A Day in the Life of a Viking

We spent all day last Saturday experiencing life as a Viking. We started at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. It was a misty foggy day in the Viking harbor!

From here, we drove to a remote field in the middle of no where and walked through the fields until we reached a larch mound in the earth. We walked around the mound to find a stone entrance inside. This was a Stone Age Burial Mound. 

 Bellow is a replica of an old Viking temple

In the middle of the Viking fort off to the right of the photo above, we enjoyed some Scaldic Mead. Scaldic Mead is translated as "the mead of poetry". Scaldic Mead came from an old Nordic Myth about the war between the Aeisr and Vanir gods. At the end of the war, they came to a truce. The truce involved spitting and from the spit came the man Kvassir. He was extremely wise and there was no question that he could not answer. On his travels, though, he encountered two dwarves. They were not very nice and subsequently killed him. They poured his blood into two vats and a pot. Then they mixed his blood with honey, thus creating a mead. When the gods inquired as to what had happened to Kvassir, the dwarves said that he had suffocated in his own intelligence. It is now believed that whoever drinks the Scaldic Mead will become a scholar and poet. 

Below is one of my Nordic Mythology professors, Morten. Morten here is standing next to a Viking Runic Stone. These were what the Vikings used to write on. They had their own alphabet called Runes. The stone was not here originally but placed in the 1100's when the church behind it was built. 

   The picture below and to the right is of the small church gardens...  the scenery kind of reminded me of Vermont.