Where did vikings come from?

Question

I know they come from Scandenavia but where did the Scandenavians come from. What I really want to know is how did they get blond hair and fair skin? In my history book I learned that all people came from the Middle East. How did those people's charactoristics become that of a viking?

Answer 1

All people came from the Middle East? That's not history, that's religion.

People evolved in Africa. As they spread around the world, they acquired different characteristics to thrive in different environments. Africans have dark skin and thick bushy hair to protect them from the sun. People in cold climates have fair skin and hair to allow in more sunlight which the body needs for production of vitamin D and for hormone regulation.

Answer 2

Think some revision of history has been presented for your education? A little study of prehistory would belie what you have been taught. According to many historians, Africa was the seat of civilization. But even this has been disproved. There are much older civilizations than has been found in Africa. By a span of almost 2 million years.

In eastern Europe and part of Asia, there were the precursors to the Germanic race. I don't recall the name of the land but have seen it on a map of prehistoric origin. People being light complexioned and having light hair.

More than 7,000 years ago, there was a settlement of white people co-existing with the Asians, in the Gobi Desert. Bringing with them clothing common in Europe even today. So there is ample evidence of the Norse people stemming from either area. The real question being; why did those people leave Europe to live in the drastic climate of the Gobi desert? Can get very interesting when studying things not prepared by those satisfied with changing history.

There was a race in the far north but resulted in the Laplanders.. more similarity with the Eskimo of our lands.

Hope this gives you a bit of insight and stimulates you into the study of early civilizations.

Answer 3

Vikings also called Norsemen, came from Scandinavia-Norway mainly. They were seamen /warriors who raided and colonized large areas of Europe in the 8th to 11th century.
One Viking, Lief Erickson traveled to Greenland and as far as Newfoundland.
Their blonde hair and fair skin probably evolved from lack of sunlight in the far north regions where there are shorter summer seasons, longer winter periods. As far as their aggressive tendency--The way to subdue other cultures is to strike fear into them, what better way that to rape, pillage and plunder!!!

Answer 4

Current theories state that we came in waves out of Africa and the middle east. The first wave were peoples we call the Celts, who became pale skinned (if they weren't already); had red hair and spread from CHINA to Ireland, and we have archaeological evidence to prove it. The Scandanavians likely did the same basic thing, settling eventually in the area of Sweden & Norway.

Answer 5

Evolution.

The northern lattitudes receive less sunlight, and thus lighter-skinned people were the only ones who could get the vitamin D from the sun. As mankind migrated north out the Middle East, we developed traits that helped us adapt to our new environments.

Answer 6

Many scientists think that skin color is related to the amount of sunlight (specifically ultraviolet radiation) in the area where the people evolved.

Too much ultraviolet is bad - it causes damage to cells and reduces a vitamin called folate. Lack of folate causes anemia and folate is needed for babies to develop and for sperm to be healthy.

Too little ultraviolet is also bad - we need sunlight to manufacture vitamin D - which is vital for bones. Without enough vitamin D, people develop rickets which makes their bones so soft and deformed they have trouble doing things that help survival, like hunting for food or building shelter. (See the 2nd link below for pictures)

Darker skin is better at keeping sunlight out so we see it in people who evolved in brightly lit places, like Africa, Australia and India. The people in these areas who had light skin had reduced folate levels. Because folate is important to both sperm and infant development, light skinned people in very sunny places had fewer babies that survived. Since babies tend to have similar skin color to their parents, over time there were less and less light skinned people and more and more dark skinned people.

Scandinavians have the opposite problem with sunlight - there isn't much where they come from. People with dark skin in Scandinavia to this day are prone to developing rickets, which makes survival harder. So if things get tough (and in places like Scandinavia things get tough quite often) dark skinned people with bone problems (and their babies) are more likely to starve to death or die of exposure. Also, rickets makes the body look "weird" so it cuts down on the number of people who want to hook up with you and have babies compared to the people who look healthy and strong. So over time there were less and less dark babies in Northern Europe.

This works pretty well until someone says - "Hey, what about the Eskimos? They live in the North & they have dark skin! Why aren't they starved for vitamin D like the Scandinavians?" It turns out that the sun is not the only source of Vitamin D, you can also get it from eating a lot of fish - which is what the Eskimos eat.

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There is no scientific evidence for this but it is interesting to think about how the alarming symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency might have impacted racism in north europe.

Answer 7

They were a germanic tribe that came, like all people in Europe originally, from the area roughly where Afghanistan is now. By the way, your history book should say that all people originally came from Africa. The blondeness was either a characteristic of their tribe, or an adaption to living in less sunny conditions.

Answer 8

The earliest humans came from Africa but differences arose through evolution due to genetic factors and environment

Answer 9

natural selection... evolution... wouldn't u be safer in the snow with blonde hair and pale skin? most animals who live in those areas have pale fur.

Try reading some Charles Darwin... it should explain something about survival of the fittest and adaptation.

Are you sure that it wasn't a religeous book you were reading?

Answer 10

minnesota lol - just kidding -

Viking, also called Norseman or Northman, refers to a member of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century and reached east to Russia and Constantinople.