Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gman on March 24, 2014, 10:04:42 PM
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Anyone else watching season 2 and liking it? This is one of the better new shows on TV, an interesting period of history and warfare I'd never really read about or had much interest in until now. Navies being my primary interest, I've started reading everything I can get my hands on about the 9th and 10th and even later century boats and ships the Scandinavians used. It's impressive and almost amazing that these people built ships that could withstand storms up there in those rough Northern waters, and also travel easily at 5 to 10 knots. There are historians that are adamant that 15 knots was possible with well built and handled ships under perfect conditions. Incredible to me, thinking of these ships over 1000 years old in technology moving at 30 km/h filled with 6ft tall plus Vikings and all their gear and such.
Gsholz, I was wondering if you and others here that live in the area have ever seen the Viking ships and boats in the museums, and what you've thought of them after inspecting them up close?
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You mean like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWU7XwED_yA
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Gsholz, I was wondering if you and others here that live in the area have ever seen the Viking ships and boats in the museums, and what you've thought of them after inspecting them up close?
I live close to Roskilde Vikingeskibsmuseeum - they were the ones who build the Sea Stallion in Drediock's youtube link.
They build their ships as replicas of archaeological findings with copies of the original tools in a public area - I went there several time to follow the progress of the Sea Stallion. I'm no expert, but to me, looking up close, this is woodwork as good as it gets.
About 10 years ago I went with some colleagues out in Roskilde Fjord (one of those company arrangements) - we were in two of their smaller viking ships - and of course, on the way back to the harbour, we started to race each other. It was a bit windy, and with sails and oars (once we found the rhythm!), we moved faster, than I would have expected from a ship of this size and weight.
It was a good day.
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We have the Oseberg longboat in its own museum. It is a very well preserved 30-oar ship. I visited the museum in the '90s and was very impressed with the workmanship and graceful design.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Oseberg_longship.png)(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Osebergskipet-Detail.jpg/450px-Osebergskipet-Detail.jpg)
However, we still have "Viking" ships today; although they stopped making longboats for war fighting as naval technology evolved, they never stopped making them for civilian uses. Today the larger trade ships are mostly gone, but the smaller fishing boats are still used for recreational purposes.
These are "åttring" or eight-oar and "fembøring" five-pairs-of-oars. Aka "Nordlandsbåt" or Northland-boat. They were perhaps the most used fishing boats up til the late 19th century/early 20th when motorboats started taking over. They were also used for local trade and general communication in Norway (which has a coastline more than three times the length of the equator). Most of them are of course of a more modern design with a proper rudder and straight bow, but the Viking heritage is obvious.
(http://lofotenfolkehogskole.no/sites/lofotenfolkehogskole.no/files/images/UserFiles/Image/2005_06/400_vaagar_gimsoystrommen.jpg)
(http://g.api.no/obscura/API/image/r1/escenic/978x1200r/1181512855/archive/01293/3608136193_1293671a.jpg)
And we race them! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T940ApjZJs4
Important to keep those skills up in case we need to raid and pillage Europe again...
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Btw. the Oseberg longboat is from 834 AD. So right around Ragnar Lodbrok's time.
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Love the program Gman, I never miss it. :aok
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Love the program Gman, I never miss it. :aok
This.
Vikings, Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels, Game of Thrones.....
A few good things on TV these days, oddly nothing worth a crap on the major networks, not in years that I can remember...
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Yea, Vikings is like Game of Thrones without dragons and magic. Great show.
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My grandfather on my dad's side is Swedish, and though I know very very little about our background there; I find that watching shows bout vikings and their ships kind of carries my head away in a sense. I wish I knew more, and I very much wish I could visit the Scandinavian countries. My wife wants us to move to Norway some day, though I doubt we could afford that. :uhoh
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My favourite show at the moment, I actually want to be Ragnar.
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I enjoy it.... :aok
durrrrr :D
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I hadn't even heard of it till now. I'm going to look into it.
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Where can you find it online? The show I mean
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Comes on History Channel, but I'm sure season one is on Netflix now.
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Comes on History Channel, but I'm sure season one is on Netflix now.
I'll look
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a friend of mine turned me onto it last year and I love it
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Thanks for the posts, especially guys from Scandinavia, great pictures and info. I can't believe that woodwork - from over 1000 years ago, it looks like a laser did it, so precise and elegant. I'm jealous regarding sailing in some of these boats and ships, I would love to try that out and see what it felt like to be in a 1000 year old technology ship moving at those speeds with such grace.
Somebody mentioned Hell on Wheels. I haven't been home in a little while, but the 1st season was shot outside of Calgary, in Southern Alberta. I was in a video and sound shop owned by folks from Hong Kong who get all of the new tech stuff regarding home entertainment, and also have the largest collection of old laser discs and also newer DVD/blu rays in the Province. In one of the aisles was Colm Meaney from Hell on Wheels. Me reacting like a typical stupid fan I'm sure, pointed and shouted to the missus "hey, it's Chief O'Brien!". Meaney laughed. I then enhanced my calm and introduced us, and told him I really did know his actual name, but that Star Trek was a staple in our home growing up, and he was a favorite in the 2 series he was involved with.
Anyhow, HoW is a great program as well, it's funny how TV has taken a big swing up on the graph regarding quality IMO in the last few years. There are and have been at least a dozen high quality programs, from Thrones to Breaking Bad, to Vikings. Programs like Vikings that incorporate some history as well I think are important, especially for younger generations which are growing up in this digital technology age - I know it's gotten a lot of viewers, myself one such, interested in that important period of history, again , something I had zero knowledge of before.
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the Vikings thought they were badarse...until they met Brian Boru..... :D
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Nice stuff. Side hobby of mine is Norse & Celtic history...maternal grandma was Swedish, but always talked norwegian{as when we little kids invaded kitchen looking for sweets while she and her pals were talking 'adult' things ie:whose pregnant, etc}...her hubby was from norway from german stock. Miss her.
JGroth
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Groth, any books/intel sources you can recommend? I'm of largely Celtic descent as well, but the only real research I ever did into the Celts was how the Bagpipes evolved throughout their specific history, as well as other UK and other cultures as well, at Piping school when I was a teenager many moons ago.
I've been reading and considering that Celtic history, and all of the cultures in the UK, as with the whole Viking incursions/invasions/establishing/etc, the Anglo/Saxon stuff - it all kind of connects with each other, and it's very complex yet interesting stuff to read about. Again, any good books or sources online even you can recommend I'll start reading today.
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Up here in Iceland, a guy built a viking ship which is more or less a copy of the Asebergs-ship in Oslo. He then sailed it to the USA.
Lookie here:
https://www.google.is/search?q=%C3%ADslendingur&client=firefox-a&hs=TD9&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&imgil=lpjScxYEnpHNfM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcQGej30PN5p96xDIQpclQrRL_R6yAD7b3hFrMan24BA-WAfmPyAQQ%253B1728%253B1152%253BN1ghp499vtgmWM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fislendingasogur.is%25252F%25253Fpage_id%2525253D418&source=iu&usg=__9TLOs63UeRNenNMibiVkiCENebU%3D&sa=X&ei=vsYyU5-uDsqO0AWS3IHgBA&ved=0CD0Q9QEwAw#facrc=_&imgrc=lpjScxYEnpHNfM%253A%3BN1ghp499vtgmWM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fislendingasogur.is%252FmainSetup%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F09%252Fv%25C3%25ADkingaskipi%25C3%25B0-%25C3%258Dslendingur.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fislendingasogur.is%252F%253Fpage_id%253D418%3B1728%3B1152
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God this show sucks so bad.
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Where can you find it online? The show I mean
It's on hulu. It's not that funny.
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Yea, Vikings is like Game of Thrones without dragons and magic. Great show.
you forgot floppy wieners :D
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Watched the latest episodes this morning after flying back from AZ. How many of you like the series? Better than a lot of the garbage on TV.
(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131208135322/vikingstv/images/4/4d/Lagertha_S01P01.jpg)
(http://www.onscreenasia.com/uploadedimages/onscreenasia/Vikings_Lagertha.jpg)
(http://www.stephethornton.com/uploads/1/3/9/6/13965382/2687925_orig.jpg)
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hhhhmmmm.... shield maidens.....
:aok