1% Viking

 

Sherlock's DNA came back. His mom was a Yorkie, His father was a Jack Russell which explains his personality. There were misc. other breeds DNA running thru his veins.

Since we knew our dog's DNA why not get my husband's and mine, we thought.

I didn't expect many surprises. On my mother's side we went back to 1640 arrival from the England on the Blessing and how ancestor John Sargent fought in the American Revolution. Thanks to my grandmother's  membership in the D.A.R. I had a list of all my ancestors on that side.

In going for Canadian citizenship, I traced my family back to Michel Boudreau who left La Rochelle, France. He arrived in Nova Scotia in 1640 and became a General. When he wasn't generaling, he fathered 11 children, populating the area with Boudreaus.

What surprised me was the report that I was 1% Norwegian Viking. 

How did that happen?

Since I am five foot one and Vikings were supposed to be tall, I assumed that the 1% came from a mating with an Anglo woman. 

Was my DNA why, when I visited Iceland, the thing I wanted to see most was the Sagas?  

Did a Viking ancestor sail from Norway, land in what is now England and rape a pretty maiden who was gathering faggots for the fire in a nearby wood? Or was he one of the Vikings that rather than get back on the boat to return to what would become Norway, fall in love and settle down as a farmer maybe in Grimsby or Whitby which are said to have their names rooted in Viking words? Both places had Viking "visits" but Grimsby was said to have some Viking settle there.

Could he have been one of the Vikings to raid a monastery at Lindisfarne in 793 arriving in one of three ships?

I did take an on-line course in Vikings just in case I wanted to do a historical novel on my ancestor Viking hooking up with my Anglo ancestor. It's about eleventh on the writing projects on my list. 

Still, if I visit Norway again, will my heart beat a little faster when I see a tall blond male and imagine him in leggings and tunic, fur boots, and carrying a spear. 

At one point I read about a man in Norway who recreated Viking ships. I looked into apprenticing myself to him but modern reality of a dependent child destroyed that dream. That was before I knew of the 1%.

 

My fascination with the Sagas can be explained by my interest in the medieval period in general not DNA or can it?

I will never know for the names, places, clothing, daily life, dreams of the man who handed my 1% DNA to me.