Didn’t get a shot of Freya, but found this stand-in on thornews.com

My revered ancestor, Aud the Deep-Minded, had nothing on the five-year-old girl who attended my Viking presentation at the Penrose Community Library.  Freya’s parents had their hands full keeping their busy one inbounds through 40 minutes of adult-level Viking history, but when I asked for questions, Freya popped up with one of the best questions I’ve ever gotten from an audience.  “Why aren’t they scary anymore?”

Whoa!  All that fidgeting, didn’t keep her from listening…and thinking.  Fortunately, I knew the answer:  Vikings took the Atlantic by storm because they had better ships and weapons.  When they invaded other countries, took slaves, formed alliances, and fraternized, others picked up their advanced technology and develop the strength to beat back future invasions and make those Scandinavians behave themselves.

Let’s hope Freya’s takeover is a peaceful one.