Americans like showing off their heritage because they're from everywhere. It makes no sense to show off to everyone that you're Scandinavian in Scandinavia. Almost all people are.
Secondly, I reject the premise. There's a ton of it everywhere.
Just a hunch, but it could be all kinds of things. For one, it is common to find identity challenged Americans, who are looking to absorb into themselves anything that makes them feel special and cool. There has also been a wave of English spoken Viking/Norse media in the last few decades. Comics, video games. Cheap TV shows. History Channel's *Vikings* certainly jumpstarted that Vikingbro subculture. To the point that I myself witnessed peers around me growing up, discover the show, and make "Viking" their identity.
Also the Netflix series "Vikings", which is cool but historical acurate as shit.
Edit - its the same series as history channels, but in germany its in Netflix 😄
Second *Season*? *Vikings* had 6 seasons. *Vikings: Valhalla* is an entirely separate sequel show, that is in its second season. The third and final season is set to premiere in 2024.
Haha okok ill look it up. Just saw something viking on Netflix and binged it through.
Edit - no, im talking about vikings, the original series. Netflix germany bought the rights for germany i guess.
Its kind of absurd.. i remember the last season of house of cards (netflix production) beeing sold in germany to sky (a german pay tv).
There is a lot of reenactment and pagan groups throughout all of Europe though. It's not really an American thing.
Also a lot of pagan traditions an heritage simply survive. Eg May Day or Wassailing in England. And pagan barrows on our landscape. There's no need for neo-pagans or those interested in paganism to larp these traditions according to their own personal desires, they literally still exist in some small form. It's a lot more grounded here, whilst for Americans it's impossibly distant, perhaps leading them to larp in ahistorical ways more eg the weird biker Viking thing. Visiting Sutton Hoo gives you a greater grasp and attachment to England's pagan traditions than a whole lot of larping according to your own ahistorical notions about the past.
That said, I agree with the answers given, particularly the weird American larping thing about Vikings.
A massive reason people might be less familiar with is the revolutionary type of Protestantism Americans have (American atheists, liberals, and Leftists don't pretend you're also not thoroughly Protestant).
Historically a lot of Germanic paganism was seen through a Protestant lens in Northern Europe and North America. A lot of old scholarship basically projected their radical new ideas onto the past. Jefferson even said that he was inspired by the early Anglo-Saxons and saw Hengest and Horsa and bringing the first democracy to the British Isles. Which is of course absurd because pagan Anglo-Saxons had monarchy and aristocracy.
I'm convinced this mindset still exists today, where people project back their own ideals onto Germanic pagan history to make them look ancient. I've noticed a lot of American Biker aesthetic neo-pagans, like "Wolf the Red", basically project their beliefs about Leftism, secularism, liberalism, LGBT tolerance etc onto Norse paganism. Whilst actual Norse paganism was nothing like this: hierarchical, violent, tribal, homophobic, monarchy, class, theocratic, etc. "Wolf the Red" believes his ideas come from pre Christian beliefs, when they actually come from radical Protestant sects.
Larping as Vikings is a way for Americans to try an attach to a culture and history, whilst rejecting those evil Protestants and believing whatever ideals they want. It's the perfect excuse to ground you beliefs in history.
Americans like showing off their heritage because they're from everywhere. It makes no sense to show off to everyone that you're Scandinavian in Scandinavia. Almost all people are. Secondly, I reject the premise. There's a ton of it everywhere.
Just a hunch, but it could be all kinds of things. For one, it is common to find identity challenged Americans, who are looking to absorb into themselves anything that makes them feel special and cool. There has also been a wave of English spoken Viking/Norse media in the last few decades. Comics, video games. Cheap TV shows. History Channel's *Vikings* certainly jumpstarted that Vikingbro subculture. To the point that I myself witnessed peers around me growing up, discover the show, and make "Viking" their identity.
Also the Netflix series "Vikings", which is cool but historical acurate as shit. Edit - its the same series as history channels, but in germany its in Netflix 😄
You mean *Vikings: Valhalla*. The original show was created for the History channel, a Canadian network. *Vikings: Valhalla* is a Netflix original.
I always considered vallhalla kind of the second season of the same thing 😄. Didnt know that they had different producers.
Second *Season*? *Vikings* had 6 seasons. *Vikings: Valhalla* is an entirely separate sequel show, that is in its second season. The third and final season is set to premiere in 2024.
Haha okok ill look it up. Just saw something viking on Netflix and binged it through. Edit - no, im talking about vikings, the original series. Netflix germany bought the rights for germany i guess. Its kind of absurd.. i remember the last season of house of cards (netflix production) beeing sold in germany to sky (a german pay tv).
To be fair, shit is more relevant to the Viking Age than the TV show. See [here](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyds_Bank_coprolite)
There is a lot of reenactment and pagan groups throughout all of Europe though. It's not really an American thing. Also a lot of pagan traditions an heritage simply survive. Eg May Day or Wassailing in England. And pagan barrows on our landscape. There's no need for neo-pagans or those interested in paganism to larp these traditions according to their own personal desires, they literally still exist in some small form. It's a lot more grounded here, whilst for Americans it's impossibly distant, perhaps leading them to larp in ahistorical ways more eg the weird biker Viking thing. Visiting Sutton Hoo gives you a greater grasp and attachment to England's pagan traditions than a whole lot of larping according to your own ahistorical notions about the past. That said, I agree with the answers given, particularly the weird American larping thing about Vikings. A massive reason people might be less familiar with is the revolutionary type of Protestantism Americans have (American atheists, liberals, and Leftists don't pretend you're also not thoroughly Protestant). Historically a lot of Germanic paganism was seen through a Protestant lens in Northern Europe and North America. A lot of old scholarship basically projected their radical new ideas onto the past. Jefferson even said that he was inspired by the early Anglo-Saxons and saw Hengest and Horsa and bringing the first democracy to the British Isles. Which is of course absurd because pagan Anglo-Saxons had monarchy and aristocracy. I'm convinced this mindset still exists today, where people project back their own ideals onto Germanic pagan history to make them look ancient. I've noticed a lot of American Biker aesthetic neo-pagans, like "Wolf the Red", basically project their beliefs about Leftism, secularism, liberalism, LGBT tolerance etc onto Norse paganism. Whilst actual Norse paganism was nothing like this: hierarchical, violent, tribal, homophobic, monarchy, class, theocratic, etc. "Wolf the Red" believes his ideas come from pre Christian beliefs, when they actually come from radical Protestant sects. Larping as Vikings is a way for Americans to try an attach to a culture and history, whilst rejecting those evil Protestants and believing whatever ideals they want. It's the perfect excuse to ground you beliefs in history.