It's Only a Theory...

Julian Richards, TV archaeologist, presents the theory 'Vikings were a force for good' to a panel of BBC folk. Horned helmets, slaughter and Kirk Douglas galore - can JR persuade the comedians otherwise? Watch this clip to see whether the theory is approved, or fails the test.

Rognvald for Kids

Hello anybody who is still out there - apologies for a long absence, during which much has happened on the Viking front and I have been to various interesting places including Norway and (briefly) Iceland. There's too much to catch up on, as I'm still quite busy, so I'll just cut my losses and hope to be a bit more regular with my postings in the future.
Today's post was spurred by my discovery of a charming teaching pack for schools on Earl Rognvald of Orkney, downloadable from the Orkney Library and Archives website (or just go straight to the pack itself). While some of what they say about language, in particular, doesn't bear too close examination by experts, on the whole it will do for children. In fact, I am quite impressed, it is an attractive booklet and draws all kinds of themes out very nicely. Of course, I have a personal interest! Long live Rognvald...

Hlymrekr

When I started this blog, I promised some account of my travels, but there has been too little of that (though I have travelled quite a lot in the last year or so) and too much of robbing things from the internet and the media. So I am quite happy to report on a recent lightning visit to Limerick. Apart from the usual things that make it a pleasure to visit Ireland (Guinness, friendly people, fiddle music leaking out of pubs, heathery mountains on the horizon) I was quite taken by the ruined church, round tower and cross at Dysart O'Dea (or however you wish to spell it). Both the splendid romanesque doorway to the church and the cross up on the hill had what seemed, to my inexpert eye, to be late-flowering Irish Urnes-style decoration (see the photo). And of course there were the usual pleasures of Irish sacred sites, with the garishly but lovingly decorated family graves, a tower house in the distance, and the nearest village with the 20 pubs in different colours. Coo....

Viking Life

Following up the Jorvik Viking Festival (see previous blog), I found a link to 'Dismorphia: Viking York, coming to a computer near you Spring 2009'. It promises an 'on-line virtual world that features real cities at different eras in time', with York as their first venture. A sort of Second Life for those of us who would like to do it in the year 975. Sounds like fun, I'm looking forward to learning Viking skills, collecting and trading Viking items and joining a ship's crew!

Viking Week

Next week sees that venerable institution, the Jorvik Viking Festival, return for the 24th time. The programme promises the usual mix of 'Viking hair-braiding' (how do they know?), a Viking wedding, 'combat through the ages' and storytelling for the kids. I am sorry I'll have to miss Andrew Jones (a great lecturer) talking about 'Viking Poo' next Saturday to a family audience. Andrew of course was the finder of the Great Viking Turd on display at Jorvik, so he knows the subject well!

I confess I'm a little less enamoured with the event (3 times a day, every day) which promises us a recitation of The Wanderer and The Seafarer, 'two ancient poems that evoke the hardships of a Viking life at sea'. Those pesky Anglo-Saxons are always trying to muscle in on Viking fun... There is also a retelling of Beowulf on offer, but at least that doesn't pretend to be 'Viking', though I suppose some kind of a case could be made for that.

Click here for the programme if you want to know more (it's a pdf file).

Runic Rescue

A long train journey recently gave me a good excuse to read S.J. Bolton's Sacrifice. It's actually a very readable thriller, and I do recommend it. However, to enjoy it Vikingists will have to forgive the author's rather obvious lack of either knowledge of or love for Shetland, where the book is set. She also needs to do a bit more homework on what she thinks of as 'Viking runes', especially their forms, their names and their functions! I don't particularly mind the New Age-y interest in runes, though I wish those who take an interest would at least inform themselves about the differences between the various alphabets, and find out which ones are 'Viking' and which are something else. Ralph Blum (Bolton's only source) has a lot to answer for...

Tinfoil Thor

Yesterday's Guardian reports a curious story in which a party-goer dressed as Thor returned home to terrify a burglar with his tinfoil and red-cape outfit.... There is a small picture of him in the print version of the paper, and quite a glorious one in the online version of The Sun (not a paper I normally read, of course). Both papers (and probably many others, too) indulged in bad puns ('Thor blimey', 'Thief Thor-ght it's hammer time'). The costume may be a bit curious, but it is good to see that the No. 2 god is still doing his job of protecting all and sundry from the depredations of the Other.