You betcha there are many British citizens who are etterkommere (descendants) of Norwegian vikinger (Vikings), although it is unknown how many and where from.  Britiske forskere (British researchers) are conducting a study to chart Northern England’s Viking legacy.  Professor Peter Harding at the University of Nottingham will be leading the study and working very closely with the project coordinator in Norway, Harald Løvvik.  The mission is to discover where the descendants of the vikings slo seg ned (settled) and from what regioner (regions) in Norway the Vikings who eventually reproduced and/or settled in England kom fra (came from).

Harding and his fellow forskere had hoped prosjektet (the project) would have started in 2008, but was only recently approved by norske myndigheter (Norwegian authorities).  Prosjektet will be conducted as follows:  Forskere will take mouth samples from 20 people from each of the following regioner: Sognefjorden, Ryfylkefjorden, Hardangerfjorden, Hedmark, Trondheim, Bergen, Gudbrandsdalen, Stavanger, and Namdalen (at first, the project was to only choose people from the cig cities in this list, but as you see, they have expanded out of the cities).  Forskere will focus on the y-kromosomet (Y chromosome) since it is only passed from far til sønn (father to son).  Each frivillig (volunteer) will be required to know his farslinje (paternal line) back 6 or 7 generasjoner (generations) in the same area.  Since it may prove to be more difficult to locate and test people deep ute i landet (in the country), forskere will supplement some of prøvene (the tests) with people from Oslo who come from those specific regioner.

Prøvene will be sent to the University of Leicester, one of Europe’s leading DNA forskningsinsitusjoner (research institutions).

If you qualify and are interested in participating, email jaktviking@yahoo.no