence becomes meaningless. People throughout history have always admired men of action.
You have to let go of your fears, and have the courage to start on your way. The point is to start, because with each completed action, you gain momentum. If you strive for learning a skill, you have to plan it, prioritize what action you need to take, and in what order, and you must start.
Everything in the life of a man, is marked trial and error. You attempt things in life and you will fail at many attempts. This is normal. Then you fail less and less, until you don’t fail anymore, because you have learned. Muscle memory kicks in and your subconscious takes over, changing your behavior into automatic action.
A part of this action in control, especially self control. A Norse proverb warns: “The tongue is the enemy’s sword if you cannot rule it.”
4. Poetry
Vikings used poetry to express their emotions. Many of the great Viking were also poets, as were many famous Samurai warriors. The great berserker and poet; Egill Skallagrímsson of legendary Egils Saga, wrote two of most famous poems of the Viking age:
- Sonatorrek (“The Loss of My Sons”), a raw, grief-stricken lament for his drowned sons, blending personal sorrow with cosmic despair. Egill blames Odin for his poetic gift (which failed to save them) but ultimately reconciles with the god, finding solace in poetry itself;
- Höfuðlausn (“Head-Ransom”) ,composed in one night to save his head after being captured by King Eirik Bloodaxe. The drápa (praise poem) flatters Eirik so skillfully that the king spares him.
Why did these warriors write poems? The answers is that it was acceptable for a man to show is his emotions or loss and fear, if it was done in writing and in the form of poems. These poems were then read aloud publicly.
Poetry was always an outlet for men to show feelings of love and loss. This has been forgotten by men in the modern age, because people seem to think that writing poems is for a select few, which is wrong.
Kings paid Vikings poets in gold to immortalize their deeds. Remember that. Words are strong and can carry meaning and truth, as well as show all of the feelings of men writing them.
Men should get back to reading and writing poetry to let out their feelings, when they are feeling low or have suffered a lot in life. Let the pain out and lay it out on the page. It’s a noble and honorable thing to do, and you will feel better when you start. If it worked for berserkers from a 1000 years ago, it’s gonna work for you also.
5. Fight
When a Vikings time was up, they died well. They all wanted a “good death” for themselves, and their friends.
Die standing up. Never beg for your life. Don’t die like a dog. Vikings mocked men who died old in bed . Viking had a saying, that if you retreat in battle or try and run away, you are just going to be die tired, so it was better to stand where you are, and give them hell.
It’s a matter of principle and a matter of honor, because it is dishonorable to run away from danger. The same applies to all your problems, and the fear within you that tries to save you by telling you escape away. Do the hard thing.
The difficult path, is usually the right path and we all know it. There are a hundred ways to say the same thing. Suck it up, no guts no glory. People are counting on you, like your wife and children.
So when your time comes, and it will. Face the trouble when it comes and fight like hell.
A.G. Munson
