ENJOYING HISTORY IN VIKINGESKIBSMUSEET, ROSKILDE

Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Claire Fontaine have arrived in Verona this morning, where they will attend the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games today. The two friends have been to Maria Enzasduaf and Kufstein this week, before arriving in this beautiful city in Veneto from where they will travel to the different places to enjoy such a spectacular sporting spectacle as the Paralympic Games.

Meanwhile, The Grandma continues in Denmark. She arrived in København with Veles e Vents by Ausiàs March and couldn't leave Roskilde without visiting the Vikingeskibsmuseet, an extraordinary museum that transports you throughout the history of the Vikings, who, just like Ausiàs March did in the Mediterranean, set out to sail, discover and live in places far from Scandinavian lands.

Vikingeskibsmuseet is a must-see to understand the Scandinavian past and present, a culture that has influenced the rest of Europe and part of North America much more than we will ever imagine.

For The Grandma, who loves the sea and sailing madly, being able to visit this museum is an indescribable pleasure, especially the part where they teach how these magnificent and majestic ships were made.

How do you take a piece of this culture with you? Some small souvenirs, a great book and a nice sweatshirt are not enough. Nothing is enough.

This evening, she will travel by train to Malmö, Sweden where she will stay for the weekend before returning to Barcelona, ​​where on Monday afternoon she will have a training session with future trainers in Castelldefels. 

Vikingeskibsmuseet (Viking Ship Museum) in Roskilde is Denmark's national ship museum for ships of the prehistoric and medieval period.

The main focus of the museum is a permanent exhibition of the Skuldelev ships, five original Viking ships excavated nearby in 1962.  

The Viking Ship Museum also conducts research and educates researchers in the fields of maritime history, marine archaeology and experimental archaeology. Various academic conferences are held here and there is a research library in association with the museum.

Around the year 1070, five Viking ships were deliberately sunk at Skuldelev in Roskilde Fjord in order to block the most important fairway and to protect Roskilde from an enemy attack from the sea. These ships, later known as the Skuldelev ships, were excavated in 1962. They turned out to be five different types of ships ranging from cargo ships to ships of war.

The Viking Ship Museum overlooking the inlet of Roskilde Fjord was built in 1969 with the main purpose of exhibiting the five newly discovered Skuldelev ships.

The original Skuldelev Viking ships are the main focus of the museum, but a small exhibition about the Roskilde ships and various temporary exhibitions with a broader scope can also be experienced here.

In the late 1990s, excavations for the shipyard expansion of the Viking Ship Museum uncovered the remains of a further nine ships, the Roskilde ships, from the medieval period. It is the largest such discovery of ships in Northern Europe. Most of these are from the period just after the Viking Age, 1060-1350 AD, but Roskilde 6 is from 1025 AD and is the longest Viking ship ever found; about 37 m long. All except Roskilde 8 have been excavated and their remains are at the National Museum of Denmark.

The Viking Ship Museum has a long tradition of Viking ship reconstructions and boat building and also collects boats of interest from all over Scandinavia. 

The boat collection at the museum now comprise more than 40 vessels and the associated ship building yard is constantly building new ships by original methods as part of an experimental archaeology learning process. It is possible to follow or engage in the ship building process here. The shipyard is located on a small isle known as Museumsøen (Museum Island), connected to the main museum exhibition buildings by a drawbridge.

Every summer, a handful of boats are launched for extended sea voyages to accumulate more knowledge about the seafaring techniques and conditions of the Vikings.

More information: Vikingeskibsmuseet

Nothing in life is going to be smooth sailing.

Dawn Staley

THE BEGINNING OF NORSE ACTIVITY IN THE BRITISH ISLES

Today, The Grandma has been reading about when the Vikings raided the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of Norse activity in the British Isles, on a day like today in 793.

Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries CE, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle and trade.

They are generally referred to as Vikings, but some scholars debate whether the term Viking represented all Scandinavian settlers or just those who used violence.

At the start of the early medieval period, Scandinavian kingdoms had developed trade links reaching as far as southern Europe and the Mediterranean, giving them access to foreign imports, such as silver, gold, bronze, and spices. These trade links also extended westwards into Ireland and Britain.

In the last decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders sacked several Christian monasteries in northern Britain, and over the next three centuries they launched increasingly large scale invasions and settled in many areas, especially in eastern Britain and Ireland, the islands north and west of Scotland and the Isle of Man.

During the Early Medieval period, the islands of Ireland and Britain were each culturally, linguistically, and religiously divided among various peoples. The languages of the Celtic Britons and of the Gaels descended from the Celtic languages spoken by Iron Age inhabitants of Europe. In Ireland and parts of western Scotland, as well as in the Isle of Man, people spoke an early form of Celtic Gaelic known as Old Irish.

In Cornwall, Cumbria, Wales, and south-west Scotland, the Celtic Brythonic languages were spoken (their modern descendants include Welsh and Cornish). The Picts, who spoke the Pictish language, lived in the area north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, which now constitutes a large portion of modern-day Scotland. Due to the scarcity of writing in Pictish, which survives only in Ogham, views differ as to whether Pictish was a Celtic language like those spoken further south, or perhaps even a non-Indo-European language like Basque. However, most inscriptions and place-names hint towards the Picts being Celtic in language and culture.

Most peoples of Britain and Ireland had already predominantly converted to Christianity from their older, pre-Christian polytheistic religions. In contrast to the rest of the isles though, much of southern Britain had become the various kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, where Anglo-Saxon migrants from continental Europe had settled during the fifth century CE, bringing with them their own Germanic language (known as Old English), a polytheistic religion (Anglo-Saxon paganism) and their own distinct cultural practices. By the time of the Viking incursions though, Anglo-Saxon England too had become mostly Christian.

In the final decade of the eighth century, Viking raiders attacked a series of Christian monasteries in the British Isles. Here, these monasteries had often been positioned on small islands and in other remote coastal areas so that the monks could live in seclusion, devoting themselves to worship without the interference of other elements of society. At the same time, it made them isolated and unprotected targets for attack.

More information: Culture Frontier

The first known account of a Viking raid in Anglo-Saxon England comes from 789, when three ships from Hordaland (in modern Norway) landed in the Isle of Portland on the southern coast of Wessex. They were approached by Beaduheard, the royal reeve from Dorchester, whose job it was to identify all foreign merchants entering the kingdom, and they proceeded to kill him.

There were almost certainly unrecorded earlier raids. In a document dating to 792, King Offa of Mercia set out privileges granted to monasteries and churches in Kent, but he excluded military service against seaborne pirates with migrating fleets, showing that Viking raids were already an established problem. 

In a letter of 790–92 to King Æthelred I of Northumbria, Alcuin berated English people for copying the fashions of pagans who menaced them with terror. This shows that there were already close contacts between the two peoples, and the Vikings would have been well informed about their targets.

The next recorded attack against the Anglo-Saxons came the following year, in 793, when the monastery at Lindisfarne, an island off England's eastern coast, was sacked by a Viking raiding party on 8 June. The following year, they sacked the nearby Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey.

In 795, they once again attacked, this time raiding Iona Abbey off Scotland's west coast. This monastery was attacked again in 802 and 806, when 68 people living there were killed. After this devastation, the monastic community at Iona abandoned the site and fled to Kells in Ireland.

In the first decade of the ninth century, Viking raiders began to attack coastal districts of Ireland.

In 835, the first major Viking raid in southern England took place and was directed against the Isle of Sheppey and in a battle in 839, Vikings inflicted heavy defeats against the Picts, killing Uuen, the King of the Picts, his brother Bran and Aed son of Boanta, King of Dál Riata.

The England runestones, in Swedish Englandsstenarna, is a group of about 30 runestones in Sweden which refer to Viking Age voyages to England. They constitute one of the largest groups of runestones that mention voyages to other countries, and they are comparable in number only to the approximately 30 Greece runestones and the 26 Ingvar runestones, of which the latter refer to a Viking expedition to the Middle East. They were engraved in Old Norse with the Younger Futhark.

The Anglo-Saxon rulers paid large sums, Danegelds, to Vikings, who mostly came from Denmark and Sweden who arrived to the English shores during the 990s and the first decades of the 11th century. Some runestones relate of these Danegelds, such as the Yttergärde runestone, U 344, which tells of Ulf of Borresta who received the danegeld three times, and the last one he received from Canute the Great. Canute sent home most of the Vikings who had helped him conquer England, but he kept a strong bodyguard, the Þingalið, and its members are also mentioned on several runestones.

The vast majority of the runestones, 27, were raised in modern-day Sweden and 17 in the oldest Swedish provinces around lake Mälaren. In contrast, modern-day Denmark has no such runestones, but there is a runestone in Scania which mentions London. There is also a runestone in Norway and a Swedish one in Schleswig, Germany.

More information: Heritage Calling

Never walk away from home
ahead of your axe and sword.
You can’t feel a battle
in your bones or foresee a fight.

The Havamal

WHY DO THE IRISH SEEM SO DIFFERENT TO THE ENGLISH?

Map of Ireland

Because they are different racially and culturally and have had totally different historical developments. 

Ireland was settled by successive waves of Celtic-speaking peoples in the first millennium B.C. The next settlers were the Vikings who established Ireland’s first towns along the East and South coasts in the ninth and tenth centuries A.D. At that time the Irish people were still living a tribal-pastoral life. 

England was also populated by Celts at one time, but it became a Roman colony two thousand years ago, and was settled by Germanic tribes in the fifth century A.D. 

More information: RTE

In the eleventh century, French-speaking rulers conquered England, establishing French as the language of the court and the high society. The amalgamation of Germanic peoples with French-speaking rulers created English as we know it; closer to German for basic communication, closer to French for more official, intellectual and refined matters. 

The Normans came to Ireland also but not in great numbers, and they soon took on the language and customs of Ireland. 

Industrialization, colonization and colonial power have significantly influenced the English character. 

The Irish character has been shaped by opposite factors; the continuity of the rural agricultural way of life combined with the experience of powerlessness under English colonial rule.

Source: Why do the Irish? by Fiana Griffin

 Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England - Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation. 

Charles Stewart Parnell

THE BONDS IN DROICHEAD ÁTHA, CONTAE LÚ

The Bonds in Proleek Dolmen, Contae Lú

The Bonds are still in Ireland. They arrived last month and they are preparing their Cambridge Exams in the Irish capital. Ireland is a catholic nation and this week is Easter, a very important festivity for the Catholic community. This is the reason because of the family has decided to take some free days and enjoy this festivity visiting some of the most beautiful places of the green island. They are going to enjoy holidays during four days and after they are going to continue their exams preparations. Today, they are visiting Contae Lú. 

Contae Lú or County Louth is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Border Region. It is named after the village of Louth. Louth County Council is the local authority for the county.

County Louth is colloquially known as the Wee County as it is Ireland's smallest county by area. It is the 18th-largest in terms of population. It is the smallest of Leinster’s 12 counties by size and the sixth-largest by population.

More information: Comhairle Contae Lú

Despite its fairly average total population, Louth is the second most densely populated county in Ireland behind Dublin, and the fourth on the island of Ireland, due to its small size.

County Louth is named after the village of Louth, which in turn is named after Lugh, a god of the ancient Irish. Historically, the placename has had various spellings; Lugmad, Lughmhaigh, and Lughmhadh. Lú is the modern simplified spelling.

The Bonds in Mellifont Abbey, Contae Lú

The county is steeped in myth, legend and history, and is a setting in the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Later it saw the influence of the Vikings as seen in the name of Carlingford Lough. They also established a longphort at Annagassan in the ninth century. At this time Louth consisted of three sub-kingdoms each subject to separate over-kingdoms: Conaille (Ulaidh); Fir Rois (Airgialla); and, the Fir Arda Ciannachta (Midhe). The whole area became part of the O'Carroll Kingdom of Airgialla (Oriel) early in the 12th century.

A number of historic sites are in the county, including religious sites at Monasterboice, Mellifont Abbey and the St Mary Magdalene Dominican Friary.

More information: Ireland.com

The Normans occupied the Louth area in the 1180s, and it became known as English Oriel, to distinguish it from the remainder, Irish Oriel, which remained in Irish hands. The latter became the McMahon lordship of Oriel of Monaghan.

In the early 14th century, the Scottish army of Edward Bruce was repulsed from Drogheda. Edward was finally defeated, losing his claim to the High Kingship of Ireland along with his life, in the Battle of Faughart near Dundalk, by a chiefly local force led by John de Bermingham.

In 1189 AD, a royal charter was granted to Dundalk after a Norman nobleman named Bertram de Verdun erected a manor house at Castletown Mount. Later in 1412 , a royal charter was granted to Drogheda. This charter unified the towns of Drogheda-in-Meath and Drogheda-in-Uriel, Louth as a County in its own right, styled as the County of the town of Drogheda. 

The Bonds in Round Tower, Dromiskin, Contae Lú

Drogheda continued as a County Borough until the setting up of County Councils, through the enactment of the Local Government, Ireland Act 1898, which saw all of Drogheda, including a large area south of the River Boyne, become part of an extended County Louth.

Until the late 16th century, Louth had been a part of Ulster, before being included as part of Leinster after a conference held at Faughart, in 1596, between the Chiefs of Ulster, O'Nial, O'Niel and O'Donel, McDonnel, on the Irish side, and the Archbishop of Cashel and the Earl of Ormonde on that of the English.

More information: Irish Central

The 16th and 17th centuries featured many skirmishes and battles involving Irish and English forces, as it was on the main route to the Moiry Pass and the Ulster areas often in rebellion and as yet uncolonised. Oliver Cromwell attacked Drogheda in 1649 slaughtering the Royalist garrison and hundreds of the town's citizens. Towards the end of the same century, the armies of the warring Kings, James and William, faced off in South Louth during the build-up to the Battle of the Boyne the battle was fought 3 km west Drogheda. Drogheda held for James II under Lord Iveagh, but surrendered to King William III of Orange the day after the battle of the Boyne.

The area of Omeath was Irish-speaking until the early 20th century. A native dialect of Louth Irish existed there until about 1930, but is now extinct, although recordings have been made. Within the county 1,587 people use Irish on a daily basis outside of the education system.

More information: Wikiwand (Gaelic Version)

 The Ireland I now inhabit is one that these Irish 

contemporaries have helped to imagine.  

Seamus Heaney