Environmental historian Vicki Szabo and her team of archaeologists, historians, folklorists and geneticists are trying to figure out medieval Icelanders' attitudes to blue whales. Did they revere them as their protectors? Did they hunt them for food? Was it both? @hakaimagazine's Andrew Chapman reports on the work of this multi-disciplinary team, and what their findings might tell us about historical and modern whale populations.
In the Middle Ages, many Christian Scandinavians believed that the Norse gods had actually been humans from Troy who had fled their burning city and immigrated to Scandinavia, where they had used magic to make the locals believe that they were gods.
To drink from the Well of Wisdom, the Norse god Odin had to give one of his eyes to Mimir, the Well's guardian. In some versions, this is simply a general sacrifice, but in others it's a trade - the eye gives Mimir Odin's knowledge just as the drink gives Odin Mimir's.
🎨 Emil Doepler
The huldufólk (hidden folk) of Iceland are human-sized fairies whose communities are hidden in the hills. Sometimes they are depicted with cow tails. It is said that if the huldufólk marry a human, their cow tails fall off, and they become human themselves.
🎨 Brett Manning
Scandinavia’s early farmers slaughtered the hunter-gatherer population 5,900 years ago
A recent study conducted by Lund University in Sweden challenges previously held beliefs regarding the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies in Scandinavia...
The city of Troy was considered the epitome of culture and sophistication, so many European cultures (Italians, Welsh, etc.) claimed their ancestors had been Trojans. Medieval Christian Scandinavians even claimed their pagan gods had actually been Trojan sorcerers.
🎨 Giovanni Tiepolo #WyrdWednesday
According to Norse mythology, the Mead of Inspiration was created by two wicked dwarves as they mixed the blood of the dead god Kvasir with honey. Anyone who drank from this mead would possess great wisdom and become a great poet.
🎨 Franz Stassen #MythologyMonday
Scandinavia's Winter Tourism Boom: A Silver Lining to Climate Change
The scarcity of snow in the Alps has led to a boom in Scandinavian winter tourism, with tourists seeking unique experiences like skiing and viewing the Northern Lights. This shift has positive economic implications and challenges the global tourism industry to adapt to climate change
The gulon is a legendary monster of the Scandinavian arctic with a dog's size and body, a cat's head and claws, and a fox's tail. The gulon is so gluttonous that once it's full, it will squeeze itself between two trees to vomit up its food, so it can start killing and eating again. #FolkloreSunday
The first Norse (long)ship that was (re)discovered was the Tune ship, which was found in a mound already known as Båthaugen (boat mound – what did people think might be inside?!) in Tune, Østfold in 1867. All the other longships currently on display around Europe have been discovered subsequently to this find.
Old literature does mention longships and dragonships and knarr and karve and snekkja, and so on; we knew of their existence. But, prior to the rediscovery of the buried artifacts, what did people imagine these boats looked like?
Well, the Old Norse-folk helped us there, too. There is, for example, a depiction of a longboat on the Stora Hammars I image stone, dating from the 600s (nearly 200 years before everyone woke up on the morning of 6. January 793 and decided to be Vikings). There is a similar image, though much grander, on the Tjängvide image stone (700–900, making it a proper Viking image).
In conclusion: we knew something of what the ships looked like, but only through textual and limited image evidence, before the Tune ship was dragged out of the earth.
Musk and Tesla are battling unions across Scandinavia. What comes next in the labor dispute?
None of Tesla’s workers anywhere in the world are unionized, raising questions about whether strikes could spread to other parts of Europe where employees commonly have collective bargaining rights.