The Viking Way To Power

Early Scandinavian history was handed down by oral tradition until it was finally written down perhaps a thousand years after the stories began. While we associate Vikings with tales of fierce warriors of the sea who raided the villages of England and discovered America, they fortunately left other legacies that have been absorbed into our present thinking without much regard for their origin. The greatest legacy must be the fantastic sagas of their gods and goddesses, such as Odin, Thor, Freya, and many others who are currently most popular in TV shows and games. While the stories are indeed fantasy, many are most likely based on underlying truths.

For example, Odin was a real man who arrived in Denmark about two thousand years ago and became Denmark’s first king. His stronghold still exists as the city of Odense. Likewise, many of his entourage may have been transposed into heroic god characters because great storytellers have had fifty generations to embellish the tales. The Viking Way to Power further embellishes two of the legends. Heimdall in the Song of Rig sired the three social classes of thralls, freemen, and nobles, and his description of the distinctions form the framework for how each rank manages their life while contributing to the nation as a whole.

The Legend of Gefion demonstrates that by inspiration and motivation it is possible to achieve great personal growth and success and move from the lowest rank to the highest. Gefion was offered as much land as she could plow around in a day. Using four oxen she laid claim to a large parcel of land, but she had to use trickery to take possession. Her time limit demonstrates the necessity of planning and time management, and the four oxen are used to describe the four skills needed to succeed in any venture.
The process followed by Gefion is as apropos today as it has been through the ages, yet the ways must be learned by those of each generation who aspire to gain the full measure of power that destiny has allotted to them.

Power in the Viking sense isn’t measured in wealth or in physical strength. These are the benefits and rewards of power. Viking power is measured in the scope of the personal vision for the future and the strength of the resolve to reach it; this story describes both how to develop a vision for the future and how to gain the strongest resolve for reaching it. Power is therefore determined by how courageously victory is pursued, rather than by the size of the plunder. The utmost power, as demonstrated by Gefion, is the power to direct the course of destiny. Gefion’s power is the basis upon which a dynasty has persevered for more than two thousand years, surviving to the present day.

The Viking Way to Power, apart from involving the two legends, is also a personal tale, for while I was born in Gefion’s realm I gained much insight into the success and failure of business ventures by being a commercial real estate developer in Canada and the United States. I have witnessed a hundred businesses strive and succeed or fail, including retailers, professional practices, and trades. The four elements described in this book apply to everyone, regardless of the nature of the venture.

We therefore follow Gefion as she shows the way, but hidden behind her stands Odin, who has an even greater plan of his own.

In keeping with the spirit of the Viking age that still moves in all who quest for power, raise then the drinking horns and drink deep.

To victory or death, there can be no surrender.

We begin the journey.