Viking Longship Design ?

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by Roy M

Jag kan taller litte svenska....mycket litte.

But you might pass for a Dane

Just kidding !



-Sven

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by svrodeorm

'och sven, av en händelse har jag haft ett hus i Gamleby. Fantastisk skärgård.'

Yes, I think it is the best in the world but I guess I'm a bit biased. A few 100 m from the summer house is one of the traditional Viking burial sites, an awful lot of rocks piled on top of whoever is underneath.

We'll be going to Västervik on Senta II when the time is right ...

How about your sailing plans ?




-Sven

[Astrid]

Astrid, apparently (from the surviving literature) it wasn't just the landless. A successful Icelander, one who was a warrior, poet, and land-owner, was also expected to go off raiding after the harvest season. At least, some of the sagas told it that way, and as we now know, there were a lot of truths in the sagas.

True, but it became something of a culture which developed over a century or more. Originally raids were conducted against well to do farms and settlements within the Baltic where piracy of a form was endemic, but as raiders began to expand out of the Baltic and encounter new peoples and fresh, often wealthy sites to raid,even respectable farmers began to hire on with local warleaders who had started to organize raiding and trading expeditions (which were often the same thing). This then became something of a sub culture within the Norse world and one in which those who invested in, or went along on the ventures were liable to greatly supplement their income and prestige.

[svrodeorm]

Originally Posted by SvenG

We'll be going to Västervik on Senta II when the time is right ...

How about your sailing plans ?
-Sven

Unless I qualify as a Viking, this might be a bit off-topic but our plans for the next year or so is Rio Guadalquivir to Sevilla/Spain and then via Mrocco to the Canaries to Senegal and further to Guinea-Bissau(just to check if the Bijagos archipelago is anything like Västervik . Then the Cape Verde and a crossing to Brazil....or....we'll see. Taking it one place at a time..

And you? (you can PM me if you prefer)

Cheers, Magnus

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Astrid

raiding and trading expeditions (which were often the same thing)

The Norse / Norman genes may go some way to explain things around these parts

Cracking thread as well.

[anglooff]

From an historical point of view the Phoenicians and Roman had deep sea war and trading vessels, the former visiting the tin mines in Britain from about 3000 years ago and are thought to have explored all parts of northern Europe and the Baltic. Also some severe sea water flooding in Denmark and northern Europe between 100- 20BC create two very large exoduses to the Mediterranean countries where various deep sea armadas were common. So contact with major naval types would- if not be common certainly not be that unusual.

Equally Scottish history has recently been revised whereby Skara Brae (Orkney island situated between Scotland and Scandinavia) has been aged from a Neolithic to more probably late Mesolithic site which means some 5-6000 years ago some serious deep sea vessels were making trips across a wide and stormy seas to both Scotland and Scandinavia.

Rather than the typical 18th century viewpoint of Vikings as only in and out marauders for some 400 years the Norsemen settled in the islands around Scotland being assimilated eventually in the 12th -13th century. They came to farm, fish and create communities. Finally my clan the Lamont clan is derived from the “Gamel Norske” word for lawman… so somewhere in my ancestral past two people got together…hopefully not for a forced quickie… and I got a Norse flesh injection into my gene pool.

Tak for det!

Regards

Alan

PS I too understand Viking to be an ancient verb and more recently a noun

[Viking Sailor]

One runestone found in Norway honors "Gunnvor, Thryrik's daughter, [who] built a bridge in memory of her daughter Astrid. She [Astrid] was the handiest girl in Hadeland."

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by anglooff

Finally my clan the Lamont clan is derived from the “Gamel Norske” word for lawman… so somewhere in my ancestral past two people got together…hopefully not for a forced quickie… and I got a Norse flesh injection into my gene pool.

Tak for det!

Regards

Alan

Hey. My wife's mother was a Lamont. That means my sons have some there somewhere.
No wonder the older one liked Scotland so much huh?

PS Lamont tartan.


Google Image Result for http://www.lochcarron.com/reiver/L/lam_m.jpg

I don't know how to put a frikkin pic from a web page here.

[David M]

How do they know how fast they were going in the first place?

In all the excitement 12 knots could have seemed like 16. Men do tend to exaggerate certain things. In my experience, how fast their boat can go is one of those things.

[Astrid]

One runestone found in Norway honors "Gunnvor, Thryrik's daughter, [who] built a bridge in memory of her daughter Astrid. She [Astrid] was the handiest girl in Hadeland."

Astrid blushes, thanks.

Rather than the typical 18th century viewpoint of Vikings as only in and out marauders for some 400 years the Norsemen settled in the islands around Scotland being assimilated eventually in the 12th -13th century. They came to farm, fish and create communities.

Truly. Following the first raids, Norse incursions gained in intensity and frequency, finally becoming more of a military conquest with settlement of Norse families in the newly won or discovered territories--York in England, Dublin in Ireland, the coast of Normandy in France, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Novgorod and Kiev in Russia, all became major Norse centrers and settlements. At the height of Norse power, King Knut Sweyensson welded England, Norway, Denmark, and parts of Sweden into a great, if short-lived North Sea empire.

[SvenG]

Originally Posted by anglooff

PS I too understand Viking to be an ancient verb and more recently a noun

I guess I'll have to revise my understanding. If someone has a reference describing the basis for that interpretation I'd appreciate it.

I'm having trouble visualizing how a longship could be constructed rigidly enough to not flex all over and fall apart. Small rowboats like an "eka" or a poswered "snipa" is one thing, but 60 to 150' loa with a complement of 100 men !?



-Sven

[SvenG]

In response to Astrid's self-portrait, here's mine





-Sven

[FxdGrMind]

That "Dress" must weigh a "TON!" Dang, just throw her in the bilge for ballast!


Seriously, that's a lot of work to create from individual rings!

[Astrid]

weight is about 12 kilos and is made up of about 30,000 iron rings. One has to belt it tightly at the waist so part of the weight distributes to the hips.

Sven, great portrait.

[MichaelC]

I don't know about the big ones, other than that they are among the most beautiful items ever created by the hand of man, but I have learned a lot about smaller ones. I built my 17' to the same lines that were taken off the 21' faering found inside that big ship in the Oslo museum. I built her at 17' and that boat blows me away with its amazing abilities. I row or sail it. Once did a beam reach across a 5 mile stretch of water and lost appr 200 feet to leeway. My boat has the old fashioned long shallow keel with a couple of inches of drag aft. No centerboard or leeboard. Wonderful little boat. I considered scrapping the plans to which I am building now in order to make one of these at double size. But there is not enough room inside even at that size [34']. Wonderful costume, Astrid. Are you involved in SCA?