Horned Viking Tankard  SBAG-VIKINGHORNTANK   $79  Ships in 2 to 3 weeks    The Vikings had every advantage that one could think of in combat. Their ships were some of the fastest on the oceans. Their weapons were some of the finest in the world, and their culture provided the perfect background for fine warriors. It's no wonder that they conquered so much of the known world (and that so many American football teams are names after them). The Vikings were fierce fighters and could survive against very strong opposition, as they proved time and again throughout history. But with their fast longships, the Vikings didn't have to face strong opposition. They could reach coastal villages and get out again long before the villagers had time to call for assistance from surrounding lands. This was the ideal method for vikings: strike quickly, take what you could, then leave again before organized resistance could form. It was only when the Vikings started making permanent outposts in England that they were defeated, and it wasn't through military defeats either. The Vikings, settled and defensible, no longer were raiders and conquerers, they became a part of England, assimilated into the population. To wax poetic for a moment, the Vikings were assimilated into the country as a sunken ship is assimilated by coral in a coral reef, becoming itself an important part of the reef. All right, so it ain't Shakespeare; The Vikings weren't into the whole flowery poet stuff anyway (you ever read Beowulf? Not exactly Lord Byron type stuff).