>>If more people really knew more about the vikings, it could in deed become a disparaging. There are a lot of myths about them, many of which are untrue. For instance, the vikings did not use helmets with horns in them.
>
>But it helps perpetuate the image :o) I'm always amazed at how "tall" they make them appear in movies (dwarfing everyone else) when examination of skeletons shows that the average male was 5 ft 7-3/4 in. tall (my height) and the average woman 5 ft 2-1/2 in....
>
>Of course there were skeletons found that were much taller - as tall as 6' or more (and they had more rich stuff in their graves which suggests height helped someone prosper or be seen as superior during the time) but the majority were not that tall unless all of the skeletons have disappeared and only the shorties were left to be found :o)

Today's average male height is roughly 5'8". Centuries ago it was considerably less, even an "average" Viking might have been considered pretty tall.

A couple of things that showed me just how small the people were:

- viewing medieval suits of armour (IIRC at the Tower of London) - a modern tween would barely fit them

- as a 9 year old child, visiting the lower gundecks of HMS Victory in Portsmouth - I had to duck between the joists for the deck above, I could not stand upright:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickduncan/520603871/

That ceiling is low. There are major engineering reasons why you want gundecks to be as low as possible but even so, you have to leave enough room for the crew to work. Modern average-height men would be seriously inconvenienced by that low ceiling.