Nautilus

Vikings—They’re Just Like Us! Social Networks in Norse Sagas

A simplified diagram of the type used to analyze Viking social structures. Green connections represent friendly relations; red ones are hostile. Note that the researchers helpfully explain in the original caption, “The horned helmets, popularly associated with Viking warriors, are probably a nineteenth-century romantic construct – none of the few Viking helmets which survive have horns. Beards, on the other hand, probably were worn.”

hough they were only written

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Nautilus

Nautilus4 min read
How Sound Rules Life Underwater
1 Sound travels very differently in water than air. Like most humans, I assumed that sound didn’t work well in water. After all, Jacques Cousteau himself called the ocean the “silent world.” I thought, beyond whales, aquatic animals must not use soun
Nautilus4 min read
The Most Unlikely Migration
In late summer, as the days shorten and begin to cool, the marmalade hoverfly begins to prepare her body for the long journey ahead. Her flight muscles strengthen, her eyesight sharpens, and her immune system bulks up until she is no longer a frail m
Nautilus8 min read
Life Lessons from Hell-House Venus
Hold a grain of sand up to the night sky at arm’s length. There are thousands of galaxies in that miniscule fraction of the heavens. Galaxies like ours hold hundreds of billions of stars—a good portion of which host planets. And a number of these are

Related Books & Audiobooks