A Taste I Don't Wish to Acquire

Before she could open presents on Christmas Eve, Ken Nelson's mother had to eat some lutefisk—a tradition my own Nordic ancestors had the good sense not to pick up and pass down.

The origins of lutefisk are a subject of debate. Some accounts mention a fish accidentally dropped in a washing bowl containing lye, and because of family poverty, the fish had to be eaten.

Personally, I like the story about when the Vikings were pillaging Ireland, and St. Patrick sent men to pour lye on the stores of dried fish on the longships, with the hope of poisoning the Vikings. However, rather than dying of poisoning, the Vikings declared the lye-soaked fish a delicacy and named it lutefisk. [Link]

Thus the saying, "That which does not kill us makes us hunger."

A Wench and Her Bench

Nancy Millar—author of The Final Word: The Book of Canadian Epitaphs—says that tombstones are no place to settle scores.

"You cannot step over certain lines and call your wife a bitch or anything like that."

One of her favourite examples of an epitaph done right -- one she describes as "a friendly agreement between husband and wife" -- is a monument along an old logging road in Grand Forks, N.D.

The top inscription reads, 'Here sits the bench of a Viking wench.' Upon the woman's companion's death, a subsequent inscription was added: 'Now the Viking wench has company on her bench.' [Link]

They Only Came to Pillage

The government of Denmark has apologized for the unseemly behavior of its Viking forebears in Ireland.

The apologetic gesture came as a replica Norse warrior ship arrived in Dublin after a voyage across the North Sea.

Danish Culture Minister Brian Mikkelson said his country was proud of the ship, Havhingsten (The Sea Stallion).

"But we are not proud of the damages to the people of Ireland that followed in the footsteps of the Vikings," he said. [Link]

Those "damages to the people of Ireland" did not involve the wholesale transfer of DNA. A genetic study by Trinity College scientists of a "cohort of Irish men bearing surnames of putative Norse origin" found "little trace of Scandinavian ancestry."

A Viking-Inca Link?

The Vikings were great seafarers, but could they have traveled all the way to Peru and brought back an Inca? Archaeologists pulled up some rose bushes at the old St. Nicolas church in Sarpsborg, Norway, and came upon an unusual skull.

"A particular bone at the back of the head was not fused. This is an inherited trait found almost exclusively among the Incas of Peru," [Mona Beate] Buckholm added. To this day, no other example of this trait has been found in Norway. "While it is tempting to speculate, seeing as St. Nicolas is the patron saint of sailors, it's hard to imagine a Peruvian making his way here at the time. This is quite puzzling." [Link]

Will There Be Pillaging?

"Are You A Viking?" is a new exhibition at Jorvik Viking Centre in Coppergate, York—a place that boasts of its "trademark 10th century stench."

This interactive display helps visitors to trace their ancestry by studying archaeological evidence, migration and trading routes, and the development of language and dialects.

You can compare your diet, habits and lifestyle to those of the Vikings, trace the origin of your name and study food, bones and artefacts.

You are met by a Viking trader, wall displays, barrels to test your senses of Viking touch and smell and a computer game to see whether your hair colour, clothes, and favourite foods suggest a link to the Vikings. [Link]

Her Ancestors Were Norse, of Course

Carrie Heiser has erected a 6-foot-tall, 800-pound bust of Leif Erikson's grandfather beside her driveway in Duvall, Washington.

Heiser's great-grandfather, Olafur Einarson, made the family's genealogical connection back to Olafur the White during a trip back to Iceland in 1899, she said. He searched through historical records in his hometown of Hafursa, and Heiser's uncle made copies of his research for the rest of the family.

Heiser's three children, ages 13, 17 and 26, didn't initially share her zeal for family history.

"They make fun of my Viking things," the Seattle-born Heiser said. "But now, with Olafur out there, they're intrigued. It put a face to this story I've been telling them." [Link]

The Truth Is Sometimes Ugly

A writer for Iceland Review Online found that she descends from a Viking named Bjálfi—which means "idiot" in modern Icelandic—through his colorful grandson Egill Skallagrímsson.

Most of the Vikings of the sagas were heroes - beautiful, generous, well-built men, who always did the right thing but got caught up in the web of fate and died in a tragic way.

My ancestor, Egill, was not like this. In Egils Saga, Egill is described as remarkably ugly and dangerously violent. At the age of seven he killed his playmate in a hockey game. Unlike most other Vikings in the sagas, Egill had trouble finding a girl to marry because of his looks. On top of it all, Egill had a big problem with alcohol. (Ironically, the biggest brewery in Iceland is named after him). [Link]

Vicariously Vikings

Does your family sit around the Easter dinner table boasting of crimes they've committed in the past year? If so, you might have Norwegian ancestry.

Norwegians at this time of year indulge in a tradition known as "Easter Crime," which involves reading crime novels and watching police dramas on television. The country's crime rate is currently low, but historically Norway was the home base of a notorious gang of thugs.

Nobody knows when the Norwegian tradition of crime telling at Easter began, but their warrior ancestors -- the Vikings -- were renowned for raiding trips to the British Isles.

On their return the Vikings would settle down with flasks of mead, an alcoholic drink made from honey, and recount tales of murder and pillage to their women and children. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Viking Horniness a Myth

Norwegian Torkild Waagaard has been studying his Viking heritage for years, and wants to make one thing perfectly clear:

I would like the world to know the truth. And that is that Viking helmets did not have horns. The only real Viking-age helmet ever found in the world was found in my hometown, Ringerike just north of Oslo. The cliché is of course that if you see a picture or representation of a Viking, you’ll see a helmet with horns. But that’s not true at all. [Link]

Update: Upon further reflection, I've concluded that this statement is an indictment of the kittens in this video. What does Torkild Waagaard have against kittens?

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Posh Pop Star Proud of Pillaging Progenitors

From The (London, U.K.) Sun Online of Oct. 12, 2005:

Blunt: I'm Bayeux-tiful

By MARTEL MAXWELL
and ELISE JENKINS

POSH singer James Blunt has revealed he is related to Danish royalty — and that his ancestors fought at the Battle of Hastings.

[snip]

Blue-blooded James, 28, who attended Harrow private school, is a descendant of Viking Gorm the Old, who ruled Denmark in the middle of the tenth century.

He said: “I’m related to King Gorm the Old — and my ancestors left Denmark in 1066 to fight in the battle of Hastings. Our family name was Blond.”

[snip]

[Read the whole story]