I absolutely love this one, and feel that it's very timely. As a gay Norse pagan who who identifies as a "gay Viking", I get a lot of the brosatru's who go "but you don't 'look' gay!" and "there aren't gay Vikings, dude!" Which brings the whole stereotyping thing into the picture. What does "gay" look like? When I watched your spooky draugr video I was one of those who thought this sounded like a gay Viking love/horror story. Well done, brother, and thank you!
I"m a cis man myself, and I feel strongly about positive LGBTQ+ representation & positive representations of masculinity. I really appreciate this video, thank you ! (rainbow vikings, yay :) )
Hey it doesn't matter if your gay... It matters if your DRENGR what are your values are you a decent person do you have courage, honor do you act with Virtue? That's what matters, don't listen to these Brosatru people, because really your more badass then them if you act like it
@@Name-tf4qp Im so tired of this mindset, Nobody is trying to be a Viking we are trying to Connect to the ways of our ancestors at least I am, and people are trying to embody and learn from the Old Norse Culture not just be a raider, the Northern Germanic People's were more than just raiders
Started with an "it's always possible" Reminder of how deep it went, myself remembering that even as an animated corpse, Aran offered Asmund food and exhausted all other food sources first, "alright yeah I see it" More context, including sharing everything 50/50 and being co-kings, "I don't see a heterosexual explanation for this"
I don't see why sharing 50/50 and co-kings should be impossible for tight hetero guys. That said I think a romantical relationship does sound like the more plausible read, I would also like to lift how fast the relationship came to be to support that thesis, sounds a lot like falling in love rather then a strongly built friendship.
Hell im close with my friend only because Im too scared to tell him I love him lol but we have gotten so much closer and are able to talk to each other about our feelings and he even put the letter I wrote him in his fav part of his room.
Well done Ocean. You used critical source review to make your point valid. To admit that we can't tell for sure is like the main point about historical debattes. Greetings from a german history nerd enjoying your content.
Welp I think I have a new personal research project to do. Great video Ocean, you always give me something worthwhile to read. Side note, I knew you'd mention my boys Achilles and Patroclus. I've always loved them and I always "spaz out" when someone brings them up, as my brothers decide to describe it. Edit: Forgive me for this sin and get ready to take back your like, I present the worst joke I can think of. "Vikingr? Nah mate they're Viking-ay."
Where can I find good Germanic pagan necklaces? I'm Guatemalan, Filipino, Italian, a little Irish, and German and a lot of my friends are German from different parts of the Country so I wanted to get a Germanic pagan necklace.
Their existence may be questioned however their sexuality is, by all rights, irrelevant. If they lived, they were still human and, considering the timeline, no one would have really cared whether they were gay or not. This is something very similar to the Roman culture's ideas of sexual (Eros) love. Their COMMITMENT is more important than their sexuality. Sure, I'm certain some men among them would have found the relationship repulsive (like some today), some would've found their partnership quite endearing (again, like some today) and yet others, like me, would have found them .... well .... still to be normal people.
I really do appreciate you going through gay norse history and touching on other culture. Its an interesting topic that really supports a feeling of who I am being valid through history. Until this video I kinda had the assumption they were largely repressive or that the christianization fully erased obvious signs in this culture. Nope they had the same arguement as Greece of "as long as your arent the bottom" I think it was Caeser who had the smear campaign about him and another king getting together. Whoch was a thing, but Caeser was the BOTTOM OMG 😲
One thing I noticed in this story is that they both take oaths to die in each other's tombs. When he is released from the tomb it seems like he is not upholding his end of the oath he took and if others knew about said oaths, wouldn't it be fair to say their reaction and attempted killing of him be more in line with them killing an oath breaker rather than having issues with his sexuality? It seems like he is coming out of the tomb and not fulfilling his oath towards his sworn brother is the town's peoples issue with that. Not to mention their fear of him being a draugr from the moment he emerged from the tomb. We see the fear of the undead and unknown a lot in Christian settings and given that norse culture is very much a natural order of life then death and afterlife, the resurrection of someone who was supposed to be dead my be cause for alarm? I do not have anything against these two being gay but perhaps they were just two men who shared a close bond that everyone knew about, and one of them seemed to break that bond? I may be misreading it but that's what I got out of it.
10:44 HOW DARE HIDE SUCH AMOUNT OF GOLD IN THAT SINGLE FRAME?! YOU SPAWN OF FAFNIR! also: YASS QUEEN, SLAAAY, SLAAAAY... *SLAY YOUR ENEMIES, RISE UP YOUR ARMY!* 💅⚔
This guy has no clue of what he is talking about... and should definitely not teach people about it... som en dansk hedning er det absurd at høre på hans vrøvl.
i love seeing you so comfortable with this discussion. A lot of straight cis people will acknowledge gay people, but then in a way are like "yeah i support gays, but im not gay!" So i guess in a way if i didn't have enough reasons to respect you before, i definitely do now.
I also love this perspective. A big thing holding me back from looking into and getting into Paganism is some of the anti-queer, racist, and otherwise bigoted people using especially Norse symbolism. So finding this video is helpful, even if it's not the brand of Paganism I land on.
Serious note here. And this is completely inference based on the stories. But. What if the towns people didn't like the Co King possibly gay couple. So they (some one) killed the one who established the situation using poison of some kind. And that's why he came back as a draugr. He was seeking revenge in death and lashed out at the first person he saw due to his unrest from the injustice he suffered. Something to think about.
To be honest the first time I heard 'suddenly fell ill' that was my first thought, but without this extra context I thought it might have been the 'brother' that did it to get the kingship to himself
What if he was poisoned before the grave watch causing hallicunations because poison and then spreading the myth of the draug, where he barely survived indeed, being poisoned..
Thank you! I have a good friend of mine, who is bisexual and a fellow Heathen. He was ostracized from a kindred because " there are no gay vikings" bullshit. I defended him in a vigorous debate with the gothi of that kindred, citing the Odin and Loki examples. I had completely forgotten this tale. A PERFECT example of the complexity of ancient sexuality and the social dynamics of that time. Again, thank you for you knowledge and insight!
I've been so ruined by modern Internet culture that, as you related how Asmund regarded Aran as "the most handsome man he'd ever seen", my brain gifted me with a vision of future historians and anthropologists studying this tale and remarking, "Seems kinda sus though, not gonna lie."
Cishet white guys who are into mythology and vikings often get a bad rep for being ignorant towards queer identities but you completely pick apart that stereotype. I love it
Best part of this video is learning there was no question in Plato’s mind Achilles and Patroclus were lovers. Nah, the real question in plato’s mind is which one was the top lmao
Ok but in Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare’s Achilles/Patroclus fanfic, a character insults Patroclus as Achilles‘ bitch. So Shakespeare thought Patroclus was the bottom…
I appreciate the discussion on complex society. People romanticize viking culture to the point that they forget they were human like the rest of us and equally complex. So, of course there were LGBT+ vikings because there are LGBT+ people today.
yeah some must have been in the lgbtq+ community, but not that many as today, because back than were fewer ppl in general. for example in the modern day there are 634.293 ppl living in oslo according to a 2014 census. i'm not sure the actual number, but it must be at least 10.000 ppl back than in the middle age (900 - 1200) in oslo. sooo at least 20 - 50 of them can be in the lgbtq+ community.
@@doublesalopetoimcre Probably a lot more than 20-50. It's estimated that about 1% of the population is asexual, so if we assume medieval Oslo generally had about 10,000 people living in it (I have no idea what the actual population would have been either,) then about 100 of those people would be asexual, and since there's a lot more bi/pan people and gay people thatn there are asexual people, there'd easily be a few hundred of them.
@@poTato_777 I would agree with you for the most part. However, can you honestly say you are attracted to all people? I my case I am more attracted to men than women. So in order have people better understand my preferences I need to have some way to express that. Though I get what you are saying people should not limit themselves to one thing or another.
@@gabrielluchs3476 I dont find fat women attractive, but there is no need for me to identify as slimsexual, is there. sexual preference should not be a dividing factor between people imo, it is really not that important ;d
The legal loophole point about sworn brotherhood being a way to have gay marriage reminded me of other cultures that did similar, namely in Chinese and sometimes Japanese culture
One final comment, the whole Ergi thing has been kinda not... ruined... but at the least, affected, by that one Jackson Crawford video where he said the best modern equivalent he could think of was the 3rd garder insult "sissy".
IIRC from the beginning of that video, he admits directly that he chose that term so as to not have to resort to the kinds of slurs that get people kicked out of my home. It may perhaps be that another word would better fit the spirit of the work and simply be too offensive to publicize.
Yes this is something he went into a few times and said that there were other words that would better fit the spirit of the word ergi but he would not say them.
I found some of it reaching but overall makes sense and wolf's poison theory brings more to it. It was my first thought when you said "suddenly became ill"
One thing that came to mind when you mentioned that their relationship was described as a "sworn brotherhood" - I just finished reading The Satyricon, and within the text, the main character has a gay lover who is occasionally referred to as "brother", both by himself and others. Perhaps that could've been a recurring type of terminology in older cultures before homosexuality was given it's own label?
Various ancient cultures did use kinship terms to refer to romantic bonds. It's not a direct parallel (since it's straight), but the Song of Solomon has the male lover refer to his beloved as "my sister", and apparently the use of brother/sister terminology in love poetry was fairly common in the Ancient Near East. (That might seem a little weird and incestuous to our modern culture... _buuut_ we should keep in mind that our modern culture has sexual uses of the terms "daddy/mommy".) So yeah, I could definitely see men in the ancient world referring to male lovers as "brother", either just to show affection or maybe to obfuscate their relationship a bit if their society isn't fully approving.
In Rome, men would refer to their wives as sister and wives to their husband as sister, so these kind of family terms are often just part and parcel of romantic links in general rather than anything necessarily linked to homosexuality. But historian John Boswell argues that the early/medieval Christian rite of adelphopoiesis "brother making" was a formal recognition of same sex relationships equivalent to marriage.
As Slav, I am obligated to sneak in some vampires somehow, granted, but turning into a draugr may be interesting in itself in this scenario. For example, around here becoming an undead, an upyr, can very much come, at least in later folklore, as a consequence of sexual perversion, amongst other things such as the use of magic, heresy, and curses, et cetera.
If the gay theory is correct, i think it's interesting that the "hero" is not only gay, but the submissive one. You'd think if the culture was so against being gay the story (weather true or not) would not have been as long lived. The people would not perpetuate a story with a sympathetic protagonist that went so far against their values. Smells like Christianity vilified something that the original tellers of the story saw as at least a neutral characteristic if not a positive one. Expetialy with Odin also sharing the characteristic.
This is just speculation on my part, but as most if not all stories which describes Ergi are written centuries after the fact, is it entirely impossible it may in fact have been a lot more nuanced than later (mostly Christian) writers gave it credit for? Hear me out. Several cultures with very clearly defined gender roles also have a built-in "opt out clause", in the form of what is essentially a culturally codified transgender identity. (I can do a bit of digging for concrete examples, but don't have the time at the moment.) And here's where I really go into theory crafting, but given the particulars of the story, the concept of Ergi, the practice of Seiðr (which we know to be women's magic, but literally nothing else), and the archaeological evidence of women buried with weapons and armour... (Plus the obvious, with Odin and Loki.) I don't know about you, but things does seem to add up to something a lot more nuanced and complex than the hypermasculine rage machines we get in the media depiction of vikings since forever. (Not saying anything conclusive, because it's literally just speculation. But you can probably use your imagination to fill in the blanks, much like I did.)
@@Grevnor Isnt seidr known a womenly magic but desopite it was frowned upon, ther were male practitioners. I sa that in an article and didnt look th sources but why not. And odin did learn it, so why not other men too like from their mothers. Also yes ther seem several third genders in all of history. But seidr could very much be wicca like it maybe attracts queer folk, but not nessesary is an indicator.
This is something I share often. Much of the little we have is filtered by Christian worldview. "Well just say these gays were friends. You know, like Jesus and Peter"
@@MrCmon113 i think that's a very post christian look at the Nordic culture. We know very little about Thier thoughts on gender before Christians wrote it down, and Christians had a vested interest in making it seem like the culture always hated women.
This is an interesting and important discussion to have. However, we must also realize the inherent issues with associating close male bonding with sexuality and sexual activities. We often see this in popular culture when two males sho affection towards each other, it doesn't take long until they are claimed by certain groups of the LGBT+ community or dismissed as deviants by the conservative community. A quick search on Fan-Art forums makes this rather graphically clear, pun intended if it can be called that. In any case, it does make it difficult for males in our society to show affection towards each other without being mislabeled, which in turn can generate overly masculine toxic traits in order to disprove such labels.
Absolutely. I think I reasonably caveated this issue in the video, that yes, often close friends are close friends. Not all affection between men is sexual. In this particular case, however, I think its a reasonable reading.
I take some issue with putting the onus of this issue on queer people representing fictional subjects as part of their community; even before lgbt representation in fandom or outside was a thing people were debating and shipping together every female and male character that even looked at each other, I think the urge to imagine different scenarios of our stories, especially romantically, is just a part of humanity. It is absolutely an issue that people assume two men who are close or affectionate to be a gay couple, but this also absolutely happens with male and female friends who are very close, it's an issue of people not minding their business that only becomes more emphasized with men because of homophobia in general.. I think it's more productive to try and combat the association that being mistaken for a gay couple is bad and making the world more safe for gay couples, than trying to stop people from interpreting stories in a way that represents them. I know like... reframing masculinity and sexuality is harder, but I think it is a more productive way to deal with this issue.
I have always thought about this topic since transitioning into paganism from christianity. I always thought how would the gods look upon me for being bi sexual and this explains all of that and i deeply thank you for the explanation and clearing this fog. May the gods bless you and yours.
One grave I find particularly fascinating is the Suontaka grave in Finland. The person was buried in expensive women’s clothing, but also with weapons, like men often were. They did genetic testing on the remains and found that this person likely had Kleinfelter’s syndrome, a chromosomal condition that effects males, and is caused by an extra X chromosome(XXY instead of the normal male chromosomes, XY). This tells me this person and their community likely knew they were different(people with Kleinfelter’s are often have less muscle mass than an ordinary male, smaller genitals, less public hair, breast growth, less body hair than many ordinary males, etc.) but they were still highly respected by their community despite this. This makes me wonder if the ancestors acknowledged any third gender, like the Native American Two-Spirit and the Christians just buried/destroyed any written or documented evidence of it. It’s given me serious Odinitis!
I could accept that they were just really good friends up to the point where they became "co-kings". That's... uh, yeah. 🤣 We can never be sure with historical (or mythical) events, but if this was a bet, I'd put my money on gay (or bi) here. 🧐
I first want to thank you for both recognising and diving into this after seeing new information and perspectives. As a very queer Pagan myself I immediately recognised the trends in historical retelling that hinted toward this possibility, and it is both interesting and validating to learn more about the story. This is also sending me quite suddenly down a research rabbit hole that I am (unsurprisingly, but sadly) discovering a bit of a dearth on. Thank you for the video and book recommendations, which I am immediately going to consume, and I would be extremely interested in any other sources you might have or find on the subject of queerness in "Pagan history".
Personally how dare you accuse a perfectly platonic and nonromantic relationship between two handsome, beautiful men who simply want to press together in the cold embrace of the earth, in deep (but not gay!) love with one another, who shared their kingdom together as a husband and wife would their house, very heterosexually, no gay here. How dare.
What I hate is that people will try gatekeeping me from Norse religion bc I’m queer and “yOu WoUldN’t Be AcCePtEd BaCk ThEn” and it’s like oh well ! I’d still be Swedish though. Like someone’s identity / morality doesn’t define if they’re of a certain culture or not???
Draugr were known to rise in response to their spirit wanting to seek a desire, weren't they? Haven't there even been a couple Draugr that explicitly rose to return (in a healthy manner or not, given the fact that draugr were known to impulsively lash out, kill, eat or spoil all the food in an area, etc) to loved ones?
This is definitely something to think about when studying history. Makes me want to reread some things. It's kinda like when you rewatch Disney movies when you are an adult and you notice all the jokes that went over your head as a child.
“Loki as well has an association with ergi, despite being the one to accuse Odin of it.” Ah yes, the timeless gay culture of bottoms making fun of other bottoms for being bottoms.
Ocean, I love how you throw humor in you talks. My personal feeling has always been that throughout history, men and women shared sexplay and often had deep loving relationships. Sometimes with opposite sex but often with same sex. In societies where the sexes are often separated, sex is still going to happen. We know, people married for many reasons. Love is a fairly new reason. Weddings were for mating, but also connections, money, power. (Oh, and I love that you use GRSM or GSRM.) We can see all of this by studying our cousins, other apes and monkeys!👍 🥰💖🤎✌
I have been so excited for this video and it did not disappoint. This is such a good example of how to recognize bias, its impact if unrecognized, and you lay it out beautifully.
So I was sitting in class just opening TH-cam and the first recommendation I get on the Home Screen is this look I have now problem with that I am a big fan of ocean but the person sitting next wouldn’t stop laughing because the first 2 words on my screen he read were “gay Vikings” I think I will not socially recover from this but then ho cares we’re talking about stupid 15 year olds
Also, I’d like to stress that a lot of surviving records are a Christian commentary / rewriting, so the original could have been more of a romance between the two men and when the Christians hypothetically rewrote it they may have called them friends in order to not be hunted down by the Catholic Church and potentially jailed, executed, or exiled. Or they called them friends just because they were uncomfortable with homosexuality even though it was never mentioned in the Bible until the 1940s.
Possible. But the story could have also been altered by pagan retellers, while still keeping elements of the effects of the romance without actually having that romance exist anymore in the retelling. Even in the trappings of the story if we assume this reading, the Vikings around them are bigoted toward their relationship on a general and broad basis with some exceptions.
Not all Vikings were raiders. They had communities, that I expect/imagene were diverse, with no labels like we have today in our society . I think sexuality was just normal. Daily life. Romans were the same I guess...To be buried together is quite a statement to make.
Ofcourse there were gay Vikings and women defying the strict gender roles of a conservative rural society. The 'ergi' part is not only about transgressing the common notion of manliness in a conservative society, but also about the implications it had for a 'gay' mans ætt or extended family. The honor and 'strength'/defenseability' of the ætt was at stake. Transgressing the traditional views on manliness could be dangerous for their social position and everything that flowed from it. If a gay warrior showed his worth,strength and 'luck' in profitable relationships abroad or on the battlefield, he clearly had the favor of his ancestors or gods and it mattered less what his personal sexual preferences were if he acted within the wider expectations of his aett. Óðinn himself as you told, did exactly the same. But on the other side, of a young man did not have 'the warrior chant' in his heart, or was to frail to live up to the traditional views on manliness in an age of machismo, there was a problem for that young man and his kin. In one saga, (I forgot which one) there is mention of a father who smashes the sword-hand of his son so he could not be challenged in single combat because of that crippled hand and thus save his life without risking the family's honor. So your (non-submissive) position in society mattered how people perceived you. The ergi notion of men and seiðr followed much the same pattern. Read an older work on that 'the Nine Worlds of Seiðr-magic' by dr. Jenny Blaine.
It was associated with the feminine. "transness" as a concept did not exist. Feminine males or males pursuing traditionally feminine practices did not "become" women, they were just men pursuing traditionally feminine practices like Seidr.
Is it possible that Odin and Loki were also gay as they also established blood brotherhood with shared blood? I know not ALL blood brotherhoods mean they're gay, but with Odin and Loki there are some points. Loki already has established Ergi so it places Odin above him as well as their shared shape-shifting to include gender bending? Odin would be similar in the shared assets realm when he made the pact that he would not drink unless Loki was also offered a drink, when it's established that Odin does not eat, but lives solely on wine.
But this can’t be true! Gay people didn’t exist until 2008, they must have just been friends. Just like Achilles and Patroclus great friendship or how Julius caeser was “every women’s man and every mans women” obvious describing how he was friends to both genders.
Ok so at around 11:30 and 12:00 that sounds like a wedding. In my culture we use red ribbon that we hold in between each other's palms to represents our blood mixing and becoming one. So yeah they just got married.
I think you hit the nail on the head that many people coming to modern Norse paganism come to it wanting to be the big bad masculine Viking. Many don't want to study about the boring Farmers or tradesmen, nor do they want to acknowledge the possibility that gender was looked at differently and that homosexuality existed & was accepted to some degree.
I'm late on commenting here, but I've been studying iron age archaeology for a bit now and you are so right about modern straight CIS man perceptions. We were discussing graves of mighty warrior woman from North that were given the "gender" male, because it seemed unacceptable for a woman to be buried in such respect. It's also extremely difficult for us not to make any assumptions because of the society that raised us. :') Even for us women studying archaeology, because we've been taught to accept that ladies usually never get the spotlight at war.
Love this video Ocean, I would say you've really dug out as much info as you could. This video along side Aalie's video really paints how history is far more complicated for sexuality than people like to think. Great job as always. :D
The only thing i might argue is the handsome comment in the beginning. If you're comfortable enough with your masculinity you can admit when another man is good looking or not. That being said, yeah, they were probably pretty gay.
Absolutely. I don't think that observation alone really does anything, and that was my interpretation on the first reading. But when viewed in context of the cumulative evidence, it definitely lends a bit to the overall picture.
I used to get in fights, verbal, sometimes physical with other heathens. ( They considered themselves asatru, I dont mind the term, but some use it as a means of basically calling themselves Aryan ) I personally don't believe what one village as described by grammiticus, should dictate what you believe as a worshiper. I used loki, Odin, and the lay of rig as examples.... they didn't like that, and I got kicked out of their hate group. Best thing to happen to me. Further more, we as heathens should be in touch with our Anima or animus
Personally my educated guess is that vikings didn't really care until after Christians came. Considering much listed in this video combined with what I know about Christianity during this period, its very likely that ergi didn't exist until after Christianity claimed Scandinavia.
Queer folks in the US used to adopt each other for legal rights before marriage or civil unions were recognized, which is what I was thinking of the entire time Aran and Asmund were saying "we're blood brothers *wink wink*".
Even in America before gay marriage was legalized people were "adopting" their partners because it gave them the most important rights marriage did. This is not out of the question.
similar to the idea of gay pirates, vikings we're constantly at sea away from women and their familes, i don't see why gay vikings isn't a common idea. i think vikings exploring sexuality at sea was probably more likely than we think
I absolutely love this one, and feel that it's very timely. As a gay Norse pagan who who identifies as a "gay Viking", I get a lot of the brosatru's who go "but you don't 'look' gay!" and "there aren't gay Vikings, dude!" Which brings the whole stereotyping thing into the picture. What does "gay" look like? When I watched your spooky draugr video I was one of those who thought this sounded like a gay Viking love/horror story. Well done, brother, and thank you!
Your not a viking tho, Vikings are actual raiders, when have you last done a real raid?
Lol @ "brosatru"!
I"m a cis man myself, and I feel strongly about positive LGBTQ+ representation & positive representations of masculinity. I really appreciate this video, thank you ! (rainbow vikings, yay :) )
Hey it doesn't matter if your gay... It matters if your DRENGR what are your values are you a decent person do you have courage, honor do you act with Virtue? That's what matters, don't listen to these Brosatru people, because really your more badass then them if you act like it
@@Name-tf4qp Im so tired of this mindset, Nobody is trying to be a Viking we are trying to Connect to the ways of our ancestors at least I am, and people are trying to embody and learn from the Old Norse Culture not just be a raider, the Northern Germanic People's were more than just raiders
Started with an "it's always possible"
Reminder of how deep it went, myself remembering that even as an animated corpse, Aran offered Asmund food and exhausted all other food sources first, "alright yeah I see it"
More context, including sharing everything 50/50 and being co-kings, "I don't see a heterosexual explanation for this"
I don't see why sharing 50/50 and co-kings should be impossible for tight hetero guys. That said I think a romantical relationship does sound like the more plausible read, I would also like to lift how fast the relationship came to be to support that thesis, sounds a lot like falling in love rather then a strongly built friendship.
"...and they were tombmates"
"Oh my god they were tombmates."
Just tombmates :P
howling
🤣
😂
Really great video. Thank you.
"Some times close friends, really are close friends."
Every shipping community "i will pretend i didn't *hear* that"
Hell im close with my friend only because Im too scared to tell him I love him lol but we have gotten so much closer and are able to talk to each other about our feelings and he even put the letter I wrote him in his fav part of his room.
Hear what?
Shippers: Everyone is in love goddamn it! 😠
Well done Ocean. You used critical source review to make your point valid. To admit that we can't tell for sure is like the main point about historical debattes.
Greetings from a german history nerd enjoying your content.
Excellent video! May Bragi keep your words sweet!
They were roommates, best friends. Obviously not gay.
Welp I think I have a new personal research project to do. Great video Ocean, you always give me something worthwhile to read.
Side note, I knew you'd mention my boys Achilles and Patroclus. I've always loved them and I always "spaz out" when someone brings them up, as my brothers decide to describe it.
Edit: Forgive me for this sin and get ready to take back your like, I present the worst joke I can think of.
"Vikingr? Nah mate they're Viking-ay."
Where can I find good Germanic pagan necklaces? I'm Guatemalan, Filipino, Italian, a little Irish, and German and a lot of my friends are German from different parts of the Country so I wanted to get a Germanic pagan necklace.
You covered this topic so well.
The burial mound thing is pretty covensing.
Their existence may be questioned however their sexuality is, by all rights, irrelevant. If they lived, they were still human and, considering the timeline, no one would have really cared whether they were gay or not. This is something very similar to the Roman culture's ideas of sexual (Eros) love. Their COMMITMENT is more important than their sexuality.
Sure, I'm certain some men among them would have found the relationship repulsive (like some today), some would've found their partnership quite endearing (again, like some today) and yet others, like me, would have found them .... well .... still to be normal people.
... I ship it.
I really do appreciate you going through gay norse history and touching on other culture. Its an interesting topic that really supports a feeling of who I am being valid through history.
Until this video I kinda had the assumption they were largely repressive or that the christianization fully erased obvious signs in this culture.
Nope they had the same arguement as Greece of "as long as your arent the bottom"
I think it was Caeser who had the smear campaign about him and another king getting together. Whoch was a thing, but Caeser was the BOTTOM OMG 😲
One thing I noticed in this story is that they both take oaths to die in each other's tombs. When he is released from the tomb it seems like he is not upholding his end of the oath he took and if others knew about said oaths, wouldn't it be fair to say their reaction and attempted killing of him be more in line with them killing an oath breaker rather than having issues with his sexuality? It seems like he is coming out of the tomb and not fulfilling his oath towards his sworn brother is the town's peoples issue with that. Not to mention their fear of him being a draugr from the moment he emerged from the tomb. We see the fear of the undead and unknown a lot in Christian settings and given that norse culture is very much a natural order of life then death and afterlife, the resurrection of someone who was supposed to be dead my be cause for alarm? I do not have anything against these two being gay but perhaps they were just two men who shared a close bond that everyone knew about, and one of them seemed to break that bond? I may be misreading it but that's what I got out of it.
In the icelandic saga he fulfills his oath of staying in the mound for three days. In Saxo’s story its a final burial, but the tomb is raided.
10:44
HOW DARE HIDE SUCH AMOUNT OF GOLD IN THAT SINGLE FRAME?! YOU SPAWN OF FAFNIR!
also: YASS QUEEN, SLAAAY, SLAAAAY...
*SLAY YOUR ENEMIES, RISE UP YOUR ARMY!* 💅⚔
I mean, it’s very hard not to see the parallel between Aran and Asmound sharing the grave and Achilles and Patroclus mixing their ashes in death
This guy has no clue of what he is talking about... and should definitely not teach people about it... som en dansk hedning er det absurd at høre på hans vrøvl.
Omg they were tomb mates.
Two friends. Chillin in a burial. 5 feet apart cause they're not gay! (Or were they!?)
Lmao 🤣
Bog mates*
Here’s a joke you could’ve made.
The interpretation of Asmund’s sexuality could go both ways
Thats really good
i love seeing you so comfortable with this discussion. A lot of straight cis people will acknowledge gay people, but then in a way are like "yeah i support gays, but im not gay!" So i guess in a way if i didn't have enough reasons to respect you before, i definitely do now.
I hope you don't see that within the Heathen community. I'm sorry of you do
I also love this perspective. A big thing holding me back from looking into and getting into Paganism is some of the anti-queer, racist, and otherwise bigoted people using especially Norse symbolism. So finding this video is helpful, even if it's not the brand of Paganism I land on.
Serious note here. And this is completely inference based on the stories.
But. What if the towns people didn't like the Co King possibly gay couple. So they (some one) killed the one who established the situation using poison of some kind. And that's why he came back as a draugr. He was seeking revenge in death and lashed out at the first person he saw due to his unrest from the injustice he suffered.
Something to think about.
The idea that Aran was poisoned has crossed my mind
Makes perfect sense to me... now can you tell me why the draugr of skyrim are so restless... so many restless programs.
To be honest the first time I heard 'suddenly fell ill' that was my first thought, but without this extra context I thought it might have been the 'brother' that did it to get the kingship to himself
What if he was poisoned before the grave watch causing hallicunations because poison and then spreading the myth of the draug, where he barely survived indeed, being poisoned..
This makes so much sense
Thank you! I have a good friend of mine, who is bisexual and a fellow Heathen. He was ostracized from a kindred because " there are no gay vikings" bullshit. I defended him in a vigorous debate with the gothi of that kindred, citing the Odin and Loki examples. I had completely forgotten this tale. A PERFECT example of the complexity of ancient sexuality and the social dynamics of that time. Again, thank you for you knowledge and insight!
I've been so ruined by modern Internet culture that, as you related how Asmund regarded Aran as "the most handsome man he'd ever seen", my brain gifted me with a vision of future historians and anthropologists studying this tale and remarking, "Seems kinda sus though, not gonna lie."
"Asmund looked good enough to eat" so you could say he was a snacc
But he did not smile back
Hail to Aran and Asmund! May their bond be sung of for all time!
Cishet white guys who are into mythology and vikings often get a bad rep for being ignorant towards queer identities but you completely pick apart that stereotype. I love it
Oh my god they were tombmates
Best part of this video is learning there was no question in Plato’s mind Achilles and Patroclus were lovers. Nah, the real question in plato’s mind is which one was the top lmao
Plato be asking the real questions!
It's obviously Patroclus
Ok but in Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare’s Achilles/Patroclus fanfic, a character insults Patroclus as Achilles‘ bitch. So Shakespeare thought Patroclus was the bottom…
Achilles must've been the top since he was a Demi God himself
They were both Versatile😉 or just mutual oral partners👌
I appreciate the discussion on complex society. People romanticize viking culture to the point that they forget they were human like the rest of us and equally complex. So, of course there were LGBT+ vikings because there are LGBT+ people today.
yeah some must have been in the lgbtq+ community, but not that many as today, because back than were fewer ppl in general. for example in the modern day there are 634.293 ppl living in oslo according to a 2014 census. i'm not sure the actual number, but it must be at least 10.000 ppl back than in the middle age (900 - 1200) in oslo. sooo at least 20 - 50 of them can be in the lgbtq+ community.
@@doublesalopetoimcre Probably a lot more than 20-50. It's estimated that about 1% of the population is asexual, so if we assume medieval Oslo generally had about 10,000 people living in it (I have no idea what the actual population would have been either,) then about 100 of those people would be asexual, and since there's a lot more bi/pan people and gay people thatn there are asexual people, there'd easily be a few hundred of them.
there were/are no alphabet people, nor are there straight people, it's a modern delusion from uniform thinking.
@@poTato_777 I would agree with you for the most part. However, can you honestly say you are attracted to all people? I my case I am more attracted to men than women. So in order have people better understand my preferences I need to have some way to express that. Though I get what you are saying people should not limit themselves to one thing or another.
@@gabrielluchs3476 I dont find fat women attractive, but there is no need for me to identify as slimsexual, is there. sexual preference should not be a dividing factor between people imo, it is really not that important ;d
Brilliantly laid out and argued. This was fantastic.
The legal loophole point about sworn brotherhood being a way to have gay marriage reminded me of other cultures that did similar, namely in Chinese and sometimes Japanese culture
One final comment, the whole Ergi thing has been kinda not... ruined... but at the least, affected, by that one Jackson Crawford video where he said the best modern equivalent he could think of was the 3rd garder insult "sissy".
IIRC from the beginning of that video, he admits directly that he chose that term so as to not have to resort to the kinds of slurs that get people kicked out of my home. It may perhaps be that another word would better fit the spirit of the work and simply be too offensive to publicize.
Yes this is something he went into a few times and said that there were other words that would better fit the spirit of the word ergi but he would not say them.
I found some of it reaching but overall makes sense and wolf's poison theory brings more to it. It was my first thought when you said "suddenly became ill"
Yeah I don't think that any individual observation makes the case, but as a cumulative case it certainly seems to work as an explanation.
@@OceanKeltoi hmm? Worth an explanation? Maybe not, but an interesting case to ponder, definitely.
@@J0K3R_the_Nerd works as an explanation, in that it fits. And yeah, something to ponder about is kinda the point. We’ll never have a concrete answer.
@@OceanKeltoi definitely
One thing that came to mind when you mentioned that their relationship was described as a "sworn brotherhood" - I just finished reading The Satyricon, and within the text, the main character has a gay lover who is occasionally referred to as "brother", both by himself and others. Perhaps that could've been a recurring type of terminology in older cultures before homosexuality was given it's own label?
Various ancient cultures did use kinship terms to refer to romantic bonds. It's not a direct parallel (since it's straight), but the Song of Solomon has the male lover refer to his beloved as "my sister", and apparently the use of brother/sister terminology in love poetry was fairly common in the Ancient Near East.
(That might seem a little weird and incestuous to our modern culture... _buuut_ we should keep in mind that our modern culture has sexual uses of the terms "daddy/mommy".)
So yeah, I could definitely see men in the ancient world referring to male lovers as "brother", either just to show affection or maybe to obfuscate their relationship a bit if their society isn't fully approving.
In Rome, men would refer to their wives as sister and wives to their husband as sister, so these kind of family terms are often just part and parcel of romantic links in general rather than anything necessarily linked to homosexuality. But historian John Boswell argues that the early/medieval Christian rite of adelphopoiesis "brother making" was a formal recognition of same sex relationships equivalent to marriage.
@@matterhorn731 David and Jonathon- whose love surpassed that of women-is totally " Just friends " in most Christian and Jewish interpretations
@@matterhorn731 Also in China and Korea, women in heterosexual romantic relationships often refer to their partner as 'big brother'.
Really interesting! As an anthropologist, our field is finally reckoning with observer bias too. Perspective is everything.
As Slav, I am obligated to sneak in some vampires somehow, granted, but turning into a draugr may be interesting in itself in this scenario. For example, around here becoming an undead, an upyr, can very much come, at least in later folklore, as a consequence of sexual perversion, amongst other things such as the use of magic, heresy, and curses, et cetera.
If you leave your sex toys in a pile at the door the vampire will be compelled to count them all before entering
@@smrtfasizmu7242 Well, somebody has to keep the inventory.
@@MargaretKateMarlow don't forget the garlic flavored condoms to "stake" the vampire through the mouth
@@smrtfasizmu7242 As long as everyone is consenting, who am I to judge.
I'm an archaeologist that focuses on gender, queerness, and the like, and I love the phrase Homogeneous group of observers, Fantastic. A++ description
Fellas, is it gay to share all of your possessions and rule as co-kings?
If the gay theory is correct, i think it's interesting that the "hero" is not only gay, but the submissive one. You'd think if the culture was so against being gay the story (weather true or not) would not have been as long lived. The people would not perpetuate a story with a sympathetic protagonist that went so far against their values. Smells like Christianity vilified something that the original tellers of the story saw as at least a neutral characteristic if not a positive one. Expetialy with Odin also sharing the characteristic.
This is just speculation on my part, but as most if not all stories which describes Ergi are written centuries after the fact, is it entirely impossible it may in fact have been a lot more nuanced than later (mostly Christian) writers gave it credit for? Hear me out. Several cultures with very clearly defined gender roles also have a built-in "opt out clause", in the form of what is essentially a culturally codified transgender identity. (I can do a bit of digging for concrete examples, but don't have the time at the moment.)
And here's where I really go into theory crafting, but given the particulars of the story, the concept of Ergi, the practice of Seiðr (which we know to be women's magic, but literally nothing else), and the archaeological evidence of women buried with weapons and armour... (Plus the obvious, with Odin and Loki.)
I don't know about you, but things does seem to add up to something a lot more nuanced and complex than the hypermasculine rage machines we get in the media depiction of vikings since forever.
(Not saying anything conclusive, because it's literally just speculation. But you can probably use your imagination to fill in the blanks, much like I did.)
@@Grevnor Isnt seidr known a womenly magic but desopite it was frowned upon, ther were male practitioners. I sa that in an article and didnt look th sources but why not. And odin did learn it, so why not other men too like from their mothers.
Also yes ther seem several third genders in all of history. But seidr could very much be wicca like it maybe attracts queer folk, but not nessesary is an indicator.
This is something I share often. Much of the little we have is filtered by Christian worldview. "Well just say these gays were friends. You know, like Jesus and Peter"
The Norse were aggressively masculine. It was seen as extremely dishonorable to be feminine or "submissive" in any way.
@@MrCmon113 i think that's a very post christian look at the Nordic culture. We know very little about Thier thoughts on gender before Christians wrote it down, and Christians had a vested interest in making it seem like the culture always hated women.
This is an interesting and important discussion to have. However, we must also realize the inherent issues with associating close male bonding with sexuality and sexual activities. We often see this in popular culture when two males sho affection towards each other, it doesn't take long until they are claimed by certain groups of the LGBT+ community or dismissed as deviants by the conservative community. A quick search on Fan-Art forums makes this rather graphically clear, pun intended if it can be called that. In any case, it does make it difficult for males in our society to show affection towards each other without being mislabeled, which in turn can generate overly masculine toxic traits in order to disprove such labels.
Absolutely. I think I reasonably caveated this issue in the video, that yes, often close friends are close friends. Not all affection between men is sexual. In this particular case, however, I think its a reasonable reading.
I take some issue with putting the onus of this issue on queer people representing fictional subjects as part of their community; even before lgbt representation in fandom or outside was a thing people were debating and shipping together every female and male character that even looked at each other, I think the urge to imagine different scenarios of our stories, especially romantically, is just a part of humanity.
It is absolutely an issue that people assume two men who are close or affectionate to be a gay couple, but this also absolutely happens with male and female friends who are very close, it's an issue of people not minding their business that only becomes more emphasized with men because of homophobia in general.. I think it's more productive to try and combat the association that being mistaken for a gay couple is bad and making the world more safe for gay couples, than trying to stop people from interpreting stories in a way that represents them.
I know like... reframing masculinity and sexuality is harder, but I think it is a more productive way to deal with this issue.
I have always thought about this topic since transitioning into paganism from christianity. I always thought how would the gods look upon me for being bi sexual and this explains all of that and i deeply thank you for the explanation and clearing this fog. May the gods bless you and yours.
And they were co-kings 😎
Like Kage and Jables!
"WE'LL LEAD AS TWO KINGS!!!"
As a gay man who is a Norse Pagan , thank you for this video.
"Yo thAT'S PRETTY GAY." 21:00 had me dying
Arun thought Asmund was good enough to eat? I guess you could say Arun thought Asmund was a snack...
Asmund the snacc
One grave I find particularly fascinating is the Suontaka grave in Finland. The person was buried in expensive women’s clothing, but also with weapons, like men often were. They did genetic testing on the remains and found that this person likely had Kleinfelter’s syndrome, a chromosomal condition that effects males, and is caused by an extra X chromosome(XXY instead of the normal male chromosomes, XY). This tells me this person and their community likely knew they were different(people with Kleinfelter’s are often have less muscle mass than an ordinary male, smaller genitals, less public hair, breast growth, less body hair than many ordinary males, etc.) but they were still highly respected by their community despite this. This makes me wonder if the ancestors acknowledged any third gender, like the Native American Two-Spirit and the Christians just buried/destroyed any written or documented evidence of it. It’s given me serious Odinitis!
I could accept that they were just really good friends up to the point where they became "co-kings". That's... uh, yeah. 🤣
We can never be sure with historical (or mythical) events, but if this was a bet, I'd put my money on gay (or bi) here. 🧐
I first want to thank you for both recognising and diving into this after seeing new information and perspectives. As a very queer Pagan myself I immediately recognised the trends in historical retelling that hinted toward this possibility, and it is both interesting and validating to learn more about the story. This is also sending me quite suddenly down a research rabbit hole that I am (unsurprisingly, but sadly) discovering a bit of a dearth on. Thank you for the video and book recommendations, which I am immediately going to consume, and I would be extremely interested in any other sources you might have or find on the subject of queerness in "Pagan history".
Personally how dare you accuse a perfectly platonic and nonromantic relationship between two handsome, beautiful men who simply want to press together in the cold embrace of the earth, in deep (but not gay!) love with one another, who shared their kingdom together as a husband and wife would their house, very heterosexually, no gay here. How dare.
this is a work of art.
What I hate is that people will try gatekeeping me from Norse religion bc I’m queer and “yOu WoUldN’t Be AcCePtEd BaCk ThEn” and it’s like oh well ! I’d still be Swedish though. Like someone’s identity / morality doesn’t define if they’re of a certain culture or not???
Draugr were known to rise in response to their spirit wanting to seek a desire, weren't they? Haven't there even been a couple Draugr that explicitly rose to return (in a healthy manner or not, given the fact that draugr were known to impulsively lash out, kill, eat or spoil all the food in an area, etc) to loved ones?
This is definitely something to think about when studying history. Makes me want to reread some things. It's kinda like when you rewatch Disney movies when you are an adult and you notice all the jokes that went over your head as a child.
“Loki as well has an association with ergi, despite being the one to accuse Odin of it.”
Ah yes, the timeless gay culture of bottoms making fun of other bottoms for being bottoms.
Like the disciple Jesus loved. I always assumed it was a gay thing.
Ocean, I love how you throw humor in you talks. My personal feeling has always been that throughout history, men and women shared sexplay and often had deep loving relationships. Sometimes with opposite sex but often with same sex. In societies where the sexes are often separated, sex is still going to happen. We know, people married for many reasons. Love is a fairly new reason. Weddings were for mating, but also connections, money, power. (Oh, and I love that you use GRSM or GSRM.) We can see all of this by studying our cousins, other apes and monkeys!👍 🥰💖🤎✌
I have one question for transphobs:
Why you so obsessed with me?
You have a crush or something??
I have been so excited for this video and it did not disappoint. This is such a good example of how to recognize bias, its impact if unrecognized, and you lay it out beautifully.
So I was sitting in class just opening TH-cam and the first recommendation I get on the Home Screen is this look I have now problem with that I am a big fan of ocean but the person sitting next wouldn’t stop laughing because the first 2 words on my screen he read were “gay Vikings” I think I will not socially recover from this but then ho cares we’re talking about stupid 15 year olds
"He looked good enough to eat" lol Love it!!!
"It's good to have people at your back" just hits different in this one XD
Oh no
@@OceanKeltoi oh yeah: strong Ergi energy FTW
Ocean the Anarchist??
i watched your spooky draugr video and one of my first thoughts was "yeah, seems pretty straightnt"
Also, I’d like to stress that a lot of surviving records are a Christian commentary / rewriting, so the original could have been more of a romance between the two men and when the Christians hypothetically rewrote it they may have called them friends in order to not be hunted down by the Catholic Church and potentially jailed, executed, or exiled. Or they called them friends just because they were uncomfortable with homosexuality even though it was never mentioned in the Bible until the 1940s.
Possible. But the story could have also been altered by pagan retellers, while still keeping elements of the effects of the romance without actually having that romance exist anymore in the retelling. Even in the trappings of the story if we assume this reading, the Vikings around them are bigoted toward their relationship on a general and broad basis with some exceptions.
Yaaas co-kings
This video brought up so much under a lens that I hadn't considered!
"By Odin... THEY WERE ROOMMATES!"
I'm living for this analysis, Ocean. A+++
I feel like "Be Gay, Go Viking" merch needs to exist
"were they gay..."
me: or european?
It's hard to guarantee
Not all Vikings were raiders. They had communities, that I expect/imagene were diverse, with no labels like we have today in our society . I think sexuality was just normal. Daily life. Romans were the same I guess...To be buried together is quite a statement to make.
Ofcourse there were gay Vikings and women defying the strict gender roles of a conservative rural society. The 'ergi' part is not only about transgressing the common notion of manliness in a conservative society, but also about the implications it had for a 'gay' mans ætt or extended family. The honor and 'strength'/defenseability' of the ætt was at stake. Transgressing the traditional views on manliness could be dangerous for their social position and everything that flowed from it. If a gay warrior showed his worth,strength and 'luck' in profitable relationships abroad or on the battlefield, he clearly had the favor of his ancestors or gods and it mattered less what his personal sexual preferences were if he acted within the wider expectations of his aett. Óðinn himself as you told, did exactly the same.
But on the other side, of a young man did not have 'the warrior chant' in his heart, or was to frail to live up to the traditional views on manliness in an age of machismo, there was a problem for that young man and his kin. In one saga, (I forgot which one) there is mention of a father who smashes the sword-hand of his son so he could not be challenged in single combat because of that crippled hand and thus save his life without risking the family's honor. So your (non-submissive) position in society mattered how people perceived you. The ergi notion of men and seiðr followed much the same pattern. Read an older work on that 'the Nine Worlds of Seiðr-magic' by dr. Jenny Blaine.
It was associated with the feminine. "transness" as a concept did not exist. Feminine males or males pursuing traditionally feminine practices did not "become" women, they were just men pursuing traditionally feminine practices like Seidr.
Yes Ocean, it’s good to have people at your back
Get it, because it’s about getting fu- [smiten by lightening]
Is it possible that Odin and Loki were also gay as they also established blood brotherhood with shared blood? I know not ALL blood brotherhoods mean they're gay, but with Odin and Loki there are some points. Loki already has established Ergi so it places Odin above him as well as their shared shape-shifting to include gender bending? Odin would be similar in the shared assets realm when he made the pact that he would not drink unless Loki was also offered a drink, when it's established that Odin does not eat, but lives solely on wine.
But this can’t be true! Gay people didn’t exist until 2008, they must have just been friends. Just like Achilles and Patroclus great friendship or how Julius caeser was “every women’s man and every mans women” obvious describing how he was friends to both genders.
Can't tell if this is serious or a joke. If not a joke, Gay people have existed as long straight people.
Gay Vikings? Nah…..no one would have caught them as they kept things LOOOOOOO KIIIIIIIII.
wow
@@OceanKeltoi Indeed. Very punny.
Aran and Asmund being lovers makes the story so much more tragic and terrifying, imho
As a gay heathen that last joke made me laugh hard lol
Fantastic vid,..even if I am just seeing it fort he first time!
Very awesome vid. I laughed my ass off at the "end society" bit. I concur. We need a good ol fashioned asteroid impact though.
Bring on the asteroids. Its time.
The ending tho 😂😂
Fantastic video Ocean!!
17:20 that’s not enough to be considerated “based” but a good simple message of tolerance.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla screenshot is the thumbnail
Ok so at around 11:30 and 12:00 that sounds like a wedding. In my culture we use red ribbon that we hold in between each other's palms to represents our blood mixing and becoming one. So yeah they just got married.
Thanks for making this video 🌈
Not related but.
The world is made up of 70% uncarbonated water, therefore the world is technically flat.
I think you hit the nail on the head that many people coming to modern Norse paganism come to it wanting to be the big bad masculine Viking.
Many don't want to study about the boring Farmers or tradesmen, nor do they want to acknowledge the possibility that gender was looked at differently and that homosexuality existed & was accepted to some degree.
Love to learn the queer representation ❤
I'm late on commenting here, but I've been studying iron age archaeology for a bit now and you are so right about modern straight CIS man perceptions. We were discussing graves of mighty warrior woman from North that were given the "gender" male, because it seemed unacceptable for a woman to be buried in such respect.
It's also extremely difficult for us not to make any assumptions because of the society that raised us. :') Even for us women studying archaeology, because we've been taught to accept that ladies usually never get the spotlight at war.
Hear hear!
Love this video Ocean, I would say you've really dug out as much info as you could.
This video along side Aalie's video really paints how history is far more complicated for sexuality than people like to think. Great job as always. :D
The only thing i might argue is the handsome comment in the beginning. If you're comfortable enough with your masculinity you can admit when another man is good looking or not. That being said, yeah, they were probably pretty gay.
Absolutely. I don't think that observation alone really does anything, and that was my interpretation on the first reading. But when viewed in context of the cumulative evidence, it definitely lends a bit to the overall picture.
@@OceanKeltoi yeah for sure, i just wanted to point that out is all
For me the shared property is more of a flag than shared kingship.
I used to get in fights, verbal, sometimes physical with other heathens. ( They considered themselves asatru, I dont mind the term, but some use it as a means of basically calling themselves Aryan ) I personally don't believe what one village as described by grammiticus, should dictate what you believe as a worshiper. I used loki, Odin, and the lay of rig as examples.... they didn't like that, and I got kicked out of their hate group. Best thing to happen to me. Further more, we as heathens should be in touch with our Anima or animus
i turned off as soon as u said cis
bye then
Personally my educated guess is that vikings didn't really care until after Christians came. Considering much listed in this video combined with what I know about Christianity during this period, its very likely that ergi didn't exist until after Christianity claimed Scandinavia.
Queer folks in the US used to adopt each other for legal rights before marriage or civil unions were recognized, which is what I was thinking of the entire time Aran and Asmund were saying "we're blood brothers *wink wink*".
Even in America before gay marriage was legalized people were "adopting" their partners because it gave them the most important rights marriage did. This is not out of the question.
Aran and Asmund could've just been close friends, but I think they probably would've been close in a more literal sense
similar to the idea of gay pirates, vikings we're constantly at sea away from women and their familes, i don't see why gay vikings isn't a common idea. i think vikings exploring sexuality at sea was probably more likely than we think
Of course Aran's brother knew that Aran was gay, so it was just natural for him to accept Asmund….