On one hand, I get it… in fact, just this past summer, while in Norway, I had an interesting exchange with a Norwegian about DNA and an American’s (for example) claims of “being” German, Dane, Irish, Scots, or whatever. I agreed that an American should not claim that they “ARE” any one of these if they did not grow out of the respective, contemporary cultures. But, to say they “have origins in” a country… that should/might(?) be understood as identifying oneself to some sort of quest… an attempt to understand… something… in their DNA results.

Taking this back to the title of this post… the same might be said of the whole “Viking thing”… though, I think this gets complicated. About twenty years ago, I told someone about my “Viking origins”. They asked (fair question) how the DNA proved such a thing, and I responded that it was because one DNA company (over the years, I’ve tested with five, total) showed I was over (at that time) forty percent Scandinavian. They responded that just because it showed Scandinavian origins doesn’t mean that it was Viking in origin. That’s absolutely true, but… for having done genealogy for over thirty years (at that time), and having reached back in most lines to the 17th century (some even further… supported by primary source materials,  of course), I had encountered not one instance of a Scandinavian surname. However, the Viking thumbprint on DNA in the British Isles, France, Germany, the Baltic, etc. (all areas indicated in my DNA origins), cannot be easily dismissed.  Further, in the time since that discussion, I’ve significantly expanded my work in Y DNA studies and have seen Pretanī Y in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland… and Scandinavian Y in the British Isles. It’s a throwback to massaging the brain for the old lessons of World History 101, but through another type of magnifying glass.

It hasn’t been measured, so I can’t show percentages, but, I think most who take DNA tests (and, by the way, per an M.I.T. study, as of 2019, an estimated 26 million had tested their DNA for ancestry… and, by the way, one in five Americans have tested their DNA.) are just trying to get a handle on their ancestral origins… maybe even trying to see if it aligns with what they already “know”. Some even test to finally “prove” Native American origins (and, in my experience, frequently fail). Anyway, I think a good many get their results, say, “cool” and then tuck them away as some sort of “mission accomplished”.

I could go on and on about this (and, I’m likely to expand on some things in future posts), but I want to move along to thoughts on an even deeper motivation.

Could this journey through DNA reflect a need to identify to a sort of lack of “tribal” connection… a personal, genetic cry for something(s) absent in ourselves and in the world, today? Walking this back to the “You’re not a Viking”… I wonder… would it be right to belittle a person, so many generations removed from their Native American roots, for trying to reconnect with the same? Why then should anyone be quick to dismiss someone else’s “journey to reconnect” with their own indigenous (indeed, Animistic) spirituality… be that Nordic, Brittonic, or otherwise… or even a blended rebirth of a combination, in a new understanding, found comforting to navigate the modern world?

*Photo (hazy as it is) of a very enjoyable dining experience I had in the Viking camp at Midgardsblot, in Borre, Norway, this past August.