Monday, September 5, 2011

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.

12 comments:

  1. Wow! Jag bor i Norrbotten, ca tio mil från Vuollerim där dem hittat lämningar från 6000 år sedan. :)

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  2. I wish I could go for real, I know so little about that part of my family heritage other than My Great Great Grandpa was Swedish and my GG Grandma was Black Dutch (Gypsy) and Norwegian. I suppose that is why all my kids look like little Vikings with their fair skin and blue eyes.
    That ring is gorgeous and how adorable is your wee one and her fashion sense!

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  3. I love archaeological sites!
    There are no "real" viking villages in England. But when I visited York a while ago, I went to a recreation of a Viking village called Yorvik. That even recreated the sounds and...smells! A little child got sick and barfed, so the smells where even more realistic lol !
    You are lucky hun! Sweden is such a lovely place!

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  4. Thanks for the amazing pictures! I love the idea that these craft folk are recreating the jewelry of hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

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  5. This is so cool! I wish I could go there. We have similar historic reproduction villages in New England, but I've been to those since I was a kid so Vikings are way more exciting! Also, the pic of your daughter with the cow is completely adorable. The jewelry is really cool, too!

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  6. The jewelry is gorgeous!! I love that ring! Great pictures, it looks really fun and interesting! :)

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  7. Oooh, this is fascinating to me. The pendant has a bit of a Celtic feel to it! It's absolutely lovely, I don't know enough to tell the time period though. And that ring is stunning!
    I'm so glad you shared all the photos with us, I love posts like this as well. I would have had a blast, I've always enjoyed going to places like that.

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  8. That's such a cool place! What beautiful scenery and jewelry.

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  9. Awesome post! This is a great and interesting look into history!

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  10. Oh that looked like so much fun! I love history :) Also I thought your daughters outfit was cute, like something I would've worn when I was little :D

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  11. Thanks for sharing these photos! I love seeing a glimpse of countries I haven't been too :)

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  12. You are .SO. .LUCKY. to live where you live. I'd give anything to live in any part of Scandinavia!

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