They say history is written by the victors

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 12, 2023

"They say history is written by the victors, but what if the victims are the ones with the pens?

I needed a break from writing after finishing the first three books of the Ministers Of The Mystery series. Working on the fourth book has drained me. I thought it was time to venture into other areas of how people used faith like power, not as it was intended to benefit other people, but use it as a weapon to gain money and power other others. After all, isn't that what Christian leaders have done since the day Christ sacrificed His life?

History provides a brutal account of what far too many did in His name but not as He said they should live their own lives. The Vikings encountered Christian opposition to the power they sought to blame all they did on their god Oden so they could go to Valhalla with the Valkyrie coming to take the worthy there.

Considering I am Greek and Scottish, and my husband is Italian, we have our own history of brutality in our bloodlines just as most people do. The truth is, the above quote is correct. The ones with the pens hold the power over history proving in the long run, "the pen is mightier than the sword."

How the Vikings Saved Europe and Got a Terrible Reputation

The Daily Beast
William O’Connor
Travel Editor
Updated Jul. 12, 2017

History teaches us that the Vikings were brutal, thieving invaders, but much of that history was written by Viking victims: European monks. New evidence says otherwise.

They say history is written by the victors, but what if the victims are the ones with the pens?

That is the bizarre circumstance surrounding the history of the Vikings since the centuries-old myth that has come down to us about their brutal savagery originated with their victims—monks and priests—who had the monopoly on writing at that time.

As a result, the image we have today of the marauding Vikings is both wildly off the mark and ignores the major contributions they made in shaping Europe during the Middle Ages. That demystification and deep dive into the world of one of history’s most iconic people is the subject of a new book, The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth. Not only are the Vikings completely misunderstood, he argues, but they may have saved Europe.

The Vikings weren’t picky about their raiding targets, but the short-term gains in booty and ransom achieved by attacking monasteries resulted in the Vikings being relegated to the “vicious barbarian” category of history. The monks in those monasteries were the only historians around at that time.

“Since [the Vikings] attacked those with a monopoly on writing, it is their deeds … that have gone down in history as infamous, irrational, and bloodthirsty,” writes Winroth.
read more here
Vikings

Vikings: Valhalla

What do the Vikings have to do with PTSD? What they lived through and what their enemies also had to live through to tell the stories of what happened to them. Today we see people with large followers using their pens to make people believe we are broken, (that is when they bother to think of us at all,) and then ask for money to raise awareness the suffering is causing veterans to commit suicide. First, they use a number of "22 a day" and yet did not bother to read the report from the VA stating clearly it was a study from just 21 states with limited data.

The VA points to the known number of veterans committing suicide going down but fails to point out, the veteran population has also gone down. As bad as that is, reporters didn't seem to care and grabbed the headline of 22 a day. Non-veterans, in their eyes, do not exist. 

Now we all have pens in our hands but these pens are tied to keyboards and able to reach the world in seconds, achieved by us and others, and preserved for history. Our understanding of the world we live in, what our surroundings are and our struggles are worthy tales to tell. 

The question is, do we allow others to tell our stories with their own point of view, focusing on what they want people to know, or do we tell our stories for ourselves so others will know how we survived long enough to tell the tales?

What we see today is people using their faith as a weapon against anyone with different beliefs. People use us to conjure up all kinds of imaginary monsters but the ones we fight are real. What they continue to ignore are the facts that we not only survive, we thrived and helped others heal too. Now that, that is a powerful message we can and must use our pens to record for history, or we will become the work of fiction to entertain instead of inspire with the truth.

We survived, therefor we are the victors and should make sure our stories are remembered. Maybe then, the veterans will see they are only human too. With how many events they survived, knowing we struggled after just one event, it may help them understand that very simple fact.