Posted on 07/09/2008 9:54:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
When Ohthere the Viking arrived at King Alfred's court sometime around 880 he presented the king with a gift of walrus ivory. The gift was carefully chosen. Walrus ivory was then a rare commodity obtained only from northern Scandinavia and Russia, and was highly prized by the English. Having established his credentials as a prosperous and high-ranking man from the far north, Ohthere told Alfred that although he owned reindeer as well as cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, his greatest wealth came from the tax paid by the Finnas, or Sami people. This came in the form of seal skins and birds' feathers, the pelts of bears, pine martens and reindeer, tunics made of otter skin and strong ships' ropes fashioned from walrus hide.
Such a catalogue of luxuries must have impressed the English, but what evidently fascinated Alfred most was the geography and people of little-known regions of Scandinavia. The king's scribe strove to capture every detail as Ohthere described a five-week voyage down the Norwegian coast to a place called Sciringes heal - now a farm called Kaupang in southern Norway - and from there on to Hedeby in the western Baltic.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I online ordered that a couple of months ago.
I think we’ll be herring more about this.
No comment from Fred Smoot?
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