Viking Vs Samurai?!?
If a Buddha statue can be found in a Swedish Vendel Era grave, the implications for even further East-West travel becomes an open question. Field archaeologist Cat Jarman explores this expansive thought in her recent book River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads (2021 CE, which is in our TBR pile). So if a late-period Norse trader/raider went East on the Silk Road to Beijing & then further, or say an early-period ronin/diplomat Samurai went West into China or further on those same roads, or maybe an intrepid Viking raiding ship made an arctic passage down to Japan, then just maybe this cross-cultural Viking vs. Samurai duel from Deadliest Warrior might've actually gone down: Watch the duel here: [(wellllll, the video got deleted since I first posted this. If you find it reposted up somewhere, do let us know.) Episode aired April 14th, 2009 CE] I was impressed with the effica...