Posted Sept. 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.
The Vikings had various eye colors, although the predominant eye color was blue or gray. However, Irish Vikings had predominantly brown or hazel eyes, and some Viking settlements were much more diverse than others.
It is also known as "brittle bone disease." Ivar the boneless, has blue eyes because he's suffering from 'brittle bone disease' named "Osteogenesis imperfecta" which is characterised by a triad of blue sclera (white portion of the eye), fragile bones and conductive hearing loss.
Red- or blonde-haired Vikings? Genetic research has shown that the Vikings in West Scandinavia, and therefore in Denmark, were mostly red-haired. However, in North Scandinavia, in the area around Stockholm, blonde hair was dominant.
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.
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.
The highest concentration of people with green eyes is found in Ireland, Scotland, and northern Europe. In fact, in Ireland and Scotland, more than three-fourths of the population has blue or green eyes – 86 percent!
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.
Through DNA testing, it is possible to effectively trace your potential inner Viking and discover whether it forms part of your genetic makeup or not. However, it's not 100% definitive. There's no exact Nordic or Viking gene that is passed down through the generations.
All Blue-Eyed People May Have A Common Ancestor
Originally we all had brown eyes, however, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, it appears that a genetic mutation in a single individual in Europe 6,000 to 10,000 years ago led to the development of blue eyes.
Only eight persons in 1000 people are blonde and green-eyed, as the odds of being born with this combination are 0.08 percent. Even though one would expect most of these people are European or Australian, a small Chinese village called Liqian has a significant population with this combo due to their lineage.
The Vikings had various eye colors, although the predominant eye color was blue or gray. However, Irish Vikings had predominantly brown or hazel eyes, and some Viking settlements were much more diverse than others.
Blue sclera is a symptom of Ivar's osteogenesis imperfecta, and it's established that the bluer his eyes, the greater the risk of breaking bones. Ivar used to ask his brothers how blue his eyes were first thing in the morning to determine if it was safe to play that day.
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.
Homo sapiens (modern humans) emerged around 200,000 years ago in Africa, but the mutation that causes blue eyes did not appear until sometime around 10,000 years ago.
Vikings were mostly blond (with Danes specifically being mostly red-haired) according to skeletal DNA studies, but identifying as “Viking” wasn't limited to people with Scandinavian ancestry (vikingr just means “pirate” after all). In fact, Vikings were likely more dark-haired than Scandinavians are today.
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.
Fair hair and complexions were common, but not ubiquitous. Dark hair was common, and red hair had a higher prevalence in Norwegian Vikings compared to the general population of Europe. For all seafaring Vikings, physical size and strength was typically beyond that of other cultures.
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.
What blood type did Vikings have? for Vikings is I1, as well as R1a, R1b, G2, and N. The SNP that defines the I1 haplogroup is M253. A haplogroup is a group of similar haplotypes that share a common ancestor.
DNA from the Viking remains was shotgun sequenced from sites in Greenland, Ukraine, The United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Poland, and Russia. The team's analysis also found genetically Pictish people 'became' Vikings without genetically mixing with Scandinavians.
Blond hair and blue eyes are characteristics associated with people from northern European countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Denmark, etc. These people are said to look "Teutonic" which is a term the ancient Romans gave to a northern European tribe known as the Teutons.
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
There are plenty of blue-eyed Asians. This probably happens when the traditional blue-eyed allele comes into a family from a (possibly very distant) European ancestor. Blue eyes then resurface in a child generations later if they inherit the allele from both parents.
What ethnicity has hazel eyes? Anyone can be born with hazel eyes, but it's most common in people of Brazilian, Middle Eastern, North African, or Spanish descent.