A Viking Village

A few days ago, we were anchored next to Avaldsnes. There we visited a museum and a Viking village replica. I was really interested in the village.

In the museum, there was a section where you could dress up as a Viking. The chainmail armor was extremely hard to put on because it was so heavy. After wearing it for a few minutes, my shoulders were sore. Wearing it for hours while running and charging in battle seems like a nightmare to me.

Porter and I are playing "The Viking Game." In the background, you can just barely see between our heads Sila anchored in the bay

As we approached the entrance, two boys leapt in front of the path, carrying round shields and spears. They were dressed in long tunics, and grinning from ear to ear. They spoke a few words in Norwegian to Daddy and drew aside as we entered. Feeling excited, I was eager to see the village. There was a school group staying in the village for two days and as we walked through it, they were around doing activities.

First, we went past a long building called the long house. I noticed the slanted roof had many layers of wooden tiles on it. In all, there were 100,000 hand carved pine shingles. The long rectangular building had mica windows there to only provide light for the building. I found this interesting. You could not see out of them and they did not open to let in air. I have not thought of windows as anything other than glass or open holes.

This is the longhouse. You can see some of the many roof tiles.

As we walked along, we came to a three-sided, palapa-like structure. Its three walls were made of sticks loosely woven together. A few kids were cooking flat bread over a fire. It looked very fun to cook and eat. In addition to the long house and palapa, there were several small rectangular buildings with roofs that looked like the planks of overturned boats. Inside a round house, we saw a  group of kids sitting in a circle carving wooden knives. It seemed so satisfying for each kid to pause and look at his or her nearly finished knife.

This is the wall of the palapa-like structure

This is one of the many buildings that had a roof that looked like an overturned boat.

After we had explored most of the village, we went out and down to the shore to the largest building of the village. This large structure is about 32 meters long,15 meters at its widest and called the Leidang boat house. It was outside of the wooden fence that marked the village, and down by the shore, with the large double doors facing the ocean.

From informational signs near the village, I learned that the leidang was a naval defense system developed in the Viking Age. It was a conscription to organize coastal fleets. The leidang was divided into ships crews and a certain number of farms were responsible for providing a ship with equipment and crew. The leidang was therefore a form of taxation and conscription. The ships each had a crew of 90-100 men. The leidang boat houses were a gathering place for the crew. It was also used as a banquet hall.

Porter, Daddy and I standing in front of the leidang boat house

After exploring it all, I was very envious of the kids who were staying there. I think running around, shooting bows, cooking flat or twisted bread over a fire, making wooden knives, rowing boats, and play fighting, sounds like a blast. It was interesting to walk through all the same. -JackRabbit