Archive for the ‘Ancient Scandinavia’ Category
By: The Scribe on December, 2010
If you have ever been to Greenland, you know that it does not live up to its name. Instead of being a beautiful, green island Greenland is icy and cold. There have been many theories about how the island, along with nearby Iceland came to be named what they were. The secret lies with the Vikings who settled in Iceland and in many different areas of Northern Europe.
The Vikings were a race of Scandinavians who settled in many areas of Northern Europe. Although they are commonly portrayed as bloodthirsty warriors who pillaged, raided and raped their way through much of Europe they also had a thriving culture. While it is true that many of them were violent and blood thirsty there were also Viking traders and explorers as well. 
They were able to explore much of Northern Europe using their famous long ships. The design of these ships was very different than many of the sailing vessels we are familiar with today. A Viking ship did not have a large keel like other sailing vessels did. This meant that it could sail in shallow rivers as well as at sea. Viking raiders were able to use their ships to penetrate inland and then attack outwards from there. In areas such as Ireland, this tactic proved to be exceptionally successful.
One Viking in particular, Erik the Red was very good at raiding and pillaging. Although history is somewhat sketchy, it is believed that he discovered Greenland after being sent away from Iceland in exile. This was rumored to have been his punishment for committing murder. He was able to settle in Greenland and survive there for several years. Finally, his exile was ended and he found that he wanted to settle the island more fully. For that, he needed to convince others to come with him. Erik the Red is believed to have lived from circa 950 to 1003CE.
Of course, when you tell someone that they will be travelling with you to a place that is barren, cold and inhospitable you may have trouble convincing even a Viking to come with you. So instead, Erik (according to popular legend) called the island Greenland and instead painted the island as being a wonderful place to settle.
There are other theories as to how Greenland got its name. One theory is that the “green” in Greenland is actually a translation error. The word “grunt” actually means ground and it could be that Greenland was meant to be named Gruntland (or ground land).
The island has never been heavily populated. Much of it is covered by a sheet of ice. The only area that is not covered in ice is only clear because the air is so dry that ice cannot form. Many Native cultures have used the island as a hunting ground and several nations have used the island as a strategic launching point or a base during various conflicts and wars.
The island is currently owned by Denmark despite previous attempts by the United States to purchase the island.
By: The Scribe on January, 2008
The earliest form of alternate transportation for humans wasn’t the wheel after all – it was something much simpler, and much less time-consuming to build… not to mention convenient for winter! That’s right: northern Europeans invented ice skates around 3000 BC, which would have assisted humans in saving energy on their daily travels – not to mention help them move from one place to another much more quickly!
The first skates were made of animal bones in southern Finland, where the extremely high density of lakes would have resulted in a rather treacherous landscape for humans trying to cross frozen bodies of water on foot. And so, someone devised the brilliant idea of trimming down horse and cow bones, piercing them at either end, and strapping them onto one’s feet with leather thongs.
Unlike the skates known to Olympic athletes and minor hockey players today, these ancient skates actually were not used on their own, but were complemented by a long stick that was used at the same time. Skaters would strap the skates to their feet, straddle the stick, and pole themselves along the ice – think of cross-country skiing, except with only one pole and on skates instead of skis.
The thing is, skating is an awfully strange activity to have developed as a hobby – it seems like a much more practical idea to have come from humans living in the frozen lands of northern Europe, where surviving was a priority and winters were incredibly harsh. Ice skates would then allow hunters to find food with less energy expenditure, which meant that less food needed to be consumed to survive – which tends to be a bonus under extreme winter conditions.
Although experiments in reconstructing the ancient skates showed that a person would have moved quite slowly while using them – around 2.5 miles per hour – the energy expenditure in using the skates on Finland’s nearly 60,000 frozen lakes would have reduced a human’s energy requirements by around 10%.
Talk about a legacy in human history!
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
Once upon a time, a local Swedish gardener was minding his own business, tending his vegetable patch on the island of Gotland, when all of a sudden… he realized it wasn’t a rutabaga he pulled out of the ground, but a hoard of Viking treasure! Indeed, he had found a treasure trove of silver coins from Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, all dating to around 970-1030 AD.
The garden trove yielded 69 coins, and the cache as a whole has been identified as a Viking “safety-deposit”, which was not unusual – Vikings and Anglo-Saxons would bury their stash of loot somewhere in the ground, with every intention of returning for the money in the future when it was needed.
In addition to coins from Eastern Europe and beyond, there were several extremely rare Viking coins in the cache, which were likely paid to the owner as protection or plunder money, also known as ‘danegeld’. Danegeld was paid to Viking groups by regional rulers, in order to bribe them out of attacking their cities or towns – which was an easy way for the Vikings to make some extra cash for little work! The rare coins were minted for a regional Swedish king named Olof Skotkonung, who was actually the first king to mint coins in Sweden. He had probably learned the trade from England.
Many other coins in the horde were copies of English coins made by Ethelred II, who was the British monarch between 978 and 1016. He was often referred to as “Ethelred the Unready”, since he lacked reliable counsel and greatly preferred the option of paying massive amounts of “tribute” cash to the Vikings, rather than face them in armed conflict.
As for the Asian coins found in the treasure trove, they would have come from the Vikings’ transactions while moving along their extensive trade route – often, Viking ships would travel all the way along the Russian rivers into the Middle East! And since Gotland in Sweden was situated right in the middle of the Viking routes – between eastern and western Europe – it was a natural stopping point for Vikings to stash their cash before continuing onward in their travels and trade.
In total, the area of Gotland has actually yielded between 700-800 Viking treasure hoards, with the majority of the coins originating from the Middle East. Many of the coins in this and other caches also show evidence of ‘pecking’, which results from someone poking at the surface of a coin with a knife, in order to determine whether or not it the coin is real silver or a lead counterfeit.
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Tomorrow: Soggy Rice in Stone Age China
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
No, it’s not a splash of spilled ink… the ancient Norse blot was actually a pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the Elves, held at several times throughout the year. The sacrifice typically took the form of a sacramental feast or meal, and the sacrificial victims tended to be pigs and horses. The meat from these festivals was then boiled in enormous cooking pots heated by stones, and the blood from the animals was sprinkled on the community’s statues of their gods, on the walls, and on the people, as it was believed to hold special magical powers.
The word “blota”, from which the sacrificial festival took its name, means “to worship with sacrifice” in Old Norse, and the people would gather around the boiling pots of meat as it cooked, believing they were having a meal with the Elves! They also passed around a drink that was blessed and considered sacred, each person taking a drink as the cup came into their hands. Typically, the drink would be either beer or mead, while the high-class nobility often imported wine just for the occasion!
Several blots were held throughout the year, one in October and then later on, one in December called “The Great Midwinter Blot.” Interestingly enough, the tradition of eating ham at the December blot has continued, as it still tends to be the main course at Christmas feasts in Scandinavian countries. Around April, a third ‘summer’ blot was held in honor of the god Odin, celebrating the beginning of the season of war and Viking raid expeditions.
Blots were actually held in their own little blot buildings called ‘hovs’, however most hovs were destroyed or built over during Christianization of the area – namely, medieval churches were built overtop these spots in an effort to redeem the land. Several laws were also put into place that forbade various forms of pagan worship, but the traditions were so ingrained into the local culture that elements of the rituals have survived until today, such as the Christmas tradition.
Each Scandinavian country had their own variations on each blot throughout the year, though the basic concept remained the same: kill a pig, have dinner with elves!
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Tomorrow: more Ancient Standard!
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