Thingvellir

The original site of the Althing, about 50km outside of Reykjavik. It has a huge rock crag from a platetechtonic rift growing 2cm.

Leaf, Life, Layfer

The Americanized “Leaf” differs dramatically from the Norwegian “Life” (very Germanic in pronunciation) and the Icelandic “Layfer”…

The Icelanders actually spell it “Leifur” and there are three Leifur Erikssons in Iceland today… They’re not to hard to find since they list all the names in the phonebook!

All thing’s being equal

Althing – Iceland’s first millenium representative government.

This is the modern Althing building. Established in 930AD, the assembly met annually. It’s members were chieftains (called “gothar”) of large plantations, they represented farmers around Iceland.

It’s interesting to note that the farmers (called “thingmen”) were able to choose which Gothar’s authority they wanted to submit to.

Woman could be Gothar, but they had to send a male representative to the annual meetings.

No Gargoyles here!

An obvious cultural relationship between pre- & post- conversion (to Christianity) was maintained throughout the Scandinavian arts…

Dragons were used to scare evil spirits from churches.

White Gold

Polar Bear skins caught a hefty price in Norway.. Greenlanders started to export these, whenever possible, circa 1000AD.

What was more valuable?

LIVE ones were also exported!

Leif’s boathouses

Archaeologists Helge and Anna Ingstad discovered a settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. There discovery was due to there adherence to a collection of Viking sagas (written down oral tradition) called the Vinland Sagas.

Some of the artifacts and foundations were clearly Viking longhouses, yet other foundations were unclear. So archaeologists unravel these mysterious sites by looking at modern structures in similar geographic locations, here is a model and actual structure of one of those sites: a boathouse. The modern is in Oslo, the other is a model of the Canadian site.

Steerboard (starboard)

Steerboard steered the ship from the right hand-side giving rise to the sailing term “starboard”

Oseberg & Gokstad Ships

Viking Ship Museum, Oslo

Proved that 100 years before Leif Eriksson was born, the Viking sailing technology existed that would have allowed for a transatlantic voyage.

We know this because exact replica’s have been built and sailed these distances.

Oslo

I’ve made it to Oslo.. It’s wet and rainy (sounds like home). Tomorrow off to the museums.

Norway and Iceland 2008

This a research based visit to Oslo, Norway and Reykjavik, Iceland will be focus on the first European explorers to North America, the Scandinavian Norse, commonly referred to as the Vikings. The research goals are to identify the social, economic, political, and geographic factors that led to Viking expansion west to eventually North America. To help students develop appropriate background information early in the school year when the explorer unit is taught and to use these links to think more critically about the development of society, economics, politics, and geographic expansions in American History.