SACHF Upcoming Events: Nordic Spirit Info

Nordic Spirit

presents

Myths, Digs and Saga Kings:
A New Look at the Viking Age

Friday and Saturday, February 8-9, 2008

On the beautiful campus of California Lutheran University, 60 West Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks

This program will highlight the results of recent research and new insights that demonstrate: the powerful Viking impact on England and continental Europe; the political and strategic importance to the Viking kings of Avaldsnes on the west coast of Norway; and the far-reaching influence of Viking age settlement of Iceland on North American society, even to the 19th century. The program will also provide a perspective on Viking Age myth and religion by examining the dramatic meeting of northern paganism and European Christianity.

You are invited to experience for yourself this program with distinguished speakers and polished performers, and share the time-honored spirit of a symposium, blending music, dining and the free exchange of ideas to enhance the pleasure of learning.

England and Europe: Some New Insights into the Viking Impact
Richard Hall, Director of Archaeology, Your Archaeological Trust for Excavation and Research Ltd., England

An overview of relatively new archaeological discoveries relating to Viking activities in Western Europe and in England, where there have been a number of new and exciting finds. These will be placed into context within a bigger picture.

Who Were the Vikings?
Marit Synnøve Vea, Project Director, The Avaldsnes Project, Avaldsnes, Norway

Most people know the Vikings as warriors, explorers and seafarers. In this talk you are invited home to the Vikings. What did their houses look like? How did they dress? What were their beliefs? Their use of runes, their legal system, their code of honor, their love for art and poetry, the role of Viking women, marriage and love.

The Vikings in Ireland
Anne-Christine Larsen, Director of Exhibitions and Collections, The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark

Ireland was of great importance during the Viking era, when Dublin became established as a major hub for trade.

Video: The Sea Stallion, A Longship Voyage from Roskilde to Dublin
The Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde, Denmark

The Viking Ship Museum recreated the longest Viking longship known, 30 meters long. It made the voyage from Roskilde, Denmark, to Dublin during the summer of 2007.

Viking Age Myth and Religion: Scandinavian Paganism and European Christianity
John Lindow, PhD, Professor of Scandinavian, University of California at Berkeley

This lecture takes as its point of departure not Scandinavian mythology or pre-Christian religion, but rather the fact that the Viking Age by definition involves an expansion of peoples from within Scandinavia to the rest of Europe and contacts with peoples and new lands. Viking Age myth and religion, I will suggest, may profitably be regarded from the perspective of the meeting between Scandinavian paganism and European Christianity. Virtually all the primary source material comes from that meeting; Christian writers offer accounts of religion in the north, and much later, native writers use the technology of writing, brought by the church, to record the texts that make up Scandinavian mythology.

Avaldsnes, the Seat of Viking Kings
Marit Synnøve Vea, Project Director, The Avaldsnes Project, Avaldsnes, Norway

Avaldsnes, royal estate for Harald Fairhair and the other saga kings, is situated on the West Coast of Norway. In the Viking Age Avaldsnes stands out as a kingly center of great strategic and political importance. It is no coincidence that some of the largest and most spectacular grave mounds in Norway, two of them ship burials, are found here.

In 2006 test excavations revealed traces of buildings from the Viking period. The University of Oslo has just started a project aiming to uncover these remains which once were “The home of Viking Kings”.

In addition to several research programs, the Avaldsnes Project works to make the history of the past visible and understandable to a broad public. Situated on the site is a reconstructed Viking farm and Nordvegen History Centre, where stories from the sagas as well as the results of new research are interpreted. The reconstructed  Viking farm with eight buildings is used as part of an experimental archaeological research program.

Emigration and Mythmaking: The Icelanders in North America
Kirsten Wolf, PhD, Professor and Torger Thompson Chair, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin – Madison

This paper examines the myth of the emigration of Icelanders to, and their settlement in, North America at the end of the nineteenth century. It analyzes in a systematic manner the three primary sources for the various components of the North American Icelandic social myth and discusses their significance and use. These three sources are: (1) the story of the settlement of Iceland itself during the Viking Age; (2) the story of the discovery of North America by Norsemen; and (3) the biblical story (Exodus). It is argued that self-defense, self-justification, and the need to legitimize their reality in the New World were what motivated the North American Icelanders’ social myth, the main function of which was to create a feeling of group cohesiveness among the immigrants and their descendants by giving them a sense of cultural identity in a place virtually devoid of any history and tradition. One form of identity that the mythic consciousness makes possible is heroism, and by drawing from the central myth of their culture, the settlement story, and the biblical migration myth, both of which were vividly paradigmatic as models, the North American Icelanders were able not only to demonstrate that their relocation was not so unprecedented as to be beyond comprehension, but also to provide a moral continuity from a heroic past and to legitimize contemporary assertions of the Viking archetype of Nordic heroism.

 

 

 

Scandinavian Center

• Home
• Information
• Pictures
• Directions

Nordic Spirit

• Information
• Pictures
• Registration Form
• Directions

Scandinavian Festival

• Information
• History of the Festival
• Pictures
• Children Activities
• Vendor Information
• Contact Information
• Directions

Newsletter

• Current Newsletter
• Prior Newsletters

SACHF Membership

• Information