The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with six per cent of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10 per cent in Sweden.
The DNA test shows that there is a strong Viking heritage on few countries in Europe from England, Ireland, and Iceland to Greenland. Samples of the DNA suggest links to Viking heritage. In Finland and Estonia, there are links for Swedish Viking heritage.
Who are the descendants of the Vikings? Viking settlements exist in different parts of the world, including Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Normandy and Swedish parts of Finland, Estonia and Latvia.
Experts have said that any surname ending in 'sen' or 'son' is likely to be of Viking descent (big news for Emma Watson, Emma Thompson, Robert Pattinson and co) – and surnames such as Roger/s, Rogerson, and Rendall also hint that there's a touch of the marauder to you.
Early Viking Age raiding parties were an activity for locals and included close family members. The genetic legacy in the UK has left the population with up to six per cent Viking DNA.
Russians are primarily descended from Slavs. However, Russia itself was created by a group of Vikings known as the Kievan Rus. Therefore, Russians have some Viking DNA in their ancestry. However, the original Vikings who founded Russia were absorbed into the native Slavic population.
The genetic legacy of the Viking Age lives on today with six per cent of people of the UK population predicted to have Viking DNA in their genes compared to 10 per cent in Sweden. Professor Willeslev concluded: "The results change the perception of who a Viking actually was.
22, 2020, 8:05 a.m. It turns out most Vikings weren't as fair-haired and blue-eyed as legend and pop culture have led people to believe. According to a new study on the DNA of over 400 Viking remains, most Vikings had dark hair and dark eyes.
“A lot of the Vikings are mixed individuals” with ancestry from both Southern Europe and Scandinavia, for example, or even a mix of Sami (Indigenous Scandinavian) and European ancestry.
Surnames ending in -son or -sen are an obvious sign of Scandinavian ancestry – but other names such as 'Linklater', 'Flett', 'Scarth', 'Heddle', 'McIvor', 'MacAulay' and 'McLeod', 'Roger/s' and 'Rogerson' and 'Rendall' could also be a sign.
One of the things Norway is most famous for is the Vikings. Come with us as we tour the country to find out more. While the Vikings had settlements all over Scandinavia, throughout Europe and the wider world, Norway is often in focus when we talk about Vikings today.
Amazingly, it seems that we might also be able to catch glimpses of Viking times in our DNA. A map of the average AncestryDNA Scandinavian ethnicity estimates across Great Britain and Ireland reveals patterns that may coincide with known events in Viking history.
"The examination of skeletons from different localities in Scandinavia reveals that the average height of the Vikings was a little less than that of today: men were about 5 ft 7-3/4 in. tall and women 5 ft 2-1/2 in.
If we are speaking ethnically, the closest people to a Viking in modern-day terms would be the Danish, Norwegians, Swedish, and Icelandic people. Interestingly though, it was common for their male Viking ancestors to intermarry with other nationalities, and so there is a lot of mixed heritage.
Harald Hardrada is known as the last Norse king of the Viking Age and his death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 CE as the defining close of that period.
The current monarchs of the UK and Norway are also closely related. Queen Elizabeth (the daughter of King George VI) and King Harald of Norway (the son of Crown Prince Olav) are second cousins.
The Viking invaders may have also had a relatively high percentage of B gene, since many of the towns of Britain and western Europe that are linked to the coast by internal lines of communication such as large rivers, have a disproportional amount of blood group B when compared to the surrounding territory.
It turns out most Vikings weren't as fair-haired and blue-eyed as legend and pop culture have led people to believe. According to a new study on the DNA of over 400 Viking remains, most Vikings had dark hair and dark eyes.
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
Essentially, green eyes are unique. Most common in Western, Northern, and Central Europe, green eyes often point to German or Celtic ancestry. Currently, they can be found most often in Iceland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Britain, and Scandinavia.
So where did our green-eyed ancestors come from? Most origins point to areas around the Caucasus Mountains, which link Asia and Europe. That may help explain why so many different countries and continents have had green-eyed populations for thousands of years.
Skeletons show that arthritis of the back, hands and knees plagued ordinary Viking farmers. Many Vikings also suffered from tooth problems. More than a quarter of the population had holes in their teeth. Finds of crania show that most Vikings had several teeth missing.
The six-year-long study also found that while the Irish are descended largely from Norwegian Vikings, our closest neighbours in England were more strongly influenced by Danish settlers-- and that the Viking World may have stretched as far as Asia.
Although it is impossible to know the origins of everyone in the Netherlands, it can be speculated that some of them have Viking blood so this is a Dutch Viking. One thing is for certain, people with Viking ancestry do live in different parts of Europe.