When I was in Oslo, we visited the Hjemkomst (I think that was the name), a viking ship that came from Minnesota (I think!!!), all the way down to Oslo. It had about two feet of space from the sides of the ship to the ocean. I cannot even imagine the courage it took to make it all that way.
They don’t make men like that anymore.
Those ships were incredible.
The ribs were actually fastened to the planking by fiber rope. The long ship actually writhed up and down like a snake in the ocean.
I wonder what ship it was. The two best preserved ones are the Gokstadt Ship and the Oseberg Ship. I think the Oseberg ship is the more beautiful of the two - the lines on it are breathtaking. It looks “alive”.
I read somewhere that the dragon head on a Viking Ship was not put there until the ship was out of port and replaced at sea. The Vkings believed in spirits called Landvetter(spelling?) which were sort of guardians of the land. They believed the fierce dragon head whould scare away the Landvetter of the places they were rading, but didn’t want it to scare away the guardain spirits of their own land.
I guess Norway is a beautiful place with the fjords and mountains and snow. The closest to it here is probably Washington State north into the Alaska panhandle. Never was in Norway, but was in Alaska - a real beautiful place.