In either case, a regular, more substantive post shall be forthcoming relatively soon. I promise. If nothing else, I’m going on a day long Viking boat voyage on the Ohio river this Saturday, which should give me something interesting to write about. Hopefully it amounts to more than “damn, do I have a bad sunburn!”

In the meantime, I hope all of you stay well!

When a dead whale was found like this, how were the pieces of meat and blubber stored? The Saga of Gudmund the Worthy provides some information. It mentions that after a long stand-off, a chieftain rewarded the men who had stood by him by opening his brother’s whale storage pits [hvalgrafir]. He gave each man three loads of whale meat, which they carried home with them. In such pits the meat and blubber fermented, a form of preservation. In a similar manner, Icelanders down to modern times preserve and eat rotten shark and skate fermented in their own juices, the process benefiting from the ammonia found in the urine.

Erm… yuck? So, they take rotten shark meat, and then place it in a vat so it can be preserved by its own ‘juices’, including its urine. I try to be fairly open-minded about food, and I’m usually willing to try anything once, but… rotten shark meat preserved in its own ‘juices’? No thanks.

Technorati Tags: food, iceland, icelandic

Before all you nay-sayers jump in, it’s at least vaguely plausible that the Stoors could have become Viking-esque in their lifestyle. From Wikipedia:

In their earliest recorded history the Stoors, like the other Hobbits, lived in the Vale of Anduin. They were a riverside people that dwelt in the Gladden Fields, and were fishermen. They were broader in build than the other Hobbits, and had large hands and feet. Among the Hobbits, the Stoors most resembled typical Men (for as Tolkien later says, Hobbits were properly an offshoot of Men rather than a separate race, though they themselves considered themselves separate).

Stoors were the only Hobbits who grew facial hair, and only some of them could at that. A habit which set them apart from the Harfoots who lived in the mountain foothills, and the Fallohides who lived in forests far to the north, was that many Stoors used boats, and could swim. They also wore boots.

The bold bits are my doing. So, they’re broad fellows, perhaps more similar in stature to dwarves than other hobbits. And, they swim and use boats. Already we’re getting a picture of (rather short!) Vikings, aren’t we?

And look at their location! Right on the Brandywine River, which they can use to get out to the sea. And, if they were feeling very rambunctious, they could strike out west from the Shire, kill the few Elves at the Grey Havens (silly Elves), and set up base there. The Gulf of Lune would be an excellent place to set up a basecamp to raid from!

To top all of this off, if there had been Hobbit Vikings, I’m sure they would’ve been more than happy to help out Frodo and Company. Instead of doing all that bloody walking (and walking, and walking, and walking…) East, the Company could have went West instead, to the Grey Havens. Hopped in a (small) longship or three, and down the west coast they go, straight to the Bay of Belfalas. Seeing as Viking vessels were faster than any other boats in the water, there wouldn’t have been any concern about Orcish sailors catching them. I can’t see a name on the river, but there seems to be a river south of Harondar, which drains into the sea. It goes right up to the southern bit of Mordor! Straight up the river, over the mountains, bing badda boom, and the Ring is no more. All with the aid of Hobbit Vikings. They could have even stopped off here and there along the coast, raiding for second breakfastes, elevensies, afternoon tea, etc.

And, as if you need any more convincing of this wonderful concept*, I give you a fearless Hobbit Viking:

Terrifying! I’m sure Sauron would have given up, just like that, upon seeing such a terrifying enemy.

* It’s silly. I know. Work with me here.

There’ll be a few of us puttering about the site (event site, not this site!) all weekend, dressed up like Vikings and doing Viking stuff. Should be fun.

Blogging will start back up Sunday night or Monday. Have a good weekend!

A few different bits of information:

• I’ve not been on Blackbird for quite a while. I don’t have an exact date in mind, but it’s been at least 6 months, and most likely quite a bit longer.
• I only recently learned how to swim. I’m definitely not a good swimmer, by any stretch of the imagination. A few months back on a camping trip, I lost my balance and fell off of a kayak. We were out on a very small, shallow lake. I panicked, floundering about like a drowning hobbit. When I think about how I would react if we capsized our boat on the Ohio, the picture is not pretty.

Taking these bits of information into consideration, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be part of a 3 man crew going down the Ohio river during the tail-end of October.

I hadn’t really thought of any of this until my mom, wife, and a friend all brought it up. Basically, the general consensus was, “This voyage is a bad idea. There needs to be more practice / experience / planning before you guys go on the Ohio river, particularly in late fall. The Ohio can be a really, really bad river. The weather can change instantly, and you can find yourself in big trouble.”

As they brought things up, my feelings about the voyage kind of did a U-turn. When the voyage had first been brought up, it sounded like a great time. Drop the boat into the Ohio and head off, just like the Vikings! I was suffering from what I have come to call Viking euphoria. The excitement over the voyage led me to not really think much. I was just giddy over the prospect of going on an overnight voyage. This euphoria blocked me from looking at some of the hard facts.

Cas mentioned this in her Sunday Roast:

One word sprang to mind when reading of Josh’s plans to sail a viking boat on the Ohio – why? Followed by a secondary thought that this boy is insane. Which was followed by “good, that’s perfect behaviour for one of my Minions.”

Humor aside, I think me going down the Ohio in late October in a small Viking faering is insane. As noted by my friend Grania, it’s just too big of a jump from what we’ve done before. While I’m probably being a worry-wart, there are just too many major “what if’s” that I feel haven’t been planned for adequately. That’s on top of the fact that I just don’t think I’m experienced enough for such an endeavor. Not yet. It’s not something that’s totally out of the question; I think in time, I’d be confident enough to do it. But that time hasn’t come around yet. I feel a bit bad, like I let the other 2 guys down; but as one of them noted, it’s a personal decision, based on risk vs. reward. I currently think the risk is a bit too high.

I’m not sure if the other two guys are going to try and still go; it’d certainly be doable, but probably more difficult than it would be with 3 crew members. However, on the up side, they’d have far more storage room.

In other, happier news, I’ll be attending a small Viking event this coming weekend. Some classes, some boating (on a lake, not the Ohio River!), and all around Viking fun. I won’t promise any pictures, because I probably won’t be dragging along my digital camera, but I’m sure there’ll be a story or two to tell, anyway.

Technorati Tags: boats, boating, ohio

This October, me and two other members of our group will be taking Blackbird, our faering, up the Ohio river. We’ll be heading out early Friday morning, and rowing / sailing (depending on whether there’s any decent wind) until around nightfall. We’ll then land the boat and set up camp for the night. The next morning we’ll put Blackbird back in the water and continue on to our destination, where either 1) someone will meet us or 2) we’ll have parked one of our vehicles there ahead of time.

While the overnight voyage is for enjoyment, it’s also a bit of a learning experience. Basically, we’re trying to get a feel for what it was like for, say, a small-time Viking trader to drop his boat in the water and head to the next town to sell or trade his goods. Or perhaps a Viking group heads down (or up) the river with the intent on acquiring some goods to trade. Whether they’re acquired in a ‘legal’ way such as hunting, or in a not so legal way (such as plundering a monastery) doesn’t really matter. The fact is, beginning voyage would be similar.

Seeing as Blackbird is a small boat, this exercise brings up some interesting questions. One of the big ones is, what do you pack? After you get 3 crewmembers into Blackbird, there isn’t a great deal of storage space. Currently, we’re looking at having a tarp to sleep under, a hatchet to cut firewood, some sunscreen and insect repellant, clothes (not much of this, just enough so that none of us have to go naked!), and food. The food is probably going to be fairly boring – most likely something along the lines of iron rations. We’re trying to see if we can get anyone in our group to serve as the ‘farm’ that we stop at during our voyage. As noted by one of the guys who’s going, it would make the overall experience a bit more enjoyable.

As can be seen in the preliminary list of stuff to bring, there aren’t any weapons. I’m sad to say that we won’t be pulling Blackbird up onto the shore and jumping out with swords in hand. While doing so would be an enjoyable piece of reliving part of the Viking lifestyle, it would also be highly illegal. I enjoy learning about history, but I don’t enjoy it enough to go to prison.

This won’t be the first time we’ve had Blackbird out on the Ohio. I personally have been out on the Ohio once before with Blackbird, with two other VAV members. It was definitely a different experience than being on a lake. Obviously, there’s a whole lot more current. There’s also really, really big boats, such as barges. We had one or two go by when we were out before, and wow. Talk about some waves. Blackbird sits extremely low in the water – there’s probably around 6 inches of freeboard. Having rolling waves come at you from a barge when you’ve only got about 6 inches of freeboard is a bit unnerving, to say the least. Luckily the boat rolled well with the waves, and nothing major happened. I think we had a little bit of water come over the side once, but besides that, all was well.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to the experience. Once I get some details about our course, I’ll post some more. And, of course, there’ll be at least one post about it after the voyage. I’m sure there’ll be at least a few nuggets of interesting-ness to share.

Oh, and one will history tidbit while I’m on the topic of Vikings. I mentioned in my post about Vikings in Stargate, but to repeat:

Vikings did not have horns on their helms! Ever!

That is all.