Viking Trekkies

History weaves its influence into pop culture via many avenues … One of the strangest is the Viking influence on Star Trek, especially The Next Generation.

Ever since that series found the airwaves, I’ve often wondered if one or more of its writers were descended from peoples who endured raids from the North and then used this show to exact their version of revenge.

I’ve always been interested in the influence that the Viking era had on western civilization, which is considerable. Here are but a few examples:

1. Vikings created the first governing legislature of ‘common’ citizens in history, calling their parliament a thing, which is also where the English language derived that word.
2. Viking law was the first in Europe, at least, to conduct trials with a jury of the accused’s peers.
3. It was virtually 500 years before any other culture would design a ship that could travel as swiftly as a Viking dragonship (and let’s not forget that those ships sailed to North America 500 years before Columbus did).
4. Four of the seven days of the week — in the English language — are named after...