According to the legends, Vikings were such amazing sailors that they could locate the sun even on cloudy days so they could always navigate by it. Recent discoveries give some truth to that. Icelandic spar is a stone that they probably used, and it reacts in different ways depending on where the sun is positioned. It depolarizes the light that comes into contact with it.
Holding it up to the light results in the light briefly turning into a yellow line the points directly to the position of the sun, accurate down to 1 degree.
#9 Odins ravens were named Hugin and Munin.
Runes were not magical, they were letters just like the abc we use today.
#11 The wolf that tok Tyrs arm was named Fenris.
In fact, Vikings weren't more or less brutal than other warriors of eastern Europe. They were described as if only because writtend sources were written by clergy, which were targeted by first raids, when Vikings were payen. Because no christian would attack a church and Christian church wealthy it explain why first sources talks about Vikings as calamity and stop at the moment Vikings convert themselves to christianism.