Viking life, living history, experimental archeology, reenactment, history, craft.
September 4, 1950 was not going to be a normal day at work for those who at that time were digging the ground at Dronningens gate 10 in Trondheim. They were going to expand the buildings of the main post office, Hovedpostkontoret, in Trondheim, and this was the reason for the digging. During the dig, …
Continue reading December 12th – The silver treasure from Trondheim
Yesterday I wrote a long post about my mother's uncle, Olaf A. Digre. If you want to read it, you can find the post here. Among other things, he worked as a priest, archaeologist, safety inspector and he was in charge of all historical coins at the museum in Trondheim. He also did a lot …
Continue reading December 11th – Archaeological finds handed in by Olaf A. Digre
Today my calendar will be a bit different and perhaps a bit longer than usual. I will be writing about my mother's uncle, Olaf Andreas Digre. He is probably the main reason why I am so interested in history, archaeology and cultural heritage. As I grew up, I would always hear stories about this man …
Continue reading December 10th – My great uncle, Olaf Andreas Digre
Today is December 9th and, according to the primstav, today is Anna matris Mariae, or Anna 'pissihose', as it was called in the vernacular.A primstav is an old type of calendar used in Norway and Denmark during the Medieval period and until the 19th century. These calendars were usually made of wood and had a …
Continue reading December 9th – Anna pissihose and brewing jól ale
Christmas is getting closer by the minute it feels like, and it is time to tidy, clean, change the bed linens, polish silver and brass and iron all the table cloths. I remember when I was a child, my mother would hurry around, making everything perfect for Christmas. As she would iron the table cloths …
Continue reading December 8th – Seam smoothers and linen smoothers
Sometimes we find objects which are beautiful, but we just don't know what they were used for. Gullgubber is something that has been making the experts scratch their heads in wonder for years. What is the meaning behind these small, flat pieces of gold? Why were they put in the grown? Were they put there …
If you have kids, you probably know the importance of putting tag marks with the name of your kid onto their clothes, on their toys, food boxes, backpacks and basically everything they own. You probably have tag marks on some of your stuff too. Perhaps you have written your name and phone number in your …
Continue reading December 6th: “Ormr á sekk” – name tags from the Medieval period
Earlier, when I heard the word 'metal detector' in connection with historical finds, I always got a chill down my back. Why? Well, I don't really know, but maybe because of all the plundering of graves that has been going on in general. Grave looting and grave robbing has been a huge problem and it …
Continue reading December 5th – The metal detector and the gold ring from Rimol
Today is 4th of December and according to the Norwegian primstav that means Barbromesse. A primstav is an old type of calendar used in Norway and Denmark during the Medieval period and until the 19th century. These calendars were usually made of wood and had a flat, rectangular shape – like a plank or a …
Continue reading December 4th – Barbromesse and spinning yarn before Christmas
During extraction of peat close to the farm Austrått at Ørland, Norway in 1927, they came upon a round box or container made of birch bark. The birch bark box was found at the bottom of a peat bog, where it was placed upside down with a heavy stone on top of it. The stone …
Continue reading December 3rd – The birch bark box from Austrått
A large number of runic inscriptions from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries has been discovered in Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. These are referred to as the 'city runes'. These inscriptions were not made by professional writers, but rather by ordinary people who had learned the art of writing and reading. During the beginning of …
Continue reading December 2nd – Runic inscription N10607 from Trondheim
For those of you who know me by now, you probably know that my last name is Digre, after my mother. When I was little, I didn't really care for this name a lot as it means huge in Norwegian. As I grew older and got interested in history, I started wondering where the name …
Last summer when we visited Uppåkra and Vendeltidsdagarna, we also took the time to visit the city of Lund and the cathedral and the Historical museum of Lund.Here are some pictures from inside the museum.
As we drove home from the mid winter blot and the viking winter games this year, we drove past a ruin that I have been wanting to stop by and have a closer look at for many years. This time we were finally able to. I always believed that this ruin used to be a …
Continue reading The ruins of Sunne church and defense tower, Orreviken, Sweden
Every year around mid winter, Trondheim vikinglag travels to Norderön to compete against our friends Österhus vänner in the annual Viking Winter games. We have the competition with lots of games and fun, followed by a very powerful and beautiful blot and then a feast and a party of course. Österhus vänner have built a …
Last summer me and Christofer traveled back to Lund and Uppåkra to revisit the amazing event called Vendeltidsdagarna at Uppåkra Arkeologiska Center outside Lund in Sweden. Uppåkra was a very important place during the Vendel period and a lot of archaeological artifacts have been found at the site.I hope these series of post from previous …
So, this is a bit of a throwback, but as I am going through a lot of my pictures these days, I realized I never posted pictures from Vendeltidsdagarna at Uppåkra, not from either of the years I've been there.I hope my series of post from previous markets and events can help you find some …
Trondheim viking market is and will always be very special to me. I was involved in the creation of Trondheim vikinglag and with it the festival as well. I have been active in arrange the festival every single year since we started (except this year).As I wrote yesterday in the post about Leikvin viking market, …
Today it would have been 54 days until the first event of the season. Sadly, this event and a lot of other events this year have already been canceled because of this pandemic we have over us. It is a bit sad to think about, but also we just have to accept it and move …
I get a lot of questions about where I buy good quality fabrics for historical garments. I really appreciate you asking me this because that means you like my fabrics and you see me as an experienced textile shopper! Because I like answering your questions, I decided to make a list for you here. I …
Tonje Rogersdatter - My historical life 