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Raiders or Traders?A replica Viking vessel plying the North Sea this month is part of an effort to learn more about what the Norsemen were really up to By Andrew Curry Photographs by Carsten Snejbjerg Smithsonian magazine, July 2008Werner Karrasch / The Viking Ship Museum, Denmark From his bench toward the stern of the Sea Stallion From Glendalough, Erik Nielsen could see his crewmates' stricken faces peeping out of bright-red survival suits. A few feet behind him, the leather straps holding the ship's rudder to its side had snapped. The 98-foot vessel, a nearly $2.5 million replica of a thousand-year-old...

Viking Farms Tell Cautionary Climate Tale Boundary walls built by Iceland's Viking farmers run through Unnsteinn Ingason's land. At some point, farmers stopped repairing the walls, and a climate change may help explain why. Ingason's land had been farmed for hundreds of years prior to his family's ownership. Here, ruins of a stone farm house with a turf roof on a hill behind Ingason's home. Archaeologist Adolf Fridriksson stands near the ruins of an early Viking farm. The farm was long ago abandoned, and its soil heavily eroded. Icelandic farmers bring their sheep down from the hills for the winter....

Every nation could be described as a manifestation of a unique trait of character and most countries furthermore nurture, give emphasize to and celebrate this national identity of theirs. Some examples of such key national characters (please DO comment if you feel inclined to); USA: Liberty Italy: Creativity France: Refinement India: Spirituality Germany: Self-discipline Finland: "Sisu" (a Finnish term meaning "To have guts") Britain: Elevatedness Denmark: "Hygge" (a Danish word meaning "Good-naturedness", of mind as well as of deed) Spain: Passion China: Cultivation Russia: Chaos - just joking, I would actually say "Heart" (in the sense of having a big...

Former Minnesota Vikings great Carl Eller was jailed Wednesday after allegedly fighting with police after being stopped for possible drunken driving. Eller was held on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, fleeing police and assaulting a police officer ----------------------------------------------- Police used a Taser, but Martin said it had no effect and called for backup.

A car exploded Sunday evening while parked outside a block of flats in the Århus suburb of Åbyhøj, reports DR public broadcaster. The force of the explosion shattered six windows and one of the car doors was flung 15 metres from the car itself. Police are at a loss as to the motive of the bombing but have issued a warrant for a 25-35-year-old man seen leaving the scene of the crime. Two other cars were set on fire in the city of Århus, but police believe the episodes are unrelated. (LYT)

Vikings did not dress the way we thought Swedish viking men's fashions were modeled on styles in Russia to the east. Archeological finds from the 900s uncovered in Lake Malaren Valley accord with contemporary depictions of clothing the Vikings wore on their travels along eastern trade routes to the Silk Road. The outfit in the picture is on display at Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala University. Photo: Annika Larsson Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors - the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but...

The Vikings are unstoppable in Afghanistan. The All Terrain Protected Vehicles' arrival at a scene of conflict will instil relief in the British Troops engaged there, confidence for the local population and, perhaps most importantly, fear from the Taliban. In the barren dusty desert landscape of Helmand, the Vikings' two squat shaped square hunks of metal that trundle along on tank like tracks look like something from the apocalypse. The protection from the hell outside that the vehicles offer though is making them one of the British Forces most popular bits of war fighting kit. Originally deployed with the Royal...

Gutefar - The Bronze Age Sheep of Gotland This article claims sheep of the British Isles descended from sheep from Gotland, an Island in the Baltic "...arriving in Britain between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago, doubtless traveling along with the same Viking raiders that brought sheep originally to Gotland." She also claims Vikings are the ANCESTORS of the Visigoths. Only problems is that the Visigoths preceded the Vikings by about 400 years. The Visigoths sacked Rome in 451 AD and the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles happened around 800 AD with the raid on the monastery at...

The discovery of two massive Viking halls in Borre in Vestfold County gives archeologists reason to reassess the distribution of power in Viking Norway. Vestfold County archeologists presented finds on Wednesday that show there are two great hall buildings underneath the ground about 100 meters from the major burial mounds at Borre.

Ancient Greenland mystery has a simple answer, it seemsFirst: A reproduction of Tjodhilde's Church stands in Brattahlid, Greenland. It was the first Christian church in North America. Colin Woodard Did the Norse colonists starve? Were they wiped out by the Inuit – or did they intermarry? No. Things got colder and they left. By Colin Woodard | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the November 28, 2007 edition Reporter Colin Woodard describes an ecumenical service at a Greenland church built by legendary Norseman "Erik the Red."QASSIARSUK, Greenland - A shipload of visitors arrived in the fjord overnight, so Ingibjorg...

Soldiers from 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment (The Vikings) have received their campaign medals today, Thursday 15 November 2007, following their return from what was a gruelling six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. Just weeks after returning home from the dust and heat the soldiers were honoured in front of proud families and friends. More than 500 soldiers marched onto the parade square at Elizabeth Barracks, in Pirbright, to be awarded their Operation Herrick campaign medals. The soldiers were presented their campaign medals by the Colonel The Royal Anglian Regiment Major General John Sutherell CB CBE DL, assisted by four...

Dating Swedish men: bring your own beers Dating in Sweden: When Isabel March arrived in Sweden from America, she set out to find her own blond bombshell. But dating US-style left her ill-prepared for dealing with the strong, silent types she found in Scandinavia. Many people who move to Sweden – especially those relocating to small villages in Lappland – are beguiled by a strong, silent Nordic type or one of the members of the Swedish Bikini Team. But despite the hordes of love immigrants who have been caught in the net of a blond bombshell, it often seems easier...

When Stockholm's Mayor donned a t-shirt proclaiming the city 'Capital of Scandinavia', the reaction from the neighbours was predictably indignant. Dan Boman looks at how Stockholm and Copenhagen are battling to prove who's biggest and best. For two years Stockholm has busily been marketing itself as the 'Capital of Scandinavia', in a campaign intended to mark the city out as the natural destination for foreign investment in the Nordic region. Yet not everyone has been pleased by this promotional wheeze - particularly not neighbouring Scandinavians. Now Copenhagen has upped the ante, claiming to be the Real Capital of Scandinavia.

An armada of companies has descended on New York to brand Denmark as a hotbed of creativity When Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik rings the bell to start trading at Wall Street on Wednesday morning, he will also be making a symbolic wake-up call to America. As part of the Creative Nation trade delegation visiting the United States the Crown Prince and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, will spend the next week telling the Eastern Seaboard that there is more to Denmark than butter cookies and the Little Mermaid. Looking for an elegant evening gown? Danish design can be found at...

Rain uncovers Viking treasure trove Published: 14th September 2007 08:30 CET A bout of torrential rain left a surprising legacy in the garden of one Swede: a Viking treasure trove. Two coins were uncovered by the rain on the lawn of farmer Tage Pettersson, on the island of Gotland, in early August. He called in Gotland's archaeologists, who last week found a further 52 coins on the site. Most of the coins are German, English and Arabic currency from the late 900s and early 1000s. But archaeologists are most excited about the presence of six very rare Swedish coins, from...

September 10, 2007 Builder found Vikings washed up at pubJack Malvern Archaeologists believe they have found the only intact Viking boat in Britain beneath the patio of a Merseyside pub. The 10th-century vessel was discovered in the 1930s by builders excavating the basement of the Railway Inn on the Wirral peninsula, but they covered it up because they feared an archaeological dig would disrupt their work. The boat would have been forgotten had one of the builders not reported his discovery to his son, who passed the information on to academics at Nottingham University. Stephen Harding, of the university’s archaeology...

The Minnesota Vikings on Wednesday canceled a $45 million deal to buy Star Tribune property near the Metrodome, a move that could complicate the team's effort to build a new stadium at the site. Team officials blamed the deal's collapse on turmoil in the nation's credit markets, which have made it difficult for even blue-chip companies to obtain loans. At the same time, the Vikings said they remain committed to building a stadium on the Metrodome site and are continuing negotiations for other nearby parcels. Lester Bagley, the Vikings' vice president of public affairs and stadium development, said there is...

Stop The Apologizing Already Apologies must be in this year, Danes sorry for looting and pillaging MORE than 1200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. On Wednesday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish Minister for Culture, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to celebrate the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship but we are not proud of the damage to the people of Ireland that followed in the...

More than 1,200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. Yesterday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish culture minister, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to participate in celebrations marking the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship, but we are not proud of the damages to the people of Ireland that followed in the footsteps of the Vikings," Mr Mikkelson declared in his welcoming speech delivered on the dockside...

The Sea Stallion right before arrival to the Orkney Islands Pastime and cosy atmosphere. Sea Stallion taken from the support vessel 'Cable One' by the Viking ship And the further on, 4 hours of rowing in between the Orkney - Sea Stallion.

Arial photo of what could be traces of Viking graves. PHOTO: NORD-TRØNDELAG LOCAL AUTHORITIES New Viking graves discovered 120 graves and traces of Viking houses discovered near the city of Trondheim.Traces of what could be a Viking Chief's hall. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A reconstructed Viking Chief's hall in the cultural monuments park near the town of Hønefoss. What may be a Viking Chief's hall is among the new findings. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A total of 145 antiquities have been found at 32 different places around Stiklestad in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. PHOTO: JON A. FOSSEIE While most parts...

120 graves and traces of Viking houses discovered near the city of Trondheim. While most parts of Norway have experienced the wettest summer in years, the county known as Nord-Trøndelag, not far from Norway's third largest city Trondheim, has experienced extreme drought. But due to the dry summer, supposedly the driest in a century, more traces from Norway's Viking past have appeared.

A replica Viking ship has set sail for Dublin from the Danish port of Roskilde. It is currently crossing the North Sea, in an attempt to recreate the voyages undertaken by early Norsemen. The volunteer crew on the 30m-long (100ft) Sea Stallion from Glendalough are recording their experiences on the journey. Bad weather is already proving a major challenge. Like the vikings the crew have no shelter from the weather, no cleaning facilities and no lavatories.

Norwegian arhaeologists are puzzled by a find which indicates an Inca Indian died and was buried in the Oestfold city of Sarpsborg 1000 years ago. The remains of two elderly men and a baby were discovered during work in a garden, and one of the skulls indicates that the man was an Inca Indian. There is a genetic flaw in the neck, which is believed to be limited to the Incas in Peru, says archaeologist Mona Beate Buckholm. The Norway Post suggests that maybe the Vikings travelled even more widely than hitherto believed? Why could not the Viking settlers in...

Swedish archaeologists have uncovered signs of a Viking precursor to Mickey Mouse. Among the objects found during excavations at Uppåkra in southern Sweden is an iron age figure bearing a strong resemblance to the classic cartoon character.

The Secretary General of the UN has asked Sweden’s Prime Minister to send troops to Darfur as part of a future peace-keeping mission. After the meeting with Ban Ki Moon in New York on Monday, Fredrik Reinfeldt said neutral Sweden is considering whether it could create a unit with Norway to send to the Sudanese province. But he says they would need to see what the force would look like, what the security situation would be and who would be leading the mission. The Swedish Prime Minister is meeting American President George W. Bush in Washington Tuesday as he continues...

Iceland's Unwritten Saga Volume 60 Number 2, March/April 2007 by Zach Zorich Did Viking settlers pillage their environment? Birch and willow forests like this one at Lake Mývatn used to cover much of Iceland's interior. Viking settlers cleared the forest for their pastures and burned the trees to make charcoal. The forests have never recovered. It is estimated that 90 percent of Iceland's pre-settlement forest is gone. (Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson) Even when the weather is clear, gusts of wind lash the hillsides overlooking the Viking-age farm at Hrísheimar leaving the land raw and strewn with pebbles. A few miles east the...

The bones of one of the women found in one of Norway's most famous Viking graves suggest her ancestors came from the area around the Black Sea. The woman herself was "Norwegian," claims Professor Per Holck at the University of Oslo, who has conducted analyses of DNA material taken from her bones. But Holck says that while she came from the area that today is Norway, her forefathers may have lived in the Black Sea region. Holck, attached to the anthropological division of the university's anatomy institute (Anatomisk institutt), isn't willing to reveal more details pending publication of an article...

How Vikings Might Have Navigated on Cloudy Days By Corey Binns Special to LiveScience posted: 02 March 2007 08:33 am ET Vikings navigated the oceans with sundials aboard their Norse ships. But on an overcast day, sundials would have been useless. Many researchers have suggested that the on foggy days, Vikings looked toward the sky through rock crystals called sunstones to give them direction. No one had tested the theory until recently. A team sailed the Arctic Ocean aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden and found that sunstones could indeed light the way in foggy and cloudy conditions. Would have...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - In a long-expected move, the Minnesota Vikings released quarterback Brad Johnson on Wednesday and made the 15-year veteran an unrestricted free agent. Tarvaris Jackson, who started the final two games of last season as a rookie, and Brooks Bollinger are the only quarterbacks remaining on the roster. After the Vikings had recurring problems on offense and finished 6-10, coach Brad Childress ruled Johnson out of the running for the job in 2007 and declared the position an open competition between Jackson and Bollinger. At the time, Childress indicated he was confident in finding a starter between them....

[T]he latest number of the Belgian journal Kadath is devoted entirely to Viking (hyperboreene) contacts in South America! Now that's a far piece from Greenland. This long article (40 pages) is replete with photographs, interpretations, and translations of runic inscriptions found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. It is impossible to do justice to this mass of inscriptions here, but we will reproduce one of the figures below. (de Mahieu, Jacques; "Corpus des Inscriptions Runiques d'Amerique du Sud," Kadath, no. 68, p. 11, 1988.) Comment. To American anomalists, the frustrating part of this whole business is the need to go to...

The sun was not necessary for Vikings to navigate, say researchers Vikings may have used a special crystal called a sunstone to help navigate the seas even when the sun was obscured by fog or cloud, a study has suggested. Researchers from Hungary ran a test with sunstones in the Arctic ocean, and found that the crystals can reveal the sun's position even in bad weather. This would have allowed the Vikings to navigate successfully, they say. The sunstone theory has been around for 40 years, but some academics have treated it with extreme scepticism. Researcher Gabor Horvath from...

New centre will dispel Viking myths Who were the Vikings? For most people, thoughts of raping and pillaging probably spring to mind, as do images of busty women called Brunnhilda with blonde plaits and horned helmets. The Vikings sailed from the Nordic countries to Britain, Ireland, North America, Russia and even Turkey. Yet for visitors to Scandinavia and locals alike, there are currently precious few opportunities to find out the truth about the extraordinary people who spread their culture over most of the known world. This could soon change, as plans have now been unveiled to start an interactive museum...

How a manuscript found in an Irish peat bog was saved Restorers are hoping to separate the pages of the ninth-century psalter and recover some of the ancient text By Martin Bailey | Posted 18 December 2006 Conservators are unravelling the congealed pages LONDON. An astonishing discovery in an Irish bog is posing an unusual conservation challenge. A chance find by a peat cutter last summer in County Tipperary, southern Ireland, turned out to be a psalter, which has been dated to around 800 AD. The discovery has been described as the Irish equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls. National...

MINNETONKA, Minn. (Dec. 12, 2006) -- Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Joe Woods was charged with two counts of drunken driving. Woods was pulled over by a state trooper shortly after 3 a.m. Dec. 9 while driving south on Highway 169 in Minnetonka, according to the criminal complaint filed by the city attorney's office. The officer clocked him driving 63 mph in a 55-mph zone and crossing over lane lines without signaling on numerous occasions. Woods was arrested and later registered a .12 blood alcohol concentration on a breath test, .04 above the state's legal limit. Asked about it at...

The Pagan Society in Iceland, Ásatrúarfélagid, has objected to the State Church offering school children social support in form of so-called “soul watch interviews.” The interviews are part of an initiative called Vinaleid (“Path of Friends”), which is open to all school-age children. The program enables students to visit the deacon in the local church to talk about their problems, and do not need allowance from parents to do so, as reported in Fréttabladid. Jóhanna Hardardóttir, a pagan priest on Kjalarnes peninsula, southwest Iceland, told Fréttabladid that she has noticed considerable discontent among parents with Vinaleid. She says children who...

Navy officials confirmed yesterday that an aircraft carrier battle group failed to detect a Chinese submarine that surfaced within weapons range of the USS Kitty Hawk. Anti-submarine defenses for the carrier battle group will be reviewed as a result, they said.

Possible third Jellinge stone found By The Copenhagen Post Archaeologists believe they have found a new Viking-era stone engraved with ancient Danish Rune writing Archaeologists from Vejle Museum think they may have found a third 'Jellinge stone' - a large rock with carved runes and considered the first examples of written language in Denmark. The researchers have found seven stones in all, which they believe date from the 10th century. Jellinge stones tell of the founding of Denmark and of Christianity's arrival in the country. Even if the stones do not yield a true Jellinge stone, the find is still...

nitrogen the Vikings left behind 11 September 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Discovering ancient settlements is often rather hit and miss, but the odds would be improved with a bit of chemical analysis. Plants growing over old sites of human habitation have a different chemistry from their neighbours, and these differences can reveal the location buried ruins. Plants mostly take in nitrogen from the soil as the isotope nitrogen-14, with just a dash of nitrogen-15. Plants growing above archaeological sites in Greenland, however, seem to have absorbed a larger dose of nitrogen-15. Rob Commisso and Erle Nelson from...

The Vikings (or Norse) played a prominent role in Irish history but, despite this, their genetic legacy in Ireland, which may provide insights into the nature and scale of their immigration, is largely unexplored. Irish surnames, some of which are thought to have Norse roots, are paternally inherited in a similar manner to Y-chromosomes. The correspondence of Scandinavian patrilineal ancestry in a cohort of Irish men bearing surnames of putative Norse origin was examined using both slow mutating unique event polymorphisms and relatively rapidly changing short tandem repeat Y-chromosome markers. Irish and Scandinavian admixture proportions were explored for both systems...

Some commentators like to point out that many of the most passionate and bravest defenders of the West are women, citing Italian writer Oriana Fallaci and others as examples. But women like Ms. Fallaci, brave as they might be, are not representative of all Western women. If you look closely, you will notice that, on average, Western women are actually more supportive of Multiculturalism and massive immigration than are Western men. I got many comments on my posts about Muslim anti-female violence in Scandinavia. Several of my readers asked what Scandinavian men are doing about this. What happened to those...

I have been assigned by the syndicate-of-scribes to cover this deployment, as an 'embed'. I dutifully showed up to the pier one hour before departure, as directed on my ticket. The detritus from innumerable packed lunches littered the dock area. Many of the small, discarded ale cartons sported a picture, requesting, "Have you seen this woman?" At a look from me, the nearest Viking explained, "That's Helen of Traagen. They say hers is a face that shipped a thousand lunches. Some posh bint married to a king or such." He sniffed disdainfully, "If'n I were married to a missing Valkyrie...

Koren Robinson was arrested late Tuesday night on his way back to training camp in Mankato, Minn, for fleeing police and suspicion of driving under the influence, according to a St. Peter, Minn., police report. The Vikings wide receiver was clocked going "in excess of" 100 mph in a 55-mph zone in the north part of St. Peter, according to the police report. St. Peter police officers pursued his blue sedan down Highway 169 and needed assistance from Mankato police, Blue Earth County sheriff's department and North Mankato police to stop him on a road near Minnesota State Mankato, according...

If I had a daughter, I wouldn't name her "LaGaylia", but anyhow, the lady sure can sing. One day she might be big in the US and not only in Sweden. The article: 'I just love Swedish blonds' Since arriving in Sweden from Florida in 2001, LaGaylia Frazier has become one of the best-known faces on the Swedish music scene. She has competed twice in Melodifestivalen and is a stalwart of Robert Wells’ legendary Rhapsody in Rock concerts. The American soul diva’s voice was described by one journalist as a cross between Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner. "- How would...

Al Gore’s cinematic lecture contends, in part, that rising global temperatures from industrial greenhouse gas emissions are at this very moment melting the Greenland Ice Sheet, a phenomenon that will eventually inundate global coastal areas and submerge countless cities. True? Not according to a new paper that appears in the June 13 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, a prominent peer-reviewed publication of the American Geophysical Union. The authors conclude their study with the following discussion: We have analyzed temperature time series from available Greenland locations and we have found that: i) The years 1995 to 2005 have been characterized by...

For the tens of thousands of years of the Würm glaciation, Paleolithic hunting tribes lived at the southern edge of the ice fields in Europe and Asia. About 10,000 years ago, as the last of the glaciers receded, some groups chose to follow the retreating ice northwards. While their cousins in the warmer regions to the south were smelting metal, these hardy tribes were knapping flint. While the southerners were inventing agriculture, slavery, and the ziggurat, the northerners were hunting large game in the chilly grasslands and forests of Central Asia and Northern Europe.

Racist Hate Mail Against Poulsbo Festival Backfires http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=43345 May 9, 2006 By Tracy Vedder POULSBO - The words are ugly and vicious, and they sent a chill through a local festival. Racist hate mail sent to Poulsbo is directed at a young African-American woman who is "Miss Viking Fest". But the hate mail has sparked an outpouring of love. "Little girls," says Jasmine Campbell, " I think they recognize me when I have my crown on. They're like 'Wow!' It feels really good to say hi to them." Campbell loves being this year's Miss Viking Fest. The yearly Poulsbo festival...

The First Look at the Vikings New Uniforms

Former Minnesota Vikings running back Moe Williams was found guilty of disorderly conduct Thursday on a charge stemming from a boat-party sex scandal. But a jury found him not guilty of two other misdemeanors, indecent conduct and lewd or lascivious behavior. Williams was accused of fondling the breasts of a dancer during the cruise last fall on a suburban lake that included several other Vikings players. After the verdict was read, Williams told the judge, "I never intended to do anything that would basically make anybody feel uncomfortable." Williams was fined $300 and sentenced to do 30 hours of community...

Kensington Rune Stone This subject used to fascinate me when I was 9 or 11. I read everything the late Hjalmar Holand ever wrote. It has fascinated many others, unfortunately mainly “professional Scandinavians” who have made their lives out of their ethnicity, especially as professors of that language or culture. Most have used it only as a way to get a cheap Ph.D. thesis by demolishing it once again, or by using its possible validity to back up some ulterior theory or hobby-horse they may have. Few if any mainstream observers of American antiquities have been willing to touch it. ...