Viking Longhouse Excursion
The Viking Longhouse has been around for centuries. Recreations have been built not only across Europe but transversely throughout the world. The History Seminar class was fortunate enough to be able to spend part of the weekend at a Viking Longhouse recreation near Marshfield, Wisconsin. During my stay at the Viking Longhouse I learned a great deal about not only Viking History, but also about the day to day life of an individual living during the Iron Age.
The first night we arrived at the longhouse, we ate a meal that was made of barley, pork and a variety of other ingredients which was then cooked the same way that people would have cooked their food during the Iron Age. Afterwards, Owen regaled the class with an intensive set of Viking Histories presented in the Oral Tradition. These stories relayed the plight of how the people that became known as the Vikings traveled from Norway to Iceland, Greenland and eventually Newfoundland to establish societies that were independent from Norway. I found these stories extremely entertaining and between the meal and the stories, it really created a fascinating atmosphere for the entire trip.
In the morning we built a fire and created a breakfast of porridge using ingredients that would have been available at that time. After breakfast we split into two separate groups and I went with the group that first learned about weaving. After a very thorough demonstration and showing us a variety of different clothing styles and how they had changed over generations, we were given the chance to practice weaving using the equipment. Seeing the different types of clothing and the differences between what males and females wore and how they were used to identify class in their society. Later, we were shown how to create buckets that would hold water and wire-weaving to create jewelry. Learning how people shaved select pieces of wood in order to make buckets and barrels was fun but time consuming. Attempting to create jewelry by utilizing a wire weaving pattern was extremely difficult for me, it took a great deal of patience and precision.
One of my favorite experiences was learning the basics of blacksmithing. Learning about things in books and learning something through experience differ in so many ways, although both are beneficial I personally feel that learning how to create something with your hands gives you a greater sense of accomplishment and understanding then reading about it in a book. The art of blacksmithing is a profoundly accurate science that if done incorrectly can make even the easiest of tasks arduous. Creating the S-hook took a lot of patience and repetition to get the angles the way that they needed to be. I found blacksmithing difficult but once I finished making my S-hook, I felt like I had accomplished something that I definitely would not have taken the time to learn to do by myself.
After a rewarding day and a half that was full of learning, it was time to return to modern society. I am not a very “outdoorsy” type of person and was not quite sure what to expect about spending a day and a half at the Viking Longhouse but when all was said and done, I thought that it was an amazing experience that you could never understand by simply reading about it in a textbook. It was a wonderful experience that gave me a glimpse into a life that I honestly knew very little about. I really enjoyed my time spent at the Viking Longhouse and would definitely spend some more time learning more about such an interesting peoples and their way of life.
