Day 09
Waking up at the Hauklandbeach was not the worst thing we could do.
Not that we normally like company, but everybody else was sleeping....
And the beach: just beautiful.
And so off for a new day of adventures.......
There is nothing like flowers - especially when you can have them by the thousands....
Coming up next: traces of our forefathers again....
At first sight it looks like they have stranded with their very large boat upside down.
But no - this was one of the largest homes of the Vikings for almost 1.000 years ago.
| BORG was one of the 10-15 chieftains' seats from Iron Age North Norway, but Borg is the only one where the building itself has been found. Archaeological investigations in the years 1983-1989 uncovered unusually rich finds, including remains of a house as long as 83 metres - the largest known from the Viking world. The chieftain's seat was established c. 500 A.D. and abandoned around 950. |
One of the chieftains at Borg was probably Olaf Tvennumbruni, who reestablished himself in Iceland, perhaps because of conflict with other chiefs. The chieftain's house has now been |
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The living quarters are 20 metres long
with a central hearth. They may have been subdivided into smaller rooms. Among the finds here were a couple of glass beads and a brooch pin. Some of this room, the western part, has been left for future excavation. It was undoubtedly here that most of
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The chieftain's hall was furnished with
benches along the walls. Along the middle of the floor ran the open hearth, where the food was prepared. Most of the time, this room also contained people working with crafts and day-to-day activities. Here were the high seats of the chieftain and his lady, elevated over the benches. The High Seat was the symbolic |
 The gold-leaf amulets show a tryst between a man and a woman. Such amulets are found only at certain places in Scandinavia, in chieftains' seats and other power centres. They were ritually buried under the post foundations during the erection of the high seat, from where the ruling couple held court. In all, five have been discovered here. |
 Drying different herbs for use during the long winter. |
Aye Aye Captain! A bit more starboard!
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The Vikings built far better ships than their predecessors, and navigated with great precision, making journeys easier. They crossed the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland and Vinland. Eastwards they sailed the Russian rivers to the Caspian Sea and via the Black Sea to Constantinople (Byzantium). |
This drawing shows an old viking-bridge, built about 1150 BC.
It was 90 m long, and is at present the only known bridge from that age here in Norway.
A fine piece of engineering.
All made of wood and stones. The pillars were thus filled by stones to stand the ice and storms.
On top of the bridge the vikings laid planks, and when one of their narrow ships had to pass,
they just lifted the planks in the center off.
This also made the lagoon inside the bridge a fine shelty harbour for their ships.
Next stop: Henningsvær
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Henningsvær
is situated at the foot of Mount Vågakaillen, and consists of a group of isles and islets spread out at random in the blue waters of the Vestfjord. With the mountain at its back and otherwise surrounded
by the sea, |
and as we told you in the introduction part,
we had to celebrate our wedding-anniversay here that day....
....before we took the day off at this beautiful place just East of Svolvær..
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