{"id":2654,"date":"2020-09-30T10:49:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T10:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2020-09-30T10:52:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T10:52:36","slug":"whats-up-with-norway-and-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/whats-up-with-norway-and-vikings\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up with Norway and Vikings?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t know if the TV series Vikings created a lot of Norwegian learners. Still, since it first aired (2013), many people around the world have become curious about the fierce Scandinavian warriors. No, you can\u2019t chat to them. But 2020 Norwegian wouldn\u2019t be there without their input, so let\u2019s revisit<\/a> vikingene<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

(I should say that I often freelance about Vikings elsewhere, so I have lots of background knowledge here! \ud83d\ude42 )<\/p>\n

Hva er en viking? <\/strong>(What is a Viking?) Basically, a Viking was a pirate from Scandinavia more than 1000 years ago. The earlier Scandinavians had mostly been homebodies \u2013 until somebody invented the smooth langskip<\/strong> (Viking longship) with seil<\/strong> (sail). This tech enabled the Scandinavians to sail to faraway lands and plunder (and trade \u2013 they weren\u2019t savage all the time!) In 793, a Viking fleet attacked the English island of Lindisfarne. This marks the beginning of vikingtida<\/strong> (the Viking Age \u2013 which ended in 1066, when the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada died trying to conquer England the Viking way).<\/p>\n

Hva er sammenhengen mellom vikingene og norsk kultur?<\/strong> (What is the connection between Vikings and Norwegian culture?) A lot, since Norway was one of the territories where Vikings lived! \ud83d\ude42 Vikings spoke norr\u00f8nt<\/strong> (Old Norse), which is the ancestor language of modern Norwegian. You can see the traces everywhere in the language, for example in weekday names \u2013 onsdag<\/strong> (Wednesday) actually means Odins dag<\/strong> (Odin\u2019s Day), and torsdag<\/strong> (Thursday) means Tors dag <\/strong>(Thor\u2019s Day).<\/strong> At the beginning of the Viking Age, Norway was split between different tribes (for example: the ryger<\/strong> of Rogaland and the horder<\/strong> of Hordaland). But according to legend, Harald H\u00e5rfagre<\/strong> (Harold Fairhair) defeated his opponents at the Battle of Hafrsfjord in 872 and united the tribes. For Viking sailors the coastline of the new country seemed to run northward forever \u2013 that\u2019s why it was called Nor\u00f0vegr<\/em><\/strong>, the \u201dNorth-Way\u201d. From there, Norwegian Vikings crossed the ocean and left their imprint on England, Scotland, Ireland, Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and even Canada\u2026<\/p>\n

Hvor kan jeg l\u00e6re mer om vikingene i Norge?<\/strong> (Where can I learn more about the Vikings in Norway?)<\/p>\n

Some nice places to go:<\/p>\n