Vikings adventure in The Netherlands

©Tamara Bakx

Hail Vikings,

Last Sunday I was at an exhibition about dragons. I know you might wonder what happened to you? Dragons and not Vikings. The funny fact the dragon is in a few myths from Vikings there are dragons. The dad of Aslaug (Sigurd) killed a dragon (Fafnir). There are three dragons known  Níðhöggr, Jörmungandr, and Fafnir and a dragon killed by Frotho 1 (this myth used by Tolkien and Peter Jackson in The Hobbit).  In this exhibition, they told a few things about the dragon in Europe. Did you know that the dragon head (Dragonhead) placed on boats to please the gods, to expel evil during their journeys and scare the other boats.

In this museum, they also had the history of Limburg and surely they had a few Viking items. I will post a link to the pictures I took from both the dragon exhibition and the history of Limburg pictures.

©Tamara Bakx

In Nijmegen, I went to see the house of history of Nijmegen. They have found lots of treasures from the roman emperor and doubt that Vikings have been there. Although the last decade, they came back from it because they needed to be there because surrounded by a river that ends in Germany.

As I said before in the Netherlands they have denied a long time that there were no Vikings at all because we couldn’t proof it. We have several findings now that they indeed lived, worked, and raid here.

Pictures

Dragon:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jinkskr7i01ughg/AACSdvBuuoV1MaRtVz65Rs0Fa?dl=0
Vikings inLimburg: 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zqy92lag9ruw47o/AAA2UcedDVMppZ70jakPN9rpa?dl=0

Other links

Nidhogg

http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/nidhogg/
http://www.northernpaganism.org/shrines/nidhogg/gifts.html

Jorgumand

http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/jormungand/
http://mythical-and-paranormal-blog.blogspot.nl/2012/03/jormungandr-world-serpent.html

Fafnir

http://journal.finfar.org/
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Fafnir

Sword Excalibur

Arthur Drawing the Sword from the Stone
Walter Crane
Illustration

Today I want to write about a subject that popped up in my head yesterday.

Swords. Viking swords but then I found another interested subject about the swords. Something about Excalibur from King Arthur. 

When I started my research today about the Viking swords and their names I came across Gram it is a mythical story that looks like the Arthurian story. (1.)

http://levigilant.com/Bulfinch_Mythology/bulfinch.englishatheist.org/b/guerber/Chapter26.htm

In short words Odin pushed the sword Gram into the heart of a mighty oak. Who took it out of there would be fated to win battles.

Then I started to research a little bit more and find out that in several mythologies the Arthurian story was used. Both the stone story and the sword in the lake are used in different stories.

You could say that I was overwhelmed by these aspect of the stories seem the same but are slightly different. I didn’t expect to find that many in different mythologies and legends. I liked the idea of writing about it.

If you look at:

• The Sigurd/Odin story (Nordic mythology)
• Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (Japanese mythology)
• Le Loi (Vietnamese legends)
• Arthur (English legends)
• Caledfwich (Celtic)

It is all about a sword in a stone, oak or a sword that came out of the lake. (2.)

Then I started to think is it possible that this story is from originally Nordic. What If the Vikings had that story before the Arthur legend came out? In my journey to that question I found out something interesting. (3) A battle called Mount Beddon in the year 516 (not sure if it is that year) tells us that this is associated with the Arthur legends. This fight was with Vikings. It is also the kingdom of Umbria. (4)

Conclusion: if Vikings and Arthur lived in the same timespan they have fight each other. But it is not certain if they did.

1.     http://markneumayer.com/2012/07/24/five-magical-weapons-from-norse-mythology/

2.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mythological_objects

3.     http://www.epictales.org/blog/robertblog.php/2009/07/03/did_king_arthur_fight_the_vikings_a_fasc

4.     http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/vikinganglosaxons_timeline_noflash.shtml

Viking mythology Trees

http://www.germanicmythology.com/original/cosmology3.html

When a friend of mine posted about his first blog about trees in fantasy fiction I couldn’t resist it to talk about it either but in the way the Vikings did.

The tree of life Viking

The Vikings had a tree of life called Yggdrasil also known as a world tree in Norse mythology and is translated as Odin’s Horse or Odin’s Gallows. It was the connection between nine worlds. It is an ash tree and therefore considered as holy. Symbolic creatures lived there like a dragon an eagle and stags. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil

If we talk about making the trees in the world of the Vikings it was the hairs of Ymir who made trees. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/creation.html

Other trees

Barnstokkr: in the great hall of King Völsung.

Donar’s Oak: also known as Thor’s oak.

Glasir: placed outside the doors of Valhalla (Golden)

Irminsul: there is discussion about this tree for over more then hundred years but named after Odin.

Læraðr: known as betrayal.  Related to Yggdrasil because Odin took his life and hung himself at the tree of life.

Mímameiðr: stretched over every land

Sacred tree of Upsalla: stood in the temple of Upsalla.

They all refer to the tree of life. Different myths are told about those trees.

Go and find it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Trees_in_Germanic_paganism

Which of them are used in the tv series of Vikings?

Yggdrasil, Glasir and the Sacred tree of Upsalla.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4v8CjTcdcQ

http://www.history.com/shows/vikings/episodes/season-1/episode-8