I mean ancient vikings was one of shortest people in ancient Europe their height was about 150-160cm,and in ancient northern regions people always shorthen then others because cold weather and bad terrain doesnt give alot food for growing taller.

Its okay that high elves is alot taller then nords and alot taller other playable races because they are fantasy race, and because there is other elves.

But I think nords should same height as dunmers,imperials,bretons, and khajits, because making nords taller then others in cold badlands terrain like Skyrim is anti-realistic, and if nords is inspired by ancient viking culture they should look like ancient vikings and not like people from 1960-2012.

Also when u playing non-nord and non-high-elf character in Skyrim u feeling like gnome in the land of giants, what is a bit unfair. Especially when u are dark-elf or khajit and random nord npcs making racistic comments on your character

Probably because we're in their homeland, so Bethesda wanted to convey they are the ones in charge, not the darkelf or imperial towering over them.

Well it's a fantasy game so it doesn't really matter, but you're forgetting that everyone was short hundreds of years ago not just vikings. Plus Skyrim seems to be doing well as far as food goes(there's fresh cabbage in thousand year old dungeons!). Nords are also just based off vikings from the real world.

Because it's a video game with it's own lore

Wait what? Im Norwegian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway thats how nordic you can possibly get. And the ingame Nords are taken from our scandinavian mythology.

All Norwegians are very tall. Im 1.84CM (6 feet tall) myself. Are you saying we just gained 20CM / 8 Inches in "Tallness" in a thousand years?

Not saying you are wrong just questioning the logic/validity of this!

Yea most Europeans were really short about a thousand years ago. Increase in the standard of living shot you guys up quite a bit. It also helps that taller people are generally considered more attractive so they can spread their genes easier.

You talking about today world, im talking about ancient vikings. Of course today all people in Europe have almost equal height because cold weather doesnt matter anymore since we can buy food from other countrys.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height#History_of_human_height
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tollund_Man

Most europeans including vikings was 20-30cm shorter then today people, thats obvius. Now norwegians few cms taller then germans but 800 years ago vikings probably was about 5cms shorter then germans and other people from central Europe.

Japan and Norway have similar climate I believe, they are also very much alike in that both live off the sea. Is there a logical explenation to why japanese people are generally shorter seeing how the countries are so similar? It could be agricultural I guess. I remember having read that rice ( Very prominent food source in the east) is at fault for their low heigt but Im not sure if that is a myth or if its actually wrong (Average hight being higher than media shows)

Probably because people from asian countries don't consume much or any dairy which is used to build stronger bones. I've heard that asians sometimes say we westerners smell like rotten milk because of all the dairy we eat/drink. It could be a cultural thing as well. Maybe they just prefer their loved ones to be short?

Nords aren't solely based on Vikings. In fact, Vikings weren't a race, or even a nation. The word Viking is actually a verb. "To go Viking", as in "To go raiding".

Nords are based on all Scandinavian people's. Vikings were made up of these people, and it included Norseman (Norwegians), Danes (Danish), and Swedish people's.

Roll all of those fantastic cultures into a sixy ball, and you get the Nords

Because a Nord is a mortal descendant of Kyne and Shor. Altmer have had to use selective breeding for thousands of years to get where they are, but Nords have always been tall without the obvious yellowed skin and facial deformities associated with inbreeding among the Elfony.

You can find short and tall people in any country, for example South Korean height is alot taller then North Koreans average height , i.e 8-15cm. Shortest race in TES wood elves and tallest race high-elves is good example. Since they both come from same mer tribe.


But i bet Souh Koreans and North Koreans have different height now only because of they eat different types of food so i think nords should be same height as other human races like imperials and bretons.

(I i guess that nords from Skyrim is not Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Icelandic people, nords is fantasy race inspired by vikings, but TES-nords is not vikings)

How are Nords the second tallest playable race? They seem about the same height as Imperials and Redguards to me.

I was a bit wrong i forgot nords are not second tallest PLAYABLE race in game, but they are third tallest playble race in game after High Elves 1.08 and Orcs 1.045 (thats doesnt matter that much since Orcs at the moment are least played race in Skyrim)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Races

Horever when i see dunmer/breton/imperial standing next to Nord i easy notice huge height difference

I seriously doubt that...

Nords were one of the taller races in Oblivion as well, which took place in Cyrodiil, home of the Imperials.

I bet Nords eat a lot of fish as it is very available and yummy. Fish is very nutritious and should've helped in making them tall.

Edit: As someone else said, Viking is not a race it is a noun of someone who while in need go raiding. Most often using a/many Longship(s). It is called "to go viking". Anyone who raid's by sea are Viking's even if they are lets say from India if you would ask someone who were from ancient Norse Scandinavia that is. Where someone comes from does not matter. But since the Scandinavians at that time was the only ones to first call what they were doing to go viking is why it is only referred to them. Raiders from India probably had their own word for what they were doing.

Same here.. well half Danish. And I'm 6'5". It isn't the other side of my family either.. my mom is Thai and 5'2. lol

I hope they're not trying to eat the Slaughterfish.

The polar animals are typically larger than the desert ones due to body heat production. Nords are probably larger because they need to produce more overall body heat, larger Mass=More Heat produced. Same concept for Orcs I'd expect. Living in the mountains for centuries would make you even bigger.

The other races seem to live in much warmer climates, thus staying shorter as they don't need to produce as much body heat.

A diet of fish is why the japanese are so short......the red meat etc that flooded into the country after the fall of the jap-empire has see the avrg height of Japanese rise continuously, the ready amount of meat available in europe espcialy when were became farmers rather then hunter gathers ment that are height was always alot taller.....Now theres alot more to it then that but thats the answer after a 12 hour night shift

inreguards to the nords...maybe they eat alot of cows...and maybe theres not much meat in the empire so cold doesnt effect height as much as the substance of your diet.

I am not so sure the Vikings were the shortest people in Europe a thousand years ago. What "tall" meant was probably shorter than we think of today, but I have never seen the Northmen refered to as short(in general, I am sure there are some short individuals refered to somewhere). You also have to consider that while scandinavians aren't commonly short, there is a reason for that: Tall people have been breeding better than short people in our part of the world for a long time.

As for in-game Nords: they are not the 2nd tallest playable race in the game, that would be the Orsimer. They are the 3rd tallest of the playable races. Why? Probably because Nords are known to be a bit larger than other human races in Lore(as far as I know).

This. In all my reading iv seen vikings refured to basicly as towering death in a funny hat them being short arses really changes my image.....guess we no were dwarfes came from in LOTR

Nords dont need too much body heat. they have a large resistance to cold.

The exact meaning of the word "viking" isn't clear, but the explanations I've learned (as a student of archaeology at a Swedish university some ten years ago), which also a quick googling confirmed, is that it derives from the word "vik", either as in "bay" in general, or, more specific, the Oslo fjord. "Man from the bay/fjord" is the most common explanation (but not the only).