NordicArts WebLog

7th July 2005: Our thoughts go with with friends and families of the victims of London's outrage earlier today

2005-07-07T18:07:00.000Z

28th March 2005: Hotel with reindeer-parking area opened in Russia's Far North:

2005-03-28T10:24:00.000Z

A hotel for reindeer-breeders was opened in the town of Nadym, the Far North of Russia. The hotel has a very distinctive feature: it is outfitted with a parking area for reindeer, which is one of the most popular transportation means in Russian northern territories. The parking area can also be used for snowmobiles that modern Russian northern residents use to visit their friends, for instance.

The hotel for reindeer-breeders can accommodate over 30 guests in two-room suites. Hotel rooms are equipped with showers, rooms to dry outer clothes in and kitchens with all necessary utensils and appliances.

Hotel owners believe that they will have a lot of clients in the near future: the city is to hold traditional sports competitions, the Trud newspaper wrote.

It is worth mentioning that there are about 3,000 representatives of native northern nations living in the Nadym region. A lot of those people make their living with the help of deer-breeding.

Source: www.keralanext.com

28th March 2005: Finnish firm must not turn reindeer forests to pulp

2005-03-28T01:01:00.000Z

Finland's largest paper company has been urged by environmentalists to defend the reindeer forests of Arctic Lapland and the Sami reindeer herders whose livelihood depends on them.

Both the people and reindeer native to the Sami forests in northern Finland are suffering as a result of unsustainable logging practices

A report was presented to Finnish firm Storna Enso at their annual general meeting of investors by Greenpeace, along with a shareholder resolution requesting that the company's purchase of timber from Metashallitus: "shall not be procured from specific restricted forest areas in the Lapp peoples' native locality in Inari that are considered especially valuable for reindeer herding as reindeer grazing forest areas".

The resolution was presented by two Sami Lapp natives from Inari in northern Finland.

"Reindeer herding is the basis of traditional Sami culture, but the Finnish state has ignored the rights of Sami people for decades by continuing to prioritise logging over reindeer herding," Inari local Janne Saijets stated. "Our reindeer forests have been sold out for pulp production - enough is enough!"

After establishing a forest rescue station in one of the threatened reindeer forests, Greenpeace asked Stora Enso customers to help convince the company to stop buying from forest areas used for reindeer herding to produce their paper.

The Xerox Corporation recently informed Greenpeace that its copy paper products would no longer contain fibres from the Sami reindeer forests - international campaigner for Greenpeace Phil Aikman stated that it was now time for the Finnish paper firm to follow suit.

"Stora Enso has become under increasing pressure to finally end its role in supporting this conflict in the Sami homeland," he said. "It is time for the company to listen to their customers and defend the reindeer forests rather than turning them to pulp."

However, deputy CEO at Stora Enso, Bjorn Hagglund said that the company was deeply concerned about the socio-economic implications of their activities in the north of Finland, adding that discussions with local Sami people should go underway soon to find a solution to suit everyone involved.

"We need to find a balance between forestry and reindeer herding," Mr Hagglund said. "Local people are the best experts of their own conditions, therefore the solutions are best found on a regional level."

But he added that he felt local bio-diversity had already been secured in the area, due to the exceptionally high number of protected areas.

By Jane Kettle

Source: www.edie.net

26th March 2005: Fur flies over bunny theory

2005-03-28T00:56:00.000Z

By SIMON BEVILACQUA
27mar05
IT'S official -- the Easter bunny story is not true.

The fable about the magical rabbit who brings eggs on Easter Sunday is a fabrication.

Academics have scoured medieval history and found the story is based on a lie.

They blame a meddling medieval monk for mucking up pagan history.

The mischievous monk literally made up a Saxon goddess who many today erroneously believe is the basis of the Easter bunny story.

University of Tasmania academic Elizabeth Freeman said German academics had searched extensively for clues to Easter tradition.

"They found it's all wrong," Dr Freeman, an expert on medieval history, said.

The commonly believed story about the Easter bunny, as the magical companion of the Saxon goddess Ostara, is repeated in books, poems and extensively on websites.

That fallacious story says the Easter bunny's roots are buried in the mythology of Germanic Saxon tribes.

The Saxons, in the first centuries after the death of Jesus, are said to have celebrated the arrival of the pagan goddess Ostara.

The Sun King, according to the story, would journey across the sky in his chariot bringing an end to winter.

Ostara, a beautiful spring maiden, then came to earth with a basket of coloured eggs.

The goddess, helped by a magical rabbit, brought new life to dying plants and flowers by hiding eggs under them.

When the Saxons moved into Britain in the fifth century, they took their pagan ways with them.

Ostara then evolved into the Anglo-Saxon Oestre, goddess of dawn and spring.

When Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity and started to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, they combined the religious traditions.

The pagan Oestre celebration became today's Easter.

So when modern-day parents hid coloured eggs under plants in the garden for their children, it was widely thought they had been unwittingly re-enacting the ancient pagan myth of Ostara and her rabbit. But this is all wrong, according to modern academic thought.

Dr Freeman said research shows the Ostara and Oestre story is fundamentally flawed.

The goddess did not exist.

The earliest reference to goddess Ostara or Oestre is by a celebrated medieval intellectual -- the monk known as the "venerable Bede".

Working in north-east England in 730AD, Bede wrote a book about calculating time. Bede identified a pagan spring celebration called Eosturmonath. He said this celebration got its name from a pagan goddess called Oestre for whom they had a feast.

But when modern-day researchers scoured the history books they could find no prior reference to the goddess.

Researchers found many references to the spring celebration Eosturmonath but absolutely no mention of the goddess Bede reckoned the feast was named after. They suspect Bede fabricated the pagan goddess to suit his purposes.

"He has definitely made up that goddess," Dr Freeman said. "Bede is the first one to mention it. German academics have found no evidence of the spring goddess Oestre anywhere else before Bede."

Dr Freeman said Bede, who had been a monk since he was seven years old, was revered in an era where very few people were educated.

"Bede was extremely influential and his view has survived until the last 50 years when scholarship developed to the level it could show he was wrong," she said.

Dr Freeman said Bede and his contemporaries constantly sought to find moral meaning for words and often made up definitions to suit their moral outlook.

So if the Saxon goddess Oestre did not exist, what about her magical bunny? Where did he come from?

"I really have no idea," Dr Freeman said.

The Easter bunny, it seems, is as mysterious to historians as he is elusive to children.

Catching a glimpse of the rabbit who leaves chocolate eggs is easier than pinning down the origins of the mythical creature.

Dr Freeman suggested the tradition was a jumbled version of many ancient beliefs.

She said pagan Britons, who lived in the isles before the Saxons arrived and are commonly portrayed as the traditional dark-haired Celts, revered sacred hares.

She considers these sacred hares may be the kernel of the Easter bunny story.

Baltic pagans and other cultures used eggs in rituals of rebirth and renewel.

Eggs decorated with colours or gilt have been a symbol of life since the ancient Greeks.

The egg appears in many pagan and early history stories, including the birth of the Sun-Bird, hatched from the World Egg. In some pagan stories heaven and earth were thought to have been formed from two halves of an egg.

Easter eggs evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries with hollow cardboard Easter eggs filled with Easter gifts and sumptuously decorated.

Decadent Faberge Eggs, made for the Czar's of Russia by Carl Faberge, were encrusted with jewels.

The first chocolate Easter eggs appeared in Germany and France in the early 1800s.

Dr Freeman said she suspected the combination of the imagery to create our modern Easter occurred some time in the 19th century.

Source: The Mercury (Australia)

26th March 2005: REINDEER PEOPLE: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia by Piers Vitebsky (book review)

2005-03-26T10:23:00.000Z

Siberia covers a third of the northern hemisphere, and represents Europe’s own back garden of tribal cultures, and yet to most Westerners it is the least known part of the entire globe. The reason for this is political: its control by repressive Russian regimes has prevented visitors from moving freely in it until the 1990s.

Piers Vitebsky is one of a tiny number of British experts on the region and an internationally renowned anthropologist. This book is the record of successive visits that he has made over the past 17 years to live with members of a native people called the Eveny in the Verkhoyansk Mountains in the far north-east. Like his earlier work, it shows him to be both an excellent scholar and a gifted writer, with a feeling for landscape and character and a knack for metaphor and allusion.

The people whom he describes lead one of the last nomadic existences on earth — herding reindeer between seasonal pastures — in the coldest inhabited portion of its surface.

Like most traditional anthropologists, he is recording a vanishing way of life, but not in this case the aboriginal one, which — in so far as it had survived at all — was finally destroyed by Stalinism a long lifetime ago. The lifestyle that he has watched disappear was imposed by the Soviet system of collective farming and enforced cultural re-education, which was brutal, oppressive and restrictive but guaranteed the basic necessities of life. Since the 1990s it has been replaced by an embryonic free market economy that reproduces most of the vices of Russian communism while failing to guarantee the basic commodities. The individuals whose fortunes he chronicles and analyses with such care and compassion are therefore habituated to a battle for survival in a world in which nature is powerful, dangerous and unpredictable, and human authorities manifest much the same qualities.

Much of the book is inevitably tinged with tragedy. This is true on a general scale, as natives to whom their land is a giant temple, teeming with spirits, interact with representatives of a government to whom it is a giant meat-producing factory. It is true also on an individual level, and many of the individuals to whom Vitebsky introduces his readers are dead by the last chapter of his story, often violently. He closes with the possibility that both the Eveny and their distinctive existence are doomed to disappear.

This is not, however, his own projection of their future, and the darker hues of his account are always balanced. The terrain in which they operate is harsh and perilous but also fabulously beautiful, and his talent for description brings this out at each stage. The people themselves are — at least in some cases — not passive victims of change but canny and adaptable opportunists, who may yet take advantage of the new Russia to regain many of the most valued aspects of their pre-Soviet way of life with further benefits from modernity. They already ride reindeer with names such as Sancho Panza and Bill Clinton, and sit in their tents in the evening discussing whether a meteor wiped out the dinosaurs or reading about the Incas.

Like all the finest anthropology, this book entertains readers with descriptions of an alien culture, only to imbue them with a deeper sense of common humanity.

Source: The Times (UK)

23rd March 2005: Copy That: Xerox Gets the Message - The company has committed to protecting Finland's reindeer forests

2005-03-23T23:34:00.000Z

Xerox, a name familiar to anyone who has worked with copy machines, recently took a step toward making its business a little bit greener. In response to our requests, the company agreed not to purchase wood products from threatened old-growth forests in the Arctic Lapland, which are vital to the livelihoods of indigenous Sámi reindeer herders.

Since March 2, we've been maintaining a Forest Rescue Station, known fondly to its frost-bitten inhabitants as "Ice Station Reindeer," in the reindeer forests of the Arctic Lapland in Finland. Many of the Sámi still practice traditional reindeer herding, relying on remaining old-growth forests to provide food for their reindeer during the cold winter months. But the forests, which are among the few remaining areas of ancient forest left in Europe, are under siege by the Finnish government's own logging company.

Seventy percent of the precious old-growth wood is sold for pulp and paper production. Most of it is bought by Finnish paper giant Stora Enso, which produces paper, packaging boards and wood products.

Since establishing our Forest Rescue Station, we've been busy contacting Stora Enso's customers around the world, asking for their help in convincing Stora Enso to stop purchasing wood products from forest areas important for reindeer herding. The Xerox Corporation, a major international customer of Stora Enso, has been one of the first to comply.

At Stora Enso's Annual General Meeting this week, Greenpeace and Sámi representatives will challenge the company to listen to its customers and stop funding the destruction of Sámi reindeer forests.

Source: Greenpeace

12th March 2005: Sutton Hoo treasure returning home

2005-03-13T03:23:00.000Z

ONE of the priceless treasures found at the Sutton Hoo burial site is returning home to feature in a new exhibition.

The mysterious Celtic "hanging bowl" is being loaned from the British Museum to launch the new season at the National Trust centre at the site, believed to be the resting place of Raedwald, Saxon king of East Anglia, and his ship.

Archaeologists and historians have been unable to agree on the use of the fragile 1,500 year old bowl – though it may have served in pagan religious ceremonies.

A hanging bowl was highly decorated with enamels and made of metal and suspended by leather cords or chains threaded through attached side loops.

Most found date from the 5th to the first half of the 7th century – Raedwald is thought to have died around 625AD.

Historians say the flattened rim of the bowl would prevent the pouring of any liquid with any accuracy.

It could have been a type of feasting bowl to hold trinkets – as in the Saxon poem Beowulf – or possibly held holy water.

Hanging bowls have been found in both pagan and Christian settings.

The Sutton Hoo one is thought to be Celtic, made of 1mm thick metal. It is decorated with intricate Celtic swirls, typical of art from the Iron Age, and on the inside has a rotating bronze fish.

It was possibly made by a Celtic craftsman working in East Anglia, or the Anglo-Saxons borrowing imagery they found and liked when they arrived. It has been repaired by an Anglo-Saxon craftsman.

It will form part of the new exhibition "Celts and Saxons – The Mystery of the Hanging Bowls", which focuses on the impact of the Anglo-Saxon invaders on the local community and how this was reflected through the art of the intruders.

British Museum Curator Sue Youngs will be holding a private view of the exhibition and lecture on March 18 at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £10.50 and booking is essential on 01394 389737.

The exhibition then opens to the public on March 19 – admission is adult £5, child £2.50. National Trust members free.

A new quilt interpreting the Sutton Hoo story in textiles, created by textile artist and teacher Kim Shaw, from Swilland, will be hanging in the attraction's restaurant this summer.

The quilt, a depiction of the Anglo-Saxon ship on the mudflats of the Deben during a thunderstorm at sunset, was one of 30 on show at the centre last year and was purchased by the National Trust.

Property Manager Kate Sussams says "The National Trust is delighted to own this magnificent piece of textile art, and we hope that all our visitors will take the time to look closely at and admire Kim's quilt."

A second quilt exhibition will take place between September 17 and October 13. For further details please ring Nancy Waterfall on 01394 389727.

Source: Ipswich Evening Star (UK)

4th March 2005: Roche to receive archaeological reports by end of month

2005-03-03T21:12:00.000Z

Environment Minister Dick Roche is reportedly set to receive reports from the National Museum before the end of this month relating to two archaeological sites threatened by roads projects.

Heritage campaigners want Mr Roche to re-route the roads away from the Tara-Skryne valley in Co Meath and the Woodstown Viking site in Waterford.

Reports this morning said the director of the National Museum was due to present a report on the sites to the minister before the end of this month and a decision would be made “soon after”.

Source: Ireland On-Line

3rd March 2005: Greenpeace takes to Sámi reindeer forests -Forest Rescue Station set up in Finnish Lapland

2005-03-03T21:08:00.000Z

Inari, Lapland/Amsterdam 02 March 2004: Greenpeace today announced that it would be stepping up its campaign to protect remaining ancient forests in Finland by establishing a Forest Rescue Station in the last Sámi reindeer forests of Arctic Lapland. This follows the Finnish government's decision to start new logging operations in important winter grazing pine forests, in defiance of urgent recommendations issued by the UN Human Rights Committee (1).

The Forest Rescue Station will act as a forward operating base from which to monitor logging operations and assist the Sámi reindeer herding cooperatives in mapping and demarcating important areas of forests. Activists will be living in a combination of insulated modular containers and traditional Sámi tents.

"In the face of international human rights scrutiny, the Finnish government has chosen to take the business as usual approach," said Matti Liimatainen Greenpeace forest campaigner. "As long as the government continues to log the last Sámi reindeer forests, Greenpeace will be active in these areas until they recognise their importance and stop their destruction."

In northern Lapland, many Sámi indigenous peoples still practice traditional reindeer herding, relying on remaining old-growth forests to provide vital food for their reindeer during the cold winter months. The Sámi reindeer herders have been fighting alone for their livelihood and have been calling on the government to protect important areas of reindeer forests from industrial logging. The Finnish government has always prioritised other forms of land uses other than reindeer herding. The reindeer forests have been reduced piece by piece the government's own logging company, Metsähallitus, which carries out most of the logging in Lapland.

About 70 percent of the wood logged by Metsähallitus in Sámi areas is sold for pulp and paper production (2). The Finnish paper giant, StoraEnso buys most of the wood originating from destruction of reindeer grazing forests, which finally ends up being sold to the European consumer as magazines, copy paper, and envelopes.

"Sadly we are fast approaching the point of no return. Metsähallitus are on the verge of logging some of the last tracts of old-growth forest containing horsetail lichen, vital for winter grazing of reindeer," said Liimatainen . "What's insane is that Sámi's reindeer herding livelihood is being pulped to make cheap magazines, copy paper, envelopes and even disposable tissue paper."

A coalition of reindeer herding cooperatives have recently sent a letter to the Minister of Forestry and Agriculture calling on the Finnish government to agree to a moratorium in the important reindeer forests that have been mapped (3). Greenpeace and other Finnish environmental groups are supporting these demands and have written to the government urging them to take immediate action.

Source: Environmental Media Services

28th February 2005: Viking cemetery uncovered on Orkney

2005-02-27T21:38:00.000Z

A viking cemetery's been uncovered by severe winter storms in Orkney. Experts are trying to recover human skeletons lying exposed on a beach, before they're washed away. But a warning's been sounded that countless archaeological sites around the Scottish coast are at risk.

It should have been a final resting place. The bodies were given a Christian burial and placed in graves here, probably in the 12th century. Now they're emerging from the shore uncovered by the ferocious storms that battered Orkney just a few weeks ago.

Archaeologists were called in to carry out an emergency dig after bones were found on the beach. In all, they expect to find around twenty skeletons from what would have been a Norse cemetery.

Legend has it that the last of Orkney's Viking warriors lived close to here and that his relatives might have been buried in this cemetery. One thing for certain is that the warrior himself won't be found here. He was killed on a raid many hundred of miles away in Ireland.

The dig is being funded by the Government agency Historic Scotland which argues that it spends its archaeology budget as effectively as possible. But Orkney's county archaeologist says that budget is far too small and countless sites, like the Iron Age tower house are being destroyed before they can be examined properly.

In this case, these skeletons are being rescued before they're lost for good. They'll now provide priceless information about the people who lived and worshipped here around nine hundred years ago.

Source: Grampian TV (UK)

27th February 2005: Viking ship cracking up

2005-02-27T21:30:00.000Z

Experts are worried about one of Norway's national treasures . Archaeologists have discovered cracks in the hull of he famed Oseberg Viking ship, which may halt plans to move the vessel to a new museum.

The archaeologists have been carefully going over the nearly 1,200-year-old ship, and are concerned about what they see, reports newspaper Aftenposten..

Removal of the vessel's top deck has revealed some exciting new details, like graffiti from the Viking age and details of the ship's rigging. But it's also exposed cracks that make archaeologists worry the ship won't tolerate any move to new quarters.

There have been plans afoot to build a new museum near the site of Oslo's first buildings east of downtown. The so-called "Middle Ages Park" already features the remains of ancient churches, albeit built after the Vikings ruled the waves.

Experts will spend the next several months trying to measure the ship's strength. Removal of the deck will allow the vessel to be scanned electronically. A 3-D drawing can then be made to help give the archaeologists an accurate basis from which to measure the vessel's structural capacity, Knut Paasche of the Vikings Ships Museum told Aftenposten.

White glove treatment
Working from cranes suspended over the Oseberg ship, conservationists have been using white gloves to carefully remove more than 100 deck parts without setting foot in the ship themselves. Their work is a far cry from that done in the 1950s, when workers went on board the vessel and even used a vacuum cleaner to remove dust.

Paasche described work during the past week as "incredibly difficult and somewhat risky." It's also been thrilling. None of those doing the work had ever seen the underside of the ship's deck.

They've seen signs of tools used on board the vessel when it was made for the burial mound of two women in the year 834. They've also found new decorations, that now will be photographed.

Viking researchers from all over Scandinavia are expected to travel to Oslo while the work is underway, to see the ship in an entirely new light.

Source: Aftenposten (Norway)

19th February 2005: Double dose of Beowulf set to run rings round rivals

2005-02-19T10:18:00.000Z

He is the original action hero, a fearless Norse warrior who slew a vicious troll and helped inspire Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. And he is coming to a cinema near you.

The race to turn Beowulf, the hero of the first great poem written in English, into a box-office star to rival the likes of Aragorn, Achilles and Alexander the Great, has begun. Two films starring the fictional sixth-century sword-slinger are in production.

Beowulf & Grendel, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, is a $US12 million ($15 million) co-production from Britain, Canada and Iceland, starring the Scots actor Gerard Butler. Filmed in Iceland, it is described by its producers as a "spiritual film".

Butler's Beowulf is a complex man who grows to understand and even sympathise with the troll Grendel.

The second film, Beowulf, is a $US70 million Hollywood production financed by the American millionaire Steve Bing and Sony Pictures. Its director is Robert Zemeckis, whose crew will use the stop-motion technology recently employed in the children's film The Polar Express.

Beowulf is no children's film, however. The script, co-written by Roger Avary, Quentin Tarantino's collaborator on Pulp Fiction, has been described as "a sort of dark-ages Trainspotting, filled with mead and blood and madness".

Beowulf & Grendel is to be released this year; Zemeckis's film is in pre-production.

Adam Minns, the British film editor of Screen International, said filming Beowulf was symptomatic of the industry's interest in "epic-scale, fantasy-type".

"Beowulf was one of the key inspirations for Lord of the Rings and I'm not at all surprised the success of that franchise has galvanised these two projects."

Source: The Guardian (UK)

1st February 2005: Viking - Tim Severin (new novel)

2005-02-09T01:51:00.000Z

Set in an ancient Viking world full of brooding Norse mythology and bloodthirsty battles, Viking - Odinn's Child is the stunning first volume in an epic historical fiction trilogy.
Our story begins in the year 1001 and the toddler, Thorgils Leiffson, son of Leif the Lucky and Thorgunna, arrives on the shores of Brattahlid in Greenland to be brought up in the fostercare of a young woman - Gudrid. Thorgils is a rootless character of quicksilver intelligence and adaptability. He has inherited his mother's ability of second sight and his destiny lies beyond the imagination of those around him.

Virtually orphaned, he is raised by various mentors, who teach him the ancient ways 'into the land of the 'Old Gods'. Thorgils is guided by a restless quest for adventure and the wanderlust of his favoured god, Odinn. His fortunes take him into many dangerous situations as well as to the brink of death by execution, in battle, disease and shipwreck...

Packed with wonderfully reimagined Viking sagas and adventures, and fascinating and unique characters, Viking - Odinn's Child gives historical novel writing a new dimension.

Source: www.otttakars.co.uk

22nd January 2005: Sony, Bing get Anglo on 'Beowulf'

2005-01-22T13:35:00.000Z

Sony and Steve Bing are gambling north of $2 million on a "Beowulf""Beowulf" script, penned by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, for Robert Zemeckis to direct.

Like "The Polar Express," for which Bing plunked down $80 million, pic will be a motion-capture film, produced by ImageMovers' Zemeckis, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey.

Martin Shafer will exec produce with Avary and Gaiman.

Pic will be financed by Bing's Shangri-La shingleshingle, with Sony likely coming aboard to co-finance.

"Beowulf" will be distributed by Sony, which is in the process of negotiating an exclusive distribution deal with Shangri-La (Jan. 18, Daily Variety). The shingle previously had a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.

Sony insiders say the preliminary budget on the film is $70 million, though that number is likely to increase considering the film's scope and technology.

"Beowulf" is one of the oldest surviving pieces of Anglo-Saxon literature, penned sometime before the 10th century A.D. Almost a decade ago, Avary and novelist Gaiman wrote a bigscreen version of the epic poem about the adventures of a Scandinavian warrior in the sixth century who takes on the monster Grendel.

Script was optioned by ImageMovers in 1997 and set up at DreamWorks, where ImageMovers is based, with Avary slated to direct. But the project went into turnaround, and when the option expired, the rights reverted to the scribes. For the last year Avary has tried, unsuccessfully, to get the project going again.

More recently, Zemeckis decided he was hot to direct "Beowulf," but Avary was unwilling to part with his script -- until Bing stepped in.

A live-action version of "Beowulf," directed by Sturla Gunnarsson, is in post-production. Gerard Butler ("Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera") stars in that Canada-Iceland-U.K. production.

Avary's previous credits include "Pulp Fiction," which he co-wrote with Quentin Tarantino, and "The Rules of Attraction," which he wrote and directed. Gaiman's best known for graphic novels and children's books including "Coraline." He also penned the English-language adaptation of "Princess Mononoke."

ImageMovers is currently working with Sony Pictures Imageworks on its second performance capture filmCapture Film, "Monster House," due for a summer 2006 release.

Source: Variety

13th January 2005: Badelt produces 'Nibelungen' score by Ilan Eshkeri:

2005-01-12T22:06:00.000Z

Klaus Badelt has immersed himself in the myth of the ring lately. The German composer of scores such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Catwoman has produced the original score composed by Ilan Eshkeri for The Ring of the Nibelungs, a German production helmed by veteran director Uli Edel and starring Benno Fürmann, Kristanna Loken, Julian Sands and Max von Sydow among others. The film is based on the Germanic myth 'Das Nibelungenlied' which inspired both J.R.R. Tolkien in the creation of his 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, and Richard Wagner who wrote his famous opera cycle based on the myth.

The orchestral score by Ilan Eshkeri was recorded by the London Metropolitan Orchestra conducted by Andy Brown earlier this year. A soundtrack album has been released in Germany but it only features two score tracks.

Ilan Eshkeri is an up and coming composer whose recent credits include Layer Cake, which he wrote in association with Lisa Gerrard, and additional music for Back to Gaya. Klaus Badelt's upcoming assignments include Curious George.

12th January 2005: Iron Age replicas found in Norway

2005-01-12T22:04:00.000Z

Oslo - Norwegian archaeologists have found several rare Iron Age golden figures south-east of the capital, Oslo, reports said on Monday.

The thin foil-figures were dated to sometime between year 600-700 AD that preceded the Viking era.

The figures are so thin that they do not show up on a metal detector.

The foil-figures were discovered in October during excavations of the ruins of a house dating back to the late Iron Age period. The excavations would resume next spring, and researchers would then disclose the location of the site in Ostfold county.

"These rare and amazing findings are the kind an archaeologist makes once in a lifetime," Professor Heid Gjostein Resi at the Historical Museum in Oslo said.

"Only one of the 11 new gold-foil figures was completely intact, and was only 1,1 centimetres high. It depicted a man and a woman," Gjostein Resi said.

Researchers were uncertain whether the images depict humans or gods. The man had short hair and wore a jacket and trousers, and a large arm ring. The woman wore a long skirt and had long, braided hair that almost reached her feet.

Gold-foil figures have been found at about 35 locations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Many researchers believe the figures were used in a religious cult or as temple coinage. The thin foil is too brittle for use as jewellery.

Researchers do not know where the foil-figures were made, having yet to find a mold or anvil.

The previous find of foil-figures in Norway was made in the 1980s when five figures were found in the Lofoton archipelago, west of Narvik and 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle.

1st December 2004: Viking Map Could Reroute U.S. History

2004-12-01T08:03:00.000Z

Nov. 30, 2004 — Danish experts will travel to the United States to study a controversial parchment said to be the oldest map of America and which, if authentic, would support the theory that Vikings discovered the New World five centuries before Columbus, officials said last week.

The map, which is said to date from 1434 and was found in 1957, is believed by some to be evidence that Vikings who departed from Greenland around the year 1000 were the first to discover America.

The document is of Vinland, the part of North America which is believed to be what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland, and was supposedly discovered by the Viking Leif Erikson, the son of Erik the Red.

Three researchers from the Danish Royal Library and School of Conservation hope that modern techniques developed in Denmark will be able to "shed more light on this document whose authenticity is questioned worldwide," Rene Larsen, head of the School of Conservation in Copenhagen and the leader of the project, told AFP.

The trio will on Monday begin their work on the map, which is kept at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in Connecticut.

The three have been "authorized to, for two to three days, photograph, analyze with microscope and undertake various studies of the document and its ink, but not alter it," Larsen said.

He said the results of the study would be presented early next year.

"We hope that the new techniques that we have developed in Denmark ... will help to better (date) the document and ink with which the map was drawn in order to lift the veil on its authenticity or counterfeit," he said.

The map was considered a sensation when it was found. Experts are largely in agreement that the parchment dates from the 1400s, but by the 1970s some experts had begun arguing that the ink used contained materials that were only developed in the 20th century.

British chemist Robin Clark has meanwhile said that he believes the document is a fake.

He based his conclusion on the work of another researcher, Walter McCrone, who in the 1970s found that the ink contained a derivate of titanium dioxide, which did not exist until the 1920s, according to the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Source: Discover Channel

20th October 2004: Roche to receive report on Viking site

2004-10-20T01:15:00.000Z

The Minister for the Environment is expected to receive a final report within the next two weeks on what should be done with the controversial Waterford City bypass.

The National Roads Authority has confirmed that €8 million that was to have been spent on the project this year will now be diverted to other projects around the country.

The €400m project is being delayed by uncertainty surrounding what is going to happen to the Viking settlement that was uncovered on the proposed route on the banks of the Suir.

The bypass was due to start this year but will not now start until next year at the earliest.

RTÉ News understands that it will cost in the region of €10 million to fully excavate the site, if that is what the new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, decides.

Archaeologists say the Viking site could be one of the most important such sites remaining in Europe.

The National Roads Authority was to spend €28 million on the road project this year.

Of this, €20 million is to be spent on giving compensation to landowners, with the remaining €8 million diverted to other projects.

The NRA said the bypass remains a very important project for the authority that will be started as soon as it knows what the Department of the Environment decides to do with the Viking settlement.

Source: RTE News (IE)

18th October 2004: Norse myths splash in a magical "Sea" - By Claire Martin

2004-10-18T20:00:00.000Z

"The Sea of Trolls," by Nancy Farmer (Simon & Schuster, 480 pages, $17.95)

Farmer's new book is a lushly gorgeous story that is funny and fast, invoking Norse mythology and historic references to Viking raids with a provocative subtlety.

This is everything an excellent story should be: riveting, with forthright writing and droll touches that might tickle young readers into learning more about the Dark Ages, when "The Sea of Trolls" is set.

It is told from the viewpoint of young Jack, a Saxon whose village is pillaged by Olaf One-Brow and his Viking crew. They kidnap Jack and his sister Lucy, sweeping them to medieval Norway. A series of unfortunate events propels them on a quest to a horrifying wasteland inhabited by trolls, carnivorous plants and beasts.

Source: Denver Post (US)

18th October 2004: Travails with my antlers - Erland Clouston hitches up his reindeer to join travellers on an old Lapland merchants' trail.

2004-10-18T19:54:00.000Z

The Tobacco Trail is a mazy thoroughfare of frozen rivers, lakes, ponds and marshland that zig-zags across Lapland from Narvik, on the Norwegian coast, across Sweden and Finland to northern Russia, 400 miles to the east.

The Trail was blazed by 17th-century merchants eager to shunt luxury goods into the refrigerated communities of Scandinavian Europe. Improvements in the region's transport infrastructure rendered reindeer sled-trains obsolete a generation ago, but last year a 40-mile stretch of the trail was reopened for travellers who are curious to experience the life of a snow-borne salesman.

The project's mastermind is Nils Nutti, a dark-haired 40-year-old Sami (Lapp) reindeer herder with a shuffling, broad-hipped walk, a sloping forehead and a wardrobe of high-collared, silver-buckled, purple tunics heavily embroidered in scarlet, marigold and navy blue.

A foot-long bone-handled sheath knife swings from a broad belt decorated with red, white and brass studs. It can safely be said that Nils does not blend into the background.

Nils serves as expedition cook, navigator and reindeer psychoanalyst. "Hold the rope not too tight or too slack," he counselled clients gathered in a snowy clearing earlier this year. "To show you are the boss. Remember, you're going to be alone in the forest. They can always tell if you're l'il bit afraid."

Despite 8,000 years of human settlement, bipeds are still a minority presence in the Lapland landscape. Nils lives with his wife, Martina, in a two-storey wooden house in Jukkasjärvi, a village of 798 people and 800 dogs in Sweden's Kiruna region, 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Kiruna is the size of Wales and contains 24,000 people (85 per cent of them in Kiruna town), 6,000 lakes and 70,000 reindeer.

Visitors on the Tobacco Trail are assigned an individual sledge-and-reindeer team for their two-day journey north. Our vehicles were 10ft by 4ft trays of yellow pine fitted with extravagantly curved runners and a crude balustrade to prevent the driver falling overboard. Two 8ft poles stretched forward to a wooden waistcoat slung round the reindeer's chest.

The reindeer seemed to accept their burden philosophically. Wild versions can move at 40 mph; domesticated reindeer, grown wise in the service of humans, do the minimum to earn their keep.

"Sometimes you have to be quick to jump off the sledge," Nils had warned us, but the expedition slid away in single file with all the frenzy of a funeral cortege, a pace it maintained, broadly, until it reached its destination.

The first leg of the journey lasted just under three hours, during which time we covered 12 miles. It was like riding a mild helter-skelter, with the twists and most of the gradient removed. The motion seemed dull to start with, but half an hour of gliding through a monochrome wilderness, accompanied by the sound of creaking planks, gradually induces a state of meditative tranquillity.

The Sami's shamans, the noaide, rely heavily on trances to induce astral travel, and you could see how the habit would develop. Enveloped by rippling whiteness, my mind wandered on to laundry lists, ice cream and the need to repaint the windows.

The first night was spent in a large tepee, or lavvu. Until the 1970s, legislation restricted the size of the houses the Sami could build, on the principle that what had been good enough for their ancestors (tents) should be good enough for everyone else.

Our time passed comfortably enough, though most of us would not ordinarily have opted to recline at sub-zero temperatures in sleeping bags on a mattress of pine branches and reindeer hide.

Nils, wearing a fur hat that looked like an exploding rabbit, lit a bonfire in the middle of the lavvu on which he heated pre-cooked reindeer stew. Over glasses of Cointreau, he explained how we should use snowboots as wedges to stop themselves rolling on to the embers.

The reindeer dozed outside in the snow, chewing wisps of black moss they wrenched from overhanging branches.

Next day the landscape continued to drift past in a soothing weave of wood and frozen water. For all most of us knew, we could have been carving great circles in the vanilla wasteland.

As we fished for our lunch in another ice-bound lake, Nils claimed he knew "more or less" where he was at any one time.

If true, this was impressive: when we finally plodded at dusk into Ovre Soppero (70 families, 15,000 reindeer) it was the first significant rectilinear construction we had seen for 36 hours.

Nils organised a candle-lit party to mark his expedition's survival. A bow-legged man with a cobalt-blue tunic performed joik, the Samis' national sound, which is half chant, half moan. "This is about a Finnish butler," he announced, mysteriously.

The Ovre Soppero cook served reindeer stew, reindeer tongue, reindeer marrow, reindeer black pudding and reindeer gravy. A Sami lady unfurled handicrafts for the strangers. "Two reindeer make one pair of trousers," she revealed.

The return leg was completed on four dog-powered, 18ins-wide sledges. This facility, while fun, would be impractical for long-range haulage. "If you fall off, hold on, as the huskies won't wait for you," their handler warned. Everyone crashed at the first corner and was duly dragged through the snow in a tumble of limbs.

Nils Nutti, shrewd as always, returned to base on a snow-mobile.

Lapland basics

Getting there
SAS (020 8990 7159; www.scandinavian.net) flights to Kiruna (via Stockholm) start at £185 from Heathrow and £294 from Edinburgh. A six-day safari, including an overnight stay in Jukkasjärvi's Ice Hotel, costs £1,442; the five-day option is £1,017. Day trips in the Jukkasjärvi forest cost £147. The dog-sled option is an extra £147 per person. Details from Sapmi Journeys (0046 980 21329; www.nutti.se). The lengthier reindeer safaris take place between February 15 and April 25. Day trips start on December 15.

Staying there
Hotel Ripan (0046 980 63000; www.ripan.se) in Kiruna in Sweden has cross-country ski trails, the world's most northerly open-air swimming pool and self-catering cabins, which cost from £37 per couple.

Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)

16th October 2004: Wiping the snow off Greenland's oldest ski

2004-10-16T09:23:00.000Z

By Jan M Olsen

Copenhagen, Denmark - An 85cm-long piece of wood unearthed in southern Greenland in 1997 is likely to be a ski that was used by Norsemen who landed on the Arctic island more than 1 000 years ago, a researcher said on Friday.

The 9cm-wide plank with rounded edges was found during the excavation of a Norse settlement near the town of Nanortalik in 1997.

Stored at Greenland's National Museum in the capital, Nuuk, it wasn't thoroughly examined until this year, when Joel Berglund performed a carbon-14 dating test on the piece of wood.

He said results of the scan show the piece of wood, made from either a larch or fir tree, dated back to around 1010.

"It's very likely what is known as a 'short ski'," he said, adding the piece of wood is believed to have been brought to Greenland by Norsemen who set foot in southern Greenland around 980AD.

"It would be Greenland's oldest ski."

Berglund said Vikings used horses and boats to get around on the southern tip of the Arctic island.

"We also know that Norsemen widely used skis, but no other pieces of wood were found in the area, so maybe they didn't use it so much in Greenland," he added.

The people of Europe's northern fringe began skiing thousands of years ago, first as a way to move around, but then for recreation, too.

The Sami, indigenous to Norway, Finland and Sweden, were probably the first skiers, since they had to follow their migrating reindeer herds across the Nordics through frozen and snowy tundra. - Sapa-AP

Source: iol.co.za (South Africa)

14th October 2004: "The Last Kingdom" by Bernard Cornwall published

2004-10-14T17:34:00.000Z

Book Description

The first book in a brand new series, The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred.

Synopsis

The first book in a brand new series, The Last Kingdom is set in England during the reign of King Alfred. Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of ninth-century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault. The struggle between the English and the Danes and the strife between christianity and paganism is the background to Uhtred's growing up. He is left uncertain of his loyalties but a slaughter in a winter dawn propels him to the English side and he will become a man just as the Danes launch their fiercest attack yet on Alfred's kingdom. Marriage ties him further still to the West Saxon cause but when his wife and child vanish in the chaos of the Danish invasion, Uhtred is driven to face the greatest of the Viking chieftains in a battle beside the sea. There, in the horror of the shield-wall, he discovers his true allegiance. The Last Kingdom, like most of Bernard Cornwell's books, is firmly based on true history.It is the first novel of a series that will tell the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants and of the enemies they faced, Viking warriors like Ivar the Boneless and his feared brother, Ubba. Against their lives Bernard Cornwell has woven a story of divided loyalties, reluctant love and desperate heroism. In Uhtred, he has created one of his most interesting and heroic characters and in The Last Kingdom one of his most powerful and passionate novels.

13th October 2004: Sámiid Duodji

2004-10-13T23:40:00.000Z

By Mathiesen, Per

The Sami are a minority of 40,000 in Norway, 17,000 in Sweden, 7,000 in Finland and 5,000 in the USSR.

In outlining some central features of contemporary Sami handicraft production, it is necessary to discuss Sami notions of "doudji", as it relates to more general concepts of "art", "handicrafts" and "home-crafts". The traditional Sami notion of "duodji" is: "...needlework, carpentry, solid; finished work, product, work;...". This term signifies actual work, as well as objects. It includes a whole range from careful "needlework" to heavy carpentry, and it means women's as well as men's work. While the term relates primarily to different types of handicrafts, it also designates manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

By contrast the Norwegian term "husflid" is translated as "home crafts, home industry, folk arts". This translation should also include a slight overtone of effort, disclosed by Haugen under the entry "flid": "application, diligence, industry, gjore seg flid: take pains with." In other words, "home-crafts", in addition to "husflid", also implies the idea of the work being done with great care and devotion for one's own people. In contrast, the activities referred to under the Norwegian term "håndverk" with the English equivalent "handicrafts" (manual skill, art of trade or occupation), tend to evoke more specialized or restricted production.

The notion of "husflid"/home-crafts is not restricted to Nordic countries; it is found all over Europe. It should be stressed, however, that this activity has special status in the rural parts of Nordic countries which lack the division of labor traditionally found in south European villages. Consequently everyone produces utensils or commodities for the household to the best of their abilities. This is still the case in many Sami communities; "duodji" differs from "husflid" where the tendency is to regard products as "art", rather than associate them with traditional uses. "Samiid doudji" is a type of home-craft which maintains unity between craftsman/woman-use-tradition- material-form-consumer in present-day society.

The traditional way of doing handicrafts and its persistent usefulness in their daily life constitutes one legitimate and aesthetically impeccable element in their efforts to establish complementarity and parity with Norwegian society. Yet "duodji" has been conceived of in very different ways within the Sami society. Communities that have acquired Norwegian skills and standards let "doudji" go out of use more easily than communities who maintain more traditional adaptations within the Norwegian nation-state. As the practice of "duodji" has very different connotations to different Sami settlements, attempts by Sami politicians to improve its standing have been problematic. As in many other fields of life where slightly stigmatized activities are revitalized, it is left to the new generation of Sami with formal training in social work, teaching, etc. to lure public monies for "doudji". From mid 1960 onward, public committees as well as Sami organizations have looked into the organization and economics of "doudji". Some significant contributions have been obtained. For 1983, the Norwegian government has granted different agencies involved in "duodji" more than $150,000. Some individuals have also obtained loans and grants for their private and home-based "workshop."

Seminal to the development of "duodji" in recent years, however, has been the work done by the semipublic, semi-private organization "SIIDA", who obtained a grant from the Ministry of Social Affairs in the mid sixties to set up a center for Sami handicrafts. From this developed a fairly successful organization for distributing instructors, designs, materials, etc., with the return of gradually more refined products for sale. Today many smaller centers and a handful of cooperatives based mostly on home-production are in operation, offering the producer extra income and the opportunity to see how objects of her or his everyday life are enjoyed by outsiders.

As a relatively large portion of the Sami people are linked to the primary occupations of agriculture and reindeer herding, raw materials are largely hides, horn/bones and to some extent cloth. The old tradition of pewter thread application has been developed into a skill of high quality at the same time as other traditional techniques have been applied to new materials and forms. By its ability to expand and grow, "duodji" demonstrates to the outside world how very much alive and modern the Sami people are, an opinion, however, apparently not shared by the Norwegian state, who, in 1983 will start building a gigantic hydroelectric power station on the Alta-Kautokeino River in the middle of Sami land, against the wishes of most of the Sami people. This event added to previous conflicts between the two peoples who inhabit the territory of Norway, has triggered a tendency among Sami artists toward political satire on the stage, in sculpture and painting, as well as in poetry and music. What role "duodji" will play in this conflict is hard to tell, but few sectors of Sami life will remain unaffected, if the dam is built.

Source: www.culturalsurvival.com

8th October 2004: WIRE FIRM SAVES THE REINDEERS

2004-10-08T21:30:00.000Z

A TRADITIONAL indigenous population of arctic Norway stop their reindeer roaming over the Russian border with the help of a Millom company.

The Saami people have followed a nomadic life throughout history, controlling huge herds of reindeer in the rugged conditions of northern Norway.

Millom-based Tornado Wire provide the special fencing that help the Saami to follow the aboriginal life their ancestors did.

In early November representatives from the Saami will be visiting Millom to meet the workers who make the fencing they use and to find out more about its manufacture.

In the brief Norwegian summer the reindeer are moved into the mountain pastures for grazing. Fences are used to mark pasture borders and reduce overgrazing.

Source: North-West Evening Mail (UK)

8th October 2004: BEOWULF MOVIE update - Stellar Stellan -

2004-10-08T16:54:00.000Z

By Ong Sor Fern

THERE are absolutely no airs about Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard.

He e-mails the reporter directly to set up a time for a telephone interview, neatly circumventing the usual tedious rigmarole of publicists and agents.

In the e-mail, he requests politely for the interview to be conducted later on a Sunday, 'so that I can sleep in a little on my day off'.

Currently shooting a film adaptation of the mediaeval Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf in Iceland, the 53-year-old still takes time out to feed the publicity mill for Exorcist: The Beginning.

The movie, now playing in cinemas, is a prequel to the 1973 classic, The Exorcist. It tells the story of how Father Merrin, played by Skarsgard, became an exorcist.

A measure of Skarsgard's professionalism lies in his willingness to help publicise this famously troubled movie.

Exorcist: The Beginning lost its first director, John Frankenheimer, who died suddenly from complications from a spinal surgery before production began.

Writer-director Paul Schrader, who wrote scripts for such seminal movies as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, was then recruited. His involvement prompted Skarsgard's participation.

He says: 'It was an interesting script, and I'd always wanted to work with Paul Schrader.'

According to Skarsgard, Schrader's script and direction focused on the darker aspects of Father Merrin's character. The studio, upon seeing Schrader's movie, decided that it was not scary enough.

Skarsgard says, without mincing his words but in measured tones: 'What was said was that we have to put more scary scenes in it and that there were to be two more weeks of reshoots. I hate reshoots. It's like having sex with a corpse.

'Then I saw the ideas for the reshoots, and they were all extremely silly. I was extremely upset and I didn't want to do it.'

After a tussle with the studio, Schrader was fired and director Renny Harlin was brought on board. Harlin's solution was to junk everything and start afresh with another script.

That persuaded Skarsgard to stay on.

'There's nothing left of Paul Schrader's version except maybe a couple of wide shots of Africa. It's not the same movie, it's two completely different movies.'

Besides the challenges of the shoot, there was the issue of taking on a role identified so closely with its originator: Swedish actor Max von Sydow, best known as the knight who plays chess with Death in director Ingmar Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal.

Skarsgard, who has earned critical raves for his work in director Lars von Trier's movies as well as other independent features, has often been seen as the heir to von Sydow's distinguished crown.

'I thought I wasn't affected by the idea of stepping into Max's shoes. Then one night, I had this dream. I saw someone coming down the street and it was Max. And we're very happy to see each other, I know Max. When he approaches me, I realise he's 10 feet tall.'

A self-deprecating chuckle erupts from the soft-spoken actor who confesses that he never wanted an acting career.

'I always wanted to be a diplomat,' he reveals. But a stint as a teen star in a popular Swedish television programme provided a permanent detour into acting.

Ironically, two of his six children have followed in his footsteps and gone into showbusiness.

Skarsgard, who is married to a doctor, says: 'I never interfere in their career choices. By the age of 16, your children should be able to take care of themselves and make their own decisions.'

Of his two actor/director sons, he says in a matter-of-fact tone that cannot quite disguise his pride: 'They also know the business. Fortunately they're very talented.'

As for his own career, he is happy to keep shuttling between big Hollywood projects and small independent features: 'That's my uniquely privileged position that I can go between them. It also keeps me sane.'

Source: The Straits Times (Asia)

23rd Sept 2004: Hávamál - The Words of Odin the High One, from the Elder or Poetic Edda

2004-09-23T21:23:00.000Z

(For the modern reader: An in-depth Guide to Life, Diplomacy, Charity, Wariness, and Why Not To Get Too Drunk! The Viking equivalent of Rudyard Kipling's "If....")

1.
At every door-way,
ere one enters,
one should spy round,
one should pry round
for uncertain is the witting
that there be no foeman sitting,
within, before one on the floor
2.
Hail, ye Givers! a guest is come;
say! where shall he sit within?
Much pressed is he who fain on the hearth
would seek for warmth and weal.
3.
He hath need of fire, who now is come,
numbed with cold to the knee;
food and clothing the wanderer craves
who has fared o'er the rimy fell.
4.
He craves for water, who comes for refreshment,
drying and friendly bidding,
marks of good will, fair fame if 'tis won,
and welcome once and again.
5.
He hath need of his wits who wanders wide,
aught simple will serve at home;
but a gazing-stock is the fool who sits
mid the wise, and nothing knows.
6.
Let no man glory in the greatness of his mind,
but rather keep watch o'er his wits.
Cautious and silent let him enter a dwelling;
to the heedful comes seldom harm,
for none can find a more faithful friend
than the wealth of mother wit.
7.
Let the wary stranger who seeks refreshment
keep silent with sharpened hearing;
with his ears let him listen, and look with his eyes;
thus each wise man spies out the way.
8.
Happy is he who wins for himself
fair fame and kindly words;
but uneasy is that which a man doth own
while it lies in another's breast.
9.
Happy is he who hath in himself
praise and wisdom in life;
for oft doth a man ill counsel get
when 'tis born in another's breast.
10.
A better burden can no man bear
on the way than his mother wit;
'tis the refuge of the poor, and richer it seems
than wealth in a world untried.
11.
A better burden can no man bear
on the way than his mother wit:
and no worse provision can he carry with him
than too deep a draught of ale.
12.
Less good than they say for the sons of men
is the drinking oft of ale:
for the more they drink, the less can they think
and keep a watch o'er their wits.
13.
A bird of Unmindfulness flutters o'er ale feasts,
wiling away men's wits:
with the feathers of that fowl I was fettered once
in the garths of Gunnlos below.
14.
Drunk was I then, I was over drunk
in that crafty Jötun's court.
But best is an ale feast when man is able
to call back his wits at once.
15.
Silent and thoughtful and bold in strife
the prince's bairn should be.
Joyous and generous let each man show him
until he shall suffer death.
16.
A coward believes he will ever live
if he keep him safe from strife:
but old age leaves him not long in peace
though spears may spare his life.
17.
A fool will gape when he goes to a friend,
and mumble only, or mope;
but pass him the ale cup and all in a moment
the mind of that man is shown.
18.
He knows alone who has wandered wide,
and far has fared on the way,
what manner of mind a man doth own
who is wise of head and heart.
19.
Keep not the mead cup but drink thy measure;
speak needful words or none:
none shall upbraid thee for lack of breeding
if soon thou seek'st thy rest.
20.
A greedy man, if he be not mindful,
eats to his own life's hurt:
oft the belly of the fool will bring him to scorn
when he seeks the circle of the wise.
21.
Herds know the hour of their going home
and turn them again from the grass;
but never is found a foolish man
who knows the measure of his maw.
22.
The miserable man and evil minded
makes of all things mockery,
and knows not that which he best should know,
that he is not free from faults.
23.
The unwise man is awake all night,
and ponders everything over;
when morning comes he is weary in mind,
and all is a burden as ever.
24.
The unwise man weens all who smile
and flatter him are his friends,
nor notes how oft they speak him ill
when he sits in the circle of the wise.
25.
The unwise man weens all who smile
and flatter him are his friends;
but when he shall come into court he shall find
there are few to defend his cause.
26.
The unwise man thinks all to know,
while he sits in a sheltered nook;
but he knows not one thing, what he shall answer,
if men shall put him to proof.
27.
For the unwise man 'tis best to be mute
when he come amid the crowd,
for none is aware of his lack of wit
if he wastes not too many words;
for he who lacks wit shall never learn
though his words flow ne'er so fast.
28.
Wise he is deemed who can question well,
and also answer back:
the sons of men can no secret make
of the tidings told in their midst.
29.
Too many unstable words are spoken
by him who ne'er holds his peace;
the hasty tongue sings its own mishap
if it be not bridled in.
30.
Let no man be held as a laughing-stock,
though he come as guest for a meal:
wise enough seem many while they sit dry-skinned
and are not put to proof.
31.
A guest thinks him witty who mocks at a guest
and runs from his wrath away;
but none can be sure who jests at a meal
that he makes not fun among foes.
32.
Oft, though their hearts lean towards one another,
friends are divided at table;
ever the source of strife 'twill be,
that guest will anger guest.
33.
A man should take always his meals betimes
unless he visit a friend,
or he sits and mopes, and half famished seems,
and can ask or answer nought.
34.
Long is the round to a false friend leading,
e'en if he dwell on the way:
but though far off fared, to a faithful friend
straight are the roads and short.
35.
A guest must depart again on his way,
nor stay in the same place ever;
if he bide too long on another's bench
the loved one soon becomes loathed.
36.
One's own house is best, though small it may be;
each man is master at home;
though he have but two goats and a bark-thatched hut
'tis better than craving a boon.
37.
One's own house is best, though small it may be,
each man is master at home;
with a bleeding heart will he beg, who must,
his meat at every meal.
38.
Let a man never stir on his road a step
without his weapons of war;
for unsure is the knowing when need shall arise
of a spear on the way without.
39.
I found none so noble or free with his food,
who was not gladdened with a gift,
nor one who gave of his gifts such store
but he loved reward, could he win it.
40.
Let no man stint him and suffer need
of the wealth he has won in life;
oft is saved for a foe what was meant for a friend,
and much goes worse than one weens.
41.
With raiment and arms shall friends gladden each other,
so has one proved oneself;
for friends last longest, if fate be fair
who give and give again.
42.
To his friend a man should bear him as friend,
and gift for gift bestow,
laughter for laughter let him exchange,
but leasing pay for a lie.
43.
To his friend a man should bear him as friend,
to him and a friend of his;
but let him beware that he be not the friend
of one who is friend to his foe.
44.
Hast thou a friend whom thou trustest well,
from whom thou cravest good?
Share thy mind with him, gifts exchange with him,
fare to find him oft.
45.
But hast thou one whom thou trustest ill
yet from whom thou cravest good?
Thou shalt speak him fair, but falsely think,
and leasing pay for a lie.
46.
Yet further of him whom thou trusted ill,
and whose mind thou dost misdoubt;
thou shalt laugh with him but withhold thy thought,
for gift with like gift should be paid.
47.
Young was I once, I walked alone,
and bewildered seemed in the way;
then I found me another and rich I thought me,
for man is the joy of man.
48.
Most blest is he who lives free and bold
and nurses never a grief,
for the fearful man is dismayed by aught,
and the mean one mourns over giving.
49.
My garments once I gave in the field
to two land-marks made as men;
heroes they seemed when once they were clothed;
'tis the naked who suffer shame!
50.
The pine tree wastes which is perched on the hill,
nor bark nor needles shelter it;
such is the man whom none doth love;
for what should he longer live?
51.
Fiercer than fire among ill friends
for five days love will burn;
bun anon 'tis quenched, when the sixth day comes,
and all friendship soon is spoiled.
52.
Not great things alone must one give to another,
praise oft is earned for nought;
with half a loaf and a tilted bowl
I have found me many a friend.
53.
Little the sand if little the seas,
little are minds of men,
for ne'er in the world were all equally wise,
'tis shared by the fools and the sage.
54.
Wise in measure let each man be;
but let him not wax too wise;
for never the happiest of men is he
who knows much of many things.
55.
Wise in measure should each man be;
but let him not wax too wise;
seldom a heart will sing with joy
if the owner be all too wise.
56.
Wise in measure should each man be,
but ne'er let him wax too wise:
who looks not forward to learn his fate
unburdened heart will bear.
57.
Brand kindles from brand until it be burned,
spark is kindled from spark,
man unfolds him by speech with man,
but grows over secret through silence.
58.
He must rise betimes who fain of another
or life or wealth would win;
scarce falls the prey to sleeping wolves,
or to slumberers victory in strife.
59.
He must rise betimes who hath few to serve him,
and see to his work himself;
who sleeps at morning is hindered much,
to the keen is wealth half-won.
60.
Of dry logs saved and roof-bark stored
a man can know the measure,
of fire-wood too which should last him out
quarter and half years to come.
61.
Fed and washed should one ride to court
though in garments none too new;
thou shalt not shame thee for shoes or breeks,
nor yet for a sorry steed.
62.
Like an eagle swooping over old ocean,
snatching after his prey,
so comes a man into court who finds
there are few to defend his cause.
63.
Each man who is wise and would wise be called
must ask and answer aright.
Let one know thy secret, but never a second, --
if three a thousand shall know.
64.
A wise counselled man will be mild in bearing
and use his might in measure,
lest when he come his fierce foes among
he find others fiercer than he.
65.
Each man should be watchful and wary in speech,
and slow to put faith in a friend.
for the words which one to another speaks
he may win reward of ill.
66.
At many a feast I was far too late,
and much too soon at some;
drunk was the ale or yet unserved:
never hits he the joint who is hated.
67.
Here and there to a home I had haply been asked
had I needed no meat at my meals,
or were two hams left hanging in the house of that friend
where I had partaken of one.
68.
Most dear is fire to the sons of men,
most sweet the sight of the sun;
good is health if one can but keep it,
and to live a life without shame.
69.
Not reft of all is he who is ill,
for some are blest in their bairns,
some in their kin and some in their wealth,
and some in working well.
70.
More blest are the living than the lifeless,
'tis the living who come by the cow;
I saw the hearth-fire burn in the rich man's hall
and himself lying dead at the door.
71.
The lame can ride horse, the handless drive cattle,
the deaf one can fight and prevail,
'tis happier for the blind than for him on the bale-fire,
but no man hath care for a corpse.
72.
Best have a son though he be late born
and before him the father be dead:
seldom are stones on the wayside raised
save by kinsmen to kinsmen.
73.
Two are hosts against one, the tongue is the head's bane,
'neath a rough hide a hand may be hid;
he is glad at nightfall who knows of his lodging,
short is the ship's berth,
and changeful the autumn night,
much veers the wind ere the fifth day
and blows round yet more in a month.
74.
He that learns nought will never know
how one is the fool of another,
for if one be rich another is poor
and for that should bear no blame.
75.
Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
fair fame of one who has earned.
76.
Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
the doom on each one dead.
77.
Full-stocked folds had the Fatling's sons,
who bear now a beggar's staff:
brief is wealth, as the winking of an eye,
most faithless ever of friends.
78.
If haply a fool should find for himself
wealth or a woman's love,
pride waxes in him but wisdom never
and onward he fares in his folly.
79.
All will prove true that thou askest of runes --
those that are come from the gods,
which the high Powers wrought, and which Odin painted:
then silence is surely best.

Maxims for All Men
80.
Praise day at even, a wife when dead,
a weapon when tried, a maid when married,
ice when 'tis crossed, and ale when 'tis drunk.
81.
Hew wood in wind, sail the seas in a breeze,
woo a maid in the dark, -- for day's eyes are many, --
work a ship for its gliding, a shield for its shelter,
a sword for its striking, a maid for her kiss;
82.
Drink ale by the fire, but slide on the ice;
buy a steed when 'tis lanky, a sword when 'tis rusty;
feed thy horse neath a roof, and thy hound in the yard.
83.
The speech of a maiden should no man trust
nor the words which a woman says;
for their hearts were shaped on a whirling wheel
and falsehood fixed in their breasts.
84.
Breaking bow, or flaring flame,
ravening wolf, or croaking raven,
routing swine, or rootless tree,
waxing wave, or seething cauldron,
85.
flying arrows, or falling billow,
ice of a nighttime, coiling adder,
woman's bed-talk, or broken blade,
play of bears or a prince's child,
86.
sickly calf or self-willed thrall,
witch's flattery, new-slain foe,
brother's slayer, though seen on the highway,
half burned house, or horse too swift --
be never so trustful as these to trust.
87.
Let none put faith in the first sown fruit
nor yet in his son too soon;
whim rules the child, and weather the field,
each is open to chance.
88.
Like the love of women whose thoughts are lies
is the driving un-roughshod o'er slippery ice
of a two year old, ill-tamed and gay;
or in a wild wind steering a helmless ship,
or the lame catching reindeer in the rime-thawed fell.
Lessons for Lovers
89.
Now plainly I speak, since both I have seen;
unfaithful is man to maid;
we speak them fairest when thoughts are falsest
and wile the wisest of hearts.
90.
-- Let him speak soft words and offer wealth
who longs for a woman's love,
praise the shape of the shining maid --
he wins who thus doth woo.
91.
-- Never a whit should one blame another
whom love hath brought into bonds:
oft a witching form will fetch the wise
which holds not the heart of fools.
92.
Never a whit should one blame another
for a folly which many befalls;
the might of love makes sons of men
into fools who once were wise.
93.
The mind knows alone what is nearest the heart
and sees where the soul is turned:
no sickness seems to the wise so sore
as in nought to know content.
Odin's Love Quests
94.
This once I felt when I sat without
in the reeds, and looked for my love;
body and soul of me was that sweet maiden
yet never I won her as wife.
95.
Billing's daughter I found on her bed,
fairer than sunlight sleeping,
and the sweets of lordship seemed to me nought,
save I lived with that lovely form.
96.
"Yet nearer evening come thou, Odin,
if thou wilt woo a maiden:
all were undone save two knew alone
such a secret deed of shame."
97.
So away I turned from my wise intent,
and deemed my joy assured,
for all her liking and all her love
I weened that I yet should win.
98.
When I came ere long the war troop bold
were watching and waking all:
with burning brands and torches borne
they showed me my sorrowful way.
99.
Yet nearer morning I went, once more, --
the housefolk slept in the hall,
but soon I found a barking dog
tied fast to that fair maid's couch.
100.
Many a sweet maid when one knows her mind
is fickle found towards men:
I proved it well when that prudent lass
I sought to lead astray:
shrewd maid, she sought me with every insult
and I won therewith no wife.
Odin's Quest after the Song Mead
101.
In thy home be joyous and generous to guests
discreet shalt thou be in thy bearing,
mindful and talkative, wouldst thou gain wisdom,
oft making me mention of good.
He is "Simpleton" named who has nought to say,
for such is the fashion of fools.
102.
I sought that old Jötun, now safe am I back,
little served my silence there;
but whispering many soft speeches I won
my desire in Suttung's halls.
103.
I bored me a road there with Rati's tusk
and made room to pass through the rock;
while the ways of the Jötuns stretched over and under,
I dared my life for a draught.
104.
'Twas Gunnlod who gave me on a golden throne
a draught of the glorious mead,
but with poor reward did I pay her back
for her true and troubled heart.
105.
In a wily disguise I worked my will;
little is lacking to the wise,
for the Soul-stirrer now, sweet Mead of Song,
is brought to men's earthly abode.
106.
I misdoubt me if ever again I had come
from the realms of the Jötun race,
had I not served me of Gunnlod, sweet woman,
her whom I held in mine arms.
107.
Came forth, next day, the dread Frost Giants,
and entered the High One's Hall:
they asked -- was the Baleworker back mid the Powers,
or had Suttung slain him below?
108.
A ring-oath Odin I trow had taken --
how shall one trust his troth?
'twas he who stole the mead from Suttung,
and Gunnlod caused to weep.
The Counseling of the Stray-Singer
109.
'Tis time to speak from the Sage's Seat;
hard by the Well of Weird
I saw and was silent, I saw and pondered,
I listened to the speech of men.
110.
Of runes they spoke, and the reading of runes
was little withheld from their lips:
at the High One's hall, in the High One's hall,
I thus heard the High One say: --
111.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
rise never at nighttime, except thou art spying
or seekest a spot without.
112.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
thou shalt never sleep in the arms of a sorceress,
lest she should lock thy limbs;
113.
So shall she charm that thou shalt not heed
the council, or words of the king,
nor care for thy food, or the joys of mankind,
but fall into sorrowful sleep.
114.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
seek not ever to draw to thyself
in love-whispering another's wife.
115.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
should thou long to fare over fell and firth
provide thee well with food.
116.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
tell not ever an evil man
if misfortunes thee befall,
from such ill friend thou needst never seek
return for thy trustful mind.
117.
Wounded to death, have I seen a man
by the words of an evil woman;
a lying tongue had bereft him of life,
and all without reason of right.
118.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
hast thou a friend whom thou trustest well,
fare thou to find him oft;
for with brushwood grows and with grasses high
the path where no foot doth pass.
119.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
in sweet converse call the righteous to thy side,
learn a healing song while thou livest.
120.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
be never the first with friend of thine
to break the bond of fellowship;
care shall gnaw thy heart if thou canst not tell
all thy mind to another.
121.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
never in speech with a foolish knave
shouldst thou waste a single word.
122.
From the lips of such thou needst not look
for reward of thine own good will;
but a righteous man by praise will render thee
firm in favour and love.
123.
There is mingling in friendship when man can utter
all his whole mind to another;
there is nought so vile as a fickle tongue;
no friend is he who but flatters.
124.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
oft the worst lays the best one low.
125.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
be not a shoemaker nor yet a shaft maker
save for thyself alone:
let the shoe be misshapen, or crooked the shaft,
and a curse on thy head will be called.
126.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
when in peril thou seest thee, confess thee in peril,
nor ever give peace to thy foes.
127.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
rejoice not ever at tidings of ill,
but glad let thy soul be in good.
128.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
look not up in battle, when men are as beasts,
lest the wights bewitch thee with spells.
129.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
wouldst thou win joy of a gentle maiden,
and lure to whispering of love,
thou shalt make fair promise, and let it be fast, --
none will scorn their weal who can win it.
130.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
I pray thee be wary, yet not too wary,
be wariest of all with ale,
with another's wife, and a third thing eke,
that knaves outwit thee never.
131.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
hold not in scorn, nor mock in thy halls
a guest or wandering wight.
132.
They know but unsurely who sit within
what manner of man is come:
none is found so good, but some fault attends him,
or so ill but he serves for somewhat.
133.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
hold never in scorn the hoary singer;
oft the counsel of the old is good;
come words of wisdom from the withered lips
of him left to hang among hides,
to rock with the rennets
and swing with the skins.
134.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
growl not at guests, nor drive them from the gate
but show thyself gentle to the poor.
135.
Mighty is the bar to be moved away
for the entering in of all.
Shower thy wealth, or men shall wish thee
every ill in thy limbs.
136.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
when ale thou quaffest, call upon earth's might --
'tis earth drinks in the floods.
Earth prevails o'er drink, but fire o'er sickness,
the oak o'er binding, the earcorn o'er witchcraft,
the rye spur o'er rupture, the moon o'er rages,
herb o'er cattle plagues, runes o'er harm.
Odin's Quest after the Runes
137.
I trow I hung on that windy Tree
nine whole days and nights,
stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,
myself to mine own self given,
high on that Tree of which none hath heard
from what roots it rises to heaven.
138.
None refreshed me ever with food or drink,
I peered right down in the deep;
crying aloud I lifted the Runes
then back I fell from thence.
139.
Nine mighty songs I learned from the great
son of Bale-thorn, Bestla's sire;
I drank a measure of the wondrous Mead,
with the Soulstirrer's drops I was showered.
140.
Ere long I bare fruit, and throve full well,
I grew and waxed in wisdom;
word following word, I found me words,
deed following deed, I wrought deeds.
141.
Hidden Runes shalt thou seek and interpreted signs,
many symbols of might and power,
by the great Singer painted, by the high Powers fashioned,
graved by the Utterer of gods.
142.
For gods graved Odin, for elves graved Daïn,
Dvalin the Dallier for dwarfs,
All-wise for Jötuns, and I, of myself,
graved some for the sons of men.
143.
Dost know how to write, dost know how to read,
dost know how to paint, dost know how to prove,
dost know how to ask, dost know how to offer,
dost know how to send, dost know how to spend?
144.
Better ask for too little than offer too much,
like the gift should be the boon;
better not to send than to overspend.
........
Thus Odin graved ere the world began;
Then he rose from the deep, and came again.
The Song of Spells
145.
Those songs I know, which nor sons of men
nor queen in a king's court knows;
the first is Help which will bring thee help
in all woes and in sorrow and strife.
146.
A second I know, which the son of men
must sing, who would heal the sick.
147.
A third I know: if sore need should come
of a spell to stay my foes;
when I sing that song, which shall blunt their swords,
nor their weapons nor staves can wound.
148.
A fourth I know: if men make fast
in chains the joints of my limbs,
when I sing that song which shall set me free,
spring the fetters from hands and feet.
149.
A fifth I know: when I see, by foes shot,
speeding a shaft through the host,
flies it never so strongly I still can stay it,
if I get but a glimpse of its flight.
150.
A sixth I know: when some thane would harm me
in runes on a moist tree's root,
on his head alone shall light the ills
of the curse that he called upon mine.
151.
A seventh I know: if I see a hall
high o'er the bench-mates blazing,
flame it ne'er so fiercely I still can save it, --
I know how to sing that song.
152.
An eighth I know: which all can sing
for their weal if they learn it well;
where hate shall wax 'mid the warrior sons,
I can calm it soon with that song.
153.
A ninth I know: when need befalls me
to save my vessel afloat,
I hush the wind on the stormy wave,
and soothe all the sea to rest.
154.
A tenth I know: when at night the witches
ride and sport in the air,
such spells I weave that they wander home
out of skins and wits bewildered.
155.
An eleventh I know: if haply I lead
my old comrades out to war,
I sing 'neath the shields, and they fare forth mightily
safe into battle,
safe out of battle,
and safe return from the strife.
156.
A twelfth I know: if I see in a tree
a corpse from a halter hanging,
such spells I write, and paint in runes,
that the being descends and speaks.
157.
A thirteenth I know: if the new-born son
of a warrior I sprinkle with water,
that youth will not fail when he fares to war,
never slain shall he bow before sword.
158.
A fourteenth I know: if I needs must number
the Powers to the people of men,
I know all the nature of gods and of elves
which none can know untaught.
159.
A fifteenth I know, which Folk-stirrer sang,
the dwarf, at the gates of Dawn;
he sang strength to the gods, and skill to the elves,
and wisdom to Odin who utters.
160.
A sixteenth I know: when all sweetness and love
I would win from some artful wench,
her heart I turn, and the whole mind change
of that fair-armed lady I love.
161.
A seventeenth I know: so that e'en the shy maiden
is slow to shun my love.
162.
These songs, Stray-Singer, which man's son knows not,
long shalt thou lack in life,
though thy weal if thou win'st them, thy boon if thou obey'st them
thy good if haply thou gain'st them.
163.
An eighteenth I know: which I ne'er shall tell
to maiden or wife of man
save alone to my sister, or haply to her
who folds me fast in her arms;
most safe are secrets known to but one-
the songs are sung to an end.
164.
Now the sayings of the High One are uttered in the hall
for the weal of men, for the woe of Jötuns,
Hail, thou who hast spoken! Hail, thou that knowest!
Hail, ye that have hearkened! Use, thou who hast learned!

22nd Sept 2004: Did real Vikings eat quiche? Maybe

2004-09-22T16:43:00.000Z

Shocking news on the ancient history front.

Remember those crude, red-hairy Scandinavians in the horned helmets, the anti-couths who swung swords and burned everything within an hour's looting of their worthy sailboats?

Vicious Vikings in fur skirts, resembling bands of unshaven Kirk Douglases without the chin dimple, have long been synonymous in Western minds with fearless warriors and explorers. They conquered wherever they sailed and island-hopped the North Atlantic in search of new stones, or something.

Historians long knew that Vikings growled all across England but left little trace of themselves. Two known Norse burial grounds included few relics. Now, the accidental discovery by a hiker with a metal detector of a 10th century burial site in northwestern England provides invaluable insights.

It also delivers disappointment.A fair number of these ruthless rowdies with names like Erik and Leif apparently settled down with women. Leaving boots by the door, they traded riding the wild waves of the frigid North Atlantic with the guys for hut life.What? Viking suburbanites? Next thing they'll find knitting needles and other evidence these biker ancestors herded sheep instead of eating them raw.

It also appears the Vikings were covering their afterlife bases: Bodies were buried east-west in old Christian tradition, but they took pagan keepsakes too: jewelry, swords, a drinking horn and possibly a horse harness. Please tell us not for family sleigh rides.

Historical research is grand, admirable and all that. It advances knowledge and helps explain how humanity got here. However, in an age when so many large figures, both heroes and villains, develop clay feet, foibles and self-esteem issues like the rest of us, did anyone need to know this? What other legends are jeopardized? Will we learn the Goths were merely misunderstood language missionaries, that Nero's fiddling showed his sensitive side, that Round Table knights called their boss Artie, or Genghis Khan was just seeking directions home?

On the hopeful side, perhaps someday we'll discover that those mysterious explosions in North Korea recently were just vats of fermenting kimchi left too long.

Source: Los Angeles Times

18th Sept 2004: More time sought as campaign intensifies to save archaeological site

2004-09-18T09:50:00.000Z

THE report on the archaeological site at Woodstown, on the route of the city by-pass will not be taken for several months yet it has been stated by the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen.

“I have not received any reports of any hue and there will not be any reports for some time,” he said last week .

Describing recent public comment as “unhelpful” Minister Cullen said that in the past three weeks he had approved the bringing on board three more experts to examine the site.

“I want to appeal to everybody to give space to everyone to deliver an outcome to satisfactorily deal with the archaeological site at Woodstown and the city by-pass,” he stated.

As the Minister seeks space for the completion of the report a video of the Roskilde Viking Centre is to be shown at a public meeting to launch the campaign to save the Woodstown Viking Site. The meeting will take place in the Granville Hotel, tomorrow night, Thursday 16th September at 8.00pm.

The town of Roskilde in Denmark has become a major tourist destination since the discovery of Viking longships, similar to those discovered at Woodstown, in the 1960’s.

The Viking museum in Roskilde has recently completed an exact replica of an 11th century Irish built longship which will soon set sail to Ireland.

The construction of the museum in Roskilde and the subsequent boom in tourism is an example of what can be achieved if the Woodstown Viking Site is properly handled and excavated fully. The video will be narrated by WIT lecturer, Noel Kelly. Other speakers at the public meeting include the well known local historian and writer, Jack O’Neill, of the Waterford Historical and Literary Society, and a Dublin based archaeologist, Paula Geragthy.

The Woodstown Viking Site, has been described as: “The most significant new find in Viking studies in perhaps a century,” by Professor Donnchadh O‚Corrain, medieval historian at UCC, and “Ireland’s equivalent of Pompeii,” by archaeologist John Maas.

Despite the extraordinary significance of the find, the National Roads Authority and Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen stand accused of waiting “an incredible nine months before they made it public.”

Although the excavation has now halted because the license to carry out work has expired, already over 3,000 artefacts have been successfully excavated. It is believed the original town from the early to mid ninth century, could have been home to up to 4,000 inhabitants. The town remains virtually intact with streets and dwellings believed to be just underneath the soil surface.

The site began as a longport and was a base for shipbuilding. No other longport discovery in Europe comes close to matching the scale and significance of the Woodstown find.

Archaeologists, historians, medievalists and conservationists from around the world have welcomed the find and it has been predicted that the site could be worth up to €200 million annually to the local economy in increased tourism revenue.

Although Waterford needs the bypass, there is a widespread view that it should not be constructed at the expense of this extraordinary site. The road needs to be re-routed to facilitate the full excavation of the Woodstown site and surrounding areas.

Anything else will result in a huge loss to our heritage. All members of the public who would like to get involved in the campaign or just find out more about Woodstown are invited to the meeting.

Source: Waterford News & Star (IR)

16th Sept 2004: Farmer who found runestone is not a fraud, family says

2004-09-15T23:25:00.000Z

Descendants of Olof Ohman haven't talked much about the Kensington Runestone, not even among themselves. That's because the Ohman family has been ridiculed for generations about his insistence that he didn't pull a hoax. His claim to have found a rock in 1898 carved by Norsemen and left in western Minnesota in the 1300s has been the topic of lively debate ever since.

The family is silent no longer.

"For the family and the people of Kensington [Minn.], there's never been a doubt that my grandfather was telling the truth," said Darwin Ohman of New Brighton, who at age 61 is the oldest living descendant. "So much information is coming out now to confirm that he didn't carve the rock."

New revelations about Olof Ohman, as well as research into the famous stone's inscription and weathering, are exciting the proponents of its authenticity and giving the family courage to talk and dig into family history.

Ohman, a Swedish immigrant, was clearing his farmland near Kensington 106 years ago. He said that when he knocked over a poplar tree, he found a 202-pound inscribed stone tablet wrapped in the roots. In the ancient Scandinavian language known as runes, it describes a massacre of 10 members of an exploration party of Swedes and Norwegians in 1362 in what's now central Minnesota. That would put them here more than 100 years before Columbus sailed.

Ever since, Minnesotans have been intrigued by, and feuding about, the stone. Scholars tend to call it an elaborate hoax by Ohman and his neighbors. In 1910 he emphatically denied making the inscription, and he also insisted that he didn't have the ability to carve it if he had wanted. But later in his life, even he didn't want to discuss it. In true Scandinavian behavior, he'd just shrug and say the equivalent of today's "Whatever," his family said.

.
Darwin Ohman

More than 100 people who knew the Ohman family, or who were simply intrigued by the saga, recently gathered at the community center in Kensington (population about 280) to record their memories of the runestone and to hear what proponents call new evidence.

The recent revival in the controversy is led by Scott Wolter, a St. Paul geologist. He was hired four years ago by the Kensington Runestone Museum in Alexandria, Minn., to study the stone. He says he began his research as an impartial scientist and since has become certain that weathering of mica on the stone's inscription proves that it is more than 200 years old. Therefore, Wolter insists, Ohman and his cronies didn't do it.

.
Olof Ohman and the stone

(Scientists and historians who call the inscription a hoax have shown little interest in renewing study of something they say has been proved over and over to be fraudulent.)

Wolter contacted the Ohman family about six months ago, asking for help in finding information. Much to his amazement, the family had five bins of Ohman stuff squirreled away in attics and closets. There were photos, legal documents, books, newspaper articles and personal letters.

There was no smoking gun in the family papers, Wolter said -- not even a hint that the runestone was a hoax. Rather, he said, the material adds support to his case. One letter from Olof Ohman Jr. (who was 12 when the runestone was found) to two of his brothers in 1957 tells what he remembers about that day. It's a straightforward account, with a sketch of the stone and the tree. "This is sincerity," Wolter said. "Nothing suspicious was going on."

About six runic characters on the rock hadn't been seen in Scandinavia or anywhere else in recent times --until this year, proponents said. Critics assumed they were made up by Ohman. However, Richard Nielsen, 70, of Texas has been studying the runestone for 20 years and said he has found proof that some of them were used in the 1360s, when the stone supposedly was carved.

Nielsen has been criticized for delving into the runes, when his training is in engineering, not old languages. He said, "I am not a linguist, but I am a tenacious investigator." He's of Danish descent, has lived in Scandinavia for eight years and considers himself an expert in 1360s old Swedish.

People who have known the Ohmans insisted at the Kensington meeting that Olof Ohman was not the carver. Einar Bakke, 92, a family friend who still lives near Kensington, fiercely denied that Ohman was a prankster who wanted to fool learned men, as he often is described by doubters. Bakke said: "No, he would not pull a practical joke on anybody, no way! ... To think he'd sit down and scratch a rock like that" when he had six children, 80 acres to farm and lots of stumps to pull is "ridiculous."

But Bakke gave a less generous impression of Walter Gran, who told Minnesota Historical Society officials in 1970 that his father hinted on his sickbed that he and Olof Ohman carved the stone as a prank. According to Bakke, Gran "liked to embellish the truth a little bit" and maybe was jealous of all the attention Ohman was getting.

Bob Carlson, now of Frazee, Minn., said he and Ohman's son John were good friends in the 1950s. One day after they baled hay, they were riding in the back of the truck for lunch. Carlson, then about 22, got up his nerve to ask: "There's so much controversy about the stone. What's your opinion?" John Ohman replied, "One day they're going to find something that will erase all doubt." Maybe advanced scientific methods or artifacts found by scuba divers someday would redeem the family name, John Ohman told Carlson. Carlson thinks that day is close.

Wolter said that if the Kensington Runestone is a hoax, Ohman would have had to be involved, even if he wasn't the carver. Ohman clearly didn't lie about it, Wolter said, adding, "Anybody who says Olof Ohman carved it has rocks in his head."

Source: Star Tribune (US)

[The inscription is in 2 parts.

The portion on the face of the stone says:
"Eight Goths and 22 Norwegians on a journey of exploration from Vinland very far west. We had camp by 2 rocky islands one day's journey north from this stone. We were out fishing one day. After we came home we found 10 men red with blood and dead. AVM save from evil."

The portion along the edge of the stone says:
"Have 10 men by the sea to look after our ships 14 days' journey from this island. Year 1362."

The inscription, if genuine, would be one of the longest ancient runic inscriptions in the world. It is certainly one of the most controversial].

13th Sept 2004: Greater interest in the Sami language

2004-09-13T20:48:00.000Z

A growing number of students in the Troms County poublic schools are now studying the Sami language and culture. Over the past three years, the number of students choosing Sami subjects has increased by 50 per cent, NRK reports. The increase has been particularly strong at schools in the city of Tromsø, and the number of pupils studying tha Sami language and culture will increase further this coming fall.

Last year, 14 Tromsø schools offered Sami subjects, and this fall the number increases to 22 schools.

The increase in the number of students taking Sami subjects is noticable also in other Troms municipalities.

Johanne Lunga who has Sami background has two children who are studing Sami, the language she herself did not have the opportunity to learn. Her grandparents spoke Sami.

-I want my children to learn Sami, in order that the language may not die out, she says.

Source: The Norway Post

13th Sept 2004: `The Far-Farers: A Journey from Viking Iceland to Crusader Jerusalem' by Victoria Clark. Walker & Company, $28

2004-09-13T17:05:00.000Z

It would be perfectly understandable if the modern reader fails, at first blush, to see any similarity between Iceland at the turn of the second millennium and our own 21st century. And yet Victoria Clark uses her journalistic powers of persuasion to convince us how a young Viking named Thorvald, his conversion to Christianity and his foolhardy journey to Jerusalem -- the ancient heart of Christendom -- along with a band of abbots, kings, saints, warrior popes, monks, hermits and various pilgrims indeed have much in common with our own turn-of-the century condition. Clark traveled from Iceland's black mountains through Western Europe, across the Alps to Italy, through the northern Balkans, across a good chunk of Turkey, down the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and, finally, to Jerusalem itself. Part travel narrative, part journalism, ``The Far-Farers'' is a timely but also entertaining encounter with history.

Source: Chicago Tribune

13th September 2004: Viking ship sails again

2004-09-13T17:02:00.000Z

Queen Margrethe of Denmark, whose Viking ancestors once raided European shores, last week christened a replica of a 1 000-year-old war ship that is due to sail to Britain and Ireland in 2007.

Following ancient Norse tradition, the Danish monarch poured water from a nearby creek on the stern of the 30m-long ship - billed as the world's most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction.

"Your name shall be Havhingsten (Stallion of the Sea) from Glendalough," Margrethe said during the ceremony at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, 40km west of Copenhagen.

The original warship, which was excavated in the Roskilde fjord, was built in 1042 in Glendalough, south of Dublin.

Instead of fierce Viking warriors, the replica will carry a crew of 60 volunteers hoping to learn more about Viking-era navigation on their journey to Dublin - a city founded by Vikings and the ship's main destination.

"May you strengthen the ties between Denmark and Ireland," the queen said.

Irish Culture Minister John O'Donoghue, who was attending the christening, promised the crew would be welcome in the Irish capital.

"In many ways the vessel's arrival in Dublin in 2007 will be a homecoming," he said. "This is because the original warship was built there. Dublin was its home port."

The ship's mast, sail and riggings will be mounted in late September, said Max Vinner, a museum curator.

He said volunteers will train for two years before crossing the North Sea. The ports-of-call on the way to Dublin have not been decided, but Vinner said the crew would choose "towns and sites loaded with Viking history".

The sailors will study how the replica behaves at sea, adding that the original was on of the most advanced vessels of its time.

The original is one of five 11th century Viking ships housed at the museum. Archaeologists excavated the ships from a drained part of the Roskilde Fjord, and started constructing real-size replicas.

Source: Sunday Tribune, South Africa

13th September 2004: PUBLIC MEETING CALLED TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE WOODSTOWN VIKING SITE

2004-09-13T17:01:00.000Z

A public meeting has been called to launch a campaign to save the Woodstown Viking Site, recently discovered just outside Waterford City. The meeting will take place in the Granville Hotel on Thursday 16th September at 8.00pm. Speakers include the well known local historian and writer, Jack O’Neill, of the Waterford Historical and Literary Society, and a Dublin based archaeologist, Paula Geragthy. Further speakers will be confirmed in the following week.

A video of the Roskilde Viking Centre is to be shown at the public meeting also. The town of Roskilde in Denmark has become a major tourist destination since the discovery of Viking longships, similar to those discovered at Woodstown, in the 1960’s. The Viking museum in Roskilde has recently completed an exact replica of an 11th century Irish built longship which will soon set sail to Ireland. The construction of the museum in Roskilde and the subsequent boom in tourism is an example of what can be achieved if the Woodstown Viking Site is properly handled and excavated fully. The video will be narrated by WIT lecturer, Noel Kelly.

The Woodstown Viking Site, discovered during preparations for the Waterford bypass has been described as: “The most significant new find in Viking studies in perhaps a century” by Professor Donnchadh O’Corrain, medieval historian at UCC, and “Ireland’s equivalent of Pompeii” by archaeologist John Maas.

Despite the extraordinary significance of the find, the National Roads Authority and Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen waited an incredible nine months before they made it public. Cullen has said he would make a decision on whether or not he would order a full excavation when he receives a combined report from the NRA, National Museum and Dept. of the Environment in September. Fears are increasing that he will only order a “rescue” excavation, a partial digging which will fail to unearth the full wonders of Woodstown.

In just two years as minister for the environment, Cullen has earned himself the reputation as a destroyer of Ireland’s heritage. The National Monuments Act 2004 which gives Cullen unlimited discretion and reduces the number of parties involved in deciding the fate of national monuments, has already seen the demolition of Carrickmines castle, threats to the Tara complex and now the Woodstown site.

Although the excavation has now halted because the license to carry out work has expired, already over 3,000 artefacts have been successfully excavated. It is believed the original town from the early to mid ninth century, could have been home to up to 4,000 inhabitants. The town remains virtually intact with streets and dwellings believed to be just underneath the soil surface.

Aerial photographs and evidence uncovered have convinced archaeologists that up to 120 Viking ships once occupied the town, which is located on the banks of the river Suir. The site began as a longport and was a base for shipbuilding. No other longport discovery in Europe comes close to matching the scale and significance of the Woodstown find.

Archaeologists, historians, medievalists and conservationists from around the world have welcomed the find and it has been predicted that the site could be worth up to €200 million annually to the local economy in increased tourism revenue. A Viking site of significantly less importance in York, England is worth approximately half a billion euros per annum with up to four million visitors each year.

Although Waterford needs the bypass, it should not be constructed at the expense of this extraordinary site. The road needs to be re-routed to facilitate the full excavation of the Woodstown site and surrounding areas. Anything else will result in a huge loss to our heritage. All members of the public who would like to get involved in the campaign or just find out more about Woodstown are invited to the meeting.

Source: www.indymedia.ie (Ireland)

12th Sept 2004: New products added to Viking Pendants section...

2004-09-12T20:26:00.000Z

This month we've had so many new products added to our already extensive range, we've had to include an entire new section: http://www.nordicarts.com/New_Products_1.htm! 35 new Viking pendants added, by Bifröst of Sweden, including new Thor's Hammers, Cross pendants (including an exciting find from the Viking town of Birka, Sweden), and a miniature reproduction of the Viking helmet found at Gjermundbu in Norway!

On the horizon are new products by Marttiini of Finland, including an entire section devoted to their kitchen products, such as gourmet knives and steak sets, and even more accessories such as sharpeners and holders.

11th Sept 2004: Gerard Butler Signs to Play Beowulf in Epic Medieval Adventure, BEOWULF & GRENDEL

2004-09-11T09:23:00.000Z

May 17, 2004, Toronto. The Film Works, Eurasia Motion Pictures, Goodweird Inc, Spice Factory and Bjólfskviða are pleased to announce that Gerard Butler (Timeline, Phantom of the Opera) has signed to play the lead role of Beowulf in the part-fable, part-horror story BEOWULF & GRENDEL, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson (Rare Birds, Such A Long Journey), written by Andrew Rai Berzins (Scorn, Cowboys and Indians).

BEOWULF& GRENDEL is produced by Paul Stephens and Eric Jordan of The Film Works (Love, Sex & Eating the Bones, Such A Long Journey) and Sturla Gunnarsson of Eurasia Motion Pictures Inc. in Canada, by Michael Lionello Cowan and Jason Piette of Spice Factory (The Merchant of Venice, Bridge Over San Luis Rey,) in the United Kingdom and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Angels of the Universe, Children of Nature) of Bjólfskviða in Iceland.

Andrew Rai Berzins is Co-Producer. Principal photography will
take place during summer 2004 in the primordial eastern fjords of Iceland.
Adapted.from the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, that inspired J. R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings, BEOWULF & GRENDEL is a medieval adventure that tells the bloodsoaked tale of a Norse warrior’s battle against the great and murderous troll, Grendel. Heads will roll in this provocative take on the first work of English literature.

Gerard Butler’s rise to success has been swift. The Scottish born actor starred as Andre Marek in Micheal Crichton’s Timeline, and as Angelina Jolie’s love interest in Tomb Raider 2. His latest film, Dear Frankie, premiered this month at the Tribeca Film Festival to raves about Gerard’s performance. Variety said, “(Butler) evokes the romantic heroes of a less cynical era, his dashing good looks and almost impossibly noble character grounded in sober realism…” His next release is the Joel Schumacher blockbuster, The Phantom of the Opera, starring Gerard as the Phantom.

Joining Butler in the role of his formidable adversary, Grendel, will be Iceland’s greatest actor, Ingvar Sigurdsson (Angels of the Universe, Stormy Weather, K-19). Creature design and prosthetic work for the character of Grendel is being done by England’s Nick Dudman (Harry Potter, Batman.)

BEOWULF & GRENDEL is being produced with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada, TMN - The Movie Network, the Harold Greenberg Fund and Equinoxe Films from Canada. Equinoxe will be releasing the film in Canada. U.K. financing is from Movision Entertainment Limited, along with the Icelandic Film Centre and the Icelandic Innovation Fund from Iceland. The film was developed with the assistance of Alliance Atlantis Communications. Foreign sales are being handled by Arclight Films.

Source: http://www.beowulfandgrendel.com/

11th Sept 2004: £2m advance for new children's author

2004-09-11T08:55:00.000Z

Publisher's gamble on series of Stone Age novels reflects growing interest in realm of fiction kick-started by JK Rowling

(NB: Relevance of this article is that it is set in Stone-Age Scandinavia and draws richly upon historical and mythological material of Sami culture, and is based in the author's experiences in Lapland in the Arctic Circle, spending nights in the open and sleeping on reindeer furs).

When the UK rights for Michelle Paver's children's book and its as yet unwritten follow-up novels sold for "a significant seven-figure sum" at the Frankfurt book fair, she said: "I'm over the moon."
Yesterday she was flying still higher. As her prehistoric adventure tale, Wolf Brother, reached the bookstands, it emerged that her total international advances were worth close to £2m - "and that even allows for the dreadful dollar rate", said her rights director and publisher Fiona Kennedy.
In the era of Harry Potter, this is not a world record. No author, children's or adult's, in the near future is likely to manage to compete with the level of advances that JK Rowling receives.
But Paver's £2m may well be a record for a first children's novel. Her agent, Peter Cox, is spreading word that a film deal is in the offing.
Her earlier adult novel, A Place in the Hills, one of four previous books, was shortlisted for the £10,000 Parker Pen romantic fiction award. But children's fiction is increasingly being seen as where the money lies.
"JK Rowling has opened the door," said Fiona Kennedy, whose company, Orion Children's Books, is publishing Wolf Brother. "A lot more big advances are being paid on children's books than ever before."
Wolf Brother is the first of six stories set in the Stone Age forests of 4,000BC. The series is called Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. Ms Kennedy bought it at Frankfurt last year on the strength of the first seven chapters of Wolf Brother, plus an outline of the remaining five titles.
She said she had no doubt of the author's ability to complete the project. "Michelle is totally organised. She lives in that forest. She knows exactly what she is doing.
"Orion is not in the habit of paying out big money for children's books. It was obvious when Michelle came along that these books are page turners. Many adults have now got into the habit of picking up children's books." She said the book had already earned back its advance for British rights.
Paver's total advances are an informed gamble on the buying habits of readers in 13 countries that have so far bought rights, including the US, Japan and France. It is a gamble which publishers are increasingly taking.
As the Guardian reported earlier this year, some children's stories now attract as much marketing attention as adult books. Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, has encouraged adult authors to write picture books. Authors who have responded include Jeanette Winterson, the Booker prize-winning Margaret Atwood, and John Irving.
Fiona Kennedy conceded that this growth area was so new, dating from the success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 1997, that no publisher had yet had their first high-investment flop in children's fiction. "I am 100% sure that it is not going to be Michelle," she said.
Paver, 43, an Oxford biochemistry graduate who has worked as a London lawyer, has said that while preparing for her sequence of novels she rode 300 miles in the Finnish forest and in Lapland. "The aim of it was to experience the forest and some of the traditional huntsman's skills," she told the Bookseller magazine.
"My guide was a huntsman. We slept on reindeer skins in Finnish open-fronted shelters called laavu , and we were toasty warm even in September. I'm going to Greenland and north Norway next week to research book two, hopefully tasting some seal and whale meat and fish eyes. If Torak [her Stone Age hero] does it, I have to do it too."

More at: http://www.michellepaver.com

Source: The Guardian (UK)

11th Sept 2004: BEST VIKING FIND IN 30 YEARS UNCOVERED BY KESWICK MAN

2004-09-11T08:04:00.000Z

KESWICK man Peter Adams was the discoverer of a Viking burial site near Carlisle, hailed this week as the best such find in the country for nearly 30 years.

The site at Cumwhitton has been rated as significant as the Viking digs in York during the mid-1970s.Mr Adams, a metal detector enthusiast, found two Viking copper brooches in an area with no records of Viking remains.

He has since worked alongside experts from Oxford Archaeology North who have now found the bodies four men and two women.

They were buried with fire-making materials, a drinking horn and riding equipment indicating they were people of wealth and power.

The site also suggests that they belonged to a settled, peaceful community - contradicting the image of Vikings as smash-and-grab raiders.

Mr Adams said the discovery was the find of a lifetime. “Finding the brooches was just the beginning.

“By detecting alongside the archaeologists I was also able to locate a sword hit which led to the second, and main, excavation and the discovery of all six graves,” said Mr Adams.

Source: Times & Star (US)

11th Sept 2004: Anglo-Saxon gold penny could sell for £150,000

2004-09-11T06:58:00.000Z

A man walking his dog has discovered an Anglo-Saxon gold penny worth up to £150,000. The coin was struck during the reign of King Coenwulf between 796 and 821, on the banks of the river Ivel in Bedfordshire.
The find is likely to provoke keen bidding when it is auctioned in London next month. Though many similar examples survive from the period, the heyday of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, the Ivel coin is the first gold penny found with Coenwulf's portrait.
The dog-walker, and the landowner on whose property the coin was found, are being kept secret. Richard Bishop, a coin specialist at Spink, the London auction house, said: "Even if it were silver, the penny would be very exciting due to its good condition and the quality of the portrait. In gold, it's just unbelievable."
The record price tag for a British gold penny is £149,500 in 1996, for a coin from the reign of Henry III.

Source: The Independent (UK)

10th Sept 2004: 'Nessie' causes ripples in Sweden

2004-09-10T17:32:00.000Z

Stockholm - Sweden's Great Lake Monster will soon be fair game for hunters and curio seekers, as its protected status is about to be lifted.

Named after the stretch of water it inhabits ("Storsjon" means Great Lake), the monster is Sweden's answer to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster.

The legend dates back to at least the 1600s and tells of a huge black serpent with a cat-like head. A snake-like beast is also depicted on a Viking rune-stone.

The law protecting the beast, in place since 1986, is to be lifted after a request for permission to collect its eggs forced authorities to acknowledge they lacked evidence it was a valid species.

Believers in the monster have been encouraged to take advantage of the law change to catch the beast humanely and prove its existence.

Source: Reuters

10th Sept 2004: Useless but strangely absorbing piece of information......

2004-09-10T01:28:00.000Z

Beech bark, is THE bark for carving into. This tradition dates back thousands of years, when Romans would cut into beech bark cleverly romantic phrases -- such as "Crescent illae, crescent amores" ("As these letters grow, so may our love"). The word "book" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "boc," meaning beech, perhaps the original writing material of Teutonic peoples.

Source: Associated Press (UK)

9th Sept 2004: Open season on a "monster"

2004-09-10T01:27:00.000Z

Sweden's mythical Great Lake Monster, will soon be fair game for hunters and curio seekers as its protected status is to be lifted, local authorities said yesterday.
Legends tell of a huge black serpent with a cat-like head, and a snake-like beast is depicted on a Viking rune stone on an island in the Storsjön lake. The law protecting the beast, in place since 1986, is to be lifted after a request from a local man for permission to collect its eggs, and forced local authorities to acknowledge that it is not a valid species.
"Of course we believe it exists," Peter Lif, head of legal affairs for the region of Jämtland said. "But we find ourselves forced to lift its protection.

Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)

7th Sept 2004: British Archaeologists find Viking burial site, complete with arms and jewellery

2004-09-10T01:26:00.000Z

BRITAIN: VIKING BURIAL SITE FOUND Archaeologists in northwestern England have found a burial site of six Viking men and women, complete with swords, spears, jewelry, fire-making materials and riding equipment, officials said. The site, near Cumwhitton, is believed to date to the early 10th century, and archaeologists working there called it the first Viking burial ground found in Britain. The only other known Viking cemetery was found in Ingleby, east of Cumwhitton. It was excavated in the 1940's, but the bodies had been cremated and not buried. A local metal specialist, Peter Adams, made the find in March, when he found two copper brooches. The grave of a Viking woman was found underneath, and excavation led to the discovery of the graves of another woman and four men. Among the items in the graves were weapons, spurs, a bridle and a drinking horn. (AP)

Source: New York Times (US)

8th Sept 2004: Rare Viking cemetery found

2004-09-10T01:23:00.000Z

England's only known Viking burial ground was hailed yesterday as one of the country's most important archaeological finds. The site, near the village of Cumwhitton, Cumbria, yielded weapons, spurs, a drinking horn, a bridle, firemaking materials, a copper alloy belt fitting and jewellery including a jet bracelet. The bodies of four men and two women, dating to the 10th century, were also discovered, by a metal detector enthusiast, Peter Adams. The only other known Viking cemetery is at Ingleby, Derbyshire, but there the bodies were cremated. Archaeologists went to the Cumbria site after Mr Adams found two copper brooches. The grave of the Viking woman was found below them, in excavations by Oxford Archaeology North and English Heritage. Sir Neil Cossons, chair of English Heritage, said it was rare evidence of Vikings being integrated into English life, a challenge to "the war-lords stereotype as depicted by Hollywood".

Source: Helen Carter, The Guardian, (UK)