I’m rushing tonight, as I’ve got to help the Vikings load a van for Høstfest in Minot next week. So just a couple items.

Maxine at Petrona reports on a new history of the Viking Age which I find intriguing. Looks like somebody is stepping up to argue back against the “peaceful Vikings” meme that’s had so much currency in the last twenty or thirty years. I’ll defend the Vikings in some contexts, but I’m sick of seeing Vikings portrayed as “victims” of those nasty Christians. Victims is the last thing they’d want to be known as.



(Tip: Dave Lull)

And from England, a web site devoted to the Staffordshire Hoard, found in England last July.

The Staffordshire Hoard is an unparalleled treasure find dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Both the quality and quantity of this unique treasure are remarkable. The story of how it came to be left in the Staffordshire soil is likely to be more remarkable still.

Big news for us reenactors.



(Tip: Wulfric Solvarsson)

Sorry about not posting earlier. I was in Tech Support Purgatory in regard to my antivirus program. Because it’s late, I’ll just give you this picture to enjoy, of the battle reenactment on Saturday. I’m the one in the white tunic, meditating on man’s inhumanity to man, and whether there’s any loot to be had.

(Thanks to Mrs. Lais for the picture.)

It was a strenuous, exhausting, yet enjoyable weekend. It’s going to be a fairly strenuous week too, by my standards. I have to prepare for my departure for Minot (the Høstfest Scandinavian festival, if you’re a new reader) on Monday. On Thursday I have to help the guys load a van for that event, and on Saturday I help a friend move.

(By the way, Phil will be gone next week too. Both of us will try to post as opportunities present themselves, but frequency will be down.)

Another Viking and I drove down to New Ulm on Saturday evening. The weather was unseasonably warm, and remained that way through the event. We were given a room in an old hotel which is now operating as a sort of arts center. As latecomers, we had to take a room on the third floor, where the air conditioner’s writ did not run, but opening a window helped a little. We slept on army cots, and I actually slept pretty well, since I’d prudently stayed up late the night before in order to give myself a sleep deficit.

There was a shower downstairs, and I (up early) was the first to snag it after the Roman who’d been sleeping in the room got up and went to breakfast. The shower, as it turned out, was cold. I endured it like a Cherusci (that was my tribe).

Afterwards, the Roman informed me (with a smile) that the shower did have hot water—“Just not for the first guy.”

And they wonder why everybody wants to massacre them. Continue reading My weekend as an honorary German →

Here’s a YouTube video of our battle this weekend. I’m in the main section of the barbarian army, the one that comes up from the mid-left with Arminius himself, but I was standing on the opposite side, so it’s pretty hard to make me out. I think I caught a glimpse of me once. I was wearing a white tunic.

The clip is almost ten minutes long.

Tonight, no proper post. Just an apology, because I don’t have time to post. Tomorrow I probably won’t write anything, because I’m leaving after work for the great reenactment of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in New Ulm, which I told you about a few weeks back. That means that on top of my usual Thursday night bill paying, I have to wash clothes.

On top of that, I lost my computer connection for a while. When I finally gave up trying to re-set the modem I called Earthlink customer service, and precisely the same thing happened as happened the last two times I called (for the same reason, by the way). Before I could reach my faithful Indian helper, the connection came back, all on its own. This time it happened before I’d even gotten properly into voice mail. I believe they must have set things up so that an extra-strong signal gets transmitted to your modem when you call in, an automatic fix for the majority of callers. I call that a good thing, too. Saves time and stressful human interaction.

See you Monday.

The piece on the philology of folk tales that I linked to this morning reminded me of my reading of Norwegian fairy tales (called “eventyr,” which means “adventure,” more or less). A pair of Norwegians named Asbjørnsen and Moe, disciples of the Grimms, compiled the most famous collection. The familiar English translation is George Dasent’s East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon, but I don’t recommend it. It’s not a particularly good translation, and has a very Victorian flavor. This one is better.

My favorite eventyr is “The Twelve Wild Ducks,” which (in line with the interrelations of stories mentioned in that piece below) is clearly (to me at least) a cousin to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” This is especially apparent at the beginning. However, it’s far longer and more convoluted than the Grimms’ German tale that we all grew up with. It also bears interesting similarities to the classical story of Cupid and Psyche, which means Snow White and Psyche are related at only one remove. I find that intriguing. Continue reading “The Twelve Wild Ducks” →