Norway-msg - 9/4/01 Medieval points of interest in Norway. NOTE: See also the files: Sweden-msg, Norse-msg, Finland-msg, Finland-hist-art, sprang-msg, boat-building-msg, museums-msg, fd-Norse-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2001 12:41:11 -0000 From: "Elonwen ferch Dafydd" To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ku.edu Subject: Norway I just visited Norway and saw a great deal of places of interest. Maybe these places are of some interest to you, too. First of all the stave churches (stavkyrkje). I don't know how much you know about Norway, but I haven't seen anywhere else so many medieval wooden buildings so well preserved. 29 stave churches have survived the years, most of them seem to have been built in the 12th or 13th centuries. The high number of the medieval churches can partly be explained by Norway having been spared from the worst wars because of its location (Finland was always walked over and the first thing they tended to rob and burn was the churches. That's what you got, being stuck between the first Catholic and then Lutheran Sweden and Orthodox Russia) and partly by the Norwegians taking good care of the wood. They used pine, which contains oleoresin, which is said to preserve timber. They also used tar on the outside of the walls. These are really worth seeing. It's easy to see quite a few in just one day, because as yoou drive the road just south of Jotunheim (we drove from Sweden to Sognefjord and Nordfjord by the Atlantic Sea in the very west of Norway), you can't miss them, since there is a sign for one in just about every third village you drive through. To see what they look like: http://perso.wanadoo.fr/christele.colombin/page5.htmlhttp://www.thu.no/stavlomen.htm (Not as well preserved as the others) http://home.no.net/grueng/bilder/kyrkjer_attr/hopperstad_kyrkje.htm Runestones are also about, unfortunately I managed to spot only one, in Vang. It was two-meter high and had beautiful carvings and a story about the ancient gods. Unfortunately it wasn't translated, not even to modern Norwegian (I mean, I can deal with Norwegian, enough to get the idea, but the medieval one and in runes - no way).And of course the numerous museums are worth visiting. Unfortunately they are quite expensive, so if you want to visit many museums, you'll have to have a decent budget. Elonwen Edited by Mark S. Harris Norway-msg Page 2 of 2