Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norway. Show all posts

March 28 - Ragnar Lodbrok Day in Scandinavia

  Posted on March 28, 2022

This is an update of my post published on March 28, 2011:




On this day wayyyyy back in 845 A.D., Viking raiders under the leadership of Ragnar Lodbrok are said to have sacked Paris. This means that (according to Norse stories) they stole all the valuables they could find.

In other words, the Vikings looted. They pillaged. They plundered. They robbed and stole and took booty.

Paris was ruled at the time by Charles II “The Bald,” and Norse stories say that Charles The Bald paid Ragnar lots of money to just take the spoils and leave, rather than destroying the city—7,000 pounds of silver to go along with all the rest of the loot, just so the raiders wouldn't burn everything down!

The stories go on to say that Ragnar did leave Paris, but he continued to attack France all the way up the coast.

By the way, Ragnar was nicknamed “Hairy Breeks” (or “Hairy Breeches”) because he is said to have wooed his second wife by wearing thick, hairy leather pants in order to protect himself as he killed poisonous snakes that were infesting part of Sweden. Ironically, he's said to have eventually died because of snakes: when he went to Britain to pillage and loot, the Northumbrian king captured him and put him to death by throwing him into a pit of venomous snakes.

Much of what we “know” about Ragnar and the sacking of Paris and all the snakes comes from Old Norse poetry and legendary sagas. In other words, we only know what this Viking did from Viking poems and tales. Naturally, the sagas made Ragnar sound better than he really was—stronger, more daring, more clever. 

But he just sounds like a bully and a thief, to me!


Ragnar has become a character in movies and video games.
Like Robin Hood and King Arthur, Ragnar may have been
based on a historical figure - but surely not all the stories
told about him are true!

Keep in mind that some Frankish (French) stories say that the French troops defeated Ragnar when he tried to attack Paris. And there isn't an awful lot of evidence that Ragnar even existed, let alone that he sacked Paris.  


Explore the Viking Age

Were Vikings always bullying others and stealing booty? Not all of them, for sure, and not all of the time, even for those who were big meanies. Check out the Vikings for Kids video.

Here is a modern tale about Vikings - a story meant for little kids!

Did you know that Vikings never wore horned helmets?


The typical Viking horned helmet...is a myth!



Two famous helmets that were found in Denmark - helmets with metal horns of a different shape than the usual animal horns we see in Viking shows and images - date back to WAYYY before the Vikings lived.


This horned helmet dates back 2,000 years before
the Vikings!

The evidence tells us that the helmets Vikings wore didn't feature horns. Apparently costume designers and/or illustrators in the 1800s came up with the ubiquitous but incorrect horned Viking helmet!
This is a modern version of a more
authentic Viking helmet design.





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

February 20 - Norwegian Islands...Pawned???

  Posted on February 20, 2022


This is an update of my post published on February 20, 2011:




Have you ever heard of a pawn shop? That's a place where a person can borrow money, leaving something valuable as collateral. When the person repays the loan, he or she gets that valuable item back--but, after an established period of time, if the person does not pay back the loan, the pawnbroker owns the item and can sell it for a profit.


A pawn shop local to me. The things for sale are items that
the owners couldn't buy back in time!

Now, how does someone drag something as large as an inhabited island into a pawn shop?

Of course, that's ridiculous! However, King Christian I of Denmark and Norway was a bit broke when his daughter married King James III of Scotland. The practice in those days was for parents of a bride to pay a dowry to the groom, and Margaret's dowry was set at 60,000 florins of the Rhine--which was a lot of money. Christian I didn't have that much cash laying about—so he paid 2,000 florins and then pledged ownership of Orkney and Shetland Islands to Scotland until he could pay off the remainder.


Christian I of Denmark and Norway, above


Above, you can see that the Orkney Islands are really close to Scotland
(which is the northern part of the main British Island, marked by the city
of Roxburgh). They are pretty far from Denmark (the unmarked peninsula
at the far right of the map) and Norway (the nation marked with the cities
Bergen and Oslo). The Shetland Islands are closer to the midpoint
between Britain and Norway.

Below, you can see the shape and number of the Orkney and
Shetland Islands. The gray part is Scotland alone, without
England and Wales.




It seems that the king didn't check with the inhabitants of the island; nor did he get the advice of the Council of the Realm—he just pawned the islands. He was smart enough to include a clause in the contract that he or future kings of Norway could redeem the islands for a fixed sum of 210 kg of gold or 2,310 kg of silver. (However, during the 1800s and 1900s, Norwegian leaders made several attempts to redeem the debt and reclaim the islands—and Scotland refused.)

And so it was that, in 1469, James III of Scotland married Margaret of Denmark.



And, on this date in 1472, Scotland peacefully annexed the Orkney and Shetland Islands. And they remain Scottish / British / part of the United Kingdom to this day!

Check out the Orkney Islands in this video.








The five photos above show the Orkney Islands.

Here is a video of the Shetland Islands.






The five photos above show the Shetland Islands.

 

Also on this date:






 
 












 


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,

February 6 - Sámi National Day in Northern Scandinavia

      Posted on February 6, 2022


This is an update of my post published on February 6, 2011:




The Sámi are indigenous people who live in the arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and part of Russia. Their languages and traditional ways of life - which centered around reindeer herding - are endangered, and in the past this native group faced pressure to adopt the language and culture of the majority Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian cultures. For example, the Sámi languages used to be forbidden in schools, and Norway had policies that required proof of knowledge of the Norwegian language and even possession of a Norwegian name in order to buy or lease state lands.


The northern lands that the Sámi have lived on for five to ten thousand years used to be called Lapland, and the Sámi themselves were called Lap, Lapp, or Laplanders. These terms are considered belittling by many Sámi and are used less today.


The land of the Sámi is called Sápmi.



On this day in 1917, Sámi from Norway and Sweden got together to form the first Sámi Congress. There they began to work together to solve their common problems. In 1992, the fifteenth Sámi Congress decided to celebrate February 6 each year as a reminder of that first meeting. A researcher later discovered that Sámi peoples who lived on an arctic peninsula in Russia used to meet with Russian officials on February 6 each year—something that was known by neither the Sámi who set up the first congress, nor the Sámi who voted to create this national day. What a coincidence, huh?

In Norway on this day, the Sámi flag is flown, city hall bells play a Sámi song, and festivities take place honoring the Sámi.


Here is a narrated video about a Sámi artist.

Here is a video of life in the land of the Sámi.

And here is one more interesting video.



 


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)