Yes, Jerry the viking. Jesper had, a minute or two earlier, noticed a plum tree abounding with nice little plump plums, and Jeanett had been doing a decent job of foraging. Jerry felt like we were taking more than we should. Right, but we're vikings. Foraging for food and plundering should be what we're doing. Am I right? I mean, Jerry should be happy all we were plundering was the darn tree. We can be a rowdy bunch we vikings. Especially after a horn or two of mead and a good skirmish to heat the blood.
We're in Denmark. And this is how life is here.
Really.
Just ask Jesper, he'll tell you how it is.
Actually, this is how it is if you've got a friend like I do in Denmark who takes the three of us and his girlfriend Jeanett to Trelleborg, a national museum in Denmark that, if you ask nicely, let's you dress up and play viking for the day. Which is what we were doing Friday when Jerry, our great guide for the day, called Jeanett on hamstering.
Now, there is a Danish word "hamstre" which essentially means to hoard. That we all heard "hamster" and thought of the rodents whose cheeks puff out when they stuff their mouths full of food is just a wonderful coincidence that had us laughing for a couple of days. It's Sunday morning and I am stilling chuckling about it. That said, I am easily amused.
Shiny.
But when you look at the etymology of the English word hamster it seems to come from a German loanword (don't ask me what that is) and ultimately may trace back to the Persian word "hamaestar" which means oppressor. But think about it. The German word connects with an older German word which connects to an older Russian word. Well, it's the right neck of the geographical woods so you can see hamster, even if it does start back in Persia, and hamstre having the same root, and just being applied differently. Not sure which came first though in terms of use. A hamster certainly does hamstre, so it's possible to think that it got it's name based upon it's behaviour. (Oppressors are known for their hoarding.) Proof that it is possible to think that is evident in me having just written about it, assuming of course that I put thought into the rambles shambles banana fanana fo fambles that spill out into this blog.
See, easily amused.
So this is a model of the viking castle that is at Trelleborg.
A bit of a word on the term "viking". Viking is an old norse noun, and later verb, meaning something along the lines of "to go on an expedition". So in some ways I guess Noah, Jake and I are vikings, or at least, are going a viking. When I say that Trelleborg is home to a Viking ring castle, I am using viking in the sense of the viking era, which is basically the early middle ages. So around late 700 to 1066 AD. Yep, 1066. You may recall that from our time in Sussex. Having now established what viking means I will proceed to abuse it with the reckless abandon that we all tend to do when we really don't care what the word means, cause it's just so cool.
"Slot" is the Danish word for castle in case you were interested. It's used to cover a wide range of buildings. As you can see from the above model the slot at Trelleborg consisted of an inner and outer ring wall, moats (which were dry with pointy sticks) and many long houses. The configuration of the inner part of the slot had four entrances and the ones at Trelleborg align with the points of a compass with only a couple of centimeters discrepancy. The roads running through the inner slot form a cross with a centre point directly in the middle of the slot. You can draw perfect circles from that point right out to the first wall.
Apparently they liked their geometry.
This is one of the entrances into the slots inner ring.
This is inside the slot. You can see the roads and the location of four of the long houses. These were built of wood so what you're seeing in the ground is concrete fillings of the holes.
This is looking out to the outer wall, where you can see outlines for houses there as well. Oh, and sheep. They have sheep in Denmark.
This is a replica of one of the long houses. Jerry explained to us that it is wrong. They know that now based on other, more recent archaeological digs and rebuilds. I've got to hand it to Jerry though as he did a brilliant job of pointing out everything that was wrong with it and explaining how it should be, which I think is almost a better visual for learning.
One of the key differences is the posts. Here they are standing straight. They now understand that they actually slopped inward to support the crossbeams of the house, much like buttresses, or, actually like buttresses. I guess these are buttresses. Huh.
That additional support would have allowed for a second floor, which would explain the height of the building. If no second level, then why all the height? This then helps to explain better how smoke holes, which were on the sides of the building, not the top, and natural air flow, kept the places from getting too smokey, despite there being a fire pit in the middle of the room.
A long house by the way was designed to hold as many people as one long boat. So about fifty or so. You can go back to the model and do the math on the population of Trelleborg now if you'd like.
Trelleborg is one of six slots that have been found, and is thought to date from about 1000 AD. Jerry explained that it was likely in use for only twenty years or so as, well, things settled down under a single ruler so they stopped kicking each others butts all over the place.
Trelleborg also has a recreated village, with several houses, workshops, and the like.
This one was our home for the rest of the day.
It's a fairly large house, but as you can see, we're a fairly decent sized family.
A word on hoods.
As you can see, the hood is a separate garment, which covers the head and shoulders. So, I like them. They're easy to get off and toss in the corner when you get home from checking out the slot, and when you need to go and get wood for the fire, like I did, and it starts to rain, like the sky did, then its really handy to don again. Seriously, better than a jacket. Gotta get me one.
At the house we got the fire going and then set out for some healthy competition to hone some key skills.
We did five events. The first was archery. Now, while there are plenty of action shots of everyone doing everything I'm only including a few. If you'd like something you don't see here please pay 20 kroner to the person in the booth at the gift shop on your way out and we'll see what we can do.
This is Jake, the brave soul that he is, stepping up and being the first of us at the first event.
This is Jesper. And yes, I got the arrow. How cool is that?
Jesper won that event with four of five arrows in the target.
This is Jerry showing us how to toss a spear. Charles, you know the joke I am thinking here. The rest of you can figure it out.
Now, in all honesty, I don't know that this was the best use of the spear/javelin/pointy stick thingy. We were aiming for a target painted on the ground. Actually, I take it back. Thinking through it all, if you can't get it to land pointy side in to the turf, then you're not going to get it any distance and stuck in something more entertaining. I just wasn't very good is all.
Jesper won that event as well.
This is Noah tossing the winning log.
And this is Jeanett throwing the bones.
Noah also won that event. For those of you keeping score, it is now 2:2 Jesper:Noah.
This is Jake kicking my ass.
This is Jake kicking Noah's ass.
This is Jake and Jesper going toe to toe. Jesper ultimately won, but it was close. And he was fresh in, while Jake was already tired from having kicked his father's and brother's butts.
This is Jesper and Jeanett working on their relationship.
And this, this is the all out war that happens when you hand people foam weapons, tell them they are vikings, and let them have at it.
And honestly, after a month together in the UK it was about time that the guys and I be able to pound on each other. I'm sure they enjoyed it almost as much as I did. We'll have to make sure we have moments of senseless violence now and again to work our little problems out. Noah is already chatting with our cousin Joseph in Sweden about paintball.
Huh, maybe it's just a Scandinavian thing.
This is Jerry taking it to Jesper with a very long axe. I don't know if pole arm or halberd is the right term. I'm sure one of you can tell me.
Now, what I forgot to mention is that I had neglected to charge my camera, so it died along the way, and a few of the above, and the rest of the below, were taken with Jake's phone.
After beating the snot out of each other we headed back to the house to get on with making dinner, which was to consist of stew and bread. So there we were, getting water from the well, cutting vegetables and meat, rolling out the dough, getting the big pot ready, and doing the stuff that needed to get done if we were going to eat at all today.
Actually, we had had a big breakfast that morning, and I was formally introduced to the open faced sandwich. My father had warned me about this in an email a few days prior. Actually, I believe his words were "Beware the open faced sandwich". So, you may think you know the open faced sandwich, but unless you've been to Denmark and had breakfast with Jesper and Jeanett, then you don't know the Danish open faced sandwich.
First off, there is a very specific bread that is used that is quite dense and delicious. Very healthy. Very filling.
Then you have the bases. Bases are pate, sliced meats, or cheese.
Then you have toppings, like tomato, cucumber, and pepper, etc.
Then there are the rules.
You should only use one base. Meat, pate, or cheese. Ham and cheese? Nope. Pate and meat? Nope. Two types of meat? Nope. One base.
As an aside Denmark is not unique to this. My father tells a story of a time in Scotland where he asked for a scone with marmalade and was told that a) they didn't have marmalade (to my father's continued disbelief), and that b) he could have butter OR jam. Not both. One.
Right, so once you pick your base you can have it with the veg apparently.
Chatting about it over breakfast yesterday (we did it again) Jesper suggested that it likely has to do with economic conditions, what was available, what people could afford, and how long they could make it last. The decadence that now exists that allows me to thoughtlessly add pate, salami AND cheese to a single piece of bread is a result of a more affluent society overall. And also, it's tastier.
But it's an interesting point, and well taken. And it doesn't just apply to the open faced sandwich rules. It also applies to things like herring, where the kids would be able to drag the herring across their bread so that they get to have a bit of herring taste, but the father, as he was the one needing the energy to work, would have been the one to eat the fish itself.
When we were in London at the Churchill War Rooms there was a great deal about the war-time rationing, and seeing how far you could take your share of tea leaves. They even have a cookbook with recipes based upon what a families rations would have been. This was apparently one of the healthiest times for Britain in terms of diet. Perhaps something worth considering.
Anyway, what's cooking over an open fire without a bit of mead in a horn to go along with it.
The horn, while holding plenty of liquid, is not the most stable of drinking vessels. Thankfully we all have knees, that when pushed gently together, while in a seated position, allow for one to hold said horn. Jerry had a cool loop on his belt that held his. We were not so fortunate, our belts being a piece of knotted rope.
So, what did the vikings do while cooped up indoors to kill time while their stew was simmering away in the pot? What else, they attempted to take artsy photos with their phones.
This is the bread we baked. It turned out really well I think, and was quite tasty thanks to a dash of cinnamon. Yes, they had cinnamon.
And here are Jake, Noah, and Jeanett.
See, art shot. Very viking. If Rembrandt had a camera in his smart phone he would have done this much better.
I've actually just noticed that the picture dimensions from Jake's phone are different from what my camera is currently spitting out. I kinda like it.
This is Noah visualizing my head not behind the camera.
This is dinner. See? Knees.
And this is the end of an amazing day at Trelleborg, thanks to Jesper and Jeanett.
Skål.
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