Vikings in New Zealand

I met a Māori guy who claimed the original inhabitants of New Zealand were short, hairy footed people who occasionally rode giant eagles, then told me to look at a Haast eagle skeleton as ‘proof’.

He was trying not to smirk at the time, mind.

There’s no such fact and your only evidence so far is hearsay at least 800 years out of date and a website that completely lacks in cites for evidence and is obviously written by someone conspiracy minded.

Even if your Maori friend had accurate knowledge of blonde and blue eyed inhabitants being on NZ in the 1200s, how would the Maori known the people they displaced were vikings? And where do you get the idea their aboriginal status in NZ would be threatened by such a discovery?

Oh, and as someone with a genuine ø in my name, let me add my voice to those stating that random Scandinavian letters replacing their Latin base letters is annoying.

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Don’t insult another poster. This is General Questions.

samclem, moderator

My god, have you read the dumbass stuff in that link? I’d be embarrassed to link to it.

I was going to quote some of the guff in the page (“Men in Taine’s lineage were often well over 7 foot tall”, “The following is an example of an oral history supported by records held in Scotland. A book about this particular story, with supporting documentation is due for release sometime in the year 2000.”) when I realized that the site is part of Mitchell’s Kilt Hire & Bagpipe Center’s website.

Seriously? Your citation is an unattributed load of hooey from the bagpipe rental store?

Are you a bagpipe renter?

Dork! Everybody knows they were ancient aliens, not Vikings! Jeez.

Ancient Aliens are found on NatGeo. Viknogs are on THC.

Thanks for the laugh. I find it especially amusing that, in the 12th century, his two sons were called “Rory and Ruaridh,” since Rory is just the anglicized form of Ruaridh, and Ruaridh is just a misspelling of what would have been Ruaidrí in the 12th century. (The terminal -dh is a perfectly valid modern spelling, but it still needs another -i-.)

I liked how they managed the neat trick of fetishizing both Viking and Scottish imagery at the same time. (I was disappointed they didn’t throw in some Cherokee Indian stuff too, just for the hell of it)

I never said anything about aboriginal’s in new Zealand plus Maori people do talk to each other and pass information about their ancestors down.

The Maori are the aboriginal people of NZ. It’s not a term used exclusively to describe the Australian Aboriginals.

I think you need to find a better source for Scandinavian pronunciation. Ø is a sound that is not found in English, and it is definitely not “ou”.

It is also never used in the name Georg, which is always spelled G-E-O-R-G.

How did they know the people they displaced were Vikings and not Belgians? There’s lots of blond blue-eyed Belgians.

Some did interbreed and the children would have been told the stories and those stories would have been passed down.

Funny you should mention that. As it was a Norwegian that told me that. Also that is how my actual name is spelt. My mum called me that.

I read once there is a cave on the north island which contains history of new Zealand and who the first settlers were. Only problem is that is has been sealed off and will not be opened to the public until 2056.

“I read once” is not a valid cite on this site. If it comes from a source as bad as what you’ve offered so far it’s certainly not worth the electrons it’s transmitted by.

What’s the word for Viking in Maori?

I believe they were called by the Maoris the mo oris or something along that line. I got no idea of the correct spelling.

*Te haole.
*

:slight_smile:

If you are talking about the Moriori, then that’s nonsense. The Moriori were not white, and it is now thought that they did not colonize New Zealand before the Maoris arrived.

That’s Hawaiian. The Maori word for European is pakeha.