Accusing a man of being “ergi,” which is basically unmanly, was enough of an insult to be answered with blood.

So is a gay man calling another gay man a faggot. The use as essentially equivalent with "bottom" is only attested since the medieval age.

On the flipside we have things like shield maidens and the survival of the old gods alongside with the patriarchal Indo-European newcomers, very uncommon, those things don't happen by accident. People don't talk about peace treaties between gods out of the blue -- And Odin isn't even the sky father, that'd be Thor (to wit, lightning and thunder) while Odin is engaging in seidhr. Call him a bottom, then! Making a claim such as "most homophobic in history" out of a single word given what else there's attested about the society is rather rich.

The truth is that we don't know much but this: That any contemporary political group leaning it one way or the other is full of shit.