#Havhingsten of Glendalough

[ithinkwehitametaphor]

[azvolrien]

Primarily associated in my head with this cool dude:

Havhingsten fra Glendalough (The Sea Stallion from Glendalough), a 30-metre-long replica of a Viking longship kept at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark. The name is because while this version was built at the Museum, the original longship that it's based on - Skuldelev 2, also on display there - was built near Dublin from Glendalough oak!

The original ship is one of the more fragmentary exhibits at the museum; really, there's just the prow and a few hull planks left.

Ireland - Glendalough (St. Kevin’s Church II)

Glendalough (in Irish Gleann Dá Loch) is a valley in Wicklow County south of Dublin, Ireland. This was taken in the monastery and its grounds.

The building in the background is St. Kevin’s Church (aka Kitchen), which has a unique stone roof.

[spectralarchers]

Saw the Stallion of Glendalough carry the Olympic Torch into the harbor in Roskilde today ❤️ The Stallion is a reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, a viking warship that was found at the bottom of Roskilde fjord in the 1960s, among 4 other ships. Originally thought to be two different ships because of its length (30 metres), the boat eventually turned out to be one of the biggest. The wood it was built in came from Dublin, Ireland, and it was built in the early spring of 1040, so it has been hypothesized that the Stallion might have been one of the longships that took part of the Battle of Hastings, before being retired in Roskilde by its owner, and eventually sunk to block the fjord and its access to the city. It is thought that these boats could cross from Roskilde to England in as short as 3 days, if the wind carried the wool sails on correctly - it could house 80 men and as many weapons and shields. The reconstruction was made using the same tools and materials as the boat builders in the Viking age, and the boat has made voyages to and from Ireland several times over the 14 years of its life.

[azvolrien]

Copenhagen - Day 3

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I did. Trains go to Roskilde from Copenhagen every 10mins or so, so I got an open return at the central station and made the quick trip on the top floor of a double-decker train. I didn’t know they had those. Why does everyone else in Europe have nicer trains than us?

Roskilde has something I didn’t expect to see in Denmark after my explorations yesterday: a slope. Not on Edinburgh levels, certainly, but the Viking Ship Museum is a 20ish-minute walk downhill from the station, split between the Brutalist concrete building that houses the 5 original ships and an artificial island where they keep the boatyard and the ship replicas. Each of the 5 Skuldelev ships has now had a working replica built. The whole museum is very interesting, including displays on the excavation and preservation of the ships (they submerged the wood fragments in a water-glycol mixture so that they could safely dry out without disintegrating), but the absolute highlight for me was Havhingsten fra Glendalough or The Sea Stallion from Glendalough, the full-scale reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, a 30-metre-long Viking warship. Laymen sometimes use ‘longship’ to refer to any Viking ship, but Skuldelev 2 and by extension The Sea Stallion are proper longships. The replica is fully seaworthy and has been successfully sailed to Dublin - where the original was built, albeit by Scandinavian shipwrights - and back to Roskilde. Experimental archaeology is fascinating; you’ve got to love people who decide to take the ‘become Vikings’ method of historical research.

After the Viking Ship Museum I walked back up the hill for a look around Roskilde Cathedral. A surprisingly comprehensive guidebook was included in the 60kr entrance fee, so I wasn’t too annoyed even though part of me always objects to having to pay to get into churches. Took a while to find the door; apparently the big one is reserved for royal visits, and the side door acting as the tourist entrance didn’t have an ‘Open’ sign or anything. Was intrigued by the polished black stone at one end of the cathedral, purporting to be the tomb of the Ghost Horse. That’s not somebody’s nickname, they actually did mean a ghost horse.

The cathedral is a bit weird architecturally. It’s made all from brick, and numerous chapels have been added over the centuries but even so it’s in some strange halfway point between Gothic and Romanesque.

Intended to visit Roskilde Museum after that, but the exhibitions were closed for renovation, leaving only the cafe and shop. Instead bought a sandwich and a pear from a stall in the market square and had lunch, before heading back to the train station. Paused en route for a look around the old graveyard - no one I recognised - before boarding a train back to Copenhagen. Second train wasn’t a double-decker, but trip was even quicker: arrived at the central station after only about 10 minutes.

Went back to the hotel for a quick rest before heading back out with the intention of visiting the Copenhagen Museum just along the street, but it, too, was closed for renovation, so instead I went to check out the Tycho Brahe Planetarium. It has some fun space-themed displays including two meteorite fragments, a moon rock, and a demonstration of the different kinds of radiation affecting Earth, but also an IMAX cinema. I saw an hour-long film there called ‘Vores Smukke Planet’, or ��Our Beautiful Planet’, which had some gorgeous footage taken from the ISS, and a 3D companion film about the solar system. The narration was in Danish but I think I picked out enough words to get the gist of it. IMAX 3D seems to be the only 3D that really works for me.

After the film, had a burger in a little bar/diner called Flora’s Cafe and returned to the hotel for a quiet evening.

[hpedersen]

#Memories of #Black&White #Havhingsten of #Glendalough Seastallion #Vikingship #Roskilde #Denmark #Skuldelev #history #dr1 #Sailing #sailship #vikings #vikingstyle #Erinnerungen Take a look also at my new website h3p.info (hier: Viking Ship Museum (Roskilde))

[anhttydbookfan]

Here's a picture of a reconstruction of a Viking-Age Longship!

And if you want to learn more about Scandinavian longships in general:

So with the Hysterics partying (apparently) in the Great Hall, Hiccup gets a good look at the ship in the plaza (because what need do they have for boats when the sea is either frozen over or terrorized by the Doomfang) and it's the biggest Hiccup has ever seen, appearing more like a Roman Galleon with three masts.

But I wonder about actual Viking long boats or just actual Viking stuff in general. I should search for a book or something on that.

[azvolrien]

Onwards to Roskilde! First, the highlight: Havhingsten fra Glendalough at the Viking Ship Museum.