A sizable portion of the Varangian Guard (personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperors) were from Nordic countries. I guess one of them was off-duty and got bored.

One of my favorite things I learned in college: so in Medieval times, there was this kinda idea that monks and all should sit in front of the bibles and religious writings for a long time. Quantity over quality. They didn't even have to read it, just as long as they were contemplating that stuff, and sometimes not even that. Like, they thought piousness could be gained by osmosis, which I guess isn't too far off, your surrounding do influence your behavior and all that. Problem is, it's boring, staring at words on a page all day, so they figure they'd spice it up with some drawings in the margins. You'd think that, being holy writings, they'd go for some righteous stuff, right? Nah. They'd draw things like penis demons and guys farting and animals doing human stuff. My professor's favorite was a group of nuns bowling with turds.