Educational charity tells PhD tutors to ditch ‘blonde Scandinavian’ stereotype and teach that Vikings had ‘diverse religious beliefs’ – as experts clash over interpretation of Islamic artifacts
Schoolchildren are to be taught that Vikings were “not all white” and some were Muslim, according to controversial new guidance urging tutors to abandon “Eurocentric” teaching methods.
The Brilliant Club, which places PhD students in more than 800 schools to tutor underprivileged pupils, has instructed its tutors to ditch traditional narratives in favour of a “decolonised” approach that moves subjects away from a Western focus.
The charity’s guidance suggests abandoning the idea that Vikings were a “homogenous community of blonde Scandinavians” and instead teaching that they were “a very diverse group of people” with “diverse religious beliefs.
MUSLIM VIKINGS CLAIM
Most controversially, the guidance urges tutors to consider that “some Vikings became practising Muslims” – a claim based on Islamic goods being found in Viking graves, which mainstream historians say were likely obtained through trade rather than religious conversion.
The charity states there is an “imperative to provide material to students that they can relate to and connect with”, with the guidance intended to make lessons more “relatable” for pupils.
But the claims about Muslim Vikings have sparked fierce debate among historians and archaeologists, with some dismissing the interpretation as going far beyond what the evidence supports.
DNA EVIDENCE SHOWS DIVERSITY
The guidance appears to draw on a major 2020 DNA study by the University of Cambridge, which analyzed more than 400 Viking skeletons and found genetic diversity from other parts of Europe and Asia.
Professor Eske Willerslev, who led the study, said: “We have shown for the first time that it wasn’t that kind of world. This study changes the perception of who a Viking actually was – no one could have predicted these significant gene flows into Scandinavia from Southern Europe and Asia.”
The research found that Viking identity was not limited to people with Scandinavian genetic ancestry, with some Viking-style graves containing individuals with no Scandinavian DNA at all.
ISLAMIC ARTIFACTS CONTROVERSY
The Muslim Viking claims appear to reference several archaeological discoveries, including a 9th-century ring found in a Swedish Viking grave inscribed with “for Allah” in Arabic script.
In 2017, textile archaeologist Annika Larsson claimed to have discovered the words “Allah” and “Ali” woven into Viking burial garments, though this interpretation was later strongly disputed by Islamic art experts.
Associate Professor Stephennie Mulder of the University of Texas called the textile interpretation into question, explaining that the style of Arabic script supposedly found dated from 500 years after the Viking Age.
“The truth is, the Viking textile from Birka has no Arabic on it at all,” wrote Mulder, adding that while evidence for Viking-Islamic contact is “abundant and uncontested”, this particular claim was false.
TRADE, NOT CONVERSION
Mainstream historians emphasize that while Vikings had extensive trade contacts with the Islamic world – with hundreds of thousands of Arabic coins found in Viking lands – this doesn’t mean Vikings converted to Islam.
Silver was a symbol of status for Viking men and women,” explained historian Farhat Hussain. “They even desired to be buried with it.”
The presence of Islamic goods in Viking graves is widely accepted as evidence of trade networks rather than religious conversion, with Vikings known to have traded from Ireland to Constantinople and beyond.
‘DECOLONISING’ EDUCATION
The Brilliant Club has created two “decolonising your course” toolkits to help tutors deliver courses in schools, presenting a “decolonised” approach contrasted with what it calls a “Eurocentric and colonised” version of history.
The charity, which won a Guardian Charity Award in 2015, runs programmes that place PhD students and researchers in schools to deliver university-style tutorials to small groups of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
A pilot study conducted with SOAS University found that pupils taught with “decolonised” content showed improvements in academic writing and critical thinking skills, though the study was small with only 96 participants.
ABANDONING ‘ANGLO-SAXON’
The guidance also warns tutors about using the term “Anglo-Saxon”, stating it “has a long history of being used in a racially charged manner” – despite the term appearing in historical documents from the period itself.
This follows similar moves at universities, with the University of Nottingham removing the term “Anglo-Saxon” from courses in 2024 over fears it could play into “nationalist narratives”.
Cambridge University has taught students that Anglo-Saxons did not exist as a distinct ethnic group, as part of efforts to undermine “myths of nationalism”.
EXPERT BACKLASH
The Brilliant Club states it is “not a leading expert on decolonising” but encourages tutors to reflect on “inclusive and thoughtful teaching practices.
Critics argue that while teaching about Viking diversity based on DNA evidence is legitimate, the claims about Muslim Vikings go far beyond what archaeological evidence supports.
One historian, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “There’s a difference between teaching that Vikings were genetically diverse – which the DNA evidence supports – and claiming some were practising Muslims based on trade goods. That’s a massive leap not supported by evidence.”
GENUINE DIVERSITY
The 2020 Cambridge study did reveal surprising diversity among Vikings, finding that Viking Age Scandinavians were more likely to have black hair than modern Scandinavians, and that people from Southern and Eastern Europe migrated to Scandinavia before and during the Viking Age.
“Vikings were not restricted to genetically pure Scandinavians,” the research showed, with evidence of British, Irish, and Eastern European ancestry in Viking populations.
But experts stress this genetic diversity doesn’t equate to religious diversity, with no credible evidence that Vikings adopted Islam despite their extensive trade contacts with the Muslim world.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
The controversy reflects wider debates about “decolonising” the curriculum in British schools and universities, with critics arguing that ideological activism is replacing factual history teaching.
The Brilliant Club works with 20,000 pupils a year across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, meaning its approach to teaching history could influence thousands of young minds.
As one education expert noted: “Teaching children about genuine historical diversity is important, but we must be careful not to project modern ideological concerns onto the past in ways that distort historical reality.
Image credit: Dublin – Dublinia – 20190809102938 by Zairon, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
