August 4, 2019
Sunday August 4th Visiting the Vikings
Sunday 4th August Visiting the Vikings.
Although this campground is expensive, they do provide a pleasant breakfast space, sheltered from the wind and with Kitchen amenities. All of which we use.
After breakfast (no early morning dip today) we head for the Viking Centre. Here we secure our bikes, buy tickets and join an English tour guided by a young Dane whose first task is to myth bust several commonly held misconceptions related to Vikings: no horns on helmets, no leather gear (they preferred colourful woollen garb), no savage behaviour (I suspect this could be a subjective judgement), and beard combing and weekly body and clothing washing were so widely practised that John Wallingford’s 13th century chronicle claims ‘...they set off their persons by many frivolous devices. In this manner they laid siege to the virtue of the married women...’ makes one wonder about the state of the competition.
Our guide shows us over and explains the 5 boat find. These were 5 longboats of various types that had been sunk in part of the harbour in order to form a barrier. A mission to excavate them in the 1960s involved building a coffer dam and then removing mud and sludge by hand. The discovered wood was treated to prevent shrinkage.
They were able to prove that one ship had been built in Dublin by identifying the timber used. Another 2 used wood from Norway. Boat building of a large fighting vessel (30 metres plus) would have required thousands of man/person hours so that only a wealthy personage would have been able to fund labourers who would ordinarily have been subsistence farming.
Outside in the harbour area we look over several reconstructed long boats, some offering trips on the fjord. There is also a partly built boat on display.. Danes travelled as far afield as Newfoundland, Constantinople and Russia. Harold Bluetooth ruled England for a while and was returned, on his death, to Roskilde and Roskilde Cathedral now stands on the site of his church.
The Cathedral is our next port of call, figuratively this time. It’s an impressive Gothic structure with a little Romanesque design added. Because of a regular cycle of additions, it looks almost modern, with red brick columns and white painted walls. Lacking stained glass windows, it is light an airy with none of the mystical dimness and muffled sounds of French Gothic cathedrals. The number of royal personages entombed there seems many and the present queen has had a space age tomb designed for her which resembles a glass capsule. Wonder how she feels about that?
Before drifting off, I’m sure I hear the muffled sounds of Viking longboats sailing up the fjord or it could be just the wind.
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