Viking Month: Research Review

 

I’ve just spent the last month researching my Viking ancestry, and immersing myself in all things Viking. I’ve been trying to find out about my ancestors, the Toki tribe, that would have lived as Vikings until doing a deal with one of the British kings – between 793AD and 1070AD – to convert to Christianity. 

My dad tells me that, before I was born in 1982, he and my mum visited a museum somewhere – they can’t remember where – in which they found a ceremonial spoon, handed either to the Catholic Church from Toki, or vice versa, as a confirmation of their conversion to Christianity. I’ve asked loads of Viking museums. No-one knows of it. I still don’t know which of the Scandinavian countries Toki were from, or when they arrived in Britain. 

I have, however, found tons of other information, which you can find by trawling back through the months posts: runestones, Old Norse lessons, Viking-inspired music, an 8th-century haircut, The Last Kingdom binge-watching (I’m in the 5th and final season and it’s complicated still), Viking-themed podcasts, conversations with museum employees, and with cultural organisations. 

I’ve received wads of PDFs relating to the Viking era, featuring the odd mention of Toki here and there, but nothing solid about my ancestry. 

I’ve also been eating twice a day, as Vikings did. My diet has consisted of mostly porridge and root vegetables, with a bit of meat thrown in. A lot of fish. All of this is in the tenet of Viking lifestyle, but that said, when you’re only eating twice a day, it takes a certain amount of time to get through the food that you have. I still have 2 packs of cereal on the go, and tons of processed food in my freezer (although a lot less than I had a month ago). 

I’ve had a good go at beating personal bests at the gym, tailoring my workouts to that which Vikings would have done: rowing (including a 10-minute record of 2330m, around 100m more than my previous record), deadlift, chin-ups, dips, and using the pulley frame to simulate the movement of wood chopping.

Now, just before my birthday at the end of July, the plan is to move things from a more investigative stance to a more practical one. Don’t worry, no murdering with axes, raping or pillaging, but more authentic food, more workouts and hopefully some outdoor cooking.