Longship Trade Goods Too

Poulsbo's annual Julefest celebration PHOTO GALLERY: The Poulsbo Sons of Norway Vikings escorted the Lucia Bride from ship to shore to light the bonfire for the Julefest celebration at Muriel Iverson Williams Waterfront Park on Saturday,

VF #271
Norway’s first town does not exist anymore 🏚❌🙄

Kaupang was one of several trading towns established in southern Scandinavia int the 8th century, to take advantage of the expanding trade in the Baltics and the North Sea 🪙

It was placed in Viken, the southern fjord in today’s Norway that leads to the capital Oslo.

As an international center of trade, Kaupang imported goods from the British Isles and the Rhine-area, and exported for instance locally produced soapstone vessels, moose antlers for comb-making, furs, and walrus ivory 💰

The place was brimming with wealth, as shown by the rich graves of the aristocracy that is found nearby, especially the extravagant Oseberg-grave. A powerful woman was buried with a complete ship, overflowing with food, textiles, slaughtered animals, travelling gear and other valuables.

But the town lost influence after c. 150 years. In the mid-10th century, and possibly under pressure from the Danish kings immediate to the south, trade moved further into the fjord 🫅👎

This led to more trade at the place that became Oslo, while Kaupang was abandoned, and not rediscovered until the 19th century.

Picture showing the Oseberg grave during excavation in 1904, by Kulturhistorisk Museum Norway, CC BY-CA.

Happy Krampusnacht! Unless you are naughty...

Krampusnacht is celebrated every year on December 5, the night before the celebration of the Feast of St. Nicholas.
This holiday is mostly celebrated in Germany, and some other European countries. It is also popular in Australia, and over the years, Krampusnacht’s popularity has grown in North America as well.

Krampusnacht is a celebration of the devil Krampus, who is believed to be a creature that is half-man, half-goat. He is depicted as being hairy with large horns, a goat’s cloven hooves, red eyes, and fangs. However, the depictions of the Krampus vary from region to region. In some depictions, the Krampus is shown wearing chains, and the people wearing Krampus costumes often thrash around in the chains for maximum effect. The chains are to represent the binding of the Devil by Jesus Christ, in Christian mythology.

Krampus is said to beat those who are naughty with branches and sticks. Some stories say that Krampus carries a sack or basket and sometimes stuffs the naughty children inside to either eat them later or take them to hell.

So be good, and be safe tonight!

~Clover

Archeology in the news

"The prehistoric site is known as Tainiaro, located about 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle in the Finnish region of Lapland. Although the hypothesis that the Tainiaro site is a Stone Age cemetery remains unproven, if confirmed, it could drastically alter ideas about the history of Northern Europe. "

~Clover

Archaeologists have found a mysterious prehistoric site, believed to be a 6,500-year-old Stone Age cemetery, near the Arctic Circle Archaeologists have found a mysterious prehistoric site believed to be a 6,500-year-old Stone Age cemetery just 50 miles (80 kilometers)...

Archeology in the news

~Clover

A Roman copper-alloy tiny tortoise figurine found in Suffolk In July last year, a small Roman copper alloy tortoise or turtle figurine was discovered by metal detectors near the...

–“Halvdan was here”–

Around 1100 years ago, in the 9th century, probably during a Sunday mass, a bored Viking named Halvdan (Halfdan) carved his name on a marble slab at the upper gallery of Hagia Sophia (Turkey).

The text was Old Norse, and it was carved in runic letters.
..Who was Halvdan? Probably, like most Vikings who visited Constantinopolis, he decided to join the mercenary unit, Varangians, which solely consisted of Viking warriors who served the Byzantine Empreror.

In time, Varangians fought against Turks, Arabs and even Catholics in the Crusades. Moreover, Varangians of Constantinople converted to Christianity and found a place in the Imperial Army until the end of the empire in 1453.

Tomorrow (4 th) according to our lore.

Primstav mark : a spindle (does vary around Norway)
New clothes or mending of old before Jól should be done on this day. Mending should always start with the finest garments, any clothing that could not be mended should be burned outside the house.
And here customs differ around Norway:
In Northern parts you should mend the clothes while the owner was wearing it. But with a knife between your teeth. If you didn't have a knife at hand, you could focus on another person so as not sew away the luck of the clothes' owner.
On the Westcoast you should put a piece of wood between your teeth, while mending clothes, while the owner was wearing them.
Down south it didn't matter what you did, clothes should not be mended while a person was wearing them. Or you would sew away all luck for that person.
Under no circumstance should you mend your own clothes while wearing them, this would bring sadness, loss and misfortune.
If you dropped the needle on the floor you could see how your luck would fare: if it pointed towards you luck would come along soon, if it pointed away you would loose the luck you had.
Wives should not use the spinning-wheel or spindle if their husbands were traveling. This would bring them misfortune or loss, driving them in circles so they could not return.

Medieval combs

~serenity

Yep I vouch for that 😬

VF 270
We have discovered the rune-carvers handwriting 🪦🖋

When carving runes in a stone, with a hammer and a chisel, the marks of your strokes will be slightly different from other rune-carves.

The force of the strokes, the distance between them and the angle of the chisel are some of the factors that influence the pattern of strokes in the runes. These factors depend on the strength, the skill and the training of the rune-carver, and also of the individual’s handling of the tools ⛏

A new technology developed by Swedish runologists uses lasers to measure the microscopic profiles of the runes and other carvings on Scandinavian stones from around 1000 years ago, and – if the stones are not too worm by the weather – they can actually identify individual rune-carvers handwriting.

So now we can, to a certain degree, find out, which stones where carved by whom. And we can follow specific rune-carvers career from stone to stone, and sometimes even their apprentices too, as they adapt their master’s style.

Picture: The stone Østermarie-2, from the Danish Island Bornholm, but carved with techniques similar to those from Södermanland, more than 400 km. (250 miles) to the north, in the central Swedish area. Photo by Roberto Fortuna, the National Museum of Denmark, CC BY-CA.

Source: Laila Kitzler Åhfeldt: ”Provenancing Rune Carvers on Bornholm through 3D-Scanning and Multivariate Statistics of the Carving Technique”. European Journal of Archaeology, 2019.

The Heiðinn Chronicles

Åsgårdsreien, The Wild Hunt. Even in Winter, with your Yuletide fires lit, you are not safe. Stay indoors, attend your hearths and the limin of your home. Try to keep the night at bay by the telling of your tongue. Remember your kin, honor your ancestors. For at this time the dead begin to stir, riding upon hallowed and familiar roads, galloping through villages and wastes, flying through the forests of the mind. Such raids are reminders that the past is not a dead thing, but may return, like a hunter, to follow us for a time. The origins of the Hunt traditions prevail throughout Northern Europe and are rife with the terrible images of invasions and night raids where the trees and houses are light with fires. The unintelligible voices of the unknown enemy call through the night. The Hunt is called many things by many people; Odensjakt (Odin's Hunt), Oskerei (Horric or Thunderous Ride), Gendreid (Ride of the Dead). Versions of the Hunt recall the participants chasing beautiful otherworldly maidens, sometimes called the Moss Maidens. The French version calls the Hunt "the Family of the Harlequin" and is most like a derivation of the name for the Norse Goddess of Death's Realm ... Hel.

Åsgårdsreien, The Wild Hunt (by Norwegian painter Peter Nicolai Arbo June 18, 1831 – October 14, 1892), associated with the 'Jóltide'.

Today (30th) in Norwegian lore
Primstav mark - a fish-hook

Time to start fishing for the Jól-feast.
And as usual there's a lot of dos and don'ts:
The more you struggle to find bait, the better the fishing. Easily found bait, will not attract any fish.

If anyone calls your name on your way to the boat, turn round and go home; the fish will swim away from you.

If anyone wishes you luck, go home, you'll have no luck at all.
But if anyone curses you, spits at you or mocks you (without you asking them to) you will fill the boat with fish.

If you meet a cat, woman or lonely crow on your way to the boat, disaster will strike. Possibly with fatal outcome.
But if a murder of crows, or an eagle, fly above your head: you will have the boat brimming of fish in no time.

Don't count the bait before going out, nor the fish before you are safe on land, or you may loose it all.

If you throw a dead adder in the water before going out, the creatures of the sea may help you get fish.

You can tell how many grandchildren you will get by counting how many fish your child gets on your first fishing trip together.
The first fish you catch must be cut in half. One must be kept in the stern of the boat and one in the fore/bow of the boat. Unless it's a halibut!!

If you catch a halibut you must gently open it's mouth, remove hook and release it to the waters. This will ensure good fishing for a year.

~Children were allowed to dress up and run around the farms doing mischief, and the only way to stop them was to invite them in for some «lammahove», smoked lambs head. And each should be given a «lammahov» lowest part of the sheeps feet, also smoked.

Birka certainly was and remains a famous city of the Viking world. A merchant town overflowing with valuable objects both local and exotic—and one of the most valuable contributions to archaeology has been to prove how interconnected the ancient world was. Some of the most fascinating artefacts have been uncovered at grave sites here, such as parts of several silk garments found in grave Bj 735. While the majority of the garments were decomposed (as is sadly most often the case), enough remains to know that the piece pictured here was woven using the “samite” technique (a six-strand weave often incorporating strands of gold and silver alongside the silk). The garment was further ornamented with tablet-woven bands with silver weft, making for a stunning ensemble.
Finding silk in this context has implications for the great reach of the Vikings’ trade network. Different silks found in Norse graves have been traced variously to Syria, Arabia, and China itself—indicating that the Scandinavians of this day were active participants in that most famous Eurasian trading network, the Silk Road. But how much of this was done by access to foreign merchants on the Silk Road, bringing exotic materials to them, and how was obtained by Scandinavians travelling the Silk Road themselves? It is well known that Viking parties travelled to the Near East, but it is fascinating to imagine if lone Norse travellers might have gone much further—perhaps all the way to Tang China itself.
Either way, the finds from Birka show that in some form or another, in the 8th century there existed a long and winding trade route from China to Sweden. And that is fascinating to contemplate.

Text: Cindy Levesque. Copyright 2023 Scandinavian Archaeology.
Image: Ola Myrin (Statens historiska museum). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Conversion to Christianity occurred in different times in different parts of the Scandinavian world. Early missions took place in the 9th c. AD but serious efforts at conversion got underway in the mid-late 10th c. Christianity became the dominant religion in Denmark and Norway (including her satellite colonies in the North Atlantic) by the end of this century, though it would take several more decades to fully Christianize Norway. In Sweden, Christianization began in the same century, but the Old Norse pagan belief system continued well into the 12th century.
By 1100 AD, most of the Scandinavia and its colonies had “officially” converted to Christianity, though there were likely still plenty of people practicing their old faith in secret. The archaeological record shows strong evidence of Christianity not being fully accepted all at once, or even being partially incorporated into the existing Norse mythology for a while before taking over entirely. Some interesting products of this transition are the so-called Mjölnir pendants, representing Thor’s famous hammer.
These pendants have largely been dated to the 9-10th c. AD, and are found all around Scandinavia. While they are pagan symbols, they are, interestingly, more likely to be found in those times and places where strong Christian influence was being exerted. It is no secret that the Catholic church of the day was known for harshly persecuting the people resisting its advance. Even so, as with all changes, not all people would accept the new way immediately.
The Mjölnir pendants might have served as a clever way to mask one's pagan faith: the similarity between the shape of the hammer and the crucifix was close enough that it could be interpreted either way depending on the context. Thus, these pendants have often been interpreted as a silent way of rejecting and protesting the encroaching new religion without incurring its persecution. Alternatively, they might even represent a genuine coexistence of the two belief systems within the wearer’s mind.

Text: Nicoline Schjerven. Copyright 2022 Scandinavian Archaeology.
Image: Arnold Mikkelsen. Nationalmuseet, Denmark.

Interesting

DK #110
Hvad kaldte de sig selv? 🤔

Eftersom middelalderens skandinaver næsten aldrig blev kaldt vikinger, skulle vi måske se på, hvad de kaldte sig selv:

Hvis vi kigger på nogle af de mere end 2.700 runesten, der eksisterer i dag, ser vi, at højtstående personer (som var dem, der fik sten rejst efter sig) primært blev defineret af deres dynasti 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 deres sociale status 💰 og deres politiske tilhørsforhold 👑

De mest almindelige beskrivelser på runesten er familiære. Der er masser af sønner, fædre, mødre, brødre, koner, ægtemænd osv.

Derefter er der nogle, der beskrives ved deres titel eller sociale status: Kriger (drengr), skibskaptajn (styrimann), fælle (felagi), jordejere (landmænnr), præst (goda), thegn (betyder herre/kriger), og der er også nogle få konger og dronninger.

Nogle beskrives ud fra, hvem de havde tjent. De havde været hirdmand (himthiga), de havde modtaget betaling (gialt tagat) fra en herre, eller de var en del af en personlig livvagt/hær (lith).

Der er også nogle etniske betegnelser som syddaner, nordmand eller svenskere, men de er sjældne.

Endelig er der faktisk nogle få, som ikke direkte kaldes 'vikinger', men i det mindste døde, mens de var 'i viking', eller i kamp mod vikinger (=pirater 🏴‍☠️). I alt findes ordet 'viking' på otte runesten.

En af dem ses på billedet: Västra Strö runesten 2. Den har teksten ” Fader lod hugge disse runer efter Asser, sin broder, som fandt døden nordpå i viking”. Foto af Roberto Fortuna/Nationalmuseet CC BY-SA.

The only complete Viking Age wagon. Found in a burial mound in Oseberg near the Oslo Fjord in Norway, 9th century AD

The innocent have nothing to fear from Krampus...

✨ Mesmerizing Aurora Borealis ✨

Did you know that nature puts on one of its most enchanting light shows in the polar regions, Abisko in Sweden being one of the best in the world! 🌌 The Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, is a breathtaking display of vibrant colors that dance across the night sky.

📸: www.sarabrockmann.com

Every year for quite some time we have followed the fate of the Gävle Goat. On the website there is a live camera feed so that you can see it.

For those that don't know. The Gävle Goat has a pretty interesting history.

The Gävle Goat is a traditional Christmas display erected annually at Slottstorget (Castle Square) in central Gävle, Sweden. The display is a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule goat figure made of straw. It is erected each year by local community groups at the beginning of Advent over a period of two days.

The Gävle Goat has been the subject of repeated arson attacks; despite security measures and a nearby fire station, the goat has been burned to the ground most years since its first appearance in 1966.
As of December 2022, 38 out of 57 goats have been destroyed or damaged in some way.

It goes live 5 days from now so if you are interested here is the link to the official website!

~Clover

A global Christmas symbol Detta är Gävlebockens egna sida. Här hittar du allt från filmerna om Gävlebocken till hela invigningsprogrammet.

Raglan Road lyrics and chords Lyrics and chords to traditional Irish love song Raglan Road

The Vikings began the siege of Paris on this day in 885
https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2015/04/17/the-siege-of-paris-of-885-886/

Tafl from Legend Board Games | Hnefatafl: the Game of the Vikings This week my collection of hnefatafl sets was increased by a new acquisition: a Tafl set from Legend Board Games. Only recently set up, Legend manufactures a very nice looking hnefatafl set in collaboration with Thomas Jacquin of Canada. Legend's set is marketed through a page, with public...

Tyrian purple: The lost ancient pigment that was more valuable than gold For millennia, Tyrian purple was the most valuable colour on the planet. Then the recipe to make it was lost. By piecing together ancient clues, could one man bring it back?

Archeology in the news for those that may have missed this

~Clover

'Possible temple' from 1,400 years ago uncovered by archaeologists near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk The discovery of a compound the size of around 20 football pitches at Rendlesham by a lottery-funded community archaeology project shows the "sophistication of the society ruled" by the East Anglian kings.

Today is Small Business Saturday!

Hope you all have a good day today and look forward to hopefully seeing you as well!

~Clover

https://youtube.com/watch?v=u6xH5aY9rsQ&si=W4OwWM24j_BjkW4_

An Irish Traditional "Sean Nos" Brush (Broom) Dance A Traditional Irish "Sean Nos" Brush (Broom) Dance performed at Kate Kearney's Cottage Pub at the Gap of Dunloe, County Kerry, Ireland. See and enjoy Irish ...

A spectacular new Viking Hall reconstruction has been completed at the archaeopark Sagnlandet Lejre / “Land of Legends” on Sjaelland, Denmark. What an incredible achievement!" Text by Clint Andersen

Scourge of the Gallowglass For nearly four centuries these sons of Scottish clansmen and Norse raiders dominated the mercenary ranks of feudal Ireland. County Meath, Ireland, 1423