Explore, trade, conquer – Westbury U3A talk

­­AT THE Westbury U3A group meeting in June a talk was given by Colonel Anthony Coutts-Britton, entitled “The Viking Golden Age – Explore, Trade, Conquer”.

Colonel Anthony Coutts-Britton, is a Fellow of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and an accomplished speaker on the topic.

Carol Peacock from the group said “As well as getting an overview of how the Vikings gradually explored and spread through lands from Greenland in the west to Russia in the east, we learned many interesting odd snippets about these people during the talk.

“For instance, it seems there is no documentary evidence that they wore helmets with horns on. The name of their tribal chief was ‘jarl’, from where we get our title, earl. Their women were equal in law to men, over one thousand years before British women achieved that status!

“Famed for their boat-building skills, one excavated longboat, the Sea Stallion, was 30 metres long, carried 60 men and could travel at 15 knots! The EU and euro are nothing new – when Cnut became king of England, Denmark and finally Norway in the 11th century, he created one currency to be used for trade in all three.

“Finally we were invited to inspect our hands to see whether we are descended from these Viking peoples. If there are bumps on the palm and difficulty in straightening fingers, we may be suffering from ‘Viking Hand’, which occurs more commonly in people whose ancestors came from Northern Europe.”

The next U3A meeting will be on July 11th at 2pm, at Westbury United Reformed Church, when the speaker will be Allan Oakman telling us about kinesiology. New members will be welcomed.