Todays average viking picture

Average Viking Guesthouse

What is this? Vikings building igloos? With no eskimos around....?

...naaah, it's just the outlining for Matts new guesthouse!:)

Actually, it's just a test, to see if the average viking in fact is able to cunstruct eskimo housing:)

I did some scoping inside the igloo, and confirmed that the living conditions are acceptable.

Getting out, however, turned out to be more of a challenge.

I made it! Feet sticking right up in the air!

Bjørn is finishing the roof. Wonder if the eskimos used ladders like that....

Trolls

In Old Norse sources, trolls are said to dwell in isolated mountains, rocks, and caves, and are rarely described as helpful or friendly. Later, in Scandinavian folklore, trolls become defined as a particular type of being, generally held to be larger than humans and notably ugly. Numerous tales about trolls are recorded, in which they are frequently described as being extremely old, very strong, but slow and dim-witted. They are sometimes described as man-eaters and as turning to stone upon contact with sunlight. Into the 20th century, the origins of particular Scandinavian landmarks, such as particular stones, are ascribed to trolls.
Did you ever wonder where the stories of trolls started? And why Norway is so famous for them? Well, on days like we've had the last week, nature basically writes the fairytales itself.

This creeping fog has been graceing us with its presence, lurking over the valley, creating the perfect scenery for the supernatural.

And, oh yes, I have.....wait for it.....videofotage too;) See any trolls?

Can you blame us for watching our backs while exploring the wild?

This was just too good to not put in this blog;D

After living in America for the past 8 months I'm convinced this is how Americans view Europe. - Imgur

Another youtube clip: Norway. Check out the northern lights.

First day of sunlight

January 13th was the first day of actually feeling the sun on our viking faces in my hometown this year. It's been over the horizon for a while, but because of all  the mountains we didn't actually see until this day. So nearly a month since it left us, the sun is once again back with a promise of brighter and longer days. This past month we've had daylight for about 1-3 hours, depending on the weather.

The before pictures....the sun has been teasing us with this kinda crap for days!

I had to stop my car and take pictures the day I felt the glorious warmth of the sun on my face again. Finally I could wear shades again while driving (and be cool again!); a very welcome bonus. While driving I did some videotaping as well (I swear, I was not being a traffichasard!) to show you all how great the experience was. The fact that I am listeing to Jay Z in the background may help you americans relate to the greatness;)

It can get pretty tough, having only a few hours of daylight every day. It's dark when you go to work, and it's dark when you get back. Some people throw parties to celebrate when the sun finally makes it over the mountains again. But of course, unlike superman, the average viking does not get his powers from the sun. We get it from the northeren lights;)

Random winterpics from around my home

Our neighbor, my dads uncle. You can see the sun teasing in the mountaintops.

Our house and more teasing sunlight.

Snowy, sunless days of Christmas

When I started collecting pictures and videos for this blog it was what we call "mørketid". I just googled it and found that Wikipedia translates it to Polar nights. I like it! Sounds alot more cheerful then "darktime" (litteral translation). Wikipedia goes on to tell me that instead of daylight/sunlight we have a few hours of what is called polar twilight. "Polar twilight occurs in areas that are located at the inner border of the polar circles, where the sun will be on or below the horizon all day on the winter solstice, although there may still be enough light for normal outdoor activities during civil twilight because of scattering of light by the upper atmosphere and refraction. It happens when there is no true daylight and only civil twilight occurs at the solar culmination. Street-lamps may remain on and one looking out a window from a brightly lit room may see their reflection even at noon, as the level of outdoor illuminance will remain below that of many illuminated indoor spaces. However, it is possible to conduct outdoor activities without any artificial light during the time of civil twilight. Sufferers of Seasonal Affective Disorder will probably resort to therapy with artificial light, as the psychological benefits of daylight require relatively high levels of ambient light (up to 10,000 lux) which are not present in any stage of twilight, thus, the midday twilights experienced anywhere inside the polar circles are still "polar night" in that sense."

Lots of fancy words right there, but let me illustrate for you:)

Don't be confused by the norwegian jibberjabber in the clip below, I swich to english after a bit;)

Yup, that's polar twilight for you. Now this was just before christmas. Over christmas we also had alot of snow. More then we have had in December for years. One day we got about 12 inches in one, non-stop snowfall.

Our family of christmasgnomes (?) suffered under the consequenses of the large snowdrop.

My new car also did not like it much. But in spite of all this snow and whatever kinda twilight, we vikings love christmas, heathens or not, and being without the sun - maybe even snowed in- just adds to our christmas spirit, makes us light more candles, and put an extra log on the fire!

Come roadtrip with me!

Here are two clips of me driving along the Norwegian countryside in january. Very everydayish for the average viking, but maybe not so for you yankees? If you look closely you'll catch a glimpse of the fjord:)

This youtube clip is legendary. Apparantly norwegians invented oil;)

In the beginning.....

Let's start with a quick introduction of me. I'm a vikinglady, soon to be in my late vikingtwenties (sigh). On a average vikingday in february 2009 I met a very tasty american boy who rocked my world and continues to do so on a daily basis, coming up on 2 years now. Matt has roots in Norway and is very interested in it's history, however much pillage-and plundering there may have been. He went to grad school at the same college as me for 2 years, minus one semester in Russia, and in that time he has probably learned more about my country then I know myself, mainly because he asks questions about things that I don't give a second thought; it's all part of my average viking life. Well, Matt introduced me to America, and all it's splendor, and more spesificly, Minnesota; the most norwegian state in all of the US. I've visited several times now, and I love it! I recently spent 3 months there, and after all this time among americans I've come to understand how proud they are of their heritage, and they are always hungry for more knowledge, so they ask. I try to answer as best I can, and hope that I'm not misleading anyone. Some questions stand out more than others, on the comical side. Like "do you still live in like, cavelike houses up in the moutains with goats and sheep and stuff?", which is by far the most outrageous one, and there are quite a few people who think Norway is a city in Sweden. For shame! A hairdresser once told me that "no, I've never heard of Norway, but maybe you know this one person I met once from Denmark?"..... There's really no good comeback to these inquires, so I mostly just let them pass and save my energy for the questions with some rational thought behind them.

The idea behind this blog started with these questions, and evolved further while I was still in the states this past fall. My (very pretty!) friend Shelby is always asking me (reasonable!) things about Norway; about the climate, education, welfare, laws, nature, shopping, northeren lights, worklife, food, yup, pretty much everything about the land of the north. Sometimes I really have to think about how to answer her questions, because some of the things that differ from american culture are things I never dwell on in my everyday life. Shelby also wants to visit Norway, after hearing all about it from Matt and another one of "the visitors"; Aaron Moline, who also spent a year in grad school way up by the arctic circle. So I started "collecting data" as soon as I got home. The neighbors have been spotting me all around the area, taking pictures and videotaping the most basic and random stuff that surrounds us every day. The result will be revealed in this blog, and I hope that if you are even remotely interested in average vikingness, you will be entertained:)