DNA and the 1%

I am part of the 1%. No, not the billionaire class or the millionaire class. Financially I belong to the 99%. Let me explain.

Before we did our dog's DNA, my husband and I had ours done. There was no surprises for him, but I was amazed to find I was 1% Norwegian

Now how did that happen? I like to imagine, a Viking, one of those Norse seafarers who raided and traded with my Anglo-Saxon ancestors, was the donated of the genes.

In my imagination, I pictured him as tall, until I discovered Vikings weren't much taller than five foot nine. From my five foot one, that would make him tall, but my undertallness descends more from the French side of the family. With some of my relatives, I might be considered if not tall at least taller.

Now did my ancestor come storming through a village raping and pillaging? Or did he see a pretty maiden and decide to settle down as a farmer, having grown tired of life on the sea. Maybe he had been prone to seasickness as I am.

As a writer, I imagine what the object of his sperm might have worn. Supposedly from my research her clothing could have been on linen. Maybe there was fur linings for winter. She might have held the dress together with a brooch. Would her Viking lover/rapist have snatched it or would he have given it to her as a symbol of his affection?

They might be pagans or been toying with the new Christianity. At least, they would have been able to keep their feasts around the solstices, since the new church borrowed heavily from the pagans.

What would his name have been? I like Bard, although it didn't refer to a poet but means battle against peace. Boy, would that work with some of our crazy world leaders today. Not Garth, which is still used in the UK today. The Norse name Jerk has too many connotations for today. I would reject Roscoe. A friend has a dog named that.

Other names like Frode, Hemming, etc. are names still in use today and are carried by some of our Danish friends.

Maybe he would have been named Maceo, God's present. That implies the romantic story of his falling in love with my ancestor and them living happily ever after.

I haven't thought much about my female ancestor. I can picture her cooking over the fire with the smoke going out the hole in the roof or salting down meat from a hunt to keep it from spoiling.

Oh, how I wish, I knew more about those two people that came together be it for a quickie or a life.

Of course, they would never suspect that centuries and centuries later, the progeny of that act would be sitting at a computer and trying to guess what they were like.

Meanwhile my 1% remains as allusive as my chances of being part of the 1% billionaire class.