Vikings

"Lessee... there was a big haul of Viking gold they say is buried up there on the coast of some land of ice. Don’t much like cold, me. I’d rather stay down here in the Caribbean."

―Jack Sparrow^[src]

Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (later Denmark–Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe. Expert sailors and navigators of their characteristic longships, they also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Greenland, and Vinland (later Newfoundland in Canada, North America). The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, and France, where they established Norse settlements and governments.

In their countries of origin, and some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a whole. During the Viking Age, the Norse homelands were gradually consolidated from smaller kingdoms into three larger kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. While spreading Norse culture to foreign lands, they simultaneously brought home slaves, concubines, and foreign cultural influences to Scandinavia, influencing the genetic and historical development of both. For most of the period, the Vikings followed the Old Norse religion, but later became Christians. The Vikings had their own laws, art, and architecture. Most Vikings were also farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and traders, with a romanticised picture of Vikings as noble savages, piratical heathens or intrepid adventurers began to emerge in the 18th century.

History[]

"What were those things?"
"Not things. Men. Or once they were. I've heard tell of this place. A Viking ship on its way to the New World. Lost at sea, swallowed by an artic glacier. Those on board became creatures ... OF ICE."

―Will Turner and Jack Sparrow^[src]

According to legends, the foundations of Shipwreck City consisted of Greek triremes, Roman galleys, and dragon-prowed Viking longships. Jack Sparrow once claimed there was a big haul of Viking gold buried on the coast of some "land of ice".^[1]

The Ice Viking King in a cursed glacier as told in a legend by Jack Sparrow.

As Jack Sparrow recounted one of his legends and harrowing tales to the crowd at Fort Alvo Grande in Panama, Sparrow claimed that the Interceptor, a vessel formerly of the British Royal Navy that he commandeered with Will Turner, sailed into a cursed glacier. There, at the glacier, they encountered undead Vikings warriors who attempted to kill them and blow up their ship. After a long and difficult fight, Jack and Will managed to defeat the Ice Viking King, who was eventually devoured by a great white whale, and escape the cursed glacier aboard the Interceptor.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

"The Vikings certainly count as pirates."

―David Cordingly^[src]

Vikings were first mentioned by historian David Cordingly, with the painting "The First Cargo" drawn by N. C. Wyeth,^[3] in the "How Piracy Began" section of the Below Deck: An Interactive History Of Pirates bonus feature, originally included in in the DVD release for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.^[4] Although vikings first appear in the "Cursed Glacier" level in 2006 video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow, they only appear through a flashback or a version of events of The Curse of the Black Pearl, as told by Jack Sparrow to an audience at Fort Alvo Grande.^[2]