Vikings Go With the Flow
Researched with pride by Dustin Grovemiller
 
One of the more common historical misconceptions is that Feng Shui -- the art of arranging objects in one's home to affect the events in one's life -- is a Chinese concept. Sure, it's got a Chinese name and everything, but that's only because those clever guys back in the Ming Dynasty really knew how to market their asses off.* The truth is that Feng Shui didn't actually come from the Chinese (aside from the name, at least). The wider concepts of the the whole thing were actually developed by those fearsome Vikings. It was those village-burning, horn-wearing seafarers that first came up with the idea, almost totally by accident.

Viking Chieftan Erik the Blonde paid particular attention to the arrangement of the decorative axes in his great hall. He quickly became a believer that the placement of certain blades changed his fortune and let the gods move throughout the hall (he also found that axes placed above doors might occasionally fall on the heads of the norsemen entering). It wasn't long before the entire culture went with the idea that the placement of objects -- then called "Flugufrelsarinn" by the Vikings -- affected fortune, particularly in its fearsome boats of war. Entire boat designs were given thougth about the placement of oarsmen to allow for the movement of the spirits of war between the men.

The Chinese would learn of Flugufrelsarinn when a lost Viking trader ship found its way to China via the Northwest Passage through North America. They quickly took the idea, useful to them because of the number of vases in the average Chinese household, and gave it their own name. The rest is now history.

 

*The Chinese didn't develop marketing, either. That was something they stole from the Egyptians, but as usual, did it better.