“TRUE MYTH: BLACK VIKINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES” is the name of the book and, really, I can’t improve upon that.
Some will recall we once had a poster who tried to assert that - I think it was Charles II, iirc - and pretty much every other member of European royalty who was ever passingly described as being ‘dark’ or ‘black’ was in fact, a black African, and it was only a conspiracy of … well, this part was kind of vague, but … everyone else on the planet, that we’ve forgotten that fact today.
WELL. He wrote A BOOK.
While researching the reasons why we commonly credit Christopher Columbus with discovering America instead of the Vikings who did way earlier, this author discovered the truth. Or THE TRUTH, as I suppose I should put it.
I can’t do this justice - let me quote from the description:
Alright, alright. I’m not being very sportsmanlike here. I admit it. But I was amused to spot an author who sounded so much like our old friend. And really, I’m saving the best bit for last. You have GOT to see the cover art:
Years ago at the dawn of the internet, I knew this guy who suddenly went off the deep end and created his own website that insisted that the Cherokee and other east coast indians were actually members of several Kingdoms established by royalty from Mali on their trading missions to North America, and so were all African Royalty. :rolleyes: And of course, what happened was a vast European Conspiracy to destroy every milligram of evidence of these civilizations and their culture.
Don’t find any evidence of this website anymore, but man, if you dared to contradict him or demand any evidence, he went ballistic.
I think this dude’s theory is that America was discovered by Lando Calrissian.
Note the word “thorfinn” there at the end of my link. I stumbled on this while trying to remember the title of a novel about Macbeth, only he’s called Thorfinn and he’s the Earl of Orkney. This epic tome was returned along with Amazon’s search results. (I was thinking of “King Hereafter” by Dorothy Dunnet).
On Black Vikings: One of the reasons the book in the link’s hypothesis is so ridiculous is that the medieval Norse term for Black Africans was ‘‘blamann’’ or “blue man.” “Svartr” usually referred to British Celts (Welsh/Irish).
It’s true! My people have been oppressed by the black man for centuries! And just look who’s running the United States now! I demand 40 acres and a mule!
The Vikings came from Norway (among other places). Popular in Norway is something called “black metal,” likely after their race I assume. And I found photographicevidence that they have black skin, although not everywhere.
So sue me, King Diamond is Danish and started a bit before the genre was a thing
