The Viking heritage

Yesterday I went with my family to the town's local viking style farm, a reconstruction of prehistoric housing findings, called Gunnes Gård. The only nail polish I could find was on my own nails, but I thought a few of you would be turned on by this viking stuff, so let's take a look at some pictures! You may want to magnify some of them. First a few I shot earlier this summer...




There are a bunch of typical buildings; housing, cattle barns (too small to be called barns really), forge... Stuff like that.

They have animals living there too, like these poor hens, harrassed by two little girls: my daughter and her cousin...

...and a sacrifical space for some of the Norse pagan deities.

Thor to the left and Frey to the right (you can tell by what he has ...ehm... in front of him). The middle deity is most likely supposed to be goddess Freyja, the carrier of the Brísingamen necklace.

The occasion yesterday was the annual market. Regretfully I didn't bring my camera, so these photos are shot with my trusty iPhone 3G, just slightly amped up in Photoshop.

There were a bunch of market stalls where accordingly dressed craftsmen combined practising of their skills with sales.

Basket making.

The prettiest little Norse girl this day, braiding yarn.

This viking dude shows us how to play the Jew's harp, or jaw harp, an instrument quite common in ancient Scandinavia.

My daughter found her way to the cattle field, as usual.

Saying hello to one of the cows (they are very friendly). Yes, she chose her outfit by herself.

One just can not visit a viking market and not buy jewelry. This is one of my major weaknesses; I love handcrafted jewelry made from actual ancient finds. These pieces followed me home:

A silver ring with a Lapis stone - the guy who sold these had a wide range of silver and bronze jewelry that he makes himself, actual copies of or inspired by ancient finds - this one inspired by a few finds of medieval rings. I couldn't leave without it, it is so unusual. I was out of cash though, so my mom bought it for me as an early nameday gift. The bronze pendant I know nothing about, unfortunately, but even though I never wear bronze jewelry normally, I fell madly in love with this piece and just had to have it. I'm thinking it may be an early motif, perhaps from the Migration Period, but maybe a little later. Or just inspired. If I have any archeologist readers, please share your knowledge!

Hope you enjoyed this out-of-the-ordinary post! Now, go watch When the Raven Flies, or something.

Swedish word of the day:
nordisk -adjective Norse
Some find Norse stuff intriguing.