Viking mythology and all that goes with it

Tyra said:
Not that it has anything to do with religion and such, but the previous post reminded me that there are actually pics on the web...
Some pics of the non-SCA demo group:
http://www.angelfire.com/de/scot/frames.html
Some of my crazy friends doing the SCA thing:
(fight practise)
http://www.blathaanoir.org/photopages/fprphoto1.htm
(general goofing around stuff)
http://www.geocities.com/ravensteadhousehold/
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for all that lovely info, Tyra! The Althing page was especially helpful :) Ah so Norse ritual garb is just mostly regular Norse garb, I thought it might have been a separate type of garb just for rituals. I can understand how that may allow certain individuals to relate to their ancestors and the gods, it does make sense. Cool links and pics by the way...too bad I don't have pics of me romping around an SCA event wearing my Viking garb....yet.

I know this is really off topic but since Viking garb and the SCA were mentioned, what sewing patterns did you use? I used one that didn't work well at all since it seems to have been made for "larger" women. :rolleyes: (which is an all too common phenomenon in the SCA). I have the whole Eastern Viking/Rus thing going on hehe...the only piece of jewelry I am missing is a cloak pin. Haha I would freeze my ass off if I didn't have my cloak!
 
Well, I don't actually use a pattern by now - I've made so many of these damn things by now that I just know it by heart. I also have the advantage of having studied the period for a few years now, and I tend to think of the SCA and the demos as "field testing". You learn pretty quickly what is workable and what is not (i. e. will x-type of apron catch fire if you bend over to cook, or is this a burial shroud or and actual garment to be worn daily etc). Anyhow, if you are reasonably good at sewing, you can probably work out how to use the two patterns at the bottom of the page here:
http://www.historiska.se/histvarld/drakt.htm
despite the fact that the patterns are in Swedish. The patterns are on the right in PDF format. They are part of the National Museum of Antiquities in Stockholm's home page. It is a very good site, with information that has been put on it by the archaeologists that work there (as a difference to someone who is just guessing). If you need help, you can always PM me. I hear you about the "large women pattern" issue - I am stick thin myself, so I have to alter everything.
 
this might sounds like a stupid question but hell:
in the movie The Mask with Jim Carrey, i believe this psychologist says the mask is "the mask of Loki, God of mischief"... i'm not sure cause last time i saw this movie (many years ago) i didnt know shit about viking mythology, but somehow that phrase popped to my mind recently.
Anyway i was wondering if Loki really did have a mask or if they just invented that for the sake of the movie.. i don't recall any stories of Loki having a mask.. so its just to make sure.
 
Not that I can recall. Some say Odin has masks, but not in a litterate sense of the word, like Loki in the movie. That particular movie (my kids love it) depicts Loki as Odin's son and makes many other "mistakes" in the mythology department, but I think that's OK. Most of these types of movies, just like the video games etc, have to be enjoyed just as entertainment, and not necessarily as accurate retellings of stories. My hope is that someone like you will see it and ask a question like the one you asked, and maybe learn something about me, you or the Norse or the mythology or whatever in the process. If a movie like "Beowulf and Grendel" (which hacked off about 3/4 of the "real" Beowulf plot, including some very, very important parts that explain the story) can turn 1/10th of its viewers onto the "real" Beowulf, then I say go for it! "The 13th Warrior" did the same thing (butchered a very good and carefully researched book, based on a real contemporary manuscript mixed with Beowulf and a lot of imagination), but look at how many people read the book, and even the original manuscript because of it! Many of those readers have since finished university, debated the original manuscript and formed new hypothesies and started new research project because of it. Not to mention movies like "Revenge of the Barbarians", which inspired this gangly blonde kid from Sweden and his friends to write a song about it. Here we are, a few years later, you and I, discussing the finer points of Norse mythology and Germanic litterary treasures in a public forum, when all we really have in common is an appreciation of the band that resulted from it. If nothing else, that goes to show that even if some stuff is not absolutely 100% accurate in its depiction of the Norse, it can still lead to some very improtant dialogue and open up new avenues to new angles and new knowledge. I love that about The Mask.
 
Some might suggest that Loki himself had a part in slightly misinforming people - it can be very amusing after all. Heh, with so many people seeing The Mask and now thinking of Loki as Odin's son I'm sure that Odin would be sitting there with a very bemused look on his face and Loki somewhere in the background grinning his arse off...
 
The etymological meaning is thought to go back to a word that means "a wandering people" (vandrarfolk), as in The Finns and in Finland. This would explain why in Sweden, in earlier times, very far back in history, people who were not at all Finns were called "skogsfinnar" (they moved around), and why the Sami were refered to as finnr (they, too, were nomadic, and their language may also have sounded like Finnish to those who didn't speak it). Finland, Finnboga and Finnveden would be the places where Finns would have lived. The Finns were of a whole another culture compared to the Norse, and some of their tribes stayed nomadic much later than the "Swedish" tribes did. Nobody knows what came first - the name or its associated meaning.
 
thx for your explainations Tyra.
You're like a walking encyclopedia, are you on lown or something? i might need you in class ;)
 
Yes, Odin's eye is in Mimer's well. Can you elaborate on the next part of your question? I'm not sure what you mean. Is it Master Adam von Bremen you're refering to?
 
Tyra said:
The etymological meaning is thought to go back to a word that means "a wandering people" (vandrarfolk), as in The Finns and in Finland. This would explain why in Sweden, in earlier times, very far back in history, people who were not at all Finns were called "skogsfinnar" (they moved around), and why the Sami were refered to as finnr (they, too, were nomadic, and their language may also have sounded like Finnish to those who didn't speak it). Finland, Finnboga and Finnveden would be the places where Finns would have lived. The Finns were of a whole another culture compared to the Norse, and some of their tribes stayed nomadic much later than the "Swedish" tribes did. Nobody knows what came first - the name or its associated meaning.
Click to expand...

or, for that matter, where their language came from
 
Celtik Militia said:
thx for your explainations Tyra.
You're like a walking encyclopedia, are you on lown or something? i might need you in class ;)
Click to expand...
He he. Naw, I just happen to have a lot of this information fresh in my head as I am forever upgrading my university degree along those lines. In other words, when you ask something remotely related to (pre)history, I will have either just written some paper or exam or something on it in the very recent past, or I am writing one now, or I will be writing one shortly. So, nothing special. You guys make a really good bouncing board for me, though. It's good to keep repeating this stuff for me, and you bring it on from different angles, too.
 
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