Vol2, Nr4 :: Hugin & Munin

Autumn 2000 - Fourth Quarter

From the Editor...

Autumn weather came in like a lamb and is leaving like a Siberian Tiger! It's cold out there. How did people survive these conditions before central heating? The Iceman of the Alps probably wasn't clothed for the conditions that led to his death. So, I'm pondering what the equivalent of insulated wellingtons and parkas were 1000 years ago. All I can do is wonder as the archaeological records don't give us a lot to consider for cold weather and work clothes back then. I'm preparing for a long winter, what follows is the usual news I've found.

NEWS ON THE WEB

Lief Ericsson Day
It's official. President Clinton proclaimed that October 9th would be observed as Lief Ericsson Day...hey, wait a minute...isn't that also observed as...

Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga Exhibit....
is in New York City until January 21, 2001 at the American Museum of Natural History. A general review, "Maurauding Vikings Get an Image Overhaul", by Wilson Valentin is available at FoxNews.com. John Noble Wilford reviews it with Vikings: To the Sea They Went, Roving and Raiding at The New York Times on the web. Lisa Mezzacappa of the Staten Island Advance writes Shedding new light on the vanished Vikings as her review.

Associated celebrations of the year 2000 included sailing of the Islendingur from Iceland. That and the exhibitions were discussed by John Roach in a nice spread at ENN called Vikings: bitten by the travel bug with several more nice exhibition photos. Chip Reid wrote a Viking ship bids farewell... piece in the New Haven Register in October. MSNBC carried the Reuter's piece by Daniel Bases, A modern-day Viking odyssey ends, that talks about the ship's trip and crew.

Discovering Archaeology's Brian Fagan wrote about the evidence of rather hopeless meals in Crashing Climate Left Norse Settlers in Greenland Few Options for Survival in the 14th century. Included is discussion of simulation work based on the Western Settlement's remains by Thomas McGovern's group at CUNY.

There is also a review of Fitzhugh & Ward's companion book to the Exhibition at the Independent. See Norse of a different colour by Christina Hardyment and note the other topical books included The Sagas of Icelanders, intro. by Robert Kellogg and Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood.

...promulgates Viking Mania!
One of the additional features of this sort of museum exhibit is that all kinds of off-the wall theories start climbing out of the closet. Here is a sampling of far-fetching stories that might spark some comparative research in the archaeological record. Yeah, irritating little stories that just can't be totally ignored here...

Thor Hyerdahl's upcoming Norwegian book, entitled No Boundries, details the theory that the West-Viking's sphere of discovery was larger than thought. Walter Gibbs, writing for the New York Time Service has Did the Vikings Stay? Vatican Files May offer Clues and a mirror of the article without illustrations "Did the Vikings Stay in America" in the International Herald Tribune. Gibbs' story also shows up in the Pioneer Planet as "Vikings had big settlements in New World, theory suggests".

Bay survey planned to find if Vikings settled Cape Cod by Jules Crittenden reports that Neil Good has a permit to survey Waquoit Bay near Cape Cod, MA. Mr Good hopes to find evidence underwater of Norse sailing equipment.

Gorm Reburied
At Jelling Church one of Denmark's earliest Kings has been reinterred. A short note at Archaelogy called Gorm the Old Goes Home gives details. While there, see Unique Pentagonal Temple with a link to a close-up of the foundation, this a follow-up to the opening of the site mentioned in last quarter's newsletter.

More Genetics Studies
The Irish Times explains Why people in Iceland look just like us. Agnar Helgason has finished a study with human Y chromasomes comparing Icelandic DNA to that of Scandinavian and Gaelic samples. An abstract of the Agnar Helgason, et al, article can be found at Estimating Scandinavian and Gaelic Ancestry in the Male Settlers of Iceland from The American Journal of Human Genetics, see (September, 2000) Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 697-717. Bijal P. Trivedi wrote a article looking at two sides of this, Icelanders, a diverse bunch?, that can be read at Celera's website.

CONFERENCES & LECTURES

No conferences noted this Quarter.

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

Vikings - The North Atlantic Saga
The recurring big news -- lots of links at the top of this newsletter. See the Smithonian Museums Website on the Exhibit. Now at the American Museum of Natural History until January 21st. Next stop will be Denver, to open in March.

BOOKS

As mentioned above a review of Fitzhugh & Ward's companion book to the Vikings: North Atlantic Saga Exhibition, The Sagas of Icelanders, intro. by Robert Kellogg, and the Encyclopaedia of the Viking Age by John Haywood was found at the Independent. See Christina Hardyment's article at Norse of a different colour.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE...

Rune Gold Released PCGamer's Steve Brown did a report on a recent release of Rune. Marketed by GODGAMES for Human Head Studios & Epic Games Rune is a 3D action game.

Hugin & Munin