living like vikings

every summer, there are viking markets here and there around denmark. people who use their summer holidays dressing up and living like vikings. cooking in iron pots over open fires. sleeping on piles of wooly sheepskins, weaving with hand-dyed yarns. drinking mead. i'm always a little envious.

and it seems that now you can go to school to learn to be a viking! (thanks E for the link!)

scenes of viking domesticity

tho' winter is still stubbornly hanging on in the form of arctic winds, we visited a viking military fort called trelleborg this afternoon. the one in the denmark, near slagelse, not the one by the same name in sweden, which is actually thought to be part of the same complex of viking outposts from the era of harald blåtand (bluetooth - and yes, the wireless connectivity protocol is named after him).

we love to drag our child to such historic sights, increasingly kicking and screaming, as she approaches her teenage years in earnest. but making a viking flatbread "tortilla" over a smoky fire seemed to cure some of her resistance. or perhaps it was the sweet homemade butter and honey she slathered on her viking pancake. me, i love that my hair still smells of that viking fire now hours later. and i'm inspired to make a dish of leeks, apple, parsnips, cabbage and bacon, like the vikings made.

*you may be wondering why the wooden fence is a scene of viking domesticity, but i maintain that it is, as it was built to keep in precious animals - something you only did if you were settled down and domestic. 

i have viking fireplace envy

you can find viking markets here and there in denmark all summer long. there was one recently in jelling (where we keep our horse). there are people who go around from market to market, dressed up as vikings, living in the viking way - cooking over fires and dressing up in homespun garments. i envy them a little bit. and i wish tho' that they had a bit more of the viking spirit of trading, or even just selling stuff at the markets. because i so want some of this viking cooking equipment, but sadly, they never seem to want to sell it when you ask them about it. i think perhaps market doesn't mean what they think it means. or maybe it doesn't mean what i think it means. someday, i will get my hands on some of this stuff. and when i do, we will have REAL nordic food.

scenes from a gathering of vikings

it was a glorious, sunshiney day for a visit to the viking market at the viking harbor museum in bork havn. 250 people who spend their summers dressing and living as vikings (if you don't count the campers i saw out back) gathered and sold traditional viking wares - hand-dyed yarns, ironwork, jewelry, bows and arrows, hides and the like. we came away with a lovely bow and some safe-for-children arrows for sabin, a bit of hand-dyed embroidery thread, a couple of skeins of yarn and a lot of ideas. we tried to buy a viking "stove," - handmade by one of the viking blacksmiths, but none of them seemed to be for sale (we encountered the same with several of the arrows sellers had on hand) - they were for their own use and not for sale (making me wonder why they were there with a stall, ostensibly to sell, but i digress). but here are some highlights. i definitely wouldn't mind spending my summer this way...

viking yarn candy - all hand-dyed with natural plant dyes.

clothing fit for a viking. i did wonder if the main audience for many of the stalls was the other vikings

mmm, food fit for a viking - a pancake with tart forest berries,
served in a smart, environmentally-friendly wooden bowl with wooden fork.

more yarn candy, tho' the woman here admitted she was a cheating viking since she had used some dyes from south america and the vikings wouldn't have done that (the pinks and purples came from those).
i wanted to be good, but i did buy two shades of gorgeous purple from the far left.

we will definitely be getting one of these at some point.
tho' oddly and totally against the viking spirit of trade and commerce,
the ones we saw were not for sale.

the tools of the trade - if you're a viking jeweler

pretty shiny beads make lovely viking jewelry.

see, i can take pictures of random people in public.
but apparently only if they're not facing me.

another of those fabulous viking stoves - one of these WILL be mine even if i have to take a welding course myself to get it.

beautiful baskets. and yes, another people picture!

more yarn candy - and look at that embroidery!

a feast fit for a viking.

i definitely NEED one of those bread dough bowls.

look at that baby viking.

and another adorable baby viking. isn't she sweet?

we interrupt this interview thing for some pretty pictures

just a note up front to all who requested interview questions...i am still writing your questions and if you haven't received them (tho' it's been a week), they are still on their way. it's just that i'm writing specific questions for all who have asked for them and so i'm taking the time to catch up on your blogs before i write. so please be patient and know i haven't forgotten you...and i really appreciate the response to this. it's so cool that so many wanted to participate!

and now, back to the pretty pictures from my day at the viking harbor museum in bork havn, denmark. it's a little tiny town on the ringkøbing fjord, nearly on the west coast of denmark. i can tell you that i wanted to move in and i will definitely be going back in two weeks when they have a big viking festival with 300 folks from all over the nordic countries who go around every summer dressed as vikings (gotta get me one of those gigs, i tell you)....

hello viking man!

the tattoo i want is something along these lines.

tho' this would make a good tattoo.  a little smaller, of course.

a chapel that must be a replica from the period just after the vikings accepted christianity.
it was a very cool mix of pagan and christian.
not that most of christianity isn't that.

building through traditional methods.

next up, basket weaving classes...

this viking lady was dyeing cloth with flowers she'd just gathered in the adjacent field.
she used alum (sp?) as a mordant - it's apparently a natural mineral, which i like the sound of (sorry for the preposition).
she said those yellow flowers were going to make a lovely green.
because my memory is like a sieve, i can't remember what she called those flowers.

check out the "j"
this must be MY room.
there is, after all, a loom! 

a whole selection of naturally dyed fabrics and yarns.
heaven, i tell you.
and the fur-covered viking beds with embroidered curtains.
very inspiring.

of course, as a viking harbor, they had some viking ships.

and that's your little tour from the weekend. interviews resume tomorrow and i will be sending out questions all week! there are some great interviews coming up, so stay tuned!

viking inspiration

on our little jaunt to the west coast last weekend, we stumbled upon a little town called bork, where they have a viking harbor museum. we have a long history at our house with viking harbors, stemming from the time we found a huge piece of driftwood that husband said came from a viking harbor and which we "implanted" in our first redo of the kitchen at the house on poppelvej street. and which husband would regale guests with a long story involving the english bombardment of copenhagen in 18-something or other and a phenomenon called continenticus tippicus which was going to eventually cause the island of sealand to flip because of all the heavy english cannon balls deposited in copenhagen and which explained why there had once been a viking harbor there in our kitchen. he usually had people on this story until he got to the continenticus tippicus part and then they started to look nervously at one another. it didn't help that i was often dissolving in laughter already from the beginning of his tale.

but anyway, suffice it to say, we were pleased to find a sight honoring the viking harbor. the little museum was closed, but we could still wander the grounds and snap a few pictures of inspiring things..like three different models of viking fences. i would expect aspects of these fence ideas to be cropping up around our new property in the near future.

and a family flag modeled on these to adorn our backyard flag pole is definitely on the horizon.

and perhaps one of these for the lake? you can never have too many viking boats in your lake, right?

oh, and look, a gap-clad viking is coming our way through the arches as we speak...