NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Over the last three years the Orkney Museums and Heritage Department of the OIC has played a major role in an EU project called Destination Viking: The Sagalands. The aim of the project is to develop cultural tourism throughout the Nordic countries by using the Icelandic Sagas and storytelling. Storytelling has now taken centre stage in the project, with myself as the lead partner. Orcadians will see the results of the project in the next few months, as an Orkneyinga Saga Trail is launched, along with three books; 'The Shorter Orkneyinga Saga' aimed at younger readers and adults who struggled with their Sveins and Rognvalds, 'Orkney in the Sagas' which tells the story of the Earldom of Orkney through several Icelandic Sagas, and a third, as yet untitled, book of papers relating to Orkney during the period of the Orkneyinga Saga. The places involved in the Sagalands projects are Sweden, Norway, Orkney, Shetland, Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland, with the Isle of Man as an observer. Partner meetings have been held in all of the full partner countries since early 2003. I have been lucky enough to have attended all of the meetings, and it is an opportunity that has changed my life and given me a better understanding of the Viking world. Many of the sites I visited have reconstructed Viking longhouses, which is something that I believe Orkney would benefit from if we were to build one here. It gives you an Sailing through the ice floes immediate idea of how life was lived during the Viking period, and how tools were made and used. This is a brief run through of the talk I recently gave to the Orkney Family History Society. The talk didn't include the Faeroes or Newfoundland, as I have only returned from the latter very recently. SWEDEN Our trip to Sweden in February 2005 was based in the town of Ornskoldsvik in the north of the country The area is known as the High Coast, as the land continues to rise by a staggering one centimetre per year. This was caused by the weight of the glaciers that covered the country during the last Ice Age pushing the land down, but after they melted the land is now rising again. On this trip I visited a church which had a model of a sailing ship hanging from the ceiling. The model dated from the 1780s, and was given to the church, along with a cash donation, by a sea captain who had prayed for l deliverance from a storm that threatened to sink his ship. This custom is found throughout Europe, but it was the first example that I had seen. A trip by horse-drawn sleigh over a frozen lake to the Iron Age longhouse of Gene Fornby was a highlight of the visit. Once there we were entertained to a wonderful feast; but it wasn't all good food and cheer. On entering the longhouse we were greeted by an unpleasant smell, rather akin to burning tyres. I discovered the source of the smell, but only when it was too late and I had a mouthful of the stuff. It was View looking towards Lofoten rotten herring! A long time ago herring were stored in barrels for winter food. One batch went off, resulting in a grey sludge of putrid herring that smelt like burning rubber. Being short of food the people tried it, and when nobody died they declared it edible. It has, for some unexplained reason, been adopted as a delicacy, but I can't think why. The other half that I hadn't eaten ended up being tossed onto the fire; a fitting Viking send off. I later heard that the staff at the site were finding pieces of the stuff hidden throughout the longhouse for weeks after. NORWAY Our visit to Norway was in May 2003, and was to the far north of the country, inside the Arctic Circle. We spent the first couple of nights at Harstad before moving on to the Lofoten Islands. The midnight sun had just begun when we arrived, and it was a strange phenomenon to witness as we departed a nightclub after 2.00 am to find ourselves bathed in warm sunlight. It was a beautiful site to see, as the sun dipped down to the horizon, then rose again. While in Lofoten we visited the huge reconstructed Viking age longhouse at Borg. It is built next to the original site, and measures 81 meters long. A truly long longhouse. We arrived for the first Julie Gibson (Orkney'si next to a runestone a

NEWSLETTER OF THE ORKNEY FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY time in style, rowing a full size reconstruction of the Iceland in February 2003, but I returned for a week in Gokstad longship. Dressed in cloaks we felt the part as June 2004 to take part in a storytelling festival. On this we cut our way through the sea towards Borg. Someone second trip my friend Lawrence Tulloch (a storyteller said, 'Look, an eagle', and I strained my neck to look for a from Yell in Shetland) and I were taken over the dot in the sky, but couldn't see anything. 'No, over there', mountains by Icelandic friends and we travelled said the man, pointing to an eagle in the sea only a few throughout the north of the country to catch the ferry yards away. It had caught a young goose, and it held it Norrona on the east coast. Iceland is a place that is very underwater to drown it before dragging it to the shore. dear to my heart, and I have many friends in that Amazingly, it was chased away by a pair of black-back beautiful country. The juxtaposition of fire and ice is gulls who stole the goose. As we continued to row the amazing, as you can be standing by a spring of superlongship I thought to myself that we were handling it so heated water, but in the distance a glacier is sliding well that the blood of the Vikings must still be coursing between two mountains. The waterfalls in Iceland are through our veins. On reaching our IBMr JIB spectacular. Gullfos is a huge fall that twists destination I stood up, but my bubble was and turns down the slope before falling sheer well and truly burst when I saw that a rubber a canyon. The name Gullfos means the inflatable dinghy had actually been pushing golden waterfall, as legend has it that a the ship along, and that if our rowing had any ^T^^lfe mean farmer once threw a fortune in gold effect it was to slow it down! KfeafeM over the falls rather than leave it to any GREENLAND living relatives. Godafos in the north is We went to Greenland in August 2004. It is similarly named, as the wooden statues of an amazing country, so huge that it takes the old gods were thrown over the falls after your breath away. There are hardly any roads, Christianity had been accepted as the official so we travelled everywhere by small boats, JL^jf^ religion of the country. There are also replica with one excursion taking six hours to reach, \ <; ' * longhouses here, including Eiriksstadir, the and a further five-and-a-half hours to sail to W m $. K home of Erik the Red in Iceland and the the next location. We visited Brattahlid, the birthplace of Leif Eriksson. The summer trip site of Erik the Red's house in Greenland. was very different from the winter one, when Here there is a reconstructed longhouse built. we went 'off roading' in a coach. The driver from turf. Next to it is the reconstruction of a Greenland Inuit in ^ed (several times) to ram his way through small church that Erik's wife, Tjodhilde, built. national costume a snowdrift until the windscreen cracked Work is afoot to try to turn this tiny church into a right across the bottom and we were well and truly stuck pilgrimage site. We travelled on to Gardar, where we saw and had to be dug out. We were then treated to the bus the remains of the Bishop of Greenland's church, before sliding sideways on two wheels along a flooded and going to Narsaq. I can die a happy man, because I can snow-covered road before crashing down on all four say that I've danced to an Inuit rock band playing wheels again. On leaving we said to another bus driver Honky Tonk Women in a disco in Narsaq! The who accompanied us 'Do all bus drivers drive like that in H ^aforementioned long boat trip was to see the Iceland?' 'No', he replied, 'just him!' An amazing place, ^ i remains of the 13th century church and house at full of stories and wonder, ipp i Hvalsey, before heading to Qaqortoq for The Sagalands project has proved so successful that our final night. Greenland is very the EU wants the network to continue, and they have I beautiful, but unemployment is high funded three extra meetings over the next 18 months, and the people are not well off. Despite It is hoped that more EU money will be given to this the Inuit are extremely kind, Orkney to create a new project based on our Viking and curious about visitors. They heritage. As the project grows in partner members we i stop to chat and to find out who you now have people from the Sami in Northern Finland, are and why you are visiting. My the Inuit in Greenland and the Mik-Maq in lasting memory of Greenland was Newfoundland. These indigenous people also have sailing through the ice floes on our stories of the Norsemen who arrived in their country way to the airport. Some of the and the conflict that followed. As the lead partner in icebergs are an astonishing electric storytelling I will try to gather these tales for publicblue colour, like they have been ation, as well as the shared tales of the Nordic people, dyed with food colouring. Encouraging storytelling in these countries has )ounty Archaeologist) ICELAND always been part of the project, and I hope to be able Stockholm Airport Our first partner meeting was in to build on the work that has already been started. Tom Muir is Exhibitions Officer at the Orkney Museum. inailmmmmmmmmuum bmmmhfllilllliiiiiiil 1! 1 TMVmm ; - i