domingo, 25 de octubre de 2009

Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas - Compiled by D. L. Ashliman

Fuente:

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/mythlinks.html

Información:

Germanic Myths, Legends, and Sagas

The illustration on the right is a detail from a standing stone found on the Island of Gotland, Sweden. Click here to see the entire picture stone.

Compiled by

D. L. Ashliman

Germanic Geography

The Germanic world. Links to sites describing the history, geography, and culture of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, the low countries, and England.

Germanic (Especially Old Norse) Mythology and Culture

Ancient Monuments

Dolmens in Denmark, a collection of photographs of pre-Christian stone graves and monuments.
Runestones and Picture Stones from Scandinavia: A Selection of Photographs.
The Sigurd Portal. Carved doorposts of the medieval stave church at Hylestad, Setesdal, Norway. Although part of a Christian church, the carvings represent scenes from the heathen story of Sigurd the dragon slayer.
The Sigurd Runestone at Ramsundsberget, Jäder, Södermanland, Sweden. This famous runestone illustrates the story of how Sigurd kills the dragon Fafnir and his treacherous companion Regin.
Stone Monuments, legends about ancient alters, graves, megaliths, menhirs, mounds, pictographs, runestones, picture stones, standing stones, and other such monuments from the past.

The Gods' Home Pages

Balder's Home Page.
Frey's Home Page. Under construction.
Gefion's Home Page. Gefion (also spelled Gefjon) is the goddess who created the Danish island of Sjælland (Zealand) by plowing out an enormous field from the Kingdom of Sweden.
Odin's Home Page. Under construction.
Ostara's Home Page. The Germanic Goddess of Springtime. Her name lives on in the English and German words for "Easter."
Rígsþula: The Lay of Rig from the Poetic Edda. This account contains all that is known about the enigmatic god named Rig, although Rig may be an alternate name for Heimdall.
Thor's Home Page, a collection of links relating to the Thunder God.
- Thor's Hammer. Photographs of amulets from the Viking age.

The Vikings

Vikings in America. Information about the Norse settlement in Vinland, including photographs of the reconstructed way station at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada.
Viking Ship Home Page. Illustrations, stories, facts, and links concerning the ship culture of the Vikings.
When Vikings Rules the Seas. More about the Vikings, including the opportunity to purchase authentic scale models of their ships.

Electronic texts

Index of Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, compiled by D. L. Ashliman.

Vikings in America

edited by
D. L. Ashliman
University of Pittsburgh

According to Icelandic sagas written in the 12th and 13th centuries (but based on much earlier oral tradition), in about 985 Bjarni Herjolfsson, a Norse settler in Greenland, was blown off course and sighted a continent west of Greenland, but he did not go ashore. About 15 years later Leif Eriksson (son of Erik the Red) explored the new continent. For the next ten years a number of voyages were made from Greenland to the new land, which the Norsemen called "Vinland" because of the profusion of grapes that grew there.

Return to

The Way Station at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland

The following photographs are all courtesy of the Canadian National Parks Service.

General View of the Site

Artifacts Discovered at L'Anse aux Meadows

A copper alloy ring headed pin of Norse design. Greatly magnified. Pins such as these were used to close the outer garments of both men and women.
A soapstone spindle whorl of Norse design. These common household items, typically carved from soapstone, served as small flywheels on the spindles used for spinning yarn and thread.
A simple stone lamp. The carved indentation would hold animal fat and a wick.
Carved wooden pieces of unknown use. These pieces were likely some sort of ship fittings. There is evidence that a substantial amount of woodworking and carpentry was conducted at L'Anse aux Meadows during the Viking era.
A ship repair piece made from wood. Identical repair patches have been found in excavations of Norse Dublin.

Excavations and Reconstructed Buildings

Aerial view of three reconstructed buildings, surrounded by a fence. In the tradition of Iceland, buildings were constructed of sod over a wooden frame.
Another view of the above scene, showing the settlement as it would have appeared during the Viking era.
A close-up view of the fence, showing its woven construction (a technique still used in Scandinavia), with sod buildings in the background.
Another view of the above scene.
Excavation of the smithy. The existence of a smithy or furnace pit at L'Anse aux Meadows suggests that the location's most important function was that of a way station where Viking travelers could repair their ships and restock their supplies.
Reconstructed smithy, showing the facility as it would have appeared during the Viking era.
Interior of a reconstructed longhouse of Icelandic design.
Another view, showing a central fireplace, of the above longhouse interior. Norse longhouses were heated by central, open fires. The smoke escaped through one or more vents in the roof.

Poetry about Vikings in America

"The Skeleton in Armor" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In this well known ballad, Longfellow creates a tale of ancient love and adventure around two New England artifacts of his day: a skeleton clad in corroded armor and the ruin of the Round Tower at Newport, then thought to have been built by the Vikings, a view not shared by twentieth-century scholars.
"The Norsemen" by John Greenleaf Whittier. A ballad prompted by the discovery, in the early nineteenth century, of the fragment of a statue held to be a relic from the Norsemen in New England.

The Vinland Map

Vinlanda: The Vinland Map on the Web. Tim Spalding's excellent study and collection of sites dealing with a document purporting to be a 15th-century map depicting North America. Despite intensive scrutiny, scholars are not united as to whether this map is a genuine pre-Columbian document, or a very clever forgery.

North American Runestones

Examine the following sites, then decide for yourself: Are the North American runestones authentic artifacts from Viking explorers, or are they elaborate frauds by Scandinavian-Americans?

The Kennsington [Minnesota] Runestone.
The Mystery of the Heavener [Oklahoma] Runestone.
Heavener Runestone State Park in Heavener Oklahoma.

Additional Links

L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site. Information provided by Parks Canada.

Revised August 27, 2002.

Welcome to Vinlanda: The Vinland Map on the Web.

Fuente:

http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/vinland/

Información:

Welcome to Vinlanda: The Vinland Map on the Web.

This page explores the controversy surrounding the so called "Vinland Map," assembling some 100 pages on the topic from every corner of the web. Here you will find serious scholars pro and con as well as a bevy of quacks—all categorized and described. I've added a certain amount of material on the other, less dubious, sources for Viking activity in North America—the sagas and archaeological excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland—and some general links on Scandinavian history.

A lot has happened in the last few months, including new analyses of the parchment and ink. The debate resembles a tennis match more every day. Check out the Recent Developments section. Your help finding new material, and your comments, are most welcome.

A Brief Introduction to The Vinland Map

The Vinland Map purports to be a 15th century map depicting Viking exploration of North America centuries before Columbus. If genuine, the Vinland map is one of the great documents of Western civilization; if fake, it's an astonishingly clever forgery.

Since its announcement and publication in 1965 the Vinland Map has been in and out of favor. The initial publication, Skelton et al. The Vinland Map and Tartar Relation, trumpeted its authenticity. Then, in 1972, a scientific team headed by Dr. Walter McCrone reported that its ink contained anatase, a form of titanium which first appeared in ink during the 1920s. Twenty years later, in 1992, Dr. Thomas Cahill of UC Davis found anatase in a variety of medieval manuscripts and the question was reopened. In 1995 Yale released a second edition of the book, together with further articles in support of the map, even as scholarly opinion outside of Yale increasingly turned against it. Most recently, two studies, one on the parchment and another on the ink, seemed to many to point in different directions. The last word? Don't bet on it.

Questions, site suggestions and comments can be sent to editor@isidore-of-seville.com.

I hope you enjoy the site,

Tim Spalding
Brookline, MA (USA)

Ask and Embla - Encyclopedia Mythica

Fuente:

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/ask_and_embla.html

o

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/norse/articles.html

Información:

Ask and Embla

by Micha F. Lindemans

After Odin and his two brothers Ve and Vili had created the universe and the nine worlds, they walked on the beach where they came upon two logs of wood which were washed ashore.

They picked the logs up and give them a humanoid shape. Odin breathed into them the spirit of live, Vili gave them sharp wits and feeling hearts; and Ve bestowed upon them the senses, expressive features and speech.

Furthermore, the brothers provided them with names and clothes. The male they named Ask ("ash") and the female the named Embla ("elm").

Ask and Embla became the progenitors of the human race and Midgard was given to them as their residence.

La vida de Brian - Ex-Leproso

Los Monty Phyton fueron un grupo cómico británico con especial talento para reflejar las contradicciones de la realidad social y las locuras y estupideces del ser humano promedio. Por eso su humor es eterno y universal.

Como ejemplo, aquí va este vídeo. Extraído de la película "La Vida de Brian", de visionado obligatorio para las personas que gustan de buen cine y humor de calidad.

Enlace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXtV4gXHdHo&feature=rec-r2

LUZ Y OSCURIDAD: LA GUERRA ETERNA

domingo, 25 de octubre de 2009